How to Skate a Barrel Roll

An Online Tutorial

What is the barrel roll?

This is a move that really has crowd wow factor!  You will definitely impress with this move around the Park or on your local ice rink.  This move easily translates to both inline and ice - notice the full barrel roll video is on inline skates, while the practice is on ice skates (at a London Knights game!)

Another name I've seen for this is "the windmill", used in a hockey drill to improve your balance, agility, and mobility.  (Directly from my review of Laura Stamm's Power Skating book.

Many people find this video difficult to translate to the actual moves used, perhaps because Ron is doing the roll so fast.  This is why we've created this page to help break down the technique.

How hard is it and how long will it take to learn?

In my opinion the barrel roll is quite a simple manoeuvre, and just about any competent skater should be able to learn it in a month or two.  It is composed of a few simple steps that repeat, and although it takes a while to learn the necessary coordination, this is only a matter of practice.  Don't expect to be able to do the whole move in just a couple of sessions - going from personal experience, the steps feel very weird at first, and take time to get right.

Keep your confidence, practice these moves for a few minutes every time you go out skating, and you will improve.  Given a month or two of practicing a couple of times a week, and you will almost certainly be able to do the barrel roll.  Don't sweat falling over - falling is a part of skating, and most likely you're not pushing your abilities if you're not falling at least once in a while.

Essentially this is a move where the skater skates around a circle in one direction, whilst rotating in the opposite direction, much like a Spiro graph drawing set.  (Anyone remember those?).  There are four foot movements used, and if you're skating the circle in a clockwise direction as viewed from above, these foot movements are:  Left foot forward, right foot forward, left foot backwards, and right foot backwards.

Part 1 - Initial Skills

To start gaining the skills for this technique, start by skating in a straight line, using the four essential foot movements.  You may find it easier to find somewhere with a marked or painted straight line to skate along for practice.  I know that a barrel roll is done in a circle, so if you're wondering why I'm suggesting to go in a straight line it's because I found this was a really good way to get into the barrel roll.  (It was originally shown to me this way by Ron of Beckenham Inline Hockey club.)

For a clockwise barrel roll, do the following movements while skating along the line:

1. Start by skating on your left foot going forwards along the line.
2. Now skate your right foot forwards from behind the left foot, transferring your weight to it.
3. Now place your left foot, pointing backwards, behind your right foot, heel to heel.  This is simply a front to back transition.
4. Transfer your weight to your left foot, skating backwards.
5. Put your right foot down, and lift your left foot up.
6. Again transition to skating forwards by putting your left foot down in front of your right foot.

You have just completed one full cycle of the barrel roll.  Continue practicing this along a straight line, and very soon you will have the series smooth and controlled enough to be able to start doing it on a circle!

Diagram to show practice of Barrel Roll movements along a straight line

Part 1 in Video:

Part 1 in Pictures:

This set of stills have been taken directly from the above video in order to freeze the foot movements.

Skating forward on left foot (step 1 above)
Skate forward on right foot (step 2)
Transition front to back (step 3)
Skate backwards on left foot (step 4)
Skate backwards on your right foot, lifting your left foot. (step 5)
Transition forwards (step 6)
You're now skating forwards on your left foot, and back at step 1, having completed a full cycle.

Part 2 - Alternate Description (and going around a circle)

Once you have part 1 down pat, you will be ready to try this on curve at first, and then on a larger circle.  Don't try and do this circle as tightly as Ron does in the video until you gain confidence.  Remember that for the series described above, which is a right handed barrel roll, you're rotating to the left while skating around a circle to the right.  (That's clockwise when viewed from above).

Another way to look at the barrel roll is to view each foot as skating short straight lines, and to place each of those short straight lines as a tangent to the circle you're skating around.  Thus you get the four moves:

• Left foot forwards - on an inside edge
• Right foot forwards - on an outside edge.
• Left foot backwards - on an outside edge.
• Right foot backwards - on an inside edge.
• Now you're back to left foot forwards, the first step above, and are probably about half way around the circle.

Don't worry about making an exact circle at this stage - just concentrate on getting the foot movements and your rotation together.  Once you have this sorted, you will soon be able to control your path around the circle!

Diagram to show above description together with foot movements
and how each stroke makes a tangent to the circle you cover.

Part 2 in video:

Part 3 - Some tricks to speed up and smooth out the barrel roll

How to make your moves more smoothly:

1. Bend your knees as much as you can.  Your knee should be well over your toes - at least two inches in front.
2. Be sure not to look down at your feet.
3. Slow down your movements at first, until you can prolong each stroke.  Once you're confident, then look at speeding up the move, not before!  This way you will end up with much better balance and control.

Speeding up and tightening the barrel roll:

1. Try to keep the rotation of your shoulders at a constant rate, matched to the movements of your feet.
2. Turn quickly while doing the barrel roll, thus making lots of quick foot movements.  Remember that this is a dynamic move, and it's important to turn fast for the move to look good.
3. Once you start to practice this move in a circle, try to kick your feet down onto the short line each foot makes, and through to the upstroke.  Short, choppy movements will help you to speed up the barrel roll.
4. Keep your outside shoulder high, and your inside shoulder low.  As you rotate you'll have to keep changing the high shoulder, and this will help increase your lean into the big circle.

Do it both ways:

Be sure to practice this skill in both directions - not very many people can do it in both directions, and what could be cooler than doing a barrel roll for an entire circle to the left, and then reversing your rotation and doing another circle to the right.  This will also improve your footwork and balance, and I've definitely noticed an improvement in my own skating whilst playing hockey.

Disclaimer

As always, skating is a dangerous sport, and you assume all risk when taking part.  It is very likely that you will fall while practicing the barrel roll, and no responsibility can be taken by either myself, Ron, or LondonSkaters.com for any injuries you get.  After all, it is your choice to learn this move, and if you don't want to assume any risks, then don't try to learn it.  :)

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