Beginner roller skating
There Is a Wrong Way to Bend Your Knees
Bending your knees is the first instruction everyone gets, and ICP-certified coach Asha Kirkby lists bending them the wrong way among the most common beginner faults. The wrong way is inward: the knees drift towards each other and the skates tip onto their inside edges. The right way is forward, the knee over the middle-to-little toe, so the bend puts the skate on a clean edge.
"Bend your knees" is the first instruction every skater gets, and most of them do it. A certified coach still lists bending them the wrong way among the most common beginner faults, which means the instruction is incomplete.
The wrong way is inward. The knees bend, but they drift towards each other as they do, and each skate tips onto its inside edge underneath. The skater has obeyed the instruction and is now rolling on the two edges that make everything harder.
The right way is forward: the knee over the middle-to-little toe. Same amount of bend, different direction, and the difference is the edge. Sent forward and slightly out, the knee puts the skate on a clean centre edge; sent inward, it takes the skate off it.
This site already has the cue for it — nudge your knee towards your little toe. This page is the reason the cue exists: the bend itself is not enough, and the direction of the bend is what the fault was hiding in.
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. Free, no sign-up, nothing to buy.