Fundamental Tricks

A-frame

To get into the A-frame position, simply spread your feet apart until they are wide apart. Your feet should look like an 'A' or a triangle from the front. Your skates should be on the inside edge as well.

Lemons

Lemons are one of the most important skills in inline skating. You'll find that being able to do lemons will help you with a lot of different tricks, as it trains your thigh muscles and forces you to bend your knees. To do a lemon, you first need to position your feet in the 'V' shape. Your skates should be on the inside edge. Then, bend your knees and push your skates forwards until your skates are wide apart. You should find yourself accelerating forward. Now, point your skates inwards and straighten your knee. You should find yourself moving forward, but slowing to a stop. When you have stopped, you should find that your feet are in an 'A' or inverted 'V' position. If you don't want to stop after doing one lemon, instead of putting your skates in an inverted 'V' position at the end of the lemon, put your skates parallel to each other so you will continue to roll. You can repeat the lemons as many times as you want to gain speed or to slow down using the plough stop.

Half-lemons

Like lemons, half-lemons are also one of the most important skills in inline skating. Half lemons are a bit more difficult than lemons, as most of your weight has to be on one leg while the other one does the motion. To do a half lemon, start with your feet parallel and put most of your weight on one leg. Put your hand on that thigh to help with positioning your weight correctly if you need to. We will call this foot the supporting foot. Make sure your knee on this foot is bent as well. Then, point your other foot outwards, like in the 'V' position and have an inside edge on it. We will call this foot the lemoning foot. Bend your knee and push off on the lemoning foot to get your supporting foot to roll and let your lemoning foot move away from your supporting foot. Once the lemoning foot has reached its furthest point from your supporting foot, point your lemoning foot inwards. Let your lemoning foot come back to the supporting foot. Before the lemoning foot collides with the supporting foot, push the lemoning foot outwards again and repeat the motion. Practice until it feels smooth and comfortable. If you aren't confident about rolling, you can do the half-lemon motion while standing still, just move your lemoning foot in a semicircle around your supporting foot without moving the supporting foot.

Backward lemons

Backward lemons are just the reverse of lemons. All you have to do is to do all the steps that you do for a lemon and do them in reverse order. So first, you want to position your feet in an 'A' or an inverted 'V' shape with your heels pointing outwards. Your skates should be on the inside edge. Then, push your feet apart using your toes and allow your feet to spread wide apart. Once your feet are wide apart, use your thigh muscles to bring your feet close together. Once your feet are in the 'V' position, you have successfully completed a backward lemon. If you want to do the trick continuously, then you just need to bring your feet to the ready position, where both your feet are parallel to each other so that you'll roll forward instead of stopping, and repeat the steps for the backward lemons.

Backward half-lemons

Like the backward lemons, the backward half-lemons are just half-lemons done in reverse. First, start with your feet parallel and put most of your weight on one leg. Put your hand on that thigh to help with positioning your weight correctly if you need to. We will call this foot the supporting foot. Make sure your knee on this foot is bent as well. Then, point your heels outwards, like in the inverted 'V' position and have an inside edge on it. We will call this foot the lemoning foot. Bend your knee and push off on the lemoning foot to get your supporting foot to roll backwards and let your lemoning foot move away from your supporting foot. Once the lemoning foot has reached its furthest point from your supporting foot, point the heel of the lemoning foot inwards. Let your lemoning foot come back to the supporting foot. Before the lemoning foot collides with the supporting foot, push the heel of the lemoning foot outwards again and repeat the motion. Practice until it feels smooth and comfortable. If you aren't confident about rolling backwards, you can do the half-lemon motion while standing still, just move your lemoning foot in a semicircle around your supporting foot without moving the supporting foot.

Improving your balance

Here are just some videos that would help you with your balance on inline skates.

Scootering

Scootering is basically what its name implies. The trick looks like what you would do when pushing a scooter forward. To do the trick, you will need to put about 80% of your weight on one foot, we'll call this foot the supporting foot, and position the other foot in a 'T' or 'L' shape, behind the supporting foot. We'll call this foot the pushing foot. Now, bend your knee on the pushing foot and push off of the ground with it and you should start rolling. Your supporting foot should have a centre edge so that you can balance on your skates. Once you are rolling, lift your pushing foot and place it behind your supporting foot. Put your pushing foot on the ground and immediately push your foot off of the ground to push yourself further forward. Now, all you need to do is to repeat the steps to gain more speed and you are now scootering. As you gain more speed, it's alright if the pushing foot is not perpendicular to your supporting foot, your pushing foot can form a small 'V' shape with your supporting foot instead. Always ensure that the pushing foot is pointed towards the direction you're moving in, not off towards the side. You should also ensure that the supporting foot is always on the centre edge, and absolutely not on the inside edge.

Forward stride

The forward stride that you want to use is actually quite similar to scootering. As such, you should learn scootering first before learning the forward stride. You might even find the forward stride to be easier than scootering to learn. The main difference between scootering and the forward stride is the alternating legs and the position of the pushing foot. The pushing foot shouldn't be perpendicular to the supporting foot in a 'T' or 'L' shape and should instead be at an angle of less than 90° to the supporting foot, forming a small 'V' with the supporting foot. This makes the forward stride much easier to do and more efficient as you are now pushing off to the side instead of pushing backwards. To do the forward stride, put all of your weight on one foot. We'll call this foot the supporting foot. You should maintain a centre edge on the supporting foot at all times so that you can balance. Then, point your other foot slightly outwards, forming a small 'V' with the supporting foot. We'll call this foot the pushing foot. Make sure your knees are bent on both the supporting foot and the pushing foot. Now, push off the ground with your pushing foot until your leg is straight. Make sure your weight is still fully on the supporting foot. Do a toe flick with your pushing foot to get some additional speed and lift it up. Now you should be balancing on your supporting foot. Bring your pushing foot right beside the supporting foot and put it down, making sure that the pushing foot is pointed straight in the direction of motion. Now, you want to put all of your weight on the pushing foot that you just put down. The pushing foot now becomes the supporting foot and the supporting foot becomes the pushing foot. All you need to do is to repeat the steps as many times as necessary and you have done the forward stride. This will be the main stride that you'll use for skating forwards until you augment it with the double push.

Improving your stride

The usual common mistakes in a beginner’s forward stride are the 'V' set down and having an inside edge on the supporting skate. These two issues are the root cause of a lot of technique-related issues in the forward stride, such as a short glide length, ankle pronation and bouncing up and down while doing the forward stride. To fix having an inside edge on the supporting foot, you should practice scootering until you can keep a centre edge on the supporting foot. You can also choose to practice gliding on one leg, which you can work up to by doing toe rolls. Gliding on one leg is a very important skill for a lot of other tricks, so it's much better to get it down sooner rather than later. You should be able to glide on one leg at a medium speed for about half a tennis court, basketball court or something similar to have a noticeable improvement in your balance and centre edging on the supporting foot. To fix the 'V' set down, you should do your regular forward stride, but instead of immediately pushing after you regroup your legs, pause for 4 to 5 seconds when you regroup so that you will make sure your legs are always pointed straight ahead when they are regrouped in the ready position. Once you have gotten used to it, you can gradually decrease the duration of the pause to about 1 to 2 seconds until you no longer have to pause to keep your feet straight when they are regrouped. There are some other tips in the videos below, but I think that these two are the most important ones. If you want more advanced tips to improve your stride, you should look at the trick called 'double push'.

Toe roll

The toe roll is a relatively simple trick if you can balance on one skate well. First, get into the scissors position and put all your weight on the front foot. Remember to bend your knee on the support skate, preferably having your knees over your toes. Then, rotate the ankle on the back foot until the toes of your back foot are pointing to the ground. You should ensure that you have a centre edge on the front skate so that you can balance properly.

Traversing stairs

There are a lot of ways to traverse stairs, but some ways are much faster than others. The ways detailed here are the quickest ways to traverse stairs when mastered. Both of the ways detailed here require you to have your feet in the 'V' position. The reason for the 'V' position is that it will stop your skates from rolling backwards when you're standing still on the stairs, which is much safer than climbing up the stairs with both feet pointed straight ahead. To go up the stairs, have your feet in a 'V' position and put all of your weight on one foot. Push it into the stair before lifting the other foot. Then, place your other foot on the next step on the stairs, making sure to maintain that 'V' shape when it is placed onto the step. Move all of your weight to that foot and push it into the stair before lifting your other foot and placing it either on the same step as the front foot (when you're learning), or on the step ahead of the front foot, maintaining that 'V' position the whole time. Now, you just have to repeat the steps until you have climbed up the entire flight of stairs. To go down the stairs, start with your feet in the 'V' position as mentioned and shift all of your weight onto one foot. Put the other foot down on the step below, making sure you maintain the 'V' position when the foot is placed down. Once you have placed the foot down, roll it back into the step and transfer your weight to it. Now, lift the back foot and place it either on the step the front foot is on (when you're learning), or the step below it, maintaining that 'V' position the whole time. Be sure to roll it back into the step after you have placed it down. Now, all you have to do is to repeat the steps until you have climbed down the entire flight of stairs. If you want an even faster way to go down stairs, check out the trick called 'stair ride'.

One leg skating

Downhill skating

The most important thing when skating downhill is the ability to slow down and stop. Hence, you should learn and master as many stopping techniques as possible so that you will be prepared for any situation that you might encounter when skating downhill. You should at least learn the stepping plough stop, the T-stop, and the powerslide before going down a slope. You can go down slopes without learning the powerslide, but be sure to maintain a medium speed so that you can stop quickly if anything happens. The stepping plough stop is good for slowing down without burning your wheels, but it does take up quite a bit of space and also takes quite a long time to come to a complete stop. The T-stop is the most versatile stopping technique that can be used anywhere, even in extremely tight spaces. Learning to do the T-stop on both legs and learning how to place as much weight as you need on the stopping leg will allow you to slow down on long downhills and use the T-stop to stop quickly. However, the T-stop’s stopping power is still not good enough for an emergency stop. For that, you’ll need to learn the powerslide, which is the easiest emergency stop to learn. Afterwards, you should look into learning the magic slide and the parallel slide for more stopping power. Outside of stopping, you should be in the scissors position and staying low by bending your knees when going downhill. This is so that you’re more stable and hence, less likely to fall. There are other tips in the videos listed below, but these two tips are by far the most important when skating down a slope.

City skating

The videos listed below aren’t ranked and they are all useful, so you should watch them all. The biggest tip for city skating is to always maintain the scissors position when you’re gliding, making sure to keep your weight on your heels. This way, you will easily roll over most obstacles you come across and you’ll be able to easily recover if you trip over something. Mastering the T-stop is also essential before skating the city as you’ll have to deal with traffic, pedestrians and a lot of slopes, all of which require you to be proficient in your stopping technique. The sidewalk is usually pretty narrow as well, which makes most other stopping techniques unviable simply due to the lack of space to execute them. You can also choose to use a heel brake instead of using the T-stop. Jumps are immensely useful in clearing a wide variety of obstacles, so while it isn’t a necessity, you should learn how to jump on skates. You should also try to skate over as many different types of terrain as possible so that you’ll be prepared for all kinds of terrain that the city throws at you.

Double push

Backward skating

Transition

Transition in inline skating refers to changing from skating forward to skating backwards or vice versa. The smoothest and most controllable transition would require you to learn a trick called the eagle or the mohawk, which is basically skating sideways. That trick is pretty difficult to master though, so while you should be working towards mastering the eagle to have the smoothest and most controllable transitions, you should pick up an easier way to transition so that you can do tricks like the front powerslide earlier. The transition that has the lowest risk and is relatively easy to learn is the one that requires you to step into the transition. This method of transiting also builds the foundation for learning the eagle, which makes it the ideal transition to learn with. To perform this transition, first, stretch out your arms into a 'T' pose. Then, move your legs into the scissors position and make sure your knees are bent. Now, turn your arms 90 degrees such that your arms are now in line with the direction you are facing in and put your entire weight on your front foot. Then, while keeping your head facing forward, lift and turn your back foot roughly 180 degrees (you don't have to be exact, it can actually be quite a bit less) and place it down such that the heel of your back foot is facing the heel of your front foot. You can choose to pivot your back foot about the toe as well if that is more comfortable. Make sure that your head is still facing forward so that you don't crash into anything. Now, lean back and put all of your weight on the heel of the back skate. You can choose to put your entire weight in the middle of your back skate, but you shouldn’t put your weight on the toe of the back skate as you might fall forward. Lift the front foot and turn it roughly 180 degrees and place it back down. You can choose to pivot your front foot about the toe as well if that is more comfortable. Afterwards, you should find yourself with your head still facing in the direction you're moving in and you are still in the scissors position, but your legs are now in the opposite direction. To turn back, you just repeat the steps. You should try this trick while standing still first before doing it while rolling. You should also start with slow speeds before moving on to high speeds as messing up the transition at high speeds will cause you to have a pretty bad fall. If you're having trouble with the weight transfer from one leg to another, try ending the transition on only one leg, which would force you to put all your weight on that leg as you transition so you can get used to the weight transfer.

Sprinting

Sprinting on skates is almost the same as regular sprinting, with the only difference being the position of your feet. When sprinting normally, you would usually have your feet pointed straight ahead. However, when sprinting on skates, you want your feet to be pointed outwards in a very wide 'V' position. It would be ideal to have your feet as wide as possible, so the ideal position to be in is to have your feet perpendicular to the sprinting direction with the right foot pointed right and the left foot pointed left. We will call this position the wide 'V' position. To learn how to sprint on skates, you must first learn how to walk on skates without rolling. To walk on skates without rolling, you have to walk forward while keeping that wide 'V' position. Do it slowly, ensuring that your skates do not roll at all. You can let the back of one skate touch the other skate to ensure that you will not roll, but you will eventually want to use the frequency of your steps to ensure that you don't roll at all while sprinting. Once you can do it slowly, gradually increase the frequency of your steps until you're sprinting. When starting a sprint from a stationary position, keep your body high, lean back, and then lean forward when you start sprinting. You should find your body getting lower as you sprint, which is why you want to start high. When you're sprinting, it is very important that you are always leaning slightly forward and that you always land on the inside edge of your skates on both feet. Landing on the outside edge will cause you to waste energy as you will cancel out the speed gained from your previous step, forcing you to push your body much further forward with your next step to change that outside edge to an inside edge. You'll usually end up losing balance and end the sprint when you land on the outside edge anyway since having to push your body much further forward disrupts the rhythm of the sprint. Like regular sprinting, your knees should be bent at all times and your arms should be swinging. Your right arm should be the one swinging forward when your left leg is moving forward and vice versa. You shouldn’t be swinging your arms past the middle of your chest as it wastes energy on the side-to-side motion. You want to focus all of your energy in the forward direction. Also, just like regular sprinting, you should be doing toe flicks every single time you lift your foot to take a step. At the end of your sprint, you want to put one foot out in front to catch yourself. This foot should be pointed straight and should be on the centre edge so you can transition from sprinting to gliding. You should also practice speeding up your steps and then slowing them down for absolute control over your sprint. Also, you should try sprinting while you're rolling so that you can break your glide to get a burst of speed when necessary. To sprint while rolling, put all of your weight on one foot and lift the other foot, pointing the foot outwards so that it forms half of the wide 'V' position. Then, place that foot down and repeat the steps with the other foot and you should find yourself sprinting. As always, start from a low speed and gradually work your way up to higher speeds.

Manual

Stair ride