Beginner roller skating
How Do You Skate Backwards on Roller Skates?
Face forwards, hold a wall, and push your heels apart then back together — the same shape as a plow stop, run in reverse. Look over one shoulder rather than straight down. The two things nobody warns you about: your weight still belongs on the front of your skates, and your knees have to stay pressed together, which is genuinely hard work.
Backwards is where most people quit, and it takes about three sessions. Start against a wall, facing forwards, and work the heels-apart, heels-together shape until it rolls you backwards on its own. It is the plow stop you already know, inverted.
Everyone leans back the first time, and everyone falls. Rolling backwards keeps the pressure on the front of your skates, exactly as it does going forwards. That is the part nobody expects, and correcting it removes most of the early falls in one go.
The hardest part has nothing to do with your feet. Your knees have to stay pressed together, and holding them there is tiring — which is why most people give up on the position before they give up on the movement. Knowing that it is supposed to be hard work is half of getting through it.
Look over your shoulder, not at the floor. Looking down drops your weight backwards, which is the one thing you are trying not to do, and it hides whatever you are rolling towards.
What this page does not cover: this is the first backwards roll and the position it needs. It does not cover backwards crossovers, transitions between forwards and backwards, or stopping while rolling backwards.
Where the quad-specific material comes from: Najete Kada, a French champion in artistic roller skating and a Flaneurz ambassador, who teaches quad skating in a club. Her authority is quad skating, not inline — anything on the pages below that concerns inline skates does not come from her.
The pages that answer each part
- Your First Backwards Roll, In Three MovesThe wall, the shape, and where to look.
- Skating Backwards, Your Weight Still Goes ForwardThe instinct that causes the first fall.
- Backwards Skating Starts at Your KneesThe position that is hard work, and why that is normal.
- The Plow Stop: The Easiest Stop to LearnThe forward shape that backwards skating reverses.
Keep going: this is one section of the full Roller Skating for Beginners guide — sizing, gear, stopping, and where to skate, in one page.