Balancing: The Skill Every Beginner Needs!

Welcome back to the beginner series. In this video, we're going to go over one of the most important skills that you need on your skates, which is balance. I've had so many students say, I'm not worried about learning to balance, I just want to skate forwards. And I get it, but in order to actually skate forwards without feeling wobbly or out of control, you probably guessed it, you need to build your balance first. I'm going to show you how to build that balance step-by-step, even before you put your skates on. Hey guys, I'm Tracey, and if you're new here, welcome. I'm here to help you learn to skate with confidence and have fun while doing it. Okay, so let me just explain this real quick. When you push and glide forward, which is one of the most basic skating moves, what you're actually doing is balancing. You're shifting your weight from one foot to the other and trusting that your body will stay stable on your wheels. That's why learning to balance doesn't just help you skate forwards, it improves everything. Your crossovers, your transitions, your spins, your stops, most skating skills involve balance in some way. So when you work on this, you're setting yourself up to be a stronger skater overall. So we're going to break this down into four easy stages that build on top of each other, and we're actually going to start off skates. So you don't need your skates for this part. So the most important thing about balancing on skates is remembering that we need to shift the weight over. So we're going to do some quick practice off skates. I used to do this all the time in artistic training. Any kind of skills that we were learning, I would always practice it off skates first. So we're going to do the same without our skates on and practice balancing just so it doesn't feel so scary when we actually do put our skates on. So the main things that we need to remember that our knees are always slightly bent. You never want a stiff knee because that's when you're going to go backwards. So always a soft knee, postures tall, arms are at the balance. We're looking ahead, not down at our skates because it throws our balance off and you want to keep your core engaged. All we're doing here is shifting our weight from side to side. Slowly shifting the weight side to side to make sure that the body's over the knee and the knee is over the foot. And then next, all we're going to do is shift the weight over and lift the foot just next to the other foot, hold for a few seconds, back down. So bend, shift the weight over, hold for a few seconds, back down. And then if you're comfortable, you want to bring that knee up to tabletop position. So again, bend, shift the weight over, bring the knee up to tabletop and hold for a few seconds. And then repeat on the other side. Bend, shift, bringing the knee up to tabletop. Now we're going to put our skates on, but don't stress out just yet because we're doing the exact same thing but on carpet, glass, or even a yoga mat. This way you've got the feeling of being on your skates with the weight from your feet, but not rolling around just yet. It's the perfect next step to build your confidence without the pressure of moving. You can always use a wall or a chair for support if you need to. Now we're doing the exact same thing that we just did off skate. So making sure that your knees are nice and bent, arms are at the balance, posture's tall, looking up. You can hold onto the chair if you need to. Now the only thing that's going to feel different is that there's a little bit more weight in your foot. So your skates are quite heavy. They're over a kilo. So there's going to be a little bit more weight. So it's really important that you make sure that you shift your weight over. Otherwise, if you just lift your foot straight up, you're going to go back down. So you need to make sure that you shift your weight over and then slowly bring your foot next to the other skate, hold for a second, and then place it back down. It's really important that when you start to learn how to balance that you don't push what you can do. So just holding for a split second and then putting your skate back down and then building up to that tabletop. So we're starting with moving the weight over. Skate comes next to the other skate and then back down. So doing this a few times until you feel comfortable. And then when you're starting to feel a little bit more comfortable, shift the weight over and bring that skate up a little bit higher, hold for a second. And then eventually you want to bring that skate to tabletop here and holding for a couple of seconds. If you can, if you can only hold it for a second, that's fine. Make sure that you've always got a soft bend in your knee when you're balancing. You don't want a straight locked knee because that's when you're going to slip backwards. All right, now we're going to take it up a notch. We're doing the exact same thing, but on a hard surface. So you're in your skates now and the wheels might actually roll. So you might feel a little bit more wobbly, but we're not rolling here. And a lot of my students say that this is actually harder to do standing still. And I definitely agree, but it's a very small stage and it's more for your confidence. This is all about getting used to the feeling of your skates and the weight while you have that extra element of moving just a little bit. So everything needs to be tightened and squeezed in and really small movements happen here. And now that we've put our skates on, we want to do exactly what we just did off skates. So shifting that weight first, getting used to that feeling of moving side to side, transferring the weight, and then slowly bring that skate up. All right, now, if you're ready, it's time to roll and balance. If you're feeling steady standing, give yourself a little push. Don't overthink it and don't roll too much. Just go slow and remember what we've practiced and just give it a go. Just a couple of tips here to help with your balancing. When you're starting out, make sure that you don't hold it for too long. Just hold the balance position for a split second and work up to five seconds. You don't want to overdo it at the start because that's where accidents can happen when you're trying to push yourself when you actually haven't got the fundamentals right. Also, what I see a lot of the time from students that are learning to balance is that they rush through the process. So most of the time they'll be skating along, they'll just try and lift and then put their skate back down and they wonder why their weight is getting thrown off and that they actually can't hold that balance for a few seconds. So what we need to do here is we need to break it down into stages and just move through the skill really slowly. So what I mean by that is you'll be rolling, make sure you bend first, so bend, shift, lift, then pop the skate back down, give yourself a few seconds, reset and then do it again. One of my students once told me they actually thought they were just useless at skating and learning to balance, but once they stopped rushing the skill and just focused on balancing and slowed everything down, everything started to click for them. It doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to take a little bit of time for you to focus on what you're doing and just be patient with yourself. You just wanna be improving that little tiny 1% every time you put your skates on. So make sure you practice skills in stages, let it feel awkward, this means that you're learning. Skating's a journey, not a race. If this video helped, please subscribe and don't miss the next video. And if you're new here, definitely check out the beginner series from the very start, where I break down all the fundamental and basic skills that you need to feel strong and steady on your skates from day one.