Many teenagers take an interest in roller skating even way before. Although adults also enjoy this sport, the number is less than those of teens.
Some key points to remember when you want to roller skate smoothly are control, technique, posture, and movements. To achieve them, you must practice as often as you can.
Any sport has a significant positive effect on one’s health. Roller skating would have the same effect, too, only if you mastered the proper movements and techniques.
When you master it, not only you’ll be able to do basic twists and turns, you can also travel with just your roller skates with ease.
If you are already a beginner or still planning whether to try roller skating, you may be wondering how to skate correctly.
However, before you start learning how to roller skate, we’re going to discuss a few things about roller skating. One of the most important things about this activity is the equipment needed.
Similar to other sports, you’ll need protective gear when roller skating because this activity involves slipping, crashing, and falling while learning the sport.
Don’t worry because, despite the clumsy process of practicing it, you’ll end up enjoying your roller skates rides in the end.
As a beginner, minor accidents may happen, especially if you’re trying to find your balance. To avoid any severe injuries, you may need pads to protect your elbows and knees and a helmet.
Even if you passed the basics and start learning more advanced tricks, you may still need them. You can even add a mouthguard to your gear to be safe.
Another thing to note is never to ride your roller skates barefoot. You don’t want to pick up infections when you sweat.
Now that we quickly discussed the necessary details, let’s move on to learning how to roller skate.
Learn How To Balance
It would help if you learned before you can even stand up on roller skates to balance. With balancing comes struggling, so prepare yourself for any possible falls when doing so.
Although it is always a good start if you managed to balance yourself in a relaxed manner, it’s okay to tremble a bit because it’s still essential that you tend to stand smoothly.
There might be a standard posture for doing this part. However, it still varies from person to person. You can figure out what is the most comfortable position for you while in your skates.
Place Your Arms and Elbows Towards The Front
To start balancing, place your arms and elbows frontward to keep your gravity grounded. This step allows you to maneuver easily through your bodyweight’s force pushed to a forward direction.
These movements play a fundamental role in balancing you. You’ll know how effective it is once you try it.
You’ll save yourself from crashing into a wall or post if you apply this.
Slightly Bend Your Knees Like A Mild Squat
It is only regular for you to feel worried when practicing because there’s the fear of losing
Next, you have to remember this critical detail. Always slightly bend your knees, almost like a mild squat, whenever you’re wearing your skates.
Even when you stride, turn, or stand, always bend at a slight angle, so you have more control over your body. It is because you have a better hold on the ground to keep your balance.
You may straighten your knees only if you have no intention of stopping or turning. In short, you’re skating freely without obstacles.
However, when you need to stop or turn, you’ll naturally need to bend your knees to gain control of your movements.
Keep Your Toes Pointed Outward
Now you imagine yourself balancing on your roller skates with your knees slightly bent. From this position, move your toes in a way that it points outwards.
It is the position you’ll do whenever you need to stride, but when you want to reduce the speed and halt, slowly move your toes inward.
Your toes help you navigate while skating. It happens when your toes put pressure on the lower half of your body.
Your poor toes have to endure the hard work since roller skating is all about footwork. Make sure you protect your toes from too much pressure and sweating.
If you prefer to watch a video on to learn how to skate, you can check out one of these or watch below.
Find Your Proper Skating Posture
Before you can even correctly stride, you need to master the proper skating posture. Just what you see in most clips, where skaters gracefully turn and glide, you need to relax when skating.
You can only achieve the best posture if you figure out which one is the most comfortable to do while standing. Naturally, when you’re stiff and stressed, you’ll never get it.
Stand In A T-Positionyour balance. So to start finding your proper posture, stand on your roller skates while doing a T-position.
Next, slowly bring your feet closer together, with one side-heel and another back-heel touching each other. It will help you balance your lower body.
On the other hand, you have to keep your core tight and make a slight bend on your knees to balance the upper body. Try gliding to a short distance, then return to the T-position.
Keep practicing until you can easily do and undo the T-position.
Practice Doing A Mild Squat
Like the first step, never forget to do a mild squat to remain in control of your movement. If you fail to do so, there’s a tendency that you’ll lose control over your speed and make sharp turns.
Learn To Brake On Roller Skates
Exiting to a T-position is different from stopping. You could say that stopping requires more practice than the t-position.
You may try these two types of stopping when you’re skating.
Plow Stop
If you skate slowly, this stop is the appropriate one to use. To get to the position, point your chin upwards while doing a mild squat. Keep your shoulders straight.
While still skating, slowly spread your legs and turn your toes inwards. You’ll use your body weight to try and grasp on the floor to decrease your speed.
To control your upper body weight, you need to turn your legs outwards.
T-Stop
You have to place one foot ahead of the other while bending the knees as well. Therefore, you’re putting pressure on the front foot.
Keep your core tight when doing the t-stop because it is where you’ll get the force to break.
As for the back leg, move it in a horizontal position. While moving to the front, there’s friction that will allow you to take a nice stop into at-position.
Master Skating Forward and Backward
Now you learned how to balance, find out the proper posture, and stop, but you still don’t know how to move on your skates correctly.
For this part, there will be two primary movements in skating. It will help you navigate to your desired direction towards the front and back.
Forward Stride
Let’s start easy with the forward skating or stride. Move one of your legs in a forward and outward direction. It will help you create momentum to begin gliding.
Of course, your one leg is skating, so you need to keep doing it but with the other foot. On your back leg, make the same forward motion by doing an inverted t-shape.
Once you start gaining speed, you can continue doing forward motions with the back foot and roll.
To increase speed, do the same movement on both legs.
Backward Stride
Meanwhile, to stride backward, you need to involve your thigh muscles quite a lot here. Keep them tight with your toes pointing inwards.
Keep your backside popping out while keeping an eye on your back view. Slowly slide backward by crossing over the right leg and the left leg next,
Push the foot to keep a steady pace while following the same motion to accelerate.
To accurately follow the steps, you may search video tutorials on the basic skating movements.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Is It Difficult To Roller Skate?
Just like other sports, roller skating has the impression of being a challenging sport to learn.
However, if you keep practicing the proper techniques and movements, you can master roller skating quickly.
When Can I Master Basic Roller Skating?
The period of mastering roller skating, even the basic movements, varies from person to person.
Some people may learn it for three days if they practice daily for at least an hour. Meanwhile, some people may take a week or month to familiarize themselves with the movements.
If you are into sports and physical activities, then you may learn it ahead of time. But if you’re not physically fit or not too much into sports, then you’ll know it a little later.
Related Reading: What To Wear Roller Skating – Learn More Here.
Wrapping Up
As a beginner, don’t get too excited about speeding or turning. Every skater started by learning how to balance and achieve the proper posture.
If you practice it more, then you can proceed to the skating movements and even stopping. Familiarize yourself with the steps, so you’ll have a guide whenever you try.
Keep in mind that you need to bend your knees and do a mild squat. This posture allows you to have control over your movements and generate force so you can skate effortlessly.
Final Tips On How To Roller Skate
Before we officially close this article, here are some final tips for you to remember when practicing how to roller skate.
First, check if you tightly screwed the wheels of your roller skates to prevent any accidents. If you have a toe stopper, which is mainly for outdoors, keep them tightly attached.
Second, do not skate if the surface is wet due to rainy weather. Aside from the significant possibility of slipping and falling, the moisture can break your roller skates’ metal components.
Third, do not immediately go for a downhill ride. It’s thrilling to try that out, but the speed will be too much for you to control if you are a newbie.
Lastly, please choose quality roller skates so you can skate in peace without worrying about them breaking while sliding.
So that’s all for this post, and hopefully, you learn a thing or two about roller skates. Practice as much as you can while enjoying this fun activity.