Starting out any new hobby can be pretty daunting. There’s probably a lot of new terms to figure out and you don’t really know where to even get started. So I’m going to make a little guide that will help you figure out what you should actually do when you first get your roller skates. I’ve also made another guide on what you might want to purchase when you start skating. Please keep in mind this is a guide from a relatively new skater, not a professional at all. Spend some time watching professional tutorials as well, they are extremely helpful and have far more knowledge than I do. This will just give you a perspective from someone who went through these motions pretty recently.
Please if you’re skating outdoors, wear some safety gear. Skates are very unpredictable, and you don’t want to hurt yourself badly on your first day of skating.
Hold up, don’t put your skates on yet!
I know it’s exciting to pull your skates out the box and you probably want to start using them straight away. But before you do, you’ll want to check that your wheels are loose enough to roll when you’re in motion. You can test this out by simply using your finger and seeing how it moves. Does it barely make a rotation, or maybe just a few? You’ll want to use a skate tool to loosen your wheels slightly. It shouldn’t be so loose that the wheel is moving around on the axil, but just enough that the wheels really get a good amount of rotations in. Later on you’ll want to loosen your trucks as well, but that’s not something you need to stress about straight away.
You should also double check that your skate looks properly mounted and that there’s no loose screws (this has happened to me before!). Once you check over your skates, you’re good to put those bad boys on. There are different ways to tie your skates to make sure that they fit your feet properly.
Ok Woah. This is terrifying.
Unless you have some previous experiences with skating, you’ll most likely feel completely out of your element and well, very unbalanced. As silly as it feels, spend a few moments just standing in your skates and stepping around in them. You can start off on the grass, or if you’re skating indoors hold onto something stable, like a wall or a table. Take a few steps side to side. Remember to bend your knees! Get to know your skates a little and get a feel for what it’s like wearing them.
Next, you’ll obviously want to go forwards. Remember, skating is not walking, you are not taking steps while you’re skating. Instead, you’re just shifting your body weight side to side. Push one foot to the right, and one foot to the left. Once you want to turn, you’ll put the opposite foot in front of the direction you’re turning. So, if you want to turn to the right, let your left foot guide the turn, and turn your body in the direction that you want to go.
To stop, a plow to stop is the easiest to quickly learn. Push your feet in towards each other, you should feel your inner thighs doing most of the work to control your speed.
Bubbles are something you’ll be working on your entire skating career, including day one. You’ll simple push your feet out a little, and then bring them in towards each other. You can do this as wide or small as you want. Since it is difficult to explain, here is a great video for getting started.
And BOOM! You’re a roller skater now.
Take a deep breath and give yourself a pat on the back. You’ve made it through your first day of roller skating. I know, it’s extremely scary – but you did it! Don’t be hard on yourself about your performance today, even if you struggled to go forwards. Learning roller skating takes a lot of guts, and it’s not something you become good at in one day.
Stay tuned for more tips on what to learn as a beginner roller skater! As a beginner you can easily get ahead of yourself and want to learn all the tricks, but sadly you really need to take your time learning the basics first. I’m proud of you to start roller skating and so excited for your journey to begin! Yay! You did it!
