How can I learn to roller skate?

The best way to learn to skate is to take a class at your local rink. They will teach you how to do the basic skills and then it's practice. Believe it or not, there's a better way to fall safely and get back up and learning the right skills from the beginning makes learning this wonderful sport easier and people of all ages can learn.

Skating is about balance and slight corrective shifts in weight. 1) Don't put your skates on yet. Try your balance first. Stand with feet shoulder width apart and naturally slightly flexed (only an inch or so), as if you are about to sit in a chair. Align your shoulders over your hips and hips over feet. Wherever your hips are is where you are most likely to be. Now lean left or right lightly with your hips over one foot. This emulates the beginning of "pushing off" with your opposite foot. Without picking up your foot, shift your balance to the opposite leg, keeping the slight bend. 2) Shifting back and forth over your ankles, not the tops of your feet, will help you get a feel for where you need to center and stay above your skates. Try not to lean forward. Let your feet propel you. If you are feeling like you are going to fall, try not to break your fall by putting your hands out. Lots of injuries happen this way. Roll with the fall. It will be clumsy but more efficient and less dangerous. 3) While still in the hips above ankles pose, walk in 6-8 inch steps at first to get the feeling for the motion. Remember, your feet will be weighted down so this will seem more interesting with the actual weight to adjust to. 4) Now put on a pair of skates. Doesn't matter if you're in your house on linoleum or carpet or on a skating rink or out in the garage. The process will now come together but be warned: rinks are slick surfaces, just like concrete in the garage. Carpet offers a lot of resistance, yes, but if you're going to fall, that might be better to start with.  - Now walk with shoulders over hips, hips over ankles, naturally slightly bent at the knees. Get use to the bend at the knees. The earlier steps for shifting your weight from foot to foot now comes into play. Once you have your balance over your ankles, and are beginning to shift your weight comfortably, you will naturally want your weight over one ankle, the one with the lightly bent leg, while the other is now stretching away from you. That is the one you will be "pushing off" with. No more than a few inches at a time. As long as your weight is comfortably being held by your hips and shoulders over one foot, the other can do anything or nothing. Balance. 5) "Pushing off" is the maneuver where you have your weight shifted and poised with balance above one foot while the other "pushes" gently against the floor to give momentum. As this foot "pushes off" from the floor, you will need to place it, like walking, in front of the other foot. Then adjust your balance and weight to the opposite foot and repeat the action. Always keeping the balance from the shoulder to the hips, and hips over the ankles. If your shoulders  are leading, you will fall forward. If your hips are leading and not above the ankles, you will fall straight down. If your feet are leading, you will be all over the place and unable to stand correctly. *Wherever the shoulders, hips, and ankles are - is where you will be.* It's why I suggest trying at home on carpet first. Soft landings. *NOTE: if using community rented skates from the rink, don't just put them on and go out onto the floor. Have the wheels adjusted so they roll and don't clunk. Make sure the boot is a good fit. Don't tie them too tightly but make sure you have room to move. They are not skiing boots. Please don't treat them like skiing. Too tight around the ankles can cause just as many issues as too loose. Work with them. It might take 15 minutes of standing, walking and pushing off to see what works for you. Then you have the rest of the 4 hour session to get worn out! Go have some fun!

Tips for Skating for Beginners Ensure adequate protection – Unlike indoor skating, http://rollerskatesreviews.com/best-outdoor-roller-skates-for-women/ rarely provides you with even surfaces on http://rollerskatesreviews.com/. As many skaters attest, all it takes to ruin your knee and your practice schedule is a boulder, a running animal or even ordinary pebbles. To protect yourself from such risks, purchase a good set of knee and elbow guards and optionally, a good set of skating gloves as well. While doing so, avoid purchasing units meant for derbies as these would be heavy and would weigh you down unnecessarily (unless of course you are a derby player). Instead, go for units that have thin but durable shells and straps that do not obstruct the natural airflow of your arm/leg Find even surfaces to begin practice – While it is attractive to start out on surfaces that require a lot of foot-lifting and rapid manoeuvres it is never ideal to start out with these as the risks of losing balance remain high. Instead, look for surfaces like basketball courts, driveways and then plain side-roads with minimal traffic to begin your skating practice. Pavements are also ideal provided they do not have patterns and the local municipal rules allow for skating on the pavement. Maintain proper leg posture – One of the common mistakes made by users is to lock their knees and move as if they are part of a marching squad. Such locking might make it easier for you to skate without requiring repeated raising of the legs but it reduces the body’s ability to break a fall should you lose balance. It is therefore advisable to maintain ordinary slightly-bent knee posture and allow it to bend fully if you find yourself falling forward. Maintain proper spinal posture – The shape of your spine determines the distribution of body weight and this in turn, will decide how stable you are when you move sideways or execute turns. Do not bend forward while skating unless you have a specific reason to do so. Instead, maintain a fluid and ordinary skating posture and you will find that the need to modify one’s weight distribution is reduced to a great extent. This would impart stability and allow you to try out more complex areas.

The best way to learn how to skate is to get on a skating rink and start watching people who are good at it. Once you muster enough courage to try it, go with a friend and ask him/her to go with you hand in hand and attempt to stand and walk with just your roller skates. If you are a bike rider, then maintaining your balance while on roller skates is relatively easier. Through constant practice, you can gradually develop your balance and eventually using the roller skates wil be second nature to you. There are various ways to know/discover your current skill level in roller skating, then once you know what level you're in, you can easily make the necessary actions to improve:

I second Sandra Levin's suggestion to take a skating class. It's the best way to learn, and then if you want you can move on to a specific skating discipline (artistic, roller hockey, speed skating, roller derby, etc) or learn to skate outdoors. Also, unlike ice skates and inline skates (rollerblades), the experience on hired roller skates can be very different from having your own, at least in my experience. If you like the sport and plan to continue, I recommend getting your own reasonable-quality skates (not necessarily super-expensive ones) sooner rather than later as it will really help your progress.Good luck!

If you have any interest in roller derby, you need to learn to fall safely. And even if you don’t, you need to learn to fall safely to roller skate. Practice inside, on a nice thick carpet or a couple of yoga mats, until you are very comfortable falling. As a complete beginner, you are going to feel like you are falling, and you will fall all the time. Use the proper stance on roller skates, and you will be a lot more stable. Even if you don’t want to play roller derby, a good derby stance will help you get started skating. Practice on carpet, so you know how it feels when you start moving. Bend your knees. Never, ever straighten them. You should always keep a mild bend in your knees, and the lower you can go, the better. Not only is a proper derby stance thigh-screamingly low, this is also the most stable way to skate. In order to protect your knees, don’t let your knees slide past your toes. Instead, think of sticking your butt out, like you are peeing in the woods. Keep your stance wide. Picture a sumo wrestler. They are very steady, because they are low and wide. As you get better, you will work on skating very small, with your skates close together, so you don’t trip skaters near you. Don’t worry about that for a while. Stay low and wide until you get the feel of skating. Keep your arms in front of you, with your elbows tucked into your sides. You want your center of gravity to be low, with your weight in front. Keeping your arms in front of you helps keep your weight to the front. New skaters often do the flailing windmill when the feel unsteady. Don’t. You’ll go down, and you risk giving a black eye to people around you. Instead, when you feel unsteady, bring your arms in front, elbows close to your sides, and bend your knees more. If you feel unsteady, most of the time getting low, bringing your arms to the front, and widening your stance will stabilize you. If it doesn’t, at least you will fall forward safely onto your padding.

Go to a rink, hire some skates, skate, fall over, get up, repeat. Maybe watch what other skaters are doing and try to copy.

videos in youtube is the best answer because it shows you videos step by step and is the best way to learn.