10 Beginner Roller Skating Questions (answered by a coach)

You would not believe how many times I hear the same questions every week from adults wanting to learn how to roller skate. It's things like, I feel like I'm too old for this. What if I stack it? I'm petrified of falling. And other questions like, can I even skate outside on these wheels? And honestly, if you've asked yourself any of those questions, you're definitely not alone. So I thought, why not just answer the top 10 questions that beginners always ask me as honestly as I can. So let's start with the number one question that I get asked before anyone actually starts to learn. And it's, should they go with quads or inline? So either roller skates or blade. And I know this may feel like a big decision, and you might think that whatever you choose, you have to stick with and you don't. You can always change down the line. But here are some pros and cons to both of them. Let's start with the positives of learning to skate with quads. You will feel like you are more stable because you have a quad like setup under each skate, which gives you more balance as a beginner. Quads are also way easier to use for any kind of dance skating or spins. You can press on your edges. You can adjust your trucks to give your wheels a different flex. And they're just a lot easier to get more of a flowy kind of sequence to your skating. Quads are also easier to start and stop because you are balanced on four wheels. So the only negative about quads, I think, is that unless you have the right wheels set up to go outdoors, it's really bumpy. And also it's easier to slip back. My personal preference is obviously quads because of my artistic roller skating background. I prefer to do jumps, spins, lots of footwork. So that's why I go with quads. There's no right or wrong. It just depends on your goals and what you want to get out of skating. The second question I always get is, how do I stop? As soon as you start skating forward, you need to learn how to stop. There's so many beginner skaters that go out and they start learning all these tricks, but they don't actually learn how to stop. So if you are a complete beginner, you need to learn how to do a plow stop. I would master this before you start attempting to learn any other types of stops. As soon as you can stop, your confidence honestly will skyrocket through the roof. If you want this more in detail, I've actually got a full YouTube video on this, which I'll link above. So go and check that out. Question number three that I get asked is roller skating actually that good of a workout? And yes, it's really low impact. So it's way better than running on your joints. And it can burn anywhere between 300 to 600 calories per hour, depending on the type of skating that you're doing. It builds muscle strength in your calves, in your quads, in your glutes, in your core. Everything in your body is engaged. Even your arms are out for balance. It's basically a moving meditation. Once you put your skates on, you forget about everything else, all your problems, and you just focus on skating. Number four is what protective gear do I need? And I feel like if they're asking this question, it's because they feel embarrassed to wear protective gear. So when you're learning, you definitely need a helmet, There's also butt pads that you can get, so bum padding that are shorts that will protect your tailbone and the sides of your bum if you fall. I see a lot of skaters using those these days. But by putting on your protective gear, I promise you, you're going to feel more confident. So if you try and go for a skate and you don't have your wrist guards or any protective gear on, you're going to feel nervous. So definitely think of your protective gear as your armor when you're learning. The fifth question is a pretty popular one, and it's how do I get good balance without feeling wobbly? The first thing about balancing is that you need to make sure that your weight is shifted into one straight line over this skate first. So that's the number one problem with people's balance that I see is that they're not shifting the weight over and slowly bringing up their knee. So knee up, leg back and just practicing those basic skills, getting those right before you start advancing onto harder balancing skills. And if you're still feeling really wobbly with your balancing, make sure that you've got a soft knee. Yeah, so we don't want locked knees. We want a nice soft knee and keep your arms out for balance. Really strong arms out to the side. If you've got floppy arms when you're balancing, your arms are going to take over and it's obviously going to throw your weight out of that line. So my number one tip is to have a soft knee, shift the weight over and keep those arms out strong. Question number six is what mistakes do most beginners skaters make that I can avoid? The most common mistakes that I see over and over is when people are learning to skate, they've got a straight leg. We need to have a nice soft knee. So it's like a shock absorber when we're skating and also looking down. It's so common and it's a habit that you need to break. But stop looking down at your skates, start looking up and look in the direction that you're going, not down at your skates. And then also, it's really common that I see skaters that are new that have their hands in their pockets and they're wobbling around. So my number one tip would be make sure your knees are bent. Stop looking down and keep your arms out for balance. These are simple things to do. But if you can make sure that you're doing these three things when you're learning, your skating is going to progress a lot faster. I see skaters try and start spinning or jumping. They get injured or it's too hard and then they just give up. So really important just to get those foundations right. And if you're completely new and don't know where to start, I've actually got some free resources down below that I've linked. Question number seven is, are there many adults learning to skate these days or is it mostly kids? My adults classes are the ones that are fully booked and the ones that I get the most out of teaching because there's so many adults wanting to skate, whether it's to prove something to themselves, whether it's to do some kind of new fitness instead of going to the gym, whether it's wanting to be outdoors and bond with their kids. And I can tell you from experience, after having so many years off skates and coming back to it as an adult, it is so much more rewarding learning to skate as an adult versus when you skated as a kid. So if you're thinking about learning to roller skate, 100% give it a go. Question number eight is, can I skate outdoors with my wheels? Now, the first thing here is that you need to know what type of wheels do you have? What's the durometer? So what's the size and what's the hardness? Is your wheel a soft wheel or a hard wheel? So you need to understand what type of wheels you have on your skates first. If you're skating indoors, you generally have a harder wheel. So this gives you a little bit more slip and slide, which is more comfortable for indoor skating. If you're doing outdoor skating, especially on footpaths, you need to have a really wide wheel and it needs to be really soft. So that's going to absorb all the shocks or the bumps. And there's going to be less chance of slipping on any stone. Question number nine is, how do I break in my new skates? They're really painful. So your skates are boots, right? So if you buy a new pair of leather boots, it's going to take you a week or two to break them in. Roller skates are exactly the same, especially if you've got a really stiff boot. That's going to take a little bit more time to break in. Now, if you have a softer boot, you're going to start to get a little bit of a crease along here. And that means that your boots are broken in. I had a student come to my class. She had brand new skates and she wanted to hire some of mine because her skates were hurting her. So I advise to wear them for at least 10 or 15 minutes. But you just need to keep wearing your skates. That's the only way that you're going to break them in. If they're really painful, you could try wearing some thick socks, but you just need to keep wearing them, unfortunately. And then question number 10 is I really want to learn to skate, but I don't have the time. How can I find more time? People are busy with life more than others. Everyone's work commitments are different. Everyone's personal life, family circumstances are different. But it's like anything. If you want to learn something, you're going to find the time, right? So it depends on how much you want to learn to skate. Don't think that you need to go and practice for one or two hours every single week. If you really don't have much time, just start with a small practice session. Fit that in. So what usually happens with me is that I look at my to do list and I think I don't have time to skate today. But then when I do squeeze it in, an hour goes by because I've been having way too much fun. You need to schedule in that time a week ahead, two weeks ahead. Plan out your skate sessions and then stick to it. If you don't plan it out, you're probably not going to do it. Just think of skating as your self-care time, yeah? Don't think of it as a chore. It's fun. It's freeing. It's really rewarding. I don't think I've ever had a student that has regretted learning to skate. Before you go, if you're just getting started, you can grab some free resources down below, which will give you some tips and put you in the right direction to get started safely. And if you want more help on how to do some of those beginner skills that I mentioned, I've got a whole beginner series that you can watch to get started. I'll link that playlist above. If you have any other questions, please drop them below in the comments so I can cover them in the next video coming. And don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss part two, where I'll be going even deeper into your questions. Thanks, guys. I'll see you in the next video.