Beginner roller skating
Hold the Glide for Four Metres, Then Make It Shorter
The drill that turns a bouncy stride into a smooth one is done in slow motion. Push out on one foot, regroup into a tight parallel stance, then pause there on a centre edge for four to five metres before the next push. As your balance improves, shorten the pause a little at a time, until it matches the natural tempo of push and glide. The pause is the lesson, not the delay. Technique from ICP-certified coach Asha Kirkby.
A stride that bounces is not a strength problem and it is rarely a fitness problem. It is what happens when the glide between two pushes is too short to be a glide at all, so every push lands before the last one has finished.
Push out on one foot, regroup into a tight parallel stance, then pause there on a centre edge for four to five metres before the next push. Done slowly and deliberately, it feels absurd. It is meant to.
Then shorten the pause, a little at a time. As your balance improves, take a metre off, then another, until the pause has shrunk to the natural tempo of push and glide — at which point it has stopped being an exercise and become your stride.
The pause is the lesson, not the delay. Everything you are trying to learn — the centre edge, the tight regroup, the balance on one leg — only exists inside it. Skip the pause and you are just skating slower.
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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