Beginner roller skating

Take Shorter, Quicker Steps When You Start

Watch anyone on skates for the first time and you will see the same instinct: they slow everything down. Each step becomes long and deliberate, because moving slowly feels careful, and feeling careful feels safe.

It is the opposite of safe, and the reason is simple arithmetic. A slow step leaves you standing on one skate for a long moment. One skate is precisely where a beginner has no balance yet. So the slower and more deliberate the step, the longer you spend in the only position you cannot hold.

Short, quick steps do the reverse. Your weight is constantly moving from one foot to the other and never parks anywhere long enough to become a problem. Nothing about it is elegant. It is markedly more stable.

The instruction that actually works is about tempo, not size. Do not try to take bigger steps or push harder. Take the same small steps you are already taking and simply do them faster — think of walking briskly rather than striding.

The elegance arrives on its own later. Once your single-leg balance is genuinely there, the steps lengthen without you deciding to lengthen them, because you can finally afford to stay on one skate. 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.