How to Roller Skate Backwards - The Absolute Basics

Hey everybody, it's Dirty Deborah Harry here with Sure Grip Roller Skates and the Dirty School of Skate and I'm here at my favorite place, the Fountain Valley Skating Center. My family opened up this rink in 1976 and we've been teaching skaters how to skate here ever since. So if you're ever in the area, call me. Come on down, we'll do a little lesson. Okay, today's video. Are you ready? Let's talk backward skating. Now, backward skating. Usually when people come to me and they want to learn backward skating, they want to learn like this really kind of advanced stylized backward skating. So then I have them backward skate and I realize, oh my god, they can't backward skate at all. So here's the deal. Why don't we just agree to go over the basics of backward skating. You get it down really good, you practice a lot, then you come back for a video and we'll work on the other more advanced aspects of backward skating. How's that sound? Because here's the deal. We're going to do mechanics today. The mechanics of actually backward skating. Then later on we'll talk about flow, then we'll talk about style. The best thing about style is you get your own creative expression through roller skating. It's amazing, but we can't just jump to style first. We've got to know mechanics. All right, are you ready? Let's talk backward skating. So, got to talk about your posture first. When we skate backwards, we're practicing to learn. Chin's got to be up. Your eye level needs to be straight out and level. Shoulders straight across. Snack area nice and tight. Arms down, palms down. I can't have them open. If they're open, it's going to cause you to turn. We don't want that. We're going to have them out. Now, next part. Our hips need to be low. Our thighs need to be together. Your knees together and your toes pointed towards each other. First thing we're going to do is a scissor. We are going to drop our body weight down. We're going to bring our body weight back up. Down, back up. You know how I remember this? Super simple. I just go down with the butt, up with the gut. Down with the butt, up with the gut. Skating, it's all about body weight and how we transfer our body weight. Don't think so much about your feet. If you put your body weight right now over your front truck, over the ball of your foot, you should be fine. We're going to keep this all nice. We're going to go down with the butt, up with the gut. Down with the butt, up with the gut. So, we can make these scissors. Now, I'm not going to stop there. I'm not going to have you skating all down with the butt, up with the gut, down with the butt, all around the rink or the that's crazy. I just need you to be able to do a couple of those just to get moving, just to build some momentum. Next part you're going to have to do is what we call like a little bit of a march and a roll, but this is where you're really going to have to shift your body weight to make it work, all right? Remember, we talked about in other videos how shifting your body weight is how you skate. Shifting your body weight from side to side is what makes skating happen, all right? So, again, shoulders straight across, chins up, arms out, we're down like this. Now, if I shift my body weight over to my left, I can lift my right foot. If I shift my body weight to the right, I can lift my left, all right? So, we're just going to go like this. Shift and lift, shift and lift, shift and lift, shift and lift, okay? So, you're going to be moving from side to side in order to go backwards. So, now, let's focus a little bit on the down, meaning when I shift my body weight, I'm going down, down, down, down. I kind of think about it like a little bit of like a little salsa dance, okay, where you're like, a little down, down, down, down, down, shifting your body weight with the hips, okay? Probably one of the most common mistakes of backwards skating is when someone decides, I'm going to pick my foot up and stick it behind me, stick it behind me, stick it behind me. That does not work, okay? Let's keep everything like real tight, small, and in so we don't get into trouble with our legs too far spread apart, okay? Down. We're going to pick it up, set it down, pick it up, set it down, pick it up, set it down. You might notice I'm looking straight ahead. Don't look down. I know when we put our feet like that, everyone wants to look down. If you look down, you're carrying this bulk of your body weight forward and that doesn't help you go backwards. So, let's think with our butt, sit that butt down, keep your chest up nice and straight. You got to think about your waist up as just like a cake topper. This is here just to look good. The bottom half is really what's doing the work, but this is the supporting partner right here, okay? So, we're going to go down with the butt, up with the gut, and then we're focused on the down, down, down, shifting your body weight, okay? So, once you get all that, you're going to be like, yeah, but how do I stop? Good question. When you go to stop, why don't we just pick them up, set them down, start rolling, put your skates like this, shift one foot all the way to the back, and depress your toe stop into the ground. This is sort of like a calf stretch, all right? So, again, you're going to start moving, put your skates pointed towards each other, bend your knees, and extend one leg and use your toe stop. Now, please bear with me. I am not going to have you skating after the next couple videos like this and then be like, I gotta stop. This is just to get all these essential skills down so that we can do something cool with your backwards skating, okay? I need you to practice. Now, most people are really hard on themselves. They try this, they don't get it right away, and then they think, oh, I can't skate backwards. That's not true, but you need to practice this. You can practice in your garage, practice in the street, you can practice at your work. Trust me, your boss and your co-workers won't mind. They'll think you're the hit of the workplace. Just do it, all right? I need you to practice like on a daily basis, if you can. I'd rather have you practice 10 minutes a day than four hours on one day, all right? I need lots of these, lots of scissors, down with the butt, up with the gut, down with the butt, up with the gut, and then I need a lot of these little salsa, okay? If you can do those two things, you can come on back. I'll make another video and we're going to talk about how to flow those two things together, and then we'll add some style to it, and then, of course, we'll go through all sorts of other techniques, all right? So, please, if you don't mind, share my video, give it a little thumbs up, subscribe to my channel. Please leave me comments, send me messages. I want to just keep making tons of videos for you guys, so we can go on long this skating journey together. Again, if you're in Southern California, you've got to drop by the Fountain Valley Skating Center. This place is legendary. We have nights and days for skating for every style, every kind of person. We have tons of private parties, all that kind of stuff. So, please, you can contact me direct if you want to come down. I'd be more than happy to come skate with you, all righty? Until our next video, go practice. What are you doing? What do you mean what am I doing? Okay, let's go. What? It's 1 a.m. It's 1 a.m. I thought we were just getting started. What is it? You want to go home? You're not having fun? I could do this all night. Xavier, why aren't you having fun with me? Are you ready to quit this job? Anyone out there want to make videos of me? Apparently, my nephew's like over it. He's like ready to leave.