Beginner roller skating
Your Weak Leg Needs 100% of Your Weight, Not a Bit More
Comfortable on one leg and wobbly on the other? That's normal — most skaters load their dominant leg. The fix is a scooting drill: your weak leg is the only support leg, deep knee bend, and your dominant leg does nothing but push. Your weak side carries all your weight while holding a centre edge, neither rolling in nor out. Then skate in a scissor stance with the weak foot leading. Technique from ICP-certified coach Asha Kirkby.
Almost everyone is comfortable on one leg and wobbly on the other. That is not a fault to be embarrassed about — it is what happens when a dominant leg quietly takes over every time balance gets difficult.
The drill is a scooting exercise, and the rule is absolute. Your weak leg is the only support leg. Bend that knee deeply. Your dominant leg does nothing at all except push — it never takes any of the load, not even for a moment.
All of your weight, on a centre edge. The weak side has to hold the skate flat and centred while it carries everything, neither rolling inward nor rolling outward. That edge control is the thing the drill is actually building; the balance comes with it.
Then change the stance. Skate in a scissor position with the weak foot leading, which keeps that side loaded while you are moving normally rather than only during a drill.
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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