How to Skate Backwards

A lot of people know how to skate, but doing it backwards is something they have never tried. Adding this to your kitty will allow you to skate even better, and if you are into ice hockey, it would be extremely useful there too.

First things first. The most important step is having enough confidence in yourself and in what you are doing. How can you achieve this? By practice. Just practice rolling backwards down a gentle slop every single day, or just by pushing off from a wall or something of that sort.

But before you do that, make sure that the place where you practice is free from any kind of debris, because otherwise, you could land up in the hospital due to some accident. While going backwards, get the feeling of moving backwards. If you feel that you are losing your balance, then scissor your skates. Practice until you are confident about it.

As a beginner, do not keep your legs far apart while you are learning. That won't be of much help. Keep your skates closer than your shoulder's width.

Confident now? Great! Now, the next step is to maintain your speed. While rolling in a straight line with one skate, with the other try sculling, that is, keep pushing yourself backwards with an outward stroke. Now, bring the skate which you were using to scull, and then again, repeat the same process.

Make sure that you put most of your weight on the skate which is moving straight, and not the one with which you are sculling. Try the same thing using the other foot. Again, keep doing this till you are confident enough.

Once you are confident that you can scull with either foot, the next thing that you have to do is increase your speed. Try some of your own tricks now. Scull with either feet or with both simultaneously.

While you keep one foot straight, keep sculling with the other. You can do that simultaneously with both feet too. Concentrate on what you are doing, but don't get so involved that you don't see where you are going. If you are not watching your back, you might just bang against something or someone.

First thing that you have to do is roll forward wearing your skates, then wind up your torso in the direction opposite to the direction in which you will turn when you jump.

Now, jump up, and while doing that, release the weight from your skates. Next, unwind your torso and quickly turn 180 degrees, while ensuring at this time that your weight is not on your skates. With this, you will land facing the opposite direction, but you will still be rolling in the same direction.

While rolling, keep carving till you are comfortable with rolling backwards. Then, exert pressure on the scull foot in order to speed up. This is almost similar to when you skate forward, but the only difference is that you do not lift up your skate while skating backwards. Then jump up again, spin 180 degrees, and face forward again.