A helmet. Since you’re just starting out, wearing a helmet may help you feel more comfortable. Everyone takes a few spills at first, and wearing a helmet will protect your head from injury. Knee pads and wrist guards. Your hands and knees are bound to hit the floor a few times as you learn how to roller skate. If you’re concerned about getting a bit scraped up, protect yourself with knee pads and wrist guards.
The first time you hit the rink, you may feel like you don’t have control over the skates, and you may lose your balance and fall a couple of times before you feel comfortable standing in place. This is completely normal; just keep practicing the posture until you get the hang of it. It’s hard to stand perfectly still in a pair of roller skates. Once you’ve got the hang of it down, practice correcting your posture every so often by slightly moving your skates to help you keep your balance. Think about it this way: if you were standing in place without roller skates on and someone gave you a light push, you’d move your feet to regain your balance. The same idea applies when you’re wearing roller skates, only it’s the wheels on the skates and the pressure from your own muscles that are giving you the “push. "
Practice until you can comfortably “duck walk” in the skates while keeping your balance. You’ll probably fall down a few times at first; just get back up and remember to keep your body centered over your heels and remain in a squatting position. Try not to let your center point be on your heels. This can cause you to fall back. As you gain confidence, start moving more quickly and taking longer strides. Push harder on the wheels so that you roll further with each stride.
Practice turning right and left while gliding. When you turn right, lean your body slightly to the right. When you turn left, lean your body slightly to the left, always remaining in a squatting position. Glide faster. Move your legs faster and gain momentum by putting pressure on the wheels and propelling yourself forward. Practice using your body weight to help you gain speed by leaning into your strides. Use your arms to help you keep your balance and gain speed by bending them at the elbows and moving them back and forth the way you would if you were running.
It’s important to stop with a confident thrust, rather than hesitantly touching your brake to the ground. If you don’t press down hard enough on the brake, you may lose your balance and fall down. If you find it difficult to apply enough pressure at first, try using your hands to press down on your right knee to help you exert enough force to stop.
Since you can’t see behind you and you’re forced to turn around and look from time to time, it may be more difficult to keep your balance while you’re skating backward. Start slowly and figure out how to turn your body to look behind you without falling down. Avoid leaning backward, as this is a common reason people fall. It takes practice, but eventually you’ll be able to glide backward. Lengthen the strokes you take with your skates and practice rolling for awhile on one before you put the other skate down. Keep exerting pressure on your toes and making an inverted “v” shape with your feet.
Roller hockey is another popular league-oriented style of roller skating. For this sport you’ll need a pair of inline skates. Aggressive skating, like skateboarding, is based around doing a series of daring tricks. Make sure you have protective equipment if you try this sport.
Indoor roller skates. If you like to skate indoors at a rink, consider buying your own pair of skates so you don’t have to rent a pair every time. Outdoor roller skates. These skates have wheels designed to be durable enough to withstand tougher conditions. You can use them to skate over asphalt and other road materials. Speed skates. These skates are designed to go faster than typical roller skates, so consider them if you love to fly around the rink or down the street. You can buy inline speed skates, which have a row of wheels, or quads, which have two wheels on either side.
