Backward Roller Skating Short Cuts

Hey skaters! I'm Dirty Deborah Harry with the Dirty School of Skate and Sure Grip Roller Skates here at the Fountain Valley Skating Center tonight with another video. Tonight's video is going to be how to skate backwards basically in three easy steps. This video is for people who can skate forward but you're having troubles skating backwards. Now you know I already have videos on how to skate backwards but they're a little lengthy. They go into a whole lot of detail but I know for some of you, you want to learn quick and that's good. So this thing that I'm going to show you in three easy steps is going to get you rolling backwards but it's going to be up to you to practice, give it your own style and really make it your own. But this video is just going to be to get you started. So let's get in the middle here and show you how we do this. Now this is going to be kind of strange because I'm going to actually teach you how to skate backward by going forward first. So you're going to stay there. I'm going to come to you. I want you to do this. We're going to skate forward. I want you to put your feet in a V position. You know if you've watched my videos before, I got to have the posture right. So chin up, shoulders straight across, snack area nice and tight, arms out. Put your feet in a V. Drop your body weight down. I need you to shift from the left to the right to the left to the right. It's so important that you're moving from side to side and that that movement is even. You have the same amount of time, pressure and force on each foot. I need that rhythm, that ease, that smoothness to it. This is so important so that you can duplicate this while going backwards. So here we go. You're going to stand like this, drop your body weight down. You're going to shift your body weight to your left, to your right, to your left, to your right. Now here's the next part. I need you to start stepping forward. Stay right there. I'm coming to you. I'm going to show you again. When you step forward, I need you to drop your body weight, turn your foot inward. They're what I call chop stops. I don't have a better word for it. They're just chop stops. So we're going to be down, turn your hip and your knee inward and step down. When you step down, see these inside two wheels? Those are the ones that are going to hit. Now I don't want you to slam your foot down. I want it to be nice and easy like you're like nope, nope, nope. Okay. Here, here, here. So again, it's side, side, side, side, and they go nope, nope, nope. Now you are in the perfect position right now to skate backwards. When you're beginning to skate backwards, when you go forward, you're like this. When you're backwards, you need to be like this. I need your toes together. I need your knees together. I literally need you to be pigeon-toed and knock-kneed. No other way. So you're like this, all right? Once you have curved yourself into this position, then I need you to pick them up and set them down, meaning I've got my weight on my left foot right now. I'm going to pick up my right. I'm going to pick it up, set it down, pick it up, set it down, pick it up, set it down, pick it up, set it down. Again, side, side, side. Be like uh-uh. Okay, we're going to stop. I'm right here and back yourself out of this situation, okay? Essentially, I need you to be tight. A little salsa action. Side, side, side, side. Upper body. I need you to have really good control over your upper body. A lot of times when I see people try to skate backwards, arms are all over the place, and then they break at the waist. So they're like here, and they're trying to skate backwards, and they're like, why am I doing this? I can't have that, okay? I need you to sit into your backwards skating position of this pigeon-toed and knock-knee thing. Let me do it one more time, okay? So again, we're skating side to side, side to side. Going forward, I want you to step, step, step, and then send it on back. Biggest mistake people make is when they go to start skating backwards, they put their feet like this. I need your feet like this, not like this. Later on, remember, this is just to get you started. Later on, you can do all sorts of stuff with your feet, but I need them in an A-frame. A-frame, and again, clothes for business. Zipped up nice and tight. These knees are together. You're looking to head and rock your body weight. Focus on the down, meaning down, down, down, down. When I do that, I end up putting a lot of pressure and force on each foot one at a time, and that magic makes the rolling happen. If you get scared because you start rolling, and you're like, oh my god, there's a ton of speed, just stop moving. Just stop moving your feet. You'll come to a nice stop, but in this case, if we really do want to stop, we're like here. We're going to go down, down, down. Put your feet together. Draw a big C. Pull it right around you. When you draw your big C to stop, put your weight on the alternate legs. It's here, here, here. Weight's here. I draw my big C behind me and stand up. All right, skaters, so that is the quick and dirty way to skate backwards, or at least to get you started skating backwards, okay? Now, as you know, you have to practice. I cannot have you give up before the miracle happens. I need you to practice, so please do everything I told you in this video. Leave me comments. Let me know how I can better help you, and we'll come out with more videos because Xavier's here, willing to work the camera even though he's hungry, and he can't wait to go on vacation in a couple of weeks. Am I right, Xavier? Xavier's going out of the country. Why not in the comment section, we guess where Xavier's going to go, and the person who guesses the right, I don't know, I'll send you a dirty school escape t-shirt. How about that? You can guess where Xavier's going, all right? All right, skaters, we got to go eat. Thank you so much for watching. Like, subscribe, share this video. Let's spread this information and make more videos and have more fun together, all right? Go practice. What's this guy doing here? All right.