Learn to Roller Skate for Adult Beginners

Session 1: Let's Get Started

Thank you for being here! This will be the toughest session if you have NEVER roller skated before as you will be bringing your experience, both positive and negative to this session.

You may believe roller skating is easy - it isn’t - or that this activity isn’t for you because society has told you that this is an activity for children - we disagree with this too!

This session will cover everything you need to know even before you put roller skates on. That means how to put on your gear, lacing up your skates, getting up off the chair or floor and that’s all before we even think about rolling! We have chosen to include this pre-skate information because these are the questions we get, in slightly hushed tones, about putting kit on. Folks, please! If you have never put wrist guards on before, how would you know to do this? Yet, we somehow feel silly for not already knowing how to put our kit on. Do you see how messed up that is?

Programme for Session 1

• How to put on protective pads

• How to lace up roller skates

• Getting up from a chair or the floor

• Getting started on your wheels - the penguin shuffle

• Falling safely

• Standing still

• Push and Glide - development of your skills

We have also included some troubleshooting tips and lots of reminders about ways you can be kinder to yourself. Give yourself permission to find this hard! We want you to be realistic about your progress, as you need to grow a whole new set of specialised muscles for skating, our bodies are amazing, but this doesn’t happen overnight.

Session 2: Starting and Stopping

This session will re-cap from the previous session and extend you to include new movements.

As previously, we will include common problems and ways to overcome these.

Let's lock down the penguin shuffle and our push and glide, and now, let's add a new move - lemons.

It's important to spend plenty of time learning these movements, so you can do them without thinking (well, without thinking too hard - we've seen all the concentration faces at classes!) Lemons are an important fundamental movement that lots of skills will use as a base later on, so it really is worth spending however long it takes - weeks / months - to get these fluent. By fluent, we mean flowing and moving in a way that feels pleasing to you.

Programme for Session 2

• Re-cap your push and glide

• Lemons

• Troubleshooting lemons

• Plough stops

• Troubleshooting plough stops

• Bonus mindset chat: Positive self talk

Session 3: Going round a Corner & Skating Backwards

We carefully plan the progression in our learn to roller skate course, to allow you to make links within your learning and see how the skills relate to one another.

Having tested and refined the order we teach the skills, we know exactly what works. Whether you are watching this video for the first time or re-watching this for the umpteenth time, we hope your brain is starting to 'turn a corner' and shift your mindset about how you view your progress. (See what we did there?)

Today, we are going to learn how to skate around a corner (otherwise at some point you will literally hit a wall) and how to get rolling backwards. We know you're thinking, "But I can barely skate forwards, never mind backwards!" Actually, skating backwards is nothing to fear and will be important when you start turning around.

Of course, if you don't feel ready to start moving backwards just yet, that's okay, we are right here in your pocket when you are.

Programme for Session 3

• How to work with your body for effective movement

• Re-cap and warm up section

• Reminders about how to notice your progress when learning by yourself

• Skating around a corner

• Troubleshooting turning

• Skating backwards - it's all in the technique!

• Troubleshooting backwards skating

• Bonus Mindset - comparison and social media

Session 4: All the transitions

Before we start learning today's skill, let's recap what you have done so far - we think you'll be surprised with just how far you've come!

Transitions on roller skates means turning around. We break these down into tiny details, so you are able to achieve at your pace.

We also hope that you will use this reminder to talk gently to yourself, we can be our own worst enemies sometimes, expecting our bodies to be capable of amazing feats (like learning to roller skate in only 4 sessions). This video course is designed for you to watch and re-watch. We think you will find the troubleshooting parts particularly useful, but do tell us what you think! Again, these coaching points are there to support you to make the most effective progress. We know the biggest barrier that prevents us from learning (once we have gotten over our fear of actually trying) is that we don't bend our knees enough.

When you think about it, bending our knees is something we don't really do when we are walking. Our knees need to bend, yes, as a joint, but we don't load our quad, hamstring and gluteus muscles in the same way. By bending our knees in roller skating, we can 'power up' these muscle groups, ready for movement.

Session 4 Programme

• Suggested warm up sequence - some of the first movements you learn make a great warm up, increase familiarity and help you relax.

• Transitions - the reason we teach backwards to forwards first

• Pre-requisite skills for transitions

• Stepping out of your comfort zone - again

• Backwards to forwards

• Forwards to backwards

• Troubleshooting of these transitions

• Bonus mindset - heading to the roller rink for the first time and what to expect

What? Session 5 already!

Well, we have packed a HUGE amount of content into our videos! Although they may seem short in time, the amount of information we have condensed into this video series may actually take us 6-10 weeks to cover in real life, depending on how the skaters in front of us are feeling (confidence wise) that day.

You may have noticed that we give a lot of attention to the part our minds play in supporting or undermining our efforts to learn new skills (particularly as adults). We have been raised in a perfectionist driven society where many messages of worthiness are reinforced daily. We prefer to use 'practise makes progess' rather than 'practise makes perfect', as perfect is something unattainable. We need to remind you that your efforts in learning to roller skate are always good enough. Any time that you have! Even lacing up your skates is perfectly fine. We held a challenge to lace up in 5 new places in 5 days to prove it.

Your kit is less important when you start, you just need something. Just get started. The more you spend, the better your experience will be, and your skates will last longer, without you outgrowing them skill wise. (Very cheap skates are really only good for getting started on, after that, they will really hold you back), but actually, if you are rolling on hand-me-down pre-loved skates, who cares! If you are prioritising your self care, it doesn't matter.

Session 5 programme

• What to include in your warm up

• Re-cap transitions and a look at open / close book style of transitions

• T-stops - all the steps!

• T-stops are not really a 'beginner' skill, but we think they are important to include

• T-stop troubleshooting

• What to look for when you are buying roller skates

• What's next for you?

• How to cope with injuries