Learn how to roller skate BACKWARDS with COCO FRANKLIN!

Hey guys, welcome to Planet Rollerskate. I'm here with Coco. She is a fashionista, roller girl, yogi, awesome chick. And we're here, where are we? We are at the base of the San Jacinto Mountains in Southern California. Well, here's a tiny, tiny peek of what we're seeing. I'll show you some more scenery here in a second. Well, first off, I'd like to point out that Coco styled me today. So Coco's style of skating backwards is very unique. When you see her, she's cruising down the street and it's beautiful. So I want you guys to just watch this for a second. The other night on the street skate, I saw Coco skating backwards and it was beautiful. She was just jamming along the entire time. I tried to copy you and I couldn't. So that's why I was like, well, let's get Coco to teach us how to skate backwards. So that's what we're going to do today. So when you're learning how to skate backwards, you want to make sure that you don't want to pick your feet up too much. Just because you're going to lose the energy and momentum that you need to create to skate backwards. So that's why you're really going to press on the outside of your toes, outside of your wheels. Pressing yourself out, using your legs coming back in. And then once you get that, then you're able to create the wave movement you need to start to skate backwards. So you're going to start with your feet together and you're pressing on the outside of your toes here. Pressing into the outer wheels. So you're pressing out, coming in. Oh, so it's the bubbles, but backwards. So if you notice my eyes are looking forward, it's like I'm sitting in a chair. If you try to do it with your legs straight, you're not going to get very far. You have to bend and drop. When you feel really comfortable, you're going to try to switch it up. So I'm going to show you from the back, out, crossing. Bringing the braid, crossing over. I'm scared. It's a scary hill, you guys. It's scary. Alright, so we're going to have to change location because this hill is actually... Knees are more important. Let's go! Okay, so one, it was a bad idea to think that we could teach you guys a skate tutorial backwards on a hill. Two, security came for us. So, on to the next location. So, we're going to break that down once again. You want to make sure that your knees are bent and of course your weight is forward. You're going to be pressing out the balls of your feet and the edges. Coming back in using the inside of your thighs here. Pressing out, then maybe picking up your foot, pressing out. Picking up this foot, pressing out. And then of course, maybe braiding. Ooh, braiding! I like that terminology. So, once you feel like you got that down, start like this. Pressing out. Then you're going to maybe try and criss-cross bringing the right foot in the front, bringing this one out. Everything I do, all my transitions are pretty much with my feet on the ground, like just staying on the ground. Cool. It's called like sticky feet. Sticky feet where your feet aren't lifting up off of the ground. But of course that comes with practice and it comes with years of creating your own style. What you feel is right and how you allow yourself to flow in your own skating style. I'm going to show you guys the way I learned to, but there are different ways. There's no right or wrong. And that's what's beautiful about roller skating is maybe Coco's way works for you better whenever you're learning. And maybe the way that I'm going to show you works better. You never know. It's however you feel comfortable doing it. I start with my toes pointed in, knees bent, booty out. You look where you're going. And to begin, you just pick up your feet. If you keep your toes pointed in, you'll roll backwards. You're not trying to step or walk. You're just lifting and rolling. At first it feels a little weird. If you get unstable, drop it down. Once you're comfortable stepping, you can start pushing out a bit more. So I'm pushing this way. So I'm using these inside edges of my wheels to push out. Out. Forward. Put your hands on your knees if you feel unstable. It's like drawing C from your foot. Definitely a much better idea to teach on a flat ground than a hill. That was a lot of fun. Thank you so much. I'm glad I caught you before you go back to Europe. I know. Coco is always traveling around doing handstand workshops, yoga workshops. Where can we find more information about that? My name on Instagram is Gypset City, of course, because I like to gypset and see other cities. So I will be back in Europe next week. And I'll be teaching some workshops with handstand and roller skating, which are going to be really fun. You can see her entire handstand progress on her Instagram from the past year. And it's insane. It starts from not being able to do a handstand at all to full-blown hand balancing. It's really inspiring. You guys should go track that progress and learn. Thank you so much, Coco. Thank you so much for having me, Andy.