Athens-to-Atlanta: World's Greatest Roadskate

Who I'd like to meet:

Skaters, volunteers and friends.

Athens-to-Atlanta welcomes skaters from six continents. We'd like to meet more skaters from small towns - anywhere in the world - skaters that would love to find other skaters out there that share a love of the open road, of meeting new friends and reconnecting with old ones, and of celebrating together through this annual gathering.

For road skaters of every flavor - fitness, recreational, speed skaters, inline or quad, pro and team skaters - Athens-to-Atlanta is the most anticipated event on the calendar of skaters the world over.

From San Diego to Boston, from Sweden to China, from Australia to Japan, from Russia to Korea, from Montreal to Columbia, from Detroit to Hawaii, from Seattle to Ft. Lauderdale, from Tahiti to Timbuktu - the training season for the skating-year culminates in Athens-to-Atlanta.

Old (and new) friends gather on Friday night for a skating survey of the evening skylines of mid and downtown Atlanta, celebrate on Saturday with a fun-skate in downtown Athens, and tighten their laces at dawn on Sunday morning for the 7:30 departure for the skate to Piedmont Park in Atlanta - 87 miles away (or one of the other events offered).

Athens-to-Atlanta: every skater's favorite road skate.

TRAINING FEATURES:

Note: speed skating skills NOT required for A2A - but better skating is always a good thing... Stay tuned for more great videos.

These videos do not cover basic, core-conditioning: crunches, back-ups, pushups, etc. - or cardiovascular conditioning with a heart-rate monitor. For that info, see the A2A Group Forums or the A2A Listserv

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DRY LAND SKATING
Courtesy of the Ottawa Inline Skating Club - thank you for these great training videos!

PLYOMETRICS for DRY LAND SKATING

Plyometrics increase strength, coordination and balance; the following two videos cover the basic skating leap and cross-overs.

PLYOMETRIC: SKATE LEAP WITH TOUCH BACK

PLYOMETRIC: CROSS OVER BOUNDING

For self guided plyometrics training (with 30+ demo videos),
visit the extensive online program online at the

Ottawa Inline Skating Club

- and their excellent resource list at the bottom of that page.

THE DOUBLE PUSH
An essential speed skater's tool. Superb training from eight-time winner of Athens-to-Atlanta, Eddy Matzger: how to "double push" - or power stroke on the outstroke AND the return. Eddy breaks the stroke into bite-size parts, then puts the pieces togther. Thank you, Eddy.

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Courtesy of LondonSkaters.com: thanks, Mike!

Click to visit:
Eddy Matzger's "Skate Central"
Eddy Matzger's Workshop Schedule
Scheduled workshops - near you, and at the Skate Farm
Eddy Matzger's Skate Farm
- Train at Eddy's farm in the beautiful Virginia mountains

DOUBLE PUSH FOR PACE LINE BREAK-OUT
Pascal Briand, Team Salomon World Champion Speed Skater: great use of Double Push to break-out of a pace line and decisively take the lead (including slo-mo review). Coaching by Christophe Audoir.

PACE LINE BREAK-OUT
Team RollerBlade DP - watch slo-mo of skater leaping out to attack with a sprint (great footage).

TEAM TRAINING
Great Slovenian speed skating team footage:

EXTREME HILL BREAKING - THE DEATH ARCH

Eddy Matzger taught himself to skate on the hills of San Francisco... His amazing, uber slalom-breaking performance on an narrow, rail-less arch over a river in Seoul, Korea:

Courtesy of LondonSkaters.com: thanks, Mike!

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INSANE! BONUS VIDEO
80 KPH ON ONE LEG
BACKWARDS ON 10% DOWNHILL GRADE!

Meet Enrico "Fearless" Perano:

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Athens-to-Atlanta A2A MySpace and A2A Group are maintained by Scott Nilsson in Atlanta - also on Zaadz at scottnilsson.zaadz.com and at LinkedIn for professional contacts: linkedin.com/in/scottnilsson

Scott and Kristy are at 2nilssons.com and our MySpace at myspace.com/2nilssons

For enjoyment and to support the dance community, Scott & Kristy maintain 900+ select Dance Quotes, and 60-plus videos, plus Dance Quote of the Day (and Social Dance Quote of the Day) at: http://2nilssons.com/dancequotes.htm - Enjoy!