Five Mistakes Roller Skating Beginners Make and How to Fix Them

In this video we're going to go over five beginners mistakes and how to fix them. I'm Katie and you're watching Skatie. It's all right my penguin friend is okay. When beginners are learning sometimes they keep their weight too central and don't transfer the weight to each foot which kind of creates this motion. So when I teach the children I always say to them oh don't do the penguin which is this. So it's a really good way to remember not to do that move. So a good way to fix it is to start marching because if you're going to lift the foot you have to transfer your weight and this helps to get rid of my friend over here. One thing that a lot of beginners struggle with when they're starting out is stopping because you're learning and you're getting going and all of a sudden you're like I can't stop. So the instinct is to use the toe stop or just throw yourself on the ground that works too but the instinct is to try and use your toe stop but you put it behind you and it bounces it hurts your toes it's really uncomfortable but a really easy way to fix it is to just turn your toe out because then that means you're going to use more of the flat of the toe stop. I'll show you what I mean moving. So you see my foot's bouncing along behind me and it's hurting my toes it's really uncomfortable. So with this one keep your foot close and turn your toe out so you're making this T position and I'll show you how to do it. So keep your foot close turn your toe out. Now the key to this is to apply very little pressure and as you start to slow to apply more pressure and that will control the stop and make it a much more comfortable experience. So when people first put on a pair of skates the natural instinct is to basically try and walk in them so you're doing this motion but obviously you're not going to get anywhere so to counteract that people then put the toe stop in so then you're doing this but with roller skating the push needs to come from the instep of the back foot so this bit here so your foot's turned out and you push like that so then the push comes from the instep so you have to turn your foot out to get the push and that's how you get lots of speed. When you're first learning anything it's natural to want to look at what's happening I mean that's perfectly normal but with skating if you're looking down at your feet your weight's too far forward and also everyone says it bend your knees but the easiest way to think of a knee bend is to think about having the knee over your toe so that's how bent you've got to be so you need to be here so when I look down my knees and toes are kind of in line and that's how bent you need to be. Don't go too straight I'm not talking really straight but also don't bend forward and look down so you kind of want to be in this position so when you're skating you want to be looking where you're going so you need to be looking ahead of you so you can prepare for anything that's coming up specifically when you're outside you want to be scanning the ground in front of you for twigs obstacles stones because everyone knows that stones are a skaters nemesis also when you're at the rink because little children come from nowhere so if you can keep a good look of what's happening around you it will help you from falling over one of the biggest mistakes that new skaters make is getting their skates too big and it's one of the worst things you can do because it can really put you off because having a too big escape can be really hard I know you've waited like three weeks for these skates to turn up and you're so excited you open the box you put them on you're like oh they're a bit big I'll put a thick sock on it will be all right the problem is is that the weight will be in the wrong place so you have your main pressure point so when you lean back you've got a pressure point over your heel and when you lean forward you've got a pressure point which is the ball of your foot and you want the trucks to be underneath those when you're skating so when you've got your skates on those pressure points are over your front and back truck so do an extreme version so that's over my back truck and that's over my front truck but because of that it gives me the maneuverability so you can imagine if your weight's behind that front truck it's going to be really hard you almost have to going to go past the ball of your foot onto your toes which is a really unnatural position and it's going to make it really hard to balance so if you get the correct size that fits your foot it will make all of skating so much easier I hope this video has really helped you to fix just a few minor things and to help you on your skating journey I'm Katie you've been watching skatey and I'll see you next time bye one thing that a lot of beginners struggle with when they're starting okay I don't like that um no I'm just gonna so you can see what's happening I can't say specific I'm gonna have to use a different word because I can't say specifically