Roller skating and rollerblading are enjoyable pastimes, excellent forms of exercise, competitive sports, and modes of transportation. You’ll be gliding around the rink in no time once you master the right stance, glide, and stop techniques.
Learn the basics of inline skating or rollerblading as well as advice on how to advance your abilities by reading on.
Table of Contents
How To Roller Skate?
Don The Skates You Will Be Using
A pair of skates that fit you is the only real requirement for roller skating. A pair can be purchased at a sporting goods store or rented from any roller rink. Typically, shoe sizes correspond to skate sizes. In addition to roller skates, you might want to pick up the following items:
Because you’re just starting out, wearing a helmet might make you feel more at ease. A helmet will shield your head from harm because everyone experiences a few mishaps in the beginning.
wrist guards and knee pads. As you learn to roller skate, you will probably hit the ground on your hands and knees a few times. Protect yourself with knee pads and wrist guards if you’re worried about getting a little cut.
Skates On Tightly
The majority of people I observe lace up their skates, pull up the tongue, and pull on the laces.
This is incorrect! Try this instead:
- Put on the skate, pull the tongue, and tuck it inside the outside of your boot’s ankle cuff.
- Grab the lowest cross of your laces closest to your toes with both hands and pull them firmly.
- Afterward, move on to the following lace cross and pull. then advance to the following etc. FEEL how your entire foot is being compressed by the skate.
- Next, tighten the top laces.
The only way you have any chance of steering your skates with your conscious movements is if they are firmly fastened to your feet.
Take The Appropriate Stance
Put your feet shoulder width apart, squat, and bend your knees. In a comfortable squatting position, lower your backside to the floor and lean slightly forward. This stance will keep you from falling over while roller skating because balance is important.
When you first step onto the ice, you might feel as though you have no control over your skates, and before you feel confident standing still, you might fall a few times and lose your balance. Simply keep practicing the posture until you master it; this is completely normal.
Being completely still while wearing roller skates is challenging. Once you’ve gotten the hang of it, practice adjusting your posture periodically by slightly shifting your skates to keep your balance. Consider this: if someone lightly pushed you while you were standing still without roller skates, you would move your feet to regain your balance. The same idea applies when you’re wearing roller skates, only it’s the wheels on the skates and the pressure from your own muscles that are giving you the “push.”
Walk Like A Duck
Step forward slowly, first to the right, then to the left, then to the right, and so on. Keep your heels together and toes pointed out. Keep squatting while keeping your heels directly beneath your body to make it easier to maintain balance.
Practice until you can comfortably “duck walk” in the skates while keeping your balance. At first, you’ll probably trip over a few times; just get back up and keep in mind to keep your body centered over your heels and maintain a squatting position. Don’t let your heels serve as your center of gravity. You may revert as a result of this.
Start moving more quickly and with longer strides as your confidence grows. Roll farther with each step by applying more pressure to the wheels.
Make Sure You Can Fall Forward
The fear of falling is the greatest creator of tension in the body for new beginner roller skaters and can make us literally ‘rigid with fear’. Practice intentionally falling on grass onto your knee and wrist pads can help you get over this fear.
You can do this in 2 ways;
- Try to hit the ground with your knee pads while knelt down on them. You’ll be able to gauge how well your knees are protected by knee braces using this. It will also help reassure you that falling forwards onto your protective gear is preferable to falling over backwards onto your lower back or butt.
- Put your hands up in front of you, stand in the “Ready” position (feet parallel and side by side), and then sag your knees. Now stoop even lower, flip over on your front wheels, and hit your wrist guards first before your knee pads on the ground. Everyone, with the exception of those who already have knee or back injuries or weakness, should try the second exercise.
This one exercise can significantly lessen your fear of falling and aid in creating forward falls (onto protective gear) if they do occur later.
Ready Position Rolling
Rolling while mastering the Ready position will help you establish the reliable stability that will lower your anxiety.
There should always be a rolling Ready position after your first few skating steps so you can gather yourself, get used to the momentum you’ve just built up, and gradually let your speed increase.
Use this checklist to make sure your rolling Ready position is perfect:
- One hand’s width apart with your feet parallel (the pads of your knees can touch).
- Bend your knees until you can feel the balls of your feet supporting your weight.
- Your top ankle straps are supporting and touching your shins.
- Your heels should feel slightly lighter in your skates if you’re standing with your weight properly on the balls of your feet.
Keep in mind that if you are standing with your weight evenly distributed across your feet, you cannot fall over backwards. But you have to deliberately make this happen!
Learn How To Glide
Allow yourself to roll for a moment, lengthening each step you take. Glide with one foot as you push off with the other until you lose momentum, then switch which foot is doing the gliding. To prevent your other foot from impeding your gliding while you’re gliding on one, keep it elevated above the floor.
While gliding, practice making right and left turns. Lean slightly to the right as you make a right turn. When making a left turn, tilt your body slightly to the left while continuing to squat.
Put pressure on the wheels, move your legs more quickly, and gain momentum by pushing yourself forward. Leaning into your strides can help you increase your speed. Bend your arms at the elbows and move them back and forth like you would if you were running to aid in maintaining your balance and gaining speed.
Practice Stopping
On the toe of your right skate, there should be a brake. When stopping, skate with your blades parallel to one another. Lean slightly forward while continuing to squat. Lift the right skate’s toe and press firmly down on it while positioning the right skate just in front of the left skate. The faster you stop, the harder you press.
Instead of hesitantly touching your brake to the ground, it’s important to stop with a confident thrust. You run the risk of falling if you don’t apply the brake forcefully enough.
If you initially struggle to exert enough force to stop, try pressing down on your right knee with your hands if that helps.
Practice At A Rink
Practice frequently is the best way to become a better roller skater. Find a roller skating rink in your area and visit it at least once per week so that you can improve your skills each time you go. Practice gliding, stopping, skating backward, and skating as quickly as you can. Practice more until you can make turns and stop while maintaining balance at all times.
Stay Your Speed Low
Keep your speeds low as a final strategy for easing beginner quad skaters’ fear. Although it may seem obvious, many skaters are not aware of the mechanisms that actually cause acceleration while skating, so regulating speed is frequently an unconscious and thus unpredictable process.
Creating a “slice of pizza” shape with your heels slightly in and toes slightly out is how you propel yourself forward while skating.
Recall that the quantity of V (or the precise size of your pizza slice) is crucial. You can accelerate more quickly in an open V compared to one that is closed.
The ideal V-shape should resemble a typical pizza slice, but most novices overdo this and either open their toes too widely or produce acceleration that feels too quick and uncontrollable.
They might only have one foot that opens up into a V shape too much while the other is fine.
Your speed will also be influenced by the number of skating steps you decide to take. Start out with only 3–4 V-ing strides, then cruise while in the Ready position. You must consciously decide not to take too many steps at first because if you skate with the proper V shape, you will actually accelerate with every step.
Join A Team Or League
Even though it’s enjoyable to roller skate alone, if you’re up for a challenge, think about joining a league. In most cities, you can join a league for roller derby, which has grown to be a popular sport. If there isn’t a league in your city, you might want to gather some friends and start one.
- Another well-liked league-oriented roller skating discipline is roller hockey. You will require a pair of inline skates for this activity.
- Similar to skateboarding, aggressive skating is centered around performing a variety of risky tricks. If you decide to try this sport, be sure to have safety gear.
Learn From The Pros—Get The Right Gear
“The sport of roller derby is how I first learned to skate. Although roller derby dates back to the early 1900s, it experienced a huge resurgence in the early 2000s. Teams would enlist and train female skaters for games. It’s what I’ve done for fourteen years.
My recommendation for aspiring roller skaters is to take lessons from experienced skaters who have been trained to instruct and do so consistently. Dirty Debra Harry is my preferred skate instructor. She can be found on YouTube by searching for Dirty School Of Skate. Wearing safety gear is something else I advise. The wrist guard, elbow pad, and knee pad 3-pack is the best kind to purchase. They are significantly cheaper when purchased together, and your arms and legs are shielded. I adore the set of 187 Teal and Pink notepads. (The best way to store and hold your roller skates is with a skate leash, which I also adore.) Our preferred manufacturers at Pigeon’s include Sure Grip, Impala, Moonlight, Riedell, and Grindstone.
While setting and achieving goals while roller skating can be difficult at first, it also allows you to exercise, have fun, look cute, and make new friends.”
Buy Skates That Will Improve Your Performance
As you progress in your roller skating, you might want to invest in a pair of skates that will meet your specific needs and enable you to achieve the desired level of skill. There are many different types of skates available. Consider the following options:
- If you enjoy skating indoors at a rink, you might want to consider purchasing your own pair of indoor roller skates so you won’t have to do so frequently.
- Outside rollerblades. The wheels on these skates are made to be strong enough to withstand more demanding circumstances. Over the asphalt and other elements of the road, you can skate using them.
- If you enjoy zooming around the rink or down the street, you might want to consider speed skates, which are made to move more quickly than regular roller skates. Inline speed skates, which have a row of wheels, and quads, which have two wheels on either side, are both available for purchase.
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