Top 10 Skate Park Skills for First Time Roller Skaters | Trick Tutorial

Hi I'm Shorty and welcome back to my YouTube channel Shorty's Skate Series. If you're new to park skating or looking to go to the skate park for the first time, here are my top 10 skills I find most useful. Roller skating is a dangerous sport and we skate at our own risk. Please wear the amount of protective gear that is right for you. Skill number one stance. So the first skill I want to talk to you about is stance. You want to choose which foot you prefer to have in front. For me it's my left foot. You want to have your feet about shoulder width apart and staggered. So this is called a staggered stance. You want to have your knees bent, butt down and your chest up. You don't want to lean over and skate like this. So when you're going forwards you want to look forwards. When you're going backwards or fakie you want to look behind you. So to make that easier all you have to do is open your hips, turn your shoulders and then it's easier for you to look in that direction. If you're having trouble opening your hips you can look to put your hands towards your back hip which will help you turn your shoulders and hips. So you don't want to do this when you're going backwards. Skill number two falling. I tend to do three types of falls. Falling to a knee, a baseball slide and falling small into a ball. If you need tips I go over falling to a knee and a baseball slide in my top five skills on flat ground tutorial. For falling small this is where you want to use your knee pads and your wrist guards to take most of the impact and help you slide down the ramps. I like to relax my body and let gravity take me, sort of like a big slippery dip. Skill number three toe stops. Getting comfortable on your toe stops is a super useful skill. When using them to walk up banks or slide down banks you need to make sure your chest is vertical or leaning slightly forwards as this will keep your weight in the front of your skates and on your toe stops. Again you can check out my top five skills on flat ground tutorial for more drills on this skill. I'll add a link below. Skill number four rolling in forward. Now that you can use your toe stops to walk up a bank it's time to roll down a bank. I like to start in this position. Setting up like this will help you for dropping in. Bend your knees and squat which will help lower your center of gravity and keep you more stable. My leading foot is on a toe stop for stability while the other is on all four wheels. When you are ready roll this skate over the ridge so that your front wheels are on the incline and your back wheels are on the flat deck. Now as you start to lean forward and tip your body axis perpendicular to the incline lift your leading skate and step it onto the incline. Make sure you ride out the bank in your low stance and not stand up. If you stand up you can become off balance. Also being low you are closer to the ground so it's easier to bail out if needed. Skill number five rolling in backwards or fakie. Rolling in fakie is another useful skill to have because if you're skating on a mini ramp or half pipe half your time you'll be skating backwards. Start by standing sideways with your leading skate on the deck. I like to start on a toe stop for extra stability. Have your other skate on all four wheels on the incline. As you swing your hips 45 degrees pivot on the front wheels of your non leading skate as you push off your toe stop and step onto the incline with your leading skate. Remember to look in the direction you want to go and not at your feet. Also bending your knees to lower your center of gravity will make you more stable. Skill number six rolling up and down a bank forwards and fakie. Once you are comfortable rolling down a bank you can try looking to hold the same stance as you roll up a bank. The scariest part for newer skaters is rolling backwards or fakie down or up an incline or ramp. So this is where good fakie stance and looking behind you will help. You want to keep a staggered stance and look in the direction you are traveling. Whenever you're traveling fakie you want to look behind you. When you're traveling forwards you want to look in front. It's good to practice this skill from a forwards roll in and also a fakie roll in. For the next level up try rolling on a bank to quarter pipe setup like this. The difference between rolling on a quarter pipe to a bank is that you need to be more aware of your body axis. Because the transition is curved you need to adjust your axis to stay perpendicular to the curve. If your axis is too upright you'll end up tipping forward onto your toe stops or if you're going backwards slipping out onto your butt. Skill number seven pumping up and down a bank. Practicing pumping on a bank allows you to focus on the pump motion and timing without having to worry about curving your body axis when skating a quarter pipe. As you approach the bottom of the incline bend your knees and get into a low stance. When rolling from the incline to the flat ground push your power through your heels as you extend your legs. For me it feels like i'm scooping my hips forward a little and not just standing up. It's the same motion for when you're pumping up an incline. Squat, hold, push through your heels, scoop your hips and extend your legs. When pumping backwards you will be pushing through your toes. Once you hit your full extension of your legs generally at the apex of your forwards pump you want to start to compress again by bending your knees. This time when rolling from the incline to the flat ground push your power through your toes as you extend your legs. This time it feels like i'm scooping my hips back a little. Repeat the same movement as you roll fakie up the transition. Squat, hold, push through your toes, scoop your hips and extend your legs. For the next level up try rolling on a bank to quarter pipe setup. Remember to keep your body axis perpendicular to the curve of the transition. If you want more tips on learning how to pump on a mini ramp or half pipe you can check out my tutorial which i'll link below. Skill number eight. Stepping 180 on a bank. Now this is a fun one you can use on a bank as a As you roll up the bank and reach the apex of your momentum step your leading foot 90 degrees followed by your back foot. Quickly step your leading foot another 90 degrees so it's facing down the incline followed by your back foot. This motion happens quite quickly and the steeper the incline the faster your stepping will be. Skill number nine. Box stepping. Stepping on and off a box is a good for the skate park and street skating. Due to the wheel configuration of roller skates a wide base allows for greater side to side stability. This is why i recommend stepping up and down boxes or ledges going sideways. You can keep your body weight centered and there's less risk of slipping backwards or forwards. Step on with the closest foot to the box and then step off with the closest foot to the ledge. I didn't really do it in my video but try keeping a staggered stance the Skill number 10. Box jumping. Since roller skates have a short base it's very difficult to jump forwards from a stationary position. Therefore momentum is needed to launch ourselves forwards. Another option is using a toe stops but when rolling it's not ideal. So think of your legs as springs. Bend your knees to compress and build power. As you approach the box push through your Bring your knees towards your chest to clear the height of the box. When you land you want to compress back down by bending your knees to absorb the impact. To jump off the box you want to do similar but the push through your legs can be a lot less power as you're going from high to low. Depending on your speed you might not need to jump at all but practicing to jump off is good preparation for if you want to do grabs, rotations or just need more air time. Not having enough speed and no jumping may cause you to fall off the box and clip your wheels. Remember you need to compress and bend your knees to absorb the impact of the jump. I like to over exaggerate the bend just to protect my knees. I have a tutorial on tips with jumping which I'll link below as well. So that's it. Those are my top 10 skills for first-time park skaters that I think you'll find most useful. I hope you were able to take a couple things away from this video that will help you build confidence at the skate park. If you have any questions please comment below and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Also tag me on instagram shortstop.6 as I'd love to see your progress. Thank you for watching and please like and share this video if you found it helpful. 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