Beginner roller skating
Your Weak Leg Refuses to Bend, and That Is Normal
The second cause of a tapping back foot: the weaker leg simply will not bend while rolling — completely normal, says a certified coach, because your body is not used to carrying its weight on that foot alone. The fix is not a turn at all. Practise a straight-line scissor stance on your weaker side, holding a deep knee-over-toe bend, before you ask that leg to turn anything. Technique from ICP-certified coach Asha Kirkby.
The second cause of a tapping back foot is simpler than the first and more reassuring: the weaker leg will not bend while rolling. Not cannot — will not. It stays straighter than the other one no matter what you tell it.
A certified coach calls this completely normal. Your body is not used to carrying its weight on that foot alone, and a leg that has never had to hold you up by itself does not volunteer for it in the middle of a turn.
The fix is not a turn at all. Practise a straight-line scissor stance on your weaker side and hold a deep knee-over-toe bend going straight. Weak foot in front, both knees bent, no curve, no edge, just rolling — until that leg has learned what carrying you feels like.
Only then ask it to turn. A leg that bends in a straight line will bend in a curve. A leg that has never bent in a straight line will lock the moment the curve arrives, and the back foot will tap its way round.
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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