Beginner roller skating

Backwards Skating Is Really a One-Leg Problem

Almost everyone who is stuck skating backwards reaches the same conclusion: they need more backwards practice. They go back, they shuffle for another hour, and they end up roughly where they started.

The blockage is somewhere else entirely. The reason both skates stay pinned to the floor is that the skater cannot comfortably carry their whole body weight on the weaker leg while travelling backwards. So they never lift the other one. The shuffle is not a bad habit — it is the only thing available to someone in that state.

Which means the thing to train is not backwards skating at all. It is single-leg support, on your weaker side. And that is very good news, because single-leg support can be built going forwards, in the direction where you already feel safe and can already correct yourself.

Work out which side is weaker first — most people know within thirty seconds of trying to glide on each foot in turn. Then spend your time gliding on that one, going forwards, until it stops feeling like an emergency.

When you go back to skating backwards, the change is not gradual. The skate lifts because there is finally somewhere to put the weight, and the shuffle disappears rather than improving. Inline technique, from Asha Kirkby of Skatefresh, an instructor certified by the Inline Certification Program. She teaches inline skating, and that is the discipline this page is about.