How to Stop Looking Like a Beginner on Roller Skates (in 6 minutes)

If you have ever watched somebody skating and thought to yourself, how do they look so smooth? Why I feel like I still look like a complete beginner, then this video is for you. Now, first of all, there's absolutely nothing wrong with looking like a beginner. Everyone has to start there. But I do believe when you feel good on your skates, you usually skate better too. And a lot of the time, it's just a few small things that are giving that beginner look away. So in this video, I'm going to show you four simple things you can adjust that will instantly make your skating look more confident and controlled, because most beginners are doing at least one of these without realising it. If we haven't met here before, hey, I'm Tracy. I'm from Suns Out Skates Out. I teach adults how to roller skate with confidence, both in person and online. And I see these all the time with my students when they're learning to skate. The first one is poshed up. One of the biggest things that instantly give a beginner skater away is they're poshed up. A lot of new skaters bend forward from the waist, their shoulders round forward, and they're looking straight down at their skates. And that usually comes from trying really hard not to fall, and it ends up looking something like this. So this position here causes problems because your weight's too far forward. The centre of balance is off, and you're bending from your waist, not from your knees. So to fix this, good posture looks like having your chest nice and open, standing up nice and tall, having your arms out to the side, nice and relaxed, and having soft knees. So instead, bend your knees, not your back. So even that small change alone can instantly make you look more relaxed and more confident on your skates. So you can see the difference here if I'm pushing and gliding with my skates, but my posture is off, I'm looking down, my shoulders are hunched over, compared to if I do the exact same thing, push and glide, but have nice tall posture, shoulders are open, head is up. It looks a lot better, right? The next thing that instantly gives away a beginner skater is them walking in their skates. So this is not how we skate. And a lot of people, when they first put their skates on, their instinct is to try and walk, but we've got wheels underneath our feet. So if you're just trying to lift your feet and step and walk, your wheels, they just roll out from underneath you. And it makes sense because that's how we move in shoes, but skates don't work like shoes. So this one makes you look like a beginner because your wheels are meant to roll and your stepping is stopping your momentum forward. It looks stiff and jerky. Skates have wheels for a reason. So instead of lifting those skates and trying to step, you need to start to shift your weight from side to side, put weight into the skate that's on the ground and let the wheels slide and start to push and glide. Being able to shift the weight and push and glide is such a smooth movement and it's a fundamental of skating. And if you're not quite up to pushing and gliding yet, I've actually got a full video on how to roller skate in four minutes, which I'll link down below. So go and check that out if you need help with skating. So we want to go from this to this. The next thing that often gives away a beginner skater is tension in the upper body. So even if your feet are doing the right thing here, your shoulders can still be really tensed up. A lot of beginners end up skating with their shoulders up here. Their arms become really stiff and their whole body looks really tense. And that's usually coming from concentrating really hard and not wanting to fall. And when your upper body is really tight like this, your balance becomes more rigid. So instead, think about relaxing your shoulders, letting your arms move naturally with the body, loose arms and soft knees. And tip number four is looking down at your skates. This is a really common beginner habit. And it's a habit that we want to break as fast as possible. The head's tucked, the chin is down and we're staring at our feet. This last one is almost something every beginner skater does without realizing it. They spend most of the time looking down at their feet. So we want to keep the eyes forward, the head neutral, looking up where you're going and not down at your skates. It doesn't just make your skating look better, but also how it feels to you. And when skating starts to feel better, that's when your confidence will really start to grow. And if you're newer to skating and want a bit more guidance, I do have a free beginner workshop where I walk you through the framework that I teach all my students to build confidence and control on your skates. You can find that link down in the description below. And if this video was helpful, feel free to like and subscribe as it really does support the channel. All right, thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next video.