Tips and Tricks

Skating Tips and Tricks for Beginners

Got to grips with your basic forward skating and want to improve a little? Here’s some tips and tricks to help you perfect your moves:

Stopping smoothly

The best ways of stopping for a beginner are the t-stop or the snow plough. To do the t-stop, turn one foot out to a 45-degree angle and drag the foot to ease you to a stop. To do the snow plough, point both toes inwards (pigeon toes) until you slowly come to a stop.

If you’re feeling bolder you can also try the hockey stop – there are some great videos online to show you how to master this move. It’s a lot more impressive, but takes a bit of practice and confidence. Find out how here:

Top tip: When you’ve come to a stop and are standing still, make sure you keep both feet pointed out slightly, this will prevent you sliding and falling forwards or backwards.

Skating like a pro

When you skate make sure your feet are not too close together or too wide – slightly less than shoulder width is perfect for a well-balanced skate. To improve your skating posture, make sure your bottom isn’t sticking out! Keep your hips slightly tucked under and your knees softly bent for good skating posture and remember to keep your head up, this will help with balance and stop you skating into people!

As you move round the rink, practice shifting your balance as you skate from one leg to the other, this will improve your skate style and give you more confidence in your ice-skating ability.

Keep your knees bent but don’t lock them, you want to move up and down as you skate, which requires a softness to the knees. As you push off, bend your knees, rise up as you move forward and then come back down – as you skate you should feel your body rising and falling as you move across the ice.

Don’t tense up. Keep your arms out and soft – pay attention to your leg extension – as you push off, your foot should gently extend out behind you and lift just off the ice. Make sure that you turn your foot out slightly but not your hip, keep your body facing forwards to retain your balance.

Moving on

Once you’ve mastered this it’s time to move on. If you’re feeling confident on the ice with the basic moves then adventure lies ahead, there are so many new skate moves to try, learning how to do crossovers, spins and even skate backwards is all within your grasp. Here’s a selection of videos that show you some more techniques to try:

What about the forward crossover?

Or maybe some lemons/swizzles

Backwards skating?

Or if you’re feeling really brave, how about a spin?

Ice skating is great for body and mind, and we hope that these tips and tricks give you a lot more confidence for you to have fun on the ice. Make the most of the festive season and spend time on the ice with us at Skate Manchester, we hope to see you soon.