Roller skating is a fun, healthy activity. It is safer than skateboarding and something the entire family can enjoy unlike roller blading. But how do you introduce it to your kids while minimizing painful accidents? Here are our seven steps on how to roller skate for beginners.
Step 1: Buy the Right Gear
If you’re going to start roller skating, you need the right gear. This process starts with roller skates. If you’re going to put snap-on roller skates over a child’s shoes, make sure you use robust tennis shoes. You can reuse bike and roller-skating safety gear like elbow pads and knee pads. Children should be given a helmet, since falling backward on skates can cause a concussion.
Step 2: Choose a Safe Space
The best way to learn how to roller skate is to have the right environment. You want a large, flat, smooth surface. Your driveway only meets this definition if there aren’t cracks or uneven stretches of pavement. The ideal surface is flat, though a gentle slope is tolerable. I recommend a visit for skatevoice.com. Because they’re working to find out the best skate items from current market.
Step 3: Practice Proper Posture
The proper posture is standing with your feet shoulder width apart, your knees somewhat bent, almost as if you’re squatting. This posture gives you better balance, reducing the risk you fall over. If you do fall over, you’ll fall a shorter height and onto your butt instead of falling flat on your back.
Step 4: Learn the Basics
A lesson on how to roller skate for beginners will start with the basics. This list includes standing up once you’ve put on the skates, how to stand wearing the skates, how to slowly move forward, and how to stop. Don’t teach someone how to build up momentum before they’ve learned how to use a toe stop to come to a stop without falling down.
Step 5: Be Willing to Have Support
A child learning how to ride a bike typically has training wheels. Someone learning how to roller skate at the skating rink can use a plastic pipe frame with wheels that helps support them in the same way. Another option is holding onto the wall as you learn how to move forward on roller skates. Once you can go a short distance without falling down, you can occasionally lean on other people.
Step 6: Focus on Your Posture
Once you start moving, it can be hard to keep your balance unless you keep moving. Try to maintain your posture instead of trying to walk in skates. Focus on maintaining your proper, knees bent posture instead of trying to walk or run in stakes. Walking in skates, rolling the heel while there are wheels on it, can cause a nasty fall.
So how do you move forward? Walk like a duck, skating one foot forward a little, and then the other. Go slowly until you become confident. Then you can take longer strides. When you’re dealing with cracks in the pavement or uneven surfaces, revert back to little steps.
Step 7: Learn How to Glide
You can learn how to glide in roller skates the same way you can glide on ice skates. This should wait until you can make it around the roller skating rink a few times or make it around the block without falling. Then you’re really moving. Just don’t forget to practice slowing down by making a V with your feet as well as with the stops. Once you can glide while remaining in full control, you can graduate on to roller blading.
Summary
Roller skating is a cheap, family-friendly activity. Know how to do it right to reduce the bumps and painful spills along the way.