Roller Skating - How to Play?
Before you go on skating around the house or on the streets, you must learn how it should properly be performed with safety. In this chapter we will discuss the ways to play the game.
Gearing Up
The equipment which are required for skating is a safety helmet and a firm fitting skating shoes pair. They are easily available in any sport stores or even available on rent. The size of skate shoes size is as same as the size of a standard shoe.
For a starter a helmet is very necessary as it will keep the skater from falling and getting hurt, so as a knee and elbow pad is also a must, as a starter always falls in their initial stage.
The Right Posture
Keep your feet and shoulder width apart from each other, then take a squat position while bending your knees. With a comfortable squatting position, lower your back slightly towards the ground and lean forward. This form will help to keep the proper balance and won’t allow to trip. The right balance is the key to skating.
Keeping this form is a bit difficult, you will even fall a quite a bit of times as it feels like you can’t control your stature and the skates. But you will learn it through times. The key is to keep on practicing.
Standing still is quite hard while using roller skates but you have to keep on practicing to stand and you will learn it eventually. To keep your balance, you may even slightly move a bit.
Walking
While keeping your heels together and pointing out your toes, slowly try to walk, first towards the right, then towards the left, then again towards the right, and keep repeating the cycle. To easily maintain your balance, you should keep on squatting while keeping your heels straight beneath your body.
The goal is to walk in your shoes flawlessly without losing any balance. You may even fall down a few times but you should maintain the squat position and keep yourself on your heels while keeping your body in center.
As you start doing better, increase your pace and move quickly and take longer steps. Increase your push on the wheels and roll further with each step.
Gliding
Increase each pace you take and let yourself to roll for a while. Pushing yourself with one foot, glide with the support of the other foot until you feel like losing the motion and then shift your foot and repeat. While gliding in one foot, you should keep your other foot in the air to avoid hampering your glide.
Keep on Practice on by turning right and left during gliding. Lean your body slightly to the right while turning right and lean your body slightly to the left while turning left. Keep that routine while maintaining the squat position.
Glide faster after gaining some confidence. While moving your legs faster, keep maintaining the momentum by applying pressure on the wheels. Move your legs a little faster and to gain momentum you must put pressure on the wheels and try to push yourself ahead. Use your body weight for practice and it will help you to get some speed.
For maintaining your balance, you should make movements like running with the help of your arms. While doing this, bend your elbows and keep doing that back and forth.
Applying the Brakes
The brake of the skate is located under the toe of the skate and you should make sure that your skate has a brake. When it come for stopping, you must slide on your skates parallel to each other. You must maintain your squatting position and then lean forward slightly.
Put your right skate in front of your left skate a little, lift your toe of the right skate while pressing it down hard. The time of stopping is parallel to the how hard you press
It is very important that you press hard on your brakes while stopping. Don’t push your brakes hesitantly as if you don’t push hard enough, then you may fall down by losing balance, so it is really necessary that you stop with a confident thrust.
In case it is difficult for you to find enough pressure during the first time, then you can apply some pressure on your right knee with the help of your hand.
