It's great coaching week, so we have taken some time to reflect on how we can continue to best serve the growing skate community.
We recognise the important role of roller skating in people's lives, as a way to relax and unwind as well as progressing their skate skills. We love to work with people in groups or individually to support them to achieve their roller skating goals.
We currently offer formal coached sessions and informal meet-up sessions. The coached sessions are intended to support your skill development in a particular skill from stopping to spinning, while the informal sessions are there to support you to meet other skaters. We felt this was particularly important coming out of lockdown.
We have been delighted by the response to our class offering! Thank you for the many requests to learn with us! We are being cautious about offering classes at the moment, and thank you for your patience while we find suitable venues and times to offer more.
We are proud to be training our future coaches to continue to set this high standard in roller skate classes in the UK. Safety and enjoyment is at the heart of everything we do. When you attend a Roller Girl Gang class, you know we are qualified and insured, we have carried out comprehensive risk assessments, we have planned your session carefully to ensure progression in skills and we will support you individually during the session as required. You bring the enthusiasm and we will support and encourage you to achieve your goals.
We pledge to continue to break down barriers to roller skating, to make this activity as accessible as possible.
From head coach Mel:
Thank you to the great coaches who have supported me on my journey so far. No-one is able to learn to roller skate without influence of others. Here are some of the key people who influenced me.
This started with Hot Wheel Roller Derby and coach John Kirkham, who planned and delivered tough sessions, with a very steep learning curve! (Powerslides after 4 months anyone?) Within the context of the supportive roller derby team though, everybody was able to make progress. John drilled technique, it didn't matter how good a skater you were, everybody practised the basic skate skills before progressing to the next level. There is always time to build and strengthen those muscles!
Thank you also to the inspiring coaches and teachers I have had the privilege of learning with worldwide, from a few years in Skate Love Barcelona roller dance festival, to Moxi Skate Camp in 2019.
I also love those informal meet-ups with creative skate friends, in particular Craig Jiggy, who has gently pushed me to cross over dance styles and roller skating. I'm grateful for the continuing creative energy.
The newly formed lockdown group SLiQ Skaters also provided a really positive platform to continue learning.
My 'take away' is the feeling that a great coach leaves you with. I felt capable and had a sense of achievement and wanted to learn more. I continue to do my best to pass this on to the skaters who choose to learn with Roller Girl Gang.