In-line skating is a pure form of locomotion which we all strive to master. Mastery of something immeasurably enhances our enjoyment of that activity, and skating is no exception.

It is often said that practice makes perfect, but this is not necessarily the case. You may find that you practice and practice, and your skills actually seem to deteriorate. When something isn't done correctly in the first place, bad habits sometimes only get worse with practice, and often become so ingrained that they are nearly impossible to unlearn.

I maintain that the best way to correct bad habits is through overcorrection. If you make a conscious effort to exaggerate the correct way of doing something on skates, eventually you'll find a happy medium that will become second nature. Imagine a warped piece of metal that you wish to straighten out again. The only way to accomplish this is to bend it back the other way, past the point of being straight, before bringing it back to its original position. Without this overcorrection, a trace of crookedness will always remain.

In a similar way, exaggeration of proper form is a shortcut to perfection. If you can do something more than right, your flaws will disappear lickety-split, never to return again.

Here are three overcorrection drills to help fix the most common mistakes on skates. The idea is to practice these drills often enough so that the proper way of doing things becomes committed to your muscle memory. Try practicing these drills for a few minutes every time before you go out and hammer. Before you know it, rather than falling apart, everything will start falling into place.

1. EXAGGERATED HEEL AND LATERAL PUSH

Most skaters push far too much with their toe wheels and to the back. This only serves to lessen the amount of power generated per stroke because it decreases the pushing surface and the amount of time the wheels stay in contact with the ground. Even though it's counter-intuitive, a directly lateral push done equally with all the wheels on your skates is ideal for maximum speed with minimum effort. To achieve this ideal, try pushing forward with your skate and directing the push with the heel. The toe wheel of your pushing skate should end up in front of the toe wheel of your gliding skate.

In addition, at the end of your push, try picking up your toe wheels first, while leaving your heel wheels in contact with the ground.

2. EXAGGERATED KNEE DRIVE

After the pushing and recovery phase of the skating stroke, most skaters simply set their skate down onto the ground to begin the gliding phase. Their body weight ends up too far over the front wheel of the skate, resulting in a decrease of speed, stability and forward momentum. Think about trying to ski in deep powder with your ski tips under the snow. Chances are that these wayward skaters haven't set their skates down pointing forward, either, causing them to meander back and forth to each side, when the shortest and fastest route is actually straight ahead. A sure-fire way to correct these problems is to drive the knee forward before landing the skate and gliding upon it. By literally throwing the knee forward, two good things happen. First, it forces your weight back, since your skate gets carried forward with your knee and your body stays back. Second, the action of driving your knee forward makes your skate also land pointing forward, causing you to track a straighter line. Both of these add up to going faster with less effort.

3. EXAGGERATED STEP-OVER IN THE TURNS

Crossing over in the turns is actually a way to gain speed, but most skaters don't take advantage of this because of their inability to do equal work with both legs in the turn. The cause of this problem is simply poor balance on one skate (usually the left skate when turning left and vice-versa). Turning should be one, smooth, continuous motion. The way to accomplish this is to lift one leg way over the other when crossing over, forcing you to spend more time on the weaker leg, which must then support you and push at the same time. Remember to push straight out to the side in the turns as well. If you're practicing a left turn, try driving your right knee up to the sky and reaching way over across to the opposite side before placing your skate down again. This will even out your rhythm in the turns and cause you to speed around them as never before.