Practice Roller Skating - Get Better Fast!

Hey skaters! I'm Dirty Deborah Harry with Sure Grip Roller Skates and the Dirty School of Skate and I'm here once again at the Fountain Valley Skating Center with a new video for you. Okay, this one's going to be great. I'm going to give you the five tips, tricks, skills that you need to perfect master practice so that you can be a better skater quickly. I cannot tell you how many times people ask me, how can I get better faster? How long is it going to take me to be good? And you know you always hear me say, I just need you guys to practice. I need you to enjoy the journey of learning how to skate. But I also realize that some of you just want to get there sooner. So if you practice these five little skills and you really, really, really work on them, I promise you, you're going to get better faster. Now essentially, this is my warm-up routine. Even though I've been skating for literally decades, this is the warm-up I do every single time I put my skates on. Okay, so let's start with step number one. Step number one is you got to find yourself a bar or it could be the railing or it could simply be the back of the chairs, anything like that. And essentially what we're going to do is a squat. Now why would we want to do this? We want to do this because I see this far too often. I see skaters enter the floor and this can also be outside or they're outside and they go to put their skates on and they're very shaky right at the beginning. They're shaky and that transmits into a kind of nervousness that doesn't leave their body for a long time, okay? And it weakens their self-confidence. I don't want that for you. I want you to feel good and confident right away. So the very first thing we can do is just, you know, oil up your joints, so to speak. You have to bend your knees so much in skating that you really got to bend them before you put your skates on and try skating. So my favorite one to do is if you have a bar, this works out really well, and my toes are right up against the wall and I will sit all the way down. Now if you have one of these you can also relax your back this way and this just feels super good so I love to do it. And then bring up yourself real slow and then bring it down. When you're in this down position just hang out here as long as you can. Bring yourself up nice and slow. So I'll do about five of these nice slow and easy and then I'll do ten just down up down up. Now if you don't have a bar, you're like dirty, we don't even have a rink. How am I going to have a bar? I'm skating outside or I'm skating in my backyard. I got my garage, whatever. Then I just want arms out and you're going to do simple squats but I want you to hold hold hold and then up down hold and up and then we'll put our arms out to the side and I want down and up down and up. You see my feet are like hips width apart. My hips are pretty wide so my feet are out there a little bit wide but get your about hips apart, hips width apart. Okay keep your chin up, shoulders straight across the neck area, nice and tight arms out. You know how I always tell you guys to perfect your posture? This posture is going to be used in everything we do tonight. So it's chin up, shoulders straight across the neck area, nice and tight and down. Okay so very first thing we do basically squats or just drop down and up. This is going to get our knees warmed up and used to this kind of movement which we constantly need in skating. Okay so that's number one. Let's get on to number two. All right number two. We're going to number two. Number two is my absolute favorite, absolute favorite. I tell people to do this all the time. Do you want better balance? Do you want better strength? Do you want to be able to identify your edges and access your edges? Do you want to build a better butt? Do scissors, scissors, scissors. You cannot do more scissors. You can't do too many scissors. They look like this. Chin up, shoulders straight across the neck area, tight arms down. I'm going to need you to stand up with your legs straight initially. I need you to drop your body weight down, push out, bring them in and up. So it's down with the butt, up with the gut, down with the butt, up with the gut, down with the butt, up with the gut. You gotta do loads of scissors. All righty for some of you this is going to be difficult. For some of you may not yet have the leg strength to push out and then pull in. Again you gotta suck it in with your gut. But if you don't yet have the leg strength I want you to focus on your knees and then the pressure on the inside and the outside of your skate. Once you drop your body weight down I want you to think about pushing your knees out and then bring your knees in. Push your knees out, bring your knees in. Now some of you might come to a full stop and think my god you know I can push it out and then I go to pull it in and I stop. Well guess what you just learned how to stop so good for you. Lighten up on the weight on your skates. When you push down and out don't give it your all and then try to bring it back in. I want you to think very very light like I'm super light okay. So I just go down let the momentum happen, bring it up, drop it down, bring it up, drop it down, bring it up, drop it down, bring it up, down with the butt, up with the gut, loads of scissors. Bonus tip if you keep your arms out like this a lot for the whole time your arms are gonna get heavy. They're gonna get tired but you can develop nice shoulder muscles too which is always super good. Strong arms for skating I cannot tell you how important that is. So keep those arms out, keep that chin up okay. Lots and lots and lots of scissors. Okay so that was number two let's go on to number three. All righty number three. Number three is all about isolating your edges to make them stronger so you can identify them and access them to do bigger and better skills. How we practice our edges are this way. First right inside edge. Posture don't make me repeat it. Chin up, shoulders straight across, neck area tight, arms out. You are going to bend your knees. I need you to take your body weight and rock it over or shift it over to your left foot. It's going to be about 90 percent of your weight is going to be over on the left. You are going to push out with your right foot, bring it directly back, push out, bring it back, push out, bring it back. When you push out your knee on your right foot is going to be centered over the top of your skate but more importantly over your big toe. You're going to push it out, bring it in, push it out, bring it in. You're going to start feeling some pain and pressure if you do this long enough in your left leg okay. That's because this left leg is really holding most of your body weight and it's really stabilizing you. This is normal so go with it. The most complicated thing is that the most difficult part is going to be able to push out and bring it straight back in, push out, bring it in. I don't want to see you standing up and just going like this okay. That does nothing for you but create bad habits. I want you to actually tell yourself I'm standing up, I've got proper posture, I can lower my arms to here make me feel more comfortable, drop my body weight, shift my body weight, push out on that inside edge, bring it right back in, push out, bring it in, push out, bring it in. Maybe you need to do this like 20-25 times. One, two, three okay. Then you're going to switch to your left inside edge and this is going to be awkward. This is going to be awkward because we're skating in the regular skating direction which is counterclockwise so I now have to shift my body weight to my right foot okay, my right leg and I'm pushing in and out like this and you're going to feel like my god this is awkward. It feels weak but it's not. It's very normal okay. Just hold on to this edge, make sure your knee is over your big toe, this knee is over this big toe and you're pushing out. Focus say this is my left inside edge as I push it out, left inside edge, push it out, push it out, push it out. This is your stabilizing leg, this is your push okay. Now so that was our right inside, left inside, right inside, left inside. Now let's take it in the opposite skating direction okay. Let's go clockwise all right. Good skating Xavier. Now when we're going this way we're going to push with our left inside push, left inside push, left inside push. We're holding with this outer edge here, left inside push. We're going to make a turn right here, left inside push. Now inside push as we go this way which is clockwise. This one's going to be awkward. So if you can handle these little edging exercises you're going to get so much better at being able to identify, access and use these edges all right. Because essentially as we're working on one we're holding the other. I'm working on this edge right here pushing out, bringing in, pushing out, bringing in and this one is holding. I'm pushing out, bringing in, pushing out, bringing in. It's holding. You can do them on the straightaways, you can do them on the corners. The other part of this you just got to get kind of zen in the brain. Even if there's a bunch of people at the rink just focus and push out, pull in, push out, pull in, push out, pull in and again count. Maybe you do it 20, 25 times, whatever it is just get it on a count. Okay so that was number three. Come back for number four. Four, four, four, four, four. Let's talk about number four. I'm going to revisit my favorite thing. It's scissors. Scissors but with an addition. When we push out we have to bring it back in and squeeze our thighs together. We're going to push them out, bring them in and squeeze. It's going to be down, out, up, squeeze as we cross our feet over. Leg strength galore is going to be developed when you learn how to bring in those inner thigh muscles. Also footwork. Your feet are going to have to learn how to not run into each other. This is how it looks when they cross. Now you're naturally going to be better at one side. One side's going to come over and this other side is going to be like, I'm weak and helpless and I can't do it. I don't believe that. Even them up. All right. You've got to work on both sides. I cannot and will not tolerate you having a good foot. I need a good foot and maybe an up and coming foot, but I don't need a bad foot or I can't do it foot. I know you can all with practice. Arms out, down with the butt, up with the gut, suck it in and cross. Down with the butt, up with the gut, suck it in and cross. Down with the butt, up with the gut, suck it in and cross. This isn't easy. Again, not easy. If you get frustrated with this, fine, no problem. It just means you need to work on that and I'm okay and I'll be here with you every step of the way. I just need you to focus. Part of our focus is proper body posture. Again, I'll say it a hundred times. Chin up, shoulders straight across, stack, area tight. Arms out, focus, focus grasshoppers. It's going to be like this. I'm going to go down with the butt, up, suck it in and cross. Down with the butt, up, suck it in and cross. Down, suck it in and cross. Cross and then pretty soon you're like, dude, I got this. I can do it. Let's talk turning and by a little bit of spinning and by spinning, I don't mean something like super intense. I don't need you to spin. I just need you to turn in a circle but we're going to do both ways and I promise you this helps with balance. This helps with agility. This helps you to learn how to skate in both directions, which you need to. Remember what I said about having a good foot? Some people have a good direction. I need you to go both ways. Alrighty, so this is how we're going to do it. I don't need to tell you about posture. Chin up, shoulders straight across, stack, area tight. Arms down, bend your knees. I'm going to turn this direction. When I turn this direction, I need to lean in the opposite direction of travel. I'm going to bend my knees, drop my hips, shift my body weight over here, put my arms out, look and bring it around. If that's even too advanced for you, how about this? How about you drop your hips, lean. I'm going to turn this way. I look behind me, pick up my feet, move around, down, lean, turn. Okay, do it each direction again. Lean, look, pick them up, pick them up, pick them up. Lean, look, pick them up, pick them up, pick them up. When you pick up your feet, you don't have to do this big wide thing going around. You can just pick it up like a little dancer like that. I need you to practice picking up your feet. I need you to practice moving in a circle. The more fun you have with it, the easier it is. But here's the biggest trick about it. You're down, I need you to look and then bring your body around. That means head turns shoulder, shoulder turns hip, hip turns foot. I don't want you to start with the feet. I want you to look, open yourself up, pick up those feet and move around. All right, it's as simple as that. If you want to do it more advanced, you're going to put your arms out, pull them around, pull them in until you want to stop, put those arms back out. All right, so practice that. That's going to be for turning, agility, balance and all that jazz. All right skaters, so let's review. I have taken you through basic squatting, up and down, up and down, up and down, to oil up these joints and make your body feel good because you're going to go out and skate. You need to be loose. I never want you getting on the floor or taking your first stride outside and feeling like, oh my god, I'm so scared. Already do a ton of these and warm it up. Second thing we talked about was scissors. Stay right there. I'm coming to you. I cannot express how much I love scissors. Down, up, down, push it out, bring it up, down with the butt, up with the gut, down with the butt, up with the gut. Okay, so that was number two and then we went on to number three. What was number three? Does anyone remember? What was my number three? Oh, edges. Yeah, I love my edges. I need you to push out, push in, push out, pull in, push out, other foot, other foot, other foot. Okay, you got to do your edges and then number four. What was number four? Xavier shouted out. Scissors, bring it together and squeeze those thighs together. Let me show you what that looks like one more time. It's got to be down with the butt, up with the gut and squeeze. Down with the butt, up with the, or up with the gut and squeeze. And the last one, of course, is turning, turning, turning, turning, turning, turning. All right, now I have videos specifically on all of these things. Okay, if you want to, want to see all about edges, it's How to Roller Skate, Part Two, Edges. If you want to know more about scissors, watch my video, How to Cruise on Your Roller Skates. I have a video on How to Spin. I mean, it's all there. Okay, you can watch those videos at length. But why I wanted to make this video is just give you five things to work on. So every time you hit the floor, you have a practice plan. Because I think a lot of us just come out on the floor, start skating, and then we get overwhelmed by maybe the atmosphere, the music, who's on the floor, what's going on, and we don't have a proper practice plan. So let's try to use this. Okay, now I want to hear about your results. So let me know in the comment section, let me know if this was helpful for you. And if you have any other suggestions for videos, you know I like your suggestions, and I will certainly incorporate them into future videos because I love to help. So again, if you're ever here in the Southern California area and you want to come to the Fountain Valley Skating Center, make sure you send me a little message before. Maybe I'll be able to meet you down here. I'd love to see you. Please, please do me a solid and subscribe to this channel. The more subscribers I have, the easier it is for me to make more videos. And I love it. And I thank you so much. Hit the notification bell. I'm gonna crank out a ton of videos because it's summer and I got more time now. All right, skaters. So go practice these five skills, tricks, tips, and whatnot. And I will see you in my next video.