Beginner roller skating
The Free Leg That Looks Good Is the One That Ruins the Turn
Turning on one skate, the free leg wants to swing out behind you. It looks good, and it is the mistake. Bring that skate in against your standing leg instead, and keep your hips level. If one hip has to sit off, let it be the free side sitting higher, never lower. A dropped hip twists your pelvis out of line, and the turn stops before it starts. Quad technique, from Najete Kada, a French champion in artistic roller skating.
The first time you try to turn on one skate, your free leg goes somewhere on its own. It swings out behind you, the knee opens, and the whole thing looks rather good. It is also the reason the turn does not happen.
Bring that free skate in against your standing leg instead, close enough to touch it. It feels like less of a position and it is worth more, because the only job the free leg has is to stop your pelvis twisting while the other leg does the work.
The check is at your hips. They stay level. If one has to sit off line, let it be the free side sitting a little higher — a hip that drops opens your pelvis and the turn stops before it starts. Shoulder blades drawn together, chest tall, knee soft.
Then the movement itself is small: press the front of the standing skate and let it come round. Once you are facing the other way, lock the skate and hold the upper body exactly where it was. Quad technique, from Najete Kada's Tuto roller series. She teaches quad skating and skates it herself; nothing on this page is a claim about inline skates.
Keep going: this is one section of the full Roller Skating for Beginners guide — sizing, gear, stopping, and where to skate, in one page.