I Worked at a Roller Rink to Improve my Skating Skills
I started skating some time in summer of 2018. After a couple months of struggling HARD at rinks and outside on my own, I went to a “Learn to Skate” class at a roller rink called Chester County Sports Arena in Downingtown, PA. I got along well with the staff there after showing up to the rink every weekend for a few months and then one day I was offered a job! I still wasn’t very skilled at skating by this point. I didn’t know how to stop, turn, or anything technically about skate tools or fixing people’s skates if something was too loose or too tight. Basically I didn’t feel qualified to work there but they were like, hey you seem friendly and you’re here all the time so you might as well work here! One thing I knew as well was that if I did work there, I’d have no choice but to improve my skating skills. So of course I did end up working there for a while, improved a lot in my skating and made a few friends.
Some people learn well from these small classes, but I personally gave up after one and decided to just go to more regular skate sessions and watch skaters do their thing. I think it can be good to do a combination of classes and skate sessions. The hard thing about only going to beginner classes is that you might never see a skater who is of a higher skill level than you (besides the instructor) — part of what really helped me learn was just trying to keep up with more advanced skaters during open skate sessions – then again I also learn better by sort of being thrown into things 😆
Not only did I quickly learn how to skate by working at a roller rink, I also made a lot of friends. Now most of my coworkers were between thee ages of 18 and 21, but I pretty much look like I’m in high school so being in my late twenties I still fit right in. The best was having the rink to myself before and after sessions and just blasting some Rihanna from the DJ booth while I skate around! The endless supply of fries and sprite was also a plus. It has probably been around a year since I let this job and I worked there for about two years. Eventually it just got too be too much dedicating my weekends to work at the rink, so I ended up quitting and now I go every now and then when I want to relax, which although it was not super high stress, relaxing wasn’t exactly something I could do on the job. The next picture is when I officially became an employee!
Even though I only worked at this rink for a few years, I learn so so so much. When I first started working I could barely urn the corner on the rink and I’d have to stop and go again by pushing off of the wall in each corner. It was my job to watch people or “guard the floor” — so to me I was essentially getting pain to learn how to skate, and here and there answer questions that customers had. At first, of course I wasn’t able to answer much. Keep in mind though that there will always be someone more advanced than you, and there will always be someone that is less skilled. So, when I first start working there, even through my excruciating embarrassment of only knowing how to skate forward in a straight line… I had kids and adults coming up to me asking “How do you do that, please help” – This is when I realized hat every individual is an expert in their own experience, and I decided to create an instagram documenting my progress in hopes that others could learn from me!
Okay last picture is me at Christmas a couple years back. Quick picture while hopping back and forth from working the skate counter and being floor guard/teacher. This was definitely a really fun job, highly recommend especially for beginner skaters! I went from barely being able to pick up my feet while wearing skates, to flying around dancing freely on the floor — and there is so much more to learn!💥💥
