Beginner roller skating
New Gear Will Not Skate for You
Thousands of videos about boots, frames and wheel sizes quietly teach one false idea: that different equipment produces overnight change. Here is the test. Does everyone running a rockered frame have beautiful flowing curves? Clearly not. A rockered frame helps you achieve those curves — it does not create them. Your gear should suit the skating you do, and that is all you can ask of it. Inline technique, from ICP-certified coach Asha Kirkby.
There are thousands of videos about boots, frames, wheels, wheel sizes and frame positions. Most of them are honest and informative. Together they still teach one thing that is false: that the next piece of equipment is what stands between you and the skating you want.
Here is a test you can run yourself, without believing anybody. Does every skater running a slightly rockered frame produce beautiful flowing curves? Clearly not. You have seen plenty who do not. The frame helps a skater achieve those curves — it does not produce them, and no arrangement of hardware ever has.
That is the general shape of it. Equipment lets a developed technique express itself more fully. It cannot manufacture a technique that is not there yet, so a change of gear made before the technique exists mostly buys you a different set of frustrations.
What you can legitimately ask of your gear is comfort and suitability. It should not hurt, and it should match the kind of skating you actually do most, rather than the kind you imagine doing. Those two things are worth spending on.
Everything past that is progressions and practice, worked through one stage at a time. It is slower to hear and considerably faster to do. 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.
Keep going: this is one section of the full Roller Skating for Beginners guide — sizing, gear, stopping, and where to skate, in one page.