When I found out the brand Rollerblade is launching a new program that utilizes inline skating for pre-season ski conditioning called “Skate to Ski,” I rolled my eyes and deleted the email. While I did play roller hockey when I was around 10 years old, I started skateboarding when I turned 13 and haven’t considered touching a pair of skates since.

Not long after I received the Skate to Ski email, however, I saw a college-aged woman absolutely flying down the bike path on a pair of blades. She had no helmet, no pads, and a smile the size of the Statue of Liberty as she made her way to wherever she was going with a whirling amount of speed.

That actually looks fun, I thought, pedaling my bike uphill in the opposite direction. Maybe, just maybe, that was when the first crack formed in my belief that inline skating was an inferior sport. But I still wasn’t about to dig around in my trash can for that email.

One week later, while researching a different pre-season training story, I came across a video about core conditioning for skiers. The instructor mentioned that skiers should do a side plank variation that requires engaging the adductor muscles—the muscles in the thigh that connect the pelvis to the femur. This muscle group is important as it plays a major role in gaining control and power from the ski’s inside edge, and, as the instructor mentioned, the adductor muscles are actually difficult to develop outside of actually skiing.

The personal trainer’s words actually did drive me to dig up that Skate to Ski email, remembering that one of the program’s taglines is “don’t lose your edge this summer.” I made the connection that inline skating is one of the few sports that really does strengthen and develop the obscure-yet-critical leg and core muscle groups specific to skiing.

The cracks in my preconceived distrust of inline skating grew.

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