How to Roller Skate
Roller skate on quad skates for the first time. Put on your pads and helmet, practice a safe fall, push off with a duck walk, stop with the toe stop or a T-stop, and turn.
You will end up able to stand on quad roller skates, fall onto your pads instead of a straight arm, push forward, stop with the toe stop or a T-stop, and turn both ways on flat, smooth ground.
The order of the steps is deliberate. You put on your pads and helmet before your skates, you practice falling before you roll, and you learn to stop before you skate anywhere near other people or traffic. The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons' roller skating safety page gives the same order for the gear and for stopping.
The steps teach on quad skates, and FAQ 1 below covers inline skates.
A pair of quad roller skates, with two wheels side by side at the front and two at the back and a rubber toe stop at the front. Boots that fit snugly, with your heel held at the back (step 1). A helmet. The CPSC's helmet chart lists a bicycle helmet that meets the CPSC standard for recreational roller skating, and a skateboard helmet for trick skating. Wrist guards, knee pads, and elbow pads. A 20-year study of US emergency room visits found more roller skating injuries at the wrist than at any other body part. A smooth, flat, dry surface like an empty parking lot, a basketball or tennis court, or a paved trail with no slope, ideally with grass beside it for practice falls. Avoid rough asphalt, gravel, wet pavement, and any surface with cracks and debris.
Put on your gear, then stand up and find your balance
Sit on a bench or the ground and put on your helmet, wrist guards, knee pads, and elbow pads before your skates, which is the order the AAOS gives. Fasten the helmet's chin strap snugly under your chin, and check that the pads fit closely enough that they will not slip out of place. Then put your skates on. Kick each heel into the back of the boot before you lace or buckle it, and lace it snugly. Your heel should not move up and down inside the boot. Stand up using the bench for support. Set your feet shoulder-width apart, bend your knees slightly, and keep your weight centered over the middle of your feet, not your toes or heels. Keep your shoulders over your hips and look forward, not down at your feet. Every later step starts from this stance. Stand still like this. Shift your weight slightly from side to side, then bend your knees a little more and straighten them slightly. Do not lock your knees straight or lean back. Locked knees cannot absorb a wobble, and leaning back puts your weight behind your wheels. Move on when you can stand without holding the bench.
Learn to fall safely before you learn to skate
You will fall while learning, so practice falling before you roll anywhere. Do it on grass or carpet, wearing all your gear, which is what Nemours KidsHealth's inline skating safety page advises. To fall forward, crouch as you go down so you have less distance to fall. Land on your knee pads, with your elbows slightly bent, and let your wrist guards slide along the ground. Nemours describes this as using your knee pads and wrist guards to glide to a stop. Relax as you fall instead of going stiff. Never catch yourself with straight arms, because that sends the whole impact through your wrists. To fall backward, bend your knees, tuck your chin to your chest, and sit down onto your bottom instead of reaching back with a straight arm. The tucked chin keeps the back of your head off the ground. This is the backward fall Nemours teaches ice skaters. When you have a choice on wheels, bend your knees and fall forward onto your pads, because that is the fall the pads are there to take. To get up, kneel on your knee pads, put one skate flat on the ground in front of you, put both hands on that knee, and push up to standing. Practice both falls and the getting up a few times before you move on.
Heads up: Wear your wrist guards every time you skate, not only while you are learning. Nemours says to wear safety gear anytime you skate. In the emergency room study linked above, 68.2% of roller skating fractures were in the shoulder, arm, elbow, or wrist.
Move forward with a duck-walk push
Point your toes outward in a slight V, like a duck. Shift your weight onto one foot and push gently outward and backward with the other. Then shift your weight onto the pushing foot and push with the opposite foot. At first each push is a short step with no glide. Keep your knees bent and your steps short. As your balance improves, make each push a little longer, and you start to coast between pushes. Stay slow, because you have not learned to stop yet. Slow pushes on bent knees give you time to correct a wobble. Move on when you can push across your practice area and coast for a moment between pushes.
Stop with the toe stop, then learn the T-stop
Learn to stop before you skate anywhere near other people. The AAOS puts learning to stop properly, before you go into traffic or onto a crowded path, at the top of its safety tips. Start with the toe stop, the rubber block at the front of a quad skate. We teach it first because the toe stop is built for braking, while the T-stop below drags wheels that are built to roll. Glide slowly with your weight on one foot. Bring the other skate behind you, tip it forward, and drag its toe stop along the ground. Keep your weight on the rolling foot and the braking foot light. The friction slows you down. Then learn the T-stop, which also works on skates without toe stops. Glide on one foot and place the other skate behind it, at a right angle, in a T shape. Press it down lightly so its wheels drag sideways. Both stops need balance on one foot, which is why step 1 starts with standing. Practice each stop at walking pace before you try it any faster. Do not use walls, fences, or other people to stop. Move on when you can stop from a slow glide with either stop, without reaching for anything.
Turn by leaning and shifting weight
To turn, lean slightly in the direction you want to go, and your skates follow your weight. For a right turn, shift your weight to the right side of both feet. For a left turn, shift left. Keep your knees bent and your body low. At the same speed, a sharper turn needs more lean. At low speeds you can make a step turn instead. Pick up one foot and set it down at a slight angle in the direction you want to go, then bring the other foot alongside it. A step turn gives you more control at slow speeds than a lean. Practice turning in both directions, and give the side that feels more awkward the extra repetitions. Move on when you can make a wide turn either way and stop at the end of it.
Practice in short sessions, then move up to a rink
Keep practicing on flat ground in an open area with no traffic, slopes, or obstacles. Warm up before each session, which both the AAOS and Nemours advise. Work on smooth pushes, controlled stops, and gentle turns. Keep each session short. End it when your ankles or feet start to tire, before you are exhausted, and come back for another short session on a different day. Stay on flat ground until you can start, stop, and turn reliably in both directions. Away from your practice area, do not wear headphones, do not skate on wet pavement, stay to the right on a path, and call out "On your left!" before you pass someone. With those rules in place, move up in the order Nemours gives, to an indoor or outdoor skating rink first, and to a skate park or trail once you are comfortable at a rink.
If your feet roll out from under you, go back to the stance in step 1. Bend your knees more and bring your weight over the middle of your feet. If you keep falling backward, check whether you are leaning back, and move your hips forward until your shoulders sit over them. If the toe stop grabs and tips you forward, put less weight on the braking foot and drag it more lightly. If your heels lift inside the boots, relace the skates snugly with each heel kicked to the back. Before each session, check your wheels for cracks or rough spots and your toe stops for wear, which is Nemours's maintenance advice. When you want to try the ice, our guide on how to ice skate starts from the same duck walk, with a helmet and a fall drill before you step on the ice.
Questions we get asked about this
Answers from experience, not a textbook.
We recommend quad skates for a first pair, and the steps above teach on them. You can see why when you hold the two side by side. A quad skate has two wheels side by side at each end, so it stands on four points, and it has a toe stop at the front for the stop in step 4. An inline skate has its wheels in a single line, so it balances on one narrow row, and it often has a heel brake at the back instead of a toe stop. We could not find a page from a medical body or a skating federation that ranks the two for beginners. On inline skates, the gear, stance, falls, and duck walk in steps 1 to 3 stay the same, and the AAOS gives the same safety tips for both kinds.
We could not find a study that times it, so measure progress by the checkpoints in the steps. The first is standing without the bench (step 1). The second is pushing across your practice area with a short coast between pushes (step 3). The third is a stop from a slow glide without reaching for anything (step 4). The fourth is a wide turn in both directions (step 5). Skating backward, crossovers, and spins are later skills that build on all four.
Yes. The steps above are the same at any age. The gear matters for adults too. In the emergency room study linked above, 37.6% of injured roller skaters were 18 or older. The study did not count how many adults skate, so it cannot give you your odds. The AAOS writes its roller skating safety tips for everyone from young children to older adults.
Stop skating and tell someone with you that you hit your head. On its concussion symptoms page, CDC says the people checking on you should call 911 or take you to an emergency department right away if you show any of its danger signs. The signs are a headache that gets worse and does not go away, repeated vomiting, slurred speech or unusual behavior, and one pupil larger than the other. They also include weakness, numbness, decreased coordination, convulsions, or seizures, and trouble recognizing people or places, confusion, restlessness, or agitation. Losing consciousness, looking very drowsy, or being impossible to wake are danger signs too. For other concussion symptoms, such as dizziness, a headache, nausea, or feeling foggy, see a healthcare provider, because CDC says people with a concussion need to be seen by one. Nemours KidsHealth gives young skaters the same first step, to stop and tell a coach or a parent right away. A helmet does not rule out a concussion, because the CPSC says no helmet design has been proven to prevent one. Then check the helmet. The CPSC says a bicycle helmet is built for a single fall and must be replaced after one, even if it shows no damage. A skateboard helmet is built for more than one moderate impact, and the CPSC says to replace it if it is visibly damaged or when its manufacturer says to.