Get Rolling: The Beginner's Guide to In-Line Skating

I bought this book a few days ago and I still didn't cover it all, but as far as I read it's a very instructive book. It's very well explained with a concise a clear language and I'm sure it's helping me to improve my skating skills in the last weeks. I really recommend it to every beginner in-line skater.

The most complete guide on, comprehensive step-by-step, In-Line skating lessons. It takes you from beginner to advanced intermediate in the safest way. The fear of falling is gone; you learn how to fall and get up properly. The Yoga poses are very helpful for balance, strength and increased range of motion. Chapter 7 teaches you how to stay fit with "roll-aerobics". Key terms, skate maintenance, safety, etc. are all covered. If a DVD on the skating techniques accompanied the guide on "GET ROLLING" it would obliterate every in-line skating manual.

They say, "A picture is worth a thousand words." In the case of rollerblading, this adage certainly holds true. As previous reviewers have stated, this book is sorely lacking in pictures. Sure, every few pages it has a black and white picture of a skating technique, but the quanitity of pictures is not enough. Another problem is that the book does not have STEP by STEP pictures. To illustrate a technique, the author only places one photograph from only one angle. A more helpful approach would have been to demonstrate a technique by showing the technique from start to finish with a series of freeze frame photographs. I'm guessing that placing more pictures would have driven up the cost of the book, but I for one would have shelled out more money for the extra photographs. However, despite this seemingly fatal flaw of not enough photographs, the book makes up for it with very clear prose. The author has an uncanny talent for describing skating techniques with the right words. Most of the time I had no trouble following the author's descriptions; however, the lack of step by step pictures made it very hard for me to know if I was doing the technique correctly despite the clear writing style. Originally, I was tempted to give this book three stars but the extraordinary writing of the author pushes the book up to four stars, but the lack of diagrams ultimately is too big of a stumbling block to merit the book five stars. However, to put the score in perspective, other roller blading books I have checked out also did not have step by step diagrams for each technique so this book, "Get Rolling," is the best among them until someone produces a book with step by step diagrams -- preferably colorful, glossy ones. Until then, I'm gonna continue looking -- and skating.

Like her previous book on skating routes in California, Liz Miller's Get Rolling is clearly written and helpful for raw beginner through intermediate skaters. It also follows pretty closely the curriculum offered here in Washington, D. C., by IISA-certified instructors. I am a beginner (moving on to intermediate now) skater, and I have taken private lessons, group instruction, and used Liz Miller's books to advantage. While I would NOT advocate trying to learn how to skate entirely from a book (you definitely need a live, skilled instructor to explain and demonstrate the moves and to spot what you are doing wrong), this book provides further clarification, serves as a reminder, and is useful as a reference during practice out in the parking lot. Better than any other book on in-line skating that I have used.

I really liked this book. I'll admit that a friend of mine was photographed for this photo (Lester!) which made me curious about the book but since I've been inline skating for about a year, I found the book to be a good resource with helpful tips.