Getting Started Roller Skating – Part 8 – Skate Forwards without Falling Down

In today’s episode, I spend some time talking with you about how to skate forwards without falling down.

I start off by explaining how it’s best to go slow. Start in grass or on the carpet so your wheels don’t roll. Or, you can tighten you skate wheels or use slow roll bearings, too. I wrote a whole article called How to Make Roller Skates Slower just for beginners.

I also talked about the PVC Trainer or Skate Mate. I like to call them white walkers, because the PVC is usually white and you are supposed to walk while using them. However, I ranted for a bit about how these devices are often misused at the rink.

I then closed off the episode by giving a bunch of tips to stay upright when you are skating.

If you’d like to see some videos / step-by-steps, check out my How to Roller Skate and How to Rollerblade pages.

Episode 25 Transcript

[0:03] Hey everybody, Welcome to the roller skate Dad podcast.

This is episode # 25. Let’s get started.

[0:15] Music.

[0:17] Welcome to the Roller skate Dad podcast, The show that covers everything and anything in the wonderful world of roller skating.

Now, here’s your host, the roller skate dad himself, Jeff Stone.

[0:37] Hey, everybody, welcome to the roller skate Dad podcast.

So glad you all could join me today. Thank you so much for listening today.

We’re gonna be continuing our series on the getting started roller skating and I’m going to be discussing how to skate forwards without falling down.

Finally, you know, we’ve gone through so much over the last few weeks on this topic and we’re finally to the point where we’re actually gonna be talking about roller skating.

So just to kind of do a quick recap over the last few episodes, I’ve talked about,

you know, getting started roller skating and we’ve discussed things like getting in the right skaters mindset, you know, believing you can do this, you know, you got this,

picking out your first pair of roller skates.

So there were two episodes actually on that topic and then making sure you have the right safety equipment so that you don’t get hurt.

[1:37] And then I went over things like roller skating basics, like how to fall down and how to get back up properly without, you know, getting your fingers run over, and then last week I talked about um how to stop on roller skates.

So all these things are actually really important before you even get started roller skating, you know, if you have all these things in place,

and you’re paying attention to all the steps that I’ve already,

um recommended, then actually doing the roller skating part will be a lot more enjoyable, a lot less likely that you’ll get hurt and so therefore, I hope you’ll have a whole lot more fun and if you have more fun,

and that means you’re probably going to do it more often.

So this week we’re going to cover how to skate forwards without falling down and, you know, this is the first big step, But you know, you can see here it’s like episode #7 in this series right?

Not number one for a reason, so if you’ve been following along.

[2:39] You’re already way ahead of most people um because you know, you’re starting off with a better foundation, most people jump right to this step and then they go to the rink and they start falling down,

and they hurt themselves and then they’re like, forget this, I don’t want to do this anymore, I’m not good at this.

So if you’re getting prepared, like, I’m trying to get you here with the right gear,

and your understanding how to fall down and get back up properly and you understand how to stop and you know, go slow, you know, before you start zooming around or trying to zoom around everywhere and skating everywhere.

Um You know, if you if you follow these steps, I hope that it’s gonna, you know, really be key to getting you started successfully so that you have a good time, because that’s really what the whole point of this is.

The whole point is for you to have a good time skating and so that you want to do it more and you don’t give up like so many people do.

[3:40] So honestly, most people don’t have the patience when we try to teach them these steps at the beginning of a skate lesson, so they often just prefer to just take off, right, and I get it.

Um when I used to teach lots of young,

kids, even older adults, when I was a teenager at my local rank,

we would go through a lot of these steps beforehand, especially the part about, you know, how to fall down properly, how to get back up, how to make sure your hands don’t get rolled over, how to stop on your roller skates,

and often when people would come to lessons, they just,

they didn’t have the patience for it, A lot of people would just ignore you and start skating around the rink and some of them would do okay because, you know, they already had good balance, but others were, you know, crashing all over the place and so,

hopefully if you heeded my advice and you’re you’re kind of following along with me here that you know, you’re setting yourself up for success.

So let’s talk about how you go about skating without falling down, so this is going to be kind of a step by step process, but the most important step,

is um to start slow.

[4:59] You know, don’t be trying to catch a kid or you know, find the fastest skater at the rink and be like, I can keep up with them,

uh you know, if this is your first time, you need to go slow and you need to have patience even if it’s not your first time, if it’s like your second or third time, you know if we’re talking like you’ve only been skating half a dozen times, you want to start slow.

Um And so after you get up off the ground, you want your feet to be under you with a little bit of distance between your left and your right foot.

[5:30] I’d say a little less than shoulder width apart, you don’t want them to be so wide that,

you know, you feel like you’re you’re standing really strange, you don’t want them to be too close together or you know, they, your feet can actually uh the wheels on both, your skates can actually clip each other and you fall down,

so about shoulder a little less than shoulder width apart.

And next you want to make sure that your knees are bent slightly, this is like,

this is like the most important part, you know, like I see so many folks, especially when they’re first starting out and they’re standing straight legged, like a mummy or Frankenstein, don’t do that.

You know, a lot of new skaters are, you know, feel so awkward in their skates, that they just get that straight leg Frankenstein look.

And so that’s another sure fire away that you’re going to fall down.

You know, if you don’t have your knees bent, it’s very easy for you to lose your balance and for you to fall over.

So bending your knees is a big key, so make sure that you’re not standing upright now, as you.

[6:35] Are kind of in that right stance, you want to lean just slightly forward in this bent knee stance, you don’t want to be leaning back,

leaning back is a bad idea because that’s especially for beginners, that’s typically how you wind up falling backwards, which is as we learned in a couple episodes back is one of the worst ways to fall,

so we want to be leaning forward just slightly next, you want to stand on your dominant foot.

So you take your non dominant leg, the one that you feel Uh the least amount of balance on.

And you want to take that leg and turn it roughly 45° and push it gently into the ground,

and then slightly lift that foot that skate up off the ground and you’re going to begin rolling on that one dominant leg.

And then you want to put the skate that you pushed off on.

You want to put that back down on the ground as quickly as you can right next to the other foot again about shoulder a little less than shoulder width apart, and with your knees bent and then you don’t want to push again.

You know, just roll and try to maintain your balance.

[7:48] And so that’s the, that’s the most important thing. You want to kind of start slow and you want to really focus on your balance, Trying not to fall over, trying to stay upright and go slow.

It’s okay that you’re not pushing with every single step that you take, it’s okay that you push one time, roll 20 ft and then come to a stop.

That’s okay. Nothing wrong with that, right?

And so when you come to a stop or your wheels slow down so much, then you just repeat the same process again, basically knees bent feet a little bit less than shoulder width apart.

[8:25] Stand on your dominant leg, turn the other foot just a little bit to the, to the left or the right about 45° and push,

and then put that foot back down and roll and keep your balance until you come to a stop where you slow down enough to where you feel confident, you can push again.

So by this point you’re either rolling really successfully or you’ve already fallen over.

So that’s typically what I see. You know, usually most people who do this, they fall in one of those two camps, they either are really successful and they’re rolling just fine and they’re like,

really, this is it, I’m ready to move on to the next step, or they have already fallen over and they’re kind of deflated.

So, so much of the success really depends on how good you are at balancing on one ft.

Um Most people fall when they go to push,

so like when they go to stand on that dominant foot and they turn the other one like that 40 degree angle and they go to push, they fall there or they fall because they’re going too fast rolling on two ft, so maybe they push really hard,

and um you know, you don’t want your, you don’t want these first pushes to be super hard, like just push a little so you can get the wheels rolling.

[9:45] And then as it comes to a stop push again.

Um So if you’re following these steps that I just outlined there, um then you know, and you’re still falling over, let’s say, you know, you’ve, you’ve done.

[10:01] The steps that I talked about and you’re still falling over, you know, what can you do?

Um So my first recommendation is.

[10:11] For you to get used to the skates on your feet. So this may sound a little strange, it’s like, yeah Jeff, I got my skates on, what do you mean what I mean?

Is that a lot of times beginners can really have a tough time with,

just the weight of escape being on their feet, skates weigh a lot more than shoes do and you know, you’ve got depending on the skate, it can weigh a lot more than your shoes do.

Um You know, if you’ve got a really sturdy heavy duty skate that has um you know, an aluminum plate on it, it could weigh several pounds and can really feel like a lot of weight on your feet.

So a lot of times people just aren’t used to that, they’re not used to having all that weight on their feet.

Um So what I like to tell people is, you know, move to the carpet or move to, you know, grass if you don’t have any carpets inside your house or you know, your apartment and just practice walking around in your skates.

Now I know it sounds a little silly but you know, it actually really works, you know, especially for beginners who are just getting used to a pair of skates and what that feels like on the bottom of your feet.

Um Getting to a place where your feet and your sorry, where your skates won’t roll, well actually really help you with your balance.

[11:32] Um you’re just you know, not used to having all that weight with wheels on your feet so you know, go figure.

So just getting used to having that skate on your feet really helps with, you know, learning, especially when you’re first starting out, this is why we often would take little kids off to, you know, the carpeted side.

Um it wasn’t to cushion their fall, it was to slow them down so that they couldn’t actually roll very fast.

Um so it’s just a great idea to just put your skates on when you first get them and if, you know, you have carpet in your house, especially I tell people like put your skates on and just walk around in your house.

[12:13] Like, you know, a lot of folks these days, you know, with covid and everything, people are still working from home,

you know, or if you’re not, you know, when you have a day off, you know, just put your skates on, walk around the house, It may sound silly, but it works like walk around the House for three or 4 hours in them.

Not only will you get used to how it feels to have those skates on your feet, but you’ll also be, you know, breaking in the boots too.

So you know, double winner winner chicken dinner, you know, you get, you kill two birds with one stone.

So another tip, you can do um, in most quad skates, this doesn’t actually work in all quad skates, but in some quads, gates, you can actually tighten the axle nut that holds your wheel,

onto the axle, and so this is just a little hex nut that holds the.

[13:04] Holds the wheel onto the axle, you can actually just get a um allen wrench and you can actually tighten that.

And um what it will do is if you keep tightening it, you’ll notice that as you’re trying to spin the wheel, the wheel will actually stop spinning.

[13:21] Um and so if you, if you do that, that will actually also tighten the wheels if like, let’s say you don’t have carpet in your house or you can’t get to a grass an area with grass and it to just walk around.

Um And this is actually a technique that I’ve used even with my own wife, who’s not much of a roller skater, she used to skate when she was a kid, but hasn’t really skated much as an adult,

and I used this technique with her and she came to an adult night with us and she skated around the whole rink all night with us.

I mean she wasn’t really skating, she was more walking out on the floor, but she just wanted to be out on the floor and you know, she had a good time and she was getting used to the skates on her feet.

[14:04] Um So that’s another option, Another really good option if you can’t do that or if you’re,

one of these folks who you know, you, there are, there are some downsides to that if you if you tighten your wheels really tight and then you try to roll on them,

you could damage the, not the axles, but the bearings that are actually inside the wheel.

Um I don’t really feel like this is that big of an issue simply because the whole purpose of tightening these axle nuts is to keep the wheels from rolling so that you’re getting more used to just walking around in your skates.

Um, but if you are concerned about that and you have a little bit of money to spend, they actually do sell slow roll bearings.

These are typically around 30 to $40 for a pair and you put these into your wheels and they actually purposely go slow.

[15:00] And you know, these are just special bearings that you typically will get.

Um they’re kind of installed in some little kids skates, don’t feel bad if you’re an adult and you’re like, hey, I think I’m gonna go get me some of those, we all start off as a beginner and they’re just great for beginners.

You know, you plop those into your wheels, you take the regular bearings out,

put these in, it will actually slow your wheels down so that you’re not rolling as much and it’s just really great if you’re really struggling with staying upright. Um.

[15:34] So with either your wheels tightened or you know, if you decide to go get slow roll bearings and put those in now, you just want to start practicing, you know, a slower walk,

you know, slash roll on your skates so, you know, you want to kinda practice walking some and then maybe just a little bit of a role on a regular skating surface.

So you’re kind of slowly kind of building up, getting off the grass and the carpet and moving on to a regular skating surface.

Another tip is one you’re going to see, you know, dozens of people doing if you visit your local skating rink and that’s using the wall or the railing to stay upright.

[16:17] You know, this is a really good crutch when you’re first starting out.

And I actually really recommended over holding, you know, somebody else’s hand while you’re skating, especially if they’re skating too.

Uh it’s, and they’re a beginner because that’s a great way to take them down with you.

Um, you know, puts the beginner by holding onto the railing or wall, it puts you more in control uh, you know, of your body.

Whereas like holding hands while skating with somebody, it doesn’t help really, as much as you think, even though many of us experienced skaters, you know, still like to teach that way.

Um instead we put those beginners on the wall before they take you down with them.

I’ve been taken down even as an experienced skater, you know, because I’m holding somebody’s hand that’s,

my size, it’s a little kid, it’s a little different, you know, they start to fall, you can lift their whole body up with one arm,

but if it’s a, you know, another adult that’s 152 £100 you may have a tough time staying upright yourself if they go down,

so that’s why practicing on the wall, it really helps. Um.

[17:34] And so if you’re skating on the wall or you know, on the railing on the sides,

um some steps what you’re going to want to do is practice some of the steps above, so you’re gonna want to, you know, stand next to the wall or the railing and take your non dominant leg and push with it.

You know, just as I was talking about earlier and as you roll, stay close to the wall and if you feel like you’re out of control, you know, you have something there that you can grab onto so that works, that works really well.

And that’s how we taught a lot of people when they were first getting started.

I mean we’re talking like this is like maybe the 1st, 2nd, 3rd time you go skating, you know, typically if you are going skating like you should be when you’re a beginner, you know, once, at least once or twice a week.

You know, you get, you get a lot of these balance,

issues out of the way pretty quick, usually with, within just a month or so you’ll be,

the balance and and a lot of these steps I’m talking about, you’ll be past this point and you’ll be ready to actually start doing some more advanced stuff on your skates.

[18:40] Um Another tip for beginners, which I really don’t want to recommend, but I will for those of you who are really, really, really struggling and you’ve tried all the other things I just talked about is to become a white walker.

Um That’s what I like to call them. Game of Thrones, anyone.

Um So these basically these are little PVC walker’s skate mates, trainers, um that you’ll see in some skating rinks,

and um they’re basically this PVC contraption and they have wheels on the bottom of them as they call them PVC trainers, or walkers, or I call them white walkers because they’re white and people are typically.

[19:26] Should be walking with them on the floor, they’re usually not walking with them, and that’s the problem.

Um And then the PVC uh portion of it kind of comes up to about the waste on the skater, and so the idea is for the skater then too,

hold on to that PVC walker while they’re skating slowly,

and it helps to ensure that you don’t fall over.

So I’m going to rant here just a little bit about these PVC walkers, so I’m warning you if you don’t want to hear this, you can just.

[20:04] Skip ahead a little bit, but I really hate recommending these death traps um because I I really don’t think they’re necessary.

Uh you know, a wall should be just fine for most people or railing and going slow, walking on carpet and grass, you know, walking around in your skates before you get started.

Um However, they do work for some beginners if you use them properly, most people don’t use them properly, so why do I call them death traps?

Because most people don’t use them properly. Uh they use them as a crutch,

uh and they use them to go way faster, then they are able to control at their current skating level, so you can take one of these things and I mean, it’s just a,

it’s just a crutch basically with wheels on the bottom of it and um you can really use these things to go a lot faster than what you should be going,

and this is, so, you know, this is why most of us experienced skaters who have been skating for a long time, we go to a rink that has these, this is why we hate them,

because, you know, a child or even an adult who’s using one of these things and they’re just starting out, they really should only be going about a mile or two miles an hour on these,

Uh, you know, and instead they’re using this block of plastic as a way to go 10 mph around the rink way faster than what they should be going.

[21:33] And the folks that are using these that really don’t have any balance, you know, they’re sometimes taking out skaters from behind,

as they go around and they’re losing control of the device, you know, I’ve seen it, I’ve seen it a lot actually, and so when you go to a session that has a lot of these, um I’m thinking like a saturday or sunday afternoon,

you really have to skate with a,

you know, swivel on your head, you gotta really be looking and looking out, um you want to be looking around all the time because folks using these often are not taught how to use them before they use them.

[22:14] And so they can be super dangerous.

So if you are skating with the skate trainer, one of these PVC trainers and you’re constantly falling over then more than likely you’re using it wrong.

Ah The device is made to teach you how to stand and skate on your own two ft without the need of the of the device.

Um So but so many times I see skaters and they’re like oh I have this thing to hold me up now I can go do the races or oh I have this thing to hold me up and I can like really go fast and it’s like.

[22:51] If you’re using the scape mate, you shouldn’t be racing.

I mean like that’s not the point of the skate mate.

The point of the skate made is to teach you how to stand up correctly while you’re skating and then once you know how to do that, you don’t need the skate mate anymore, get rid of it.

So if you go to a rink and you see I’m talking to your parents out there, you decide to get your kid one of these skate mates once the kid is out on the floor and they’re skating around with it and they’re not falling down.

[23:25] Or if they are falling down while they’re using the skate mate, they need to slow down, go even slower with it.

Once they get to the point where they’re not falling down anymore or not falling down as much, get rid of it, get rid of the crutch, you don’t need it anymore.

So it’s ah.

[23:42] I will put, you know, a link to it in the show notes, in case any of you out there, don’t know what I’m talking about, or you haven’t seen these before.

Um or if you’re interested in getting one, you know, that many rinks you can rent them.

I know at the rink that I skate at here in Austin, they rent them by the hour.

And uh, you know, we never had these devices when I grew up, you know, we had the wall, the carpet, the grass, tightening our wheels and falling down, and I don’t even remember having slow roll bearings.

So that’s a cool thing.

Um In my opinion, there’s just so many more great options out there than using one of these skate mates.

So I honestly think these are really just a way for rinks to make more money um for those that are using them, but, you know, to some extent,

good for them, you know, I mean, I do want to see the rinks make more money, we need more rinks after all, not less.

So I think it’s it’s good in some ways, but I also think it’s bad in a lot of ways because for those of us who really like to skate, I, you know, it’s really hard to skate in those sessions because there can be so many people,

with those skate makes skate mates out there that it almost makes it impossible.

[25:05] To have a good time on the floor.

It’s it can get that crowded with those devices. So I’ve also found where you can buy one of these, so like if you actually.

[25:18] I’m pretty sure you can make one too, but like if you wanted to buy one of these, I found some on amazon and on roller skate nation where these companies who make these, you know they sell them.

[25:28] Um like I said I think you probably easily could make your own too.

So I don’t know, maybe I’ll do a video or article showing you how to make one seems like a fun project. Maybe my daughter Violet would like to do with me, she likes to build stuff and construct new things.

So if I were new and I were having issues and tried everything that I previously recommended and you’re still falling down a lot,

then maybe I’d get one of these PVC walkers but I’d probably buy one,

instead of renting one at a rink and I’d probably just use it in my garage or my basement or you know go to my local park where there’s nobody and I could, you know skate around using this thing just so I could get good at my balance,

and but then when I was good enough to stand up.

[26:18] Then I’d get rid of it.

You know if I’m not falling down anymore, you don’t need that crutch, like get rid of it and but you know I certainly probably wouldn’t be using one at a public skating session especially as an adult, I’d probably be too afraid to hit somebody with it.

[26:34] Um So anyway, second you only use a walker to help you in the very beginning of learning how to skate, you know said this already but once you can skate slowly without falling down, skate slowly without falling down.

[26:50] Put this contraption away um or give it to a friend if you bought one, you know to give, give it to somebody else.

[26:59] Okay, time for me to stop ranting about, you know, skate mates and white walkers and things like that.

So let me recap real quick what I’ve covered so far.

So again, start slow, you want to have patience with yourself, have grace, you know, talk to yourself nicely, you’re learning something new, you know, learning new things.

It’s, it’s hard but it’s fun and so you know, just remember everyone sucks when they’re first learning something new, it doesn’t matter what it is.

Um everyone falls, everyone fails.

Just remember you can do this.

You know, you want to keep your feet around shoulder with the part a little bit less, keep your knees bent and you should be slightly leaning forward so you don’t fall backwards, stand on your dominant foot, push off with the other foot,

Put the push foot down and roll on two ft until you come to a slow roll or a stop and then do it all over again and then, you know, use the carpet, grass tightened wheels,

slow roll bearings the wall or escape trainer as ways to help if you’re really falling over a lot.

[28:12] Okay, so we got past that, let’s talk about moving past, you know, these beginner steps And now that you’re rolling with one push,

you want to get, you know, you want to get good at doing this over and over again, so your wheels never really slowed down or if they do slow down, you don’t come to a stop.

[28:34] And so this is where you really get the glide, you know, or what we would call roller skating.

This is where you get that glide kind of feeling.

So, you know, as before you’re going to stand on your dominant foot and push off with the other foot, put the other, put the foot that you pushed off with back on the ground, roll on two ft and before you slow to a stop, repeat the same steps again,

and push again with the non dominant foot,

and keep doing this until you’re good at it, you know, pushing off with your non dominant foot over and over and over again,

and keep a good roll going and stay upright.

So that’s the key, like how do you know that you’re ready to move past this step,

you can stand on that dominant foot and push over and over and over again,

you know, push roll, push, roll, push roll, always off, standing on that dominant foot and you’re not falling over and if you can do that over and over and over again, then you’re ready to move on to the next step.

[29:36] So once you’re able to push off with your non dominant foot and can roll around without stopping or falling, then it’s time to to really start gliding. And so this is where we’re gonna switch feet.

So you’re going to use the same steps as before, push off with the non dominant foot.

Go to go back to where both feet are,

on the ground, rolling, roll on those two ft for a few seconds, now, push off with your dominant foot and then place it back down on the ground and then you just repeat that process over and over again.

And, you know, you can you need to be the best judge of how fast you can go.

You know, for some of you, you’re going to push with that non dominant foot, standing on the dominant foot and you’re going to need to be there for one or two skate sessions.

Some of you will be like, this is easy, I’m not falling down, everything’s great, so you can go more to a glide quicker, so, you know, only you can really judge your progress and where you feel you’re at at that current moment in time.

[30:41] So if you were able to get to that last step successfully, I just want to say, congratulations your roller skating baby.

That’s what it is. That’s the glide, that’s all there is to it and see, I told you you could do it.

You know, it’s just gonna take some practice for some of you may be a lot of patience and a lot of balance, Right balance is the most important thing.

And if you’re not getting it, just stick with it.

You know, it’s important to remember when to give up for the day.

[31:15] Um, I have this problem a lot, especially in my profession as a software engineer where I will beat my head up against a complex problem.

[31:28] Over and over and over and over again.

And sometimes the best thing to do is to just walk away and go take your dog for a walk or go do the dishes or just give up on it for the day and come back to it tomorrow.

You know, it’s amazing what a night’s sleep can do when you’re learning something new. Or if you’re really struggling to figure something out.

[31:51] The key though, really, I believe is repetition over the course of days, weeks and months.

You know, you’re not going to learn how to skate in a day.

You’re not really going to learn how to do much in life in a day.

It just doesn’t work that way. That’s, you know, the longer that you’re around and that you’re on this planet, the.

[32:12] The more you realize that no matter how impatient which I am, no matter how impatient you, maybe it’s still a fact.

You know, if you want to get good at something, you have to practice it over and over and over again over the course of time.

So, you know, that’s just the way it is. It takes weeks and months to get good at something and roller skating’s no different.

[32:37] Alright, so let’s wrap this episode up with just a few last tips.

Um Remember to focus on stability and control over speed,

speed makes everything less stable, everything,

and just remember you’re going to get there eventually, but you really really really have to focus on balance and stability first over everything else.

Don’t worry about looking cool. Trust me, you don’t,

you know, focus on staying upright and in the right skating position, uh stable balance,

you can look cool later once you’ve got those things down, you know, try to plan to practice at least once a week, especially when you’re a beginner.

You know if you can do it 2-3 times or more per week, you’re going to get better faster.

[33:33] Now practice as often as you can if you can’t get to a rink that often skate outdoors, maybe skate before school you know or work.

Um You know you could skate during your lunch break or you could skate after school or after work.

This is why I often recommend to beginners that they get outdoor roller skates because there’s so many more opportunities to skate outdoors in most places than to find an indoor skating rink.

You know, you have to deal with when is the skating rink open? Can I do I have a way to get there?

It’s gonna cost me money you know skating outdoors doesn’t usually cost anything um.

[34:17] Another tip is to skate with your hands out in a T position.

So this is where you take your arms and you stretch them out and you can use it, you know, kind of like if you’re pretending like you’re an airplane when you’re a little kid, you know, flying around, right?

You put your arms out into a T. Position and with your arms stretched out like this, it can help you with your balance.

You’ll also see figure skaters do that a lot when they’re skating and they’re doing their routines, they do it for balance right?

Plus, you know, it looks cool.

Uh You know, again, another tip, I’ve already mentioned this, but have patience with yourself, you know, just remember Rome wasn’t built in a day, you’re not going to learn how to skate in a day.

[35:00] I may, I don’t know, maybe it happens for some people, but not most, I certainly didn’t learn how to skate in the day.

I did start when I was like eight, so I picked it up a lot faster than you may if you’re 68 you’ve never roller skated before, but um but it still took me weeks to get good at it.

Um You know, most people who learn skating that quickly, usually like if they’re, you know, you’ve got a friend there like, oh, I’ve never been roller skating and they put on their skates and they’re just great at it.

It usually has to do with the fact that they’ve practiced a lot of other balance sports.

So like maybe they ice skated as a kid or they’ve done a lot of skiing or snowboarding or skateboarding or or even yoga, right?

So all of those um can really help with your balance.

And obviously if you’re good with balance, you’re going to probably be pretty good at roller skating.

[35:57] And you know, just remember most people are giving up, especially as adults, you know, just after one skating session and you know, they’ll say I can’t do it.

And I’m here to tell you, you’re absolutely right, you can’t do it, not with that attitude.

You’re never going to do anything, you know, quitters never learn anything but how to quit.

So you have a choice, don’t be like that and I know you can do it right, roller skates, roller skate. Dad says you can do it, so I know you can do it.

I’ve seen so many people who said they couldn’t skate, learn how to skate.

You know, it’s just important to stay positive and you know, reward yourself, you know, for doing hard things, you know, especially when you’re trying to learn something like roller skating.

So, you know, after you roller skate, you know, do something nice for yourself, you know me and my girls, um when I was first taking them to skate when they were little kids.

[36:54] We’d always go out to eat or we’d go get a drink or something like that at a burger joint after we skated.

And um, you know, this was really great, especially when I was first teaching them how to skate.

It was more my idea to take them roller skating than them coming to me going, hey dad, can we go roller skating?

And so when I was first taking them when they’re really little, I mean we’re talking like five or six years old, is when they first learned how to skate, I would take them to chilies and they love to go to chili’s, which is a restaurant here in,

texas and their chain that’s all over the US.

[37:33] But my older daughter especially loved going to chili’s when she was a kid, not so much now.

And so I think this was, you know, a great way for me to build up some positives about skating for them.

You know, we go skate, then we get a treat, you know, and it made them,

I’m sure in the early days it made them want to go skating when they were little because they knew, hey, we’re going to go skating and then, you know, like dad’s going to take me out to eat or go get me a drink at sonic afterwards.

So, you know, this is a little Jedi mind trick that, you know, most parents and grandparents already know.

[38:09] Um, so now my kids love skating, hmm, maybe that had something to do with it, taking them taking them out to uh, to eat afterwards. But you know, the key is to just stick with it.

You know, you’ve got this, I believe in you and you know, if you ever need inspiration or you just need someone to listen to your struggle skating.

You know, you can always shoot me an email Jeff at roller skate dad dot com And I always respond to every email I get all of them except the spam.

I don’t respond to the, to the spam emails, but from real people, I respond to all those, it sometimes takes me a few days, you know, I do have a job after all, Sometimes it takes me a week.

I apologize, but I always respond and try to get back to everyone that emails me, so you know, just hang in there. That’s the most important thing is don’t give up.

[39:06] Okay, so next episode we’re going to start ratcheting up the difficulty level and now that you are,

you know, skating forwards and you’re gliding, we’re going to be, you know, begin talking more about advanced skating techniques.

So we’re going to be talking about things like crossovers and going backwards and doing backwards crossovers,

And doing forwards and backwards turns both on two ft and on one ft.

And I’m going to talk to you some and teach y’all some about basic beginner art skating techniques, because I know how to do those.

So we’re going to talk about things like Bunny Hops and Waltz jumps and two ft spins.

[39:57] Because those are actually all really fun and easy and if you’re more advanced out there and you’re like, yeah, I can already do all this stuff he’s been talking about for the last few episodes and I can even skate backwards,

then, you know, maybe this will ratchet up the difficulty level for you a little bit and give you some things that you can work on.

Um you know, if you want to learn something new and then we’re going to be discussing some roller sports, like roller hockey and roller derby and jam skating and an art skating, you know, artistic skating, like I talked about.

And then I’m going to wrap up this series. I mean that’s still several episodes that we’ve just gone through,

but I’m going to wrap up this series with a few episodes just on roller skate maintenance because I think that all beginners should really understand the roller skates that they have on their feet,

how to make sure they’re properly maintained, how to clean them properly, how to make sure that they don’t break, and you know how to check things to make sure that they’re all in the right place before you go skating, so you don’t injure yourself.

So there’s so much still to cover. I mean, we probably could do 20 more episodes of this, but I’m going to try to.

[41:07] Try to ratchet it down to hopefully just another six or seven episodes at most. Probably will do a few of these together.

[41:14] Um, so there’s so much to cover, but you know, it’s all going to be like super fun and exciting.

I’m excited about it and I’m also going to be having some guests here on the podcast soon too.

So I’m really excited about transitioning out of the getting started roller skating and moving on to some guests soon.

So, if you want to get a transcript of this podcast episode or you want to get links to any of the things that I discussed in the episode, like the skate mate, some of the slow roll bearings and things of that nature.

Be sure to check out the show notes. You can get those at roller skate dad dot com slash 25.

[42:02] All right. I think that’s a wrap everybody until the next time. Get on out there and skate.

[42:10] Thank you for listening to the roller skate dad podcast at www dot roller skate dad dot com.

If you liked what you heard today, please be sure to subscribe rate and review the podcast on apple podcasts, Spotify, google or wherever you’re listening.

Wrapping Up

Thanks again for rollin’ by. If you have a question about the podcast or just want to leave me a note, please comment below.

I hope you will join me every week for a new episode of The Roller Skate Dad podcast.

Please subscribe to the podcast on whichever podcasting platform you listen on. And, don’t forget to join the Roller Skate Dad Club. You can do that easily with just your first name and email address from any page on this website.

Did you like what you heard? Do you want to hear more? Check out these additional episodes:

Want to Learn More About Skating?

Want more reviews on roller skates? Check out my Best Roller Skates page for a list of all of the quad roller skates I recommend. I also have pages for roller skates for men, roller skates for women and roller skates for kids where I recommend the best skates on the market today. Or, check out my roller skates for beginners if you are completely new to roller skating.

Or, if rollerblades or inline skates are more your style, then check out my rollerblades for men, rollerblades for women or rollerblades for kids pages. Or, if you are completely new, check out my rollerblades for beginners page.