Beginner roller skating
Film Yourself From the Side: The Only View That Sees a Bent Waist
Skating for hours with the wrong posture only trains the wrong posture in. A certified coach's check: have a friend film you from a side angle — or rest your phone against a water bottle — and compare your shoulder-to-hip line with a correct demonstration. From the front you can't see a torso hinged at the waist; from the side it's obvious. Fix it before it becomes muscle memory. Technique from ICP-certified coach Asha Kirkby.
Skating for hours with the wrong posture does not fix the wrong posture. It trains it in, which is why a posture check early on is worth more than the same hours spent later trying to undo one.
Film yourself from a side angle. Have someone hold the phone, or prop it against a water bottle at the edge of the path. The angle is the whole point — it is not about the quality of the footage.
From the front you cannot see a torso hinged at the waist. A skater bent at the middle looks perfectly upright head-on. From the side the break in the shoulder-to-hip line is obvious within a second of watching.
Compare, do not guess. Put your side view next to a correct demonstration and look at one line only: shoulders to hips. If it is straight and leaning forward as one piece, the posture is fine. If it folds, you have found the thing to fix before it becomes muscle memory.
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.
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