Beginner roller skating
The Catwalk Is Just a Crossover Played Fast
It looks like a step of its own and it is not. Lift a skate, set it down in front of the other, let it travel back underneath you — done slowly, that is a walk. Cross the skate over rather than placing it straight, then run exactly the same thing at double speed, and it is a catwalk. Shoulders back, chin up, weight on the front wheels. Quad technique, from Najete Kada, a French champion in artistic roller skating.
The catwalk looks like something you would need to be taught separately. It is not. It is a step you already have, run at double speed.
Build it in the open. Lift one skate, set it down, and let it travel back underneath you. Lift the other, set it down, let it travel back. Slowly, that is a walk on skates and it should feel unremarkable.
Now place the skate down in front of the other one rather than straight ahead — crossed, then shifted back out. Cross and shift, cross and shift. Exactly the same movement as the walk, with the landing spot moved across.
The whole transformation is tempo. Take that crossed walk from one-two at a stroll to one-two at speed and it reads as a catwalk to anyone watching. Shoulders drawn back, chin up, weight on the front wheels — the front wheels are what let both skates travel back under you. Quad technique, from Najete Kada's Tuto roller series. She teaches quad skating and skates it herself; nothing on this page is a claim about inline skates.
Keep going: this is one section of the full Roller Skating for Beginners guide — sizing, gear, stopping, and where to skate, in one page.