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How To Speed Up Roller Skates?- Roller Skating Basics

“How to speed up roller skates?”, we have come to receive this burning question for quite a while. It’s totally understandable.

We bet you have seen a lot of your friends trying to flash their cool skills in roller skating: scissors, crossovers, handrail skating and tons of what you cannot name exactly.

Whilst still, you’ve just plucked up the courage to engage in this roller skating stuff.

That’s brave of you. It’s totally fine though. Everyone’s timing is different. So don’t be embarrassed about that.

Because we’re here. Let’s work our way up from the basics!

A Brief History Of Roller Skating

A Brief History Of Roller SkatingNo one is quite sure where and when roller skating first originated. The first records of people using roller skates were around 1743 on a London stage performance.

For one century after that, some people around Europe had devised roller skates to be the assistant of commuting and baby carriage. But still, the skates then looked quite plain and simple.

In 1876, Mr. William Brown in Birmingham, England was licensed with his latest construction of the wheels on the roller skates. Together with Joseph Henry Hughes – who was also an ingenious inventor then, they worked up the modern designs of the roller skate and vecilopede wheels.

As of today, these men are still considered the fathers of the modern roller skates and motorbikes.

The intermittent history of roller skates only became a blast after the crash landing of the discotheque music genre in the US in the 1960s. Since then, the term “roller disco” was coined.

Again, the roller disco was all the rage in the 1990s, making the perfect association of roller skates and disco music the big symbol of that nostalgic age.

Today, roller skates come in all sizes, varieties and prices and are still somewhat popular around the world. You can accidentally come across some groups of teenagers practicing them inside parks or other public places.

Simple Guide On How To Speed Up Roller Skates

The next question you might ask as a beginner is “How to speed up roller skates?” because roller skating is cool for its speed after all, isn’t it? Well then, follow these tips below:

Stay Low

Stay LowYou may want to get down a little bit into a squat position, with your knees bending down to a perpendicular angle and your chest upfront a bit for balance. Otherwise, if you keep your body in a straight line, you cannot skate as fast.

For your feet, your toes should be pointed a bit outwards like a V shape that you often see ballet dancers do.

From then on, begin to pump your feet slowly, one by one, engage your core and then transfer your body weight from one foot to the other. You’ll see yourself moving from the initial place without much force.

However, to reach this level of fluency in roller skating, you may want to practice this balance pose for a while. It’s the first step to be able to skate fast. Use a handrail to practice if you wish to.

Push Your Feet to the Side, One by One, in an Arrow Shape

begin pushingWhen you’re ready, begin pushing the force from the inner edges into your feet. Your feet would progress straight to the side then behind in a circular shape and back into your start pose.

It’s like drawing letter D against the surface. At the same time, swing your arms nicely back and forth to match the rhythm. Don’t cross your arms over your body because it can make the pose less efficient.

After that, the other leg should immediately follow similar movements.

This act would make sure your body builds up enough momentum to accelerate.

Actually you can often spot hockey players and speed skaters using this technique on the rink.

A side note here: when you start practicing this position, try to stabilize your upper body parts, which means your shoulder and neck should twist as little as possible. That would increase the force on each of your feet movement and give you sufficient energy to thrust forward.

How To Skate Backwards Fast

How To Skate Backwards FastAt this point, we are about to give you another great skating trick on how to skate backwards fast. Only try this if you’re not the faint-hearted.

Its mechanism is quite similar to how to speed up: with the same legs and start position. But this time, try to tell your mind that you’re going backwards.

The difference here is also that you would use your arms more to push away from where you were standing, at the same time, your legs are alternately in the criss-cross scissors pose.

How To Stop In Roller Skating

How To Stop In Roller SkatingOnce mastered how to gain momentum and speed up skating, you might find yourself caught up in another question: How can I stop myself in this pair of boots?

The quickest and most effective method to stop yourself includes these following steps:

  • Grab yourself in the ready position: your knees and slightly bent and your back is kept straight.
  • When you feel comfortable enough, scissor your breaking foot forward.
  • Engage the break by lifting your front toes slightly high above.
  • Then come down to a seated position

Another easy-to-follow way to stop yourself is by doing a grass stop.

This method is leveraged thanks to the friction somewhat in physics which works against surfaces like carpets and wooden floorboards.

We mean, you cannot roller skate on grass, carpets and wooden floorboards. It’s science!

To do a grass stop, follow these steps:

  • Keep one leg in front of the other, then bend your knees (this is often called the scissors position)
  • Lift your front toes slightly higher
  • Shift your body weight slightly back

And you’re all done. These are all safe and great bailout techniques to stop. Try them out and you’ll see.

A Beginner’s Guide: 6 Tips To Make Roller Skating Less Intimidating

A Beginner GuideRoller skating might involve a lot of risks, some even perilous. Follow these tips to reduce such risks to a minimum:

  • Accept the fact that you will fall over. A lot.
    Many of you pick up a pair of roller skates on yet still horribly frightened of the scenario that your face and bum would smash against a hard surface.
    It hurts for sure, but try to calm down and tell your brain to get used to it. It’s part of the process. You cannot make any progress without falls.
  • Gear yourself up with protective equipment
    Like we’ve mentioned above, safety gear is a must-must before you hop into the game, even for the professionals. A helmet, two elbow pads, two knees pads and you’re all set!
  • The boots should fit well
    Tighten the boots as much as you can, but remember not too tight as they might clog blood circulation and not too loose they can fall off. You should try a few slow laps back and forth to adjust the boots most perfectly.
  • Learn your own sense of balance
    Clearly no one can teach you how to keep balance, you have to figure it out yourself.
  • Start position
    Try keeping your back straight while knees are slightly bent, eyes pointed straight ahead.
    This position helps you get what’s ahead to make a nice turn and dodge of obstacles. Plus, this pose also guarantees that you won’t fall on your back as you’re in balance.
    And if you fall for real, don’t worry, the safety gears have got you covered!
  • Don’t hesitate to grab the hand railing first
    Start off with your hands clung to the rink rail and walk your feet, alternately one by one. Then if you are ready, gradually loosen your hands and walk slowly around. Remember to walk first, don’t roll.

Read More: How To Roller Skate Smoothly

Surprising Benefits Of Roller Skating

Surprising Benefits Of Roller SkatingRoller skating is not an age-exclusive or expensive game to start with. Everyone can take up roller skating as pure recreation or for fitness. Not to mention the great health benefits it can bring you. Let’s take a closer look!

  • Cardiovascular benefits
    Roller skating can increase your heartbeat up to 140-160 beats per minute (and even 180 beats at most). This would strengthen your cardiac muscle and enhance blood circulation, keeping any cardiovascular diseases at bay.
  • Physical fitness
    Since roller skating mostly requires the use of your legs and part of your core muscles in all dynamic positions, it’s said that roller skating is an alternative form of aerobic workout.
    The regular practice of roller skating can have noticeable effects on your body: calorie consumption, reduction of body fat, leg and core strengths.
  • Inexpensive pursuit
    All you need to begin with this game is a pair of inline skates, a helmet, a set of elbow and knees pads and balls.
    And by “balls”, we mean a big brave heart.
    These are totally affordable compared to other sports and activities which may require lots of expensive accessories.
  • Great recreational activity
    Joining the game of roller skating, you’ll have a lot of ups and downs (literally), a lot of fun with your friends and a great challenge to yourself.
    It’ll distract you from the stressful schoolwork for a while.
    Don’t hesitate to give roller skating a shot! It’s totally worth it!

Conclusion

We believe you have wrapped your mind around these heads-up. Hope they’ll help.

Don’t hesitate to flash your roller skating skills then. And if you don’t mind, teach the ones who still ask you how to speed up roller skates. You can learn more from each other, right?

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