Beginner roller skating
How to Fall on Roller Skates the Safe Way
Falling forward onto your knee pads and wrist guards is the safe fall - you see it coming and can even roll out of it. Falling backwards onto your tailbone or head is the one that hurts. Train the forward drop until it's reflex.
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The reflex to train is going down and forward, onto your knee pads and wrist guards. Fighting a fall is what tips you backwards, and backwards is where the tailbone and the back of the head are.
Practise it on carpet or grass, in full gear, from standing. Ten deliberate drops teach your body more than an hour of nervous rolling.
Wrist guards are what takes this fall: the instinct to catch yourself on a bare palm at speed is exactly how wrists break. That does not make them more important than the rest — a beginner wears all four pieces — but this is the fall they are built for.
Choosing gear for this? Protective Gear That Actually Fits — Across 24 skaters we compiled - derby champions, park pros, aggressive, downhill and slalom skaters - the one gear point they agree on: full protection, helmet first.
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