To start down the road to effortless souls, you
must first work on the foundation- stalls. Practice
doing soul stalls on everything from planters to the
edges of stairs, so that your body will become
accustomed to the odd contortions that you are
trying to put it in. A good way to practice is by
hopping up a flight of stairs in the soul position. Ie-
Do a soul stall on the bottom step, hop up to the
next step in a soul stall, rinse, repeat.
But I guess this is getting ahead of things,
especially if you are not sure what the proper
position for a soul is..
First skate up to a curb and bring up your lead
foot. (For arguments sake, lets say the left is the
lead and the right is the soul) Step on the curb
just like you are doing a fronside with your left,
and point the toe of the skate in the direction you
want to travel about 30-45 degrees. Next step up
with your soul foot (right) and plant it firmly on the
edge of the curb. The curb should be located
between the bottom of the boot of the skate (the
sole), and the wheels. If you have a large soled
boot like the TRS or Roces, you should be able to
easily stand in this position. However, if you
cannot, you need to push in (or bone in) your knee
so that it is over the curb. This allows your weight
to be centered more on top of the curb, and not
leaning out as much. Once you are in position you
should be facing parallel (or looking down) the
curb. This is not like a fronside stall where you are
looking across the object- In a soul you are going
with it..
Now on to the grind... Since you can now stall
with ease, grinding is but a tiny step away. Skate
up to your bar (a curb can work,
but is harder to learn on because you need more speed
for it to work) and stall in soul position. Easy enough..
Now come at it at an ever-so-slight angle. This way, you
will go up to a soul stall, but slide an inch or two.
Gradually work your way till you are approaching the bar
at 45 degrees, and then you are ready to give it a shot..
Skate up to the rail at normal speed (the same speed
used for front sides). Make sure you are running perfectly
parallel to it, and are centered slightly to the side of the
bar. As you are readying for your jump you need to keep
a few points in mind: 1. It is not much different than the
stalls. 2. Dont be afraid of it- try and jump higher than
normal. and 3. Watch the bar carefully, and watch your
landing. With these points in mind you should be able to
easily jump, lock on, and slide a bit. Keep in mind that
soul grinding is much slower than frontsiding- After all you
are grinding away on your skate and not sliding on some
grind plates! So if you want to go further, make sure to
crank up the speed.
Diagnosing problems is pretty easy for souls.. If you keep
falling off towards the side you came from, you are not
over the bar enough. Make sure to bone your knee over
the bar more. It feels awkward, but it is necessary. If you
keep falling off away from the side you came from, you
are either leaning too far over the bar, or aren't coming at
it straight. If your body turns as you grind and you end up
coming off backwards, most likely the problem is you
aren't keeping your soul foot locked onto the bar very well.
Make sure you keep both the front and the back part of
the soul foot on the bar. If you keep getting caught up
when you jump on, make sure you have enough speed.
Also make sure you are landing your front skate on the
grind plates and not between the wheels...
Give these tips a shot and you should be souling in no
time! Good luck!
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