Rollerskating lessons start tomorrow, any advice?
September 22, 2024 11:04 AM   Subscribe

I'm 35 and excited and terrified to start beginner weekly roller skating lessons from tomorrow for 6 weeks. I've got my skates, kneepads, elbow pads, wrist guards and helmet.

I'm nowhere near as brave as I used to be, I find myself being extra careful going down steps these days (is that what happens when you get old!).

This is something I've wanted to do for nearly a decade now and just never got round to it and perhaps felt afraid so never took the leap. But I'm going to do it, despite the fear of breaking something- does anyone have any advice?
posted by Sunflower88 to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (9 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Well I started in figure skating as an adult beginner at 50, so I support you in this! My best advice is to go slow, and also expect to fall. It's inevitable. With ice skating, one thing I discovered is that it's actually less dangerous to go into it with full gusto -- tentative movement, half efforts and the like actually make your balance worse. You need your weight on the blade, in skating, to make it safer. I'm guessing it's similar with roller skates.

But mainly just have a good time! I met some lovely adult beginners and that was at least half the fun for me.
posted by BlahLaLa at 11:10 AM on September 22 [2 favorites]


If you have high arches and use an insole like I do, put some in the skate as well. Skating puts a ton of pressure on your arch and kills my feet without insoles
posted by advicepig at 11:17 AM on September 22 [1 favorite]


So fun, enjoy!

Watch skating tutorial videos ahead of time and every day, so you get a visual sense of what skaters are doing. If you have a visual picture in your mind ahead of time, a skill is way easier to learn.

Watch videos of beginner skaters, and compare to videos of good skaters (not *Expert* but competent)... so you can visually see how the technique evolves with skill.

Review how to fall more safely - look up a few skating tutorials, and practice on carpet or grass. Today try falling just a few times so you don't get tired ... but once lessons start, I would practice safely falling on grass 20 times a day (first with no skates on, and later in skates). It will give you the muscle memory of how to fall well - AND it will build the muscles you'll need to stand up again time after time, which is always an unfamiliar, inefficient, and tiring part of doing a new sport (esp when your feet and ankles function totally different than normal because of the skates!)

Wear long sleeves and long stretchy pants (to minimize road rash when you do fall)
posted by nouvelle-personne at 12:59 PM on September 22 [1 favorite]


Practice standing on one leg. You need good single leg balance to skate and you can start practicing this now while you brush your teeth or whatever. Our rookies used to struggle a surprising amount with this and I think it is the One Weird Tip for beginner skaters.

If you feel you’re losing your balance, try to throw yourself forwards to land on your pads rather than backwards on your tailbone. Hopefully your coach will do falling drills with you to build that muscle memory.

Bend your knees!

- former roller derby coach
posted by corvine at 2:02 PM on September 22 [5 favorites]


Former roller derby person here -- what corvine said is exactly right. one leg balance and knowing how to fall safely are such important skills. Skating is so fun, you're gonna have a blast!
posted by capnsue at 3:38 PM on September 22


Roller skating clicked for me when someone said "Keep your weight forward." So I pass it along to you. Knees bent, weight forward.
posted by Pallas Athena at 4:22 PM on September 22


Make sure to warm up, cool down and foam roll/stretch between sessions. I find roller skating to be an ass-kicking workout, and a rewarding one.

also have so much fun!!!
posted by meowmeowdream at 5:13 PM on September 22


Someone very important to me started roller derby at age, what? 39? Something like that?

Her advice is: "Bend your knees. And then bend them some more."
posted by AbelMelveny at 5:55 PM on September 22 [1 favorite]


Learned to roller skate at 6-ish, but I can't recommend the approach I took[1].

After that, I skated for years in various amateur competitions and even for fun. But I also helped a lot of people learn how to skate over the years.

There are a lot of hints and guidelines that can make it easier.

But we need to set some expectations up front:

Your human brain is very good at responding to your senses with appropriate reactions to help you to stand and walk. However, after putting on roller skates, those fine tuned instincts are going to spend a while actively throwing you at the floor. Also, while throwing you at the floor, those instincts will go the extra mile and make sure you fall in the most hilarious and comical fashion possible.

It happens to everyone. Upon viewing others doing this (but after checking they aren't hurt) it is recommended (and irresistible) to laugh. After all, strapping wheels to your feet is an inherently absurd thing to do. But also fun!

Some tips:

- Bend your knees. This helps slightly lower your center of gravity, but more importantly it allows you to quickly adjust your center of gravity. Like walking, skating is a way to exchange lowering your center of gravity for some forward momentum. But don't think about that too much, just keep your knees bent.

- Lean forward some. Not falling is mostly a matter of always keeping your center of gravity above the center of the wheels on the floor. Again, don't think about that, just lean forward.

- What to do with your arms. The standard approach is arms spread, hands slightly in front of your skates. Your brain will decide to wave them frantically and erratically. Your brain will also insist that you use your hands and fragile human wrists in attempts to break your fall. If possible, avoid that. Eventually, your brain figures out it doesn't matter that much what you do with your arms.

- Keep most of your weight over the skate that is not moving. Ideally this is also the skate under your center of gravity.

- The push motion is to the side and slightly to the back. Weight on forward foot, bend the forward knee. With your other foot, bend your ankle slightly so that you are pushing lightly into the floor with the front inner wheel. Remember, your weight should be on the other skate. Move the pushing skate to your outside and slightly back. Straighten the forward knee a little bit, and move the pushing foot back under your center of gravity. You only need to straighten the knee enough to barely lift the pushing foot so you can bring it back under you.

- Never move your skates forward and back in the direction of travel. Skates should only be parallel to each other when coating. You never need to push a skate directly behind you. When accelerating, one skate is pointed straight ahead and under you center of gravity. The pushing skate should always be an angle to your forward motion and slightly tilted.

[1] The 6yo me approach: Start skating. Fall. Conclude skating sucks. Reach the verge of crying. Sit down. Pout. Fueled by a mix of rage, spite, and undiagnosed ADHD hyperfocus, spend the next ~3 hours falling, getting up, falling, and so on. At some point the spite induced fog will clear and you will notice you are now kind of skating!
posted by alikins at 9:00 PM on September 23 [1 favorite]


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