We completely understand the frustration that comes from not being able to execute a skate skill or move, especially one that is on your skate goals list. Roller skating surprises people with the level of technicality, strength, agility and resilience required to unlock skills. If you’ve been struggling to get that dream trick here’s 7 reasons why it might not be happening for you.
You need to bend your knees (more)
Bending your knees is the magic behind (almost) all roller skate moves. Bending your knees makes space for your feet to execute footwork, engages your muscles for better for stability and absorbing shifts in momentum or weight distribution. We see it all the time in classes, people think they are bending their knees, but those pins are dead straight. If you think you’re already bending your knees enough, go for a little more, it can work wonders.
You’re not breathing
You’d think this one is a no brainer, but we all fall foul to the held breath of anticipation. We don’t normally think about our breathing, but when we are concentrating or are feeling a bit tentative about a move, our body tends to forget to breathe. If you’re not breathing your body can’t think or relax itself. We get really tense and then we get frustrated when things aren’t going the way we want them to. Do yourself a favour and think about those breaths, it’s just another thing to coordinate into the skill.
Your body alignment is off
Many people think that roller skating is all in the feet. Sure, they have the wheels strapped to them, but roller skating is a whole body coordination exercise. You can place pressure in your feet to hit or hold edges, but the rest of your body should be aligned to that also. Is your weight over the correct leg? Are you turning your head, shoulders and hips to turn? Are you bending your knees to absorb weight or direction shifts?
You’re afraid of falling
We get it. Hitting the ground can be hard on the body, especially as we age. There’s also a lot of anxiety about potentially injuring ourselves. Roller skating is a sport or hobby that comes with inherent risk but don’t let that hold you back from trying. Falling is a part of the learning process and if you practise the skill of safe falling continuously as one of your fundamentals then your body and mind will be prepared when those falls inevitably happen. And they do happen, even to the best of us. Gearing up with good quality protective gear can help to get over the mental hurdle. Fear can be a healthy thing to respect but don’t let it slow your roll completely.
You’re not strong enough (yet)
This one might hurt, physically and metaphorically. Roller skating requires strength! Strong legs, core, backs, even arms. Skating strength is something that you can acquire over time as you progress or you can help the process with some cross training if you’re really dedicated to your skate goals. Strength and resistance training is always a great compliment to skating and is just good for the body on all fronts.
You didn’t break the skill down into bite size chunks
We all want to be able to the cool stuff on skates and get that trick on the first try. To be able to do the cool stuff, you need to have strong fundamentals on lock and engage in continuous revision of those. It’s a use it or lose it thing. When it comes to increasingly complex moves, it’s best to break that skill down into smaller, achievable components that can help you build up to executing that new move safely. Just keep working your way through those smaller components, making them second nature, plugging away at it and persevering. Good things take time!
You need to practise more
If you have big skate goals you need to put in the time to achieve them. It’s all about repetition. Embrace the drill it till you kill it mentality. Whether that’s dedicating more time to skate solo, or maybe you do more skill work when you’re with your skate crew. Even better, you can get guided help and keep yourself accountable with going to classes. We get that life can get in the way sometimes and your hobby needs to take a back seat. That’s why we designed RollerFit to work the way it does, we’ll be here to help you achieve those goals when you’ve got the time and are ready to get to work.
