Skateboarding is one of the most unique activities in the sense a skate coach or skate instructor isn’t something built into the sport like soccer, football or baseball. That being said, skate mentors, skate coaches and skate instructors have existed in skateboarding since the very beginning in various forms.
Even Tony Hawk learned from pro skaters like Stacy Peralta and Tony Alva and as skaters ascend to skate new contests, deeper training is required to perform well. You might be surprised to learn there is an official Olympic Skate Coach for Team USA. How cool is that? Even the best of the best still have a skate coach.
At GOSKATE, our instructors have decades of skate experience under their belts, with the majority skating since they were young kids like their students. They know the ins and outs of learning tricks, the vocabulary and trick names, the mental struggles and triumphs of falling and getting back up. All the good stuff.
But let’s go over these in more detail in our following sections.
What is a Skate Coach?
For some skateparks, from Boston to Los Angeles, a skate mentor might be the older crew looking out for the new guys, or maybe a local park attendant or supervisor with skate experience. But in modern day skateboarding we have the privilege to provide you with the highest trained professional skate instructors to not only master the foundations of skateboarding but learn what it takes to be an amazing skater.
That being said and arguably even more importantly, a lot of learning how to skate with an instructor isn’t just about learning tricks. Rather it’s the things like how to draw inspiration from other skaters, how to be happy in the face of failure, how to digest skate media, keep things in perspective like skatepark etiquette, comparing yourself to others and even skating alone versus having a friend to skate with.
From our experience and as you can check out in our Skate Instructor tab, most skate instructors are experts in skateboarding with some to a ton of experience working with kids. Males and females ranging from the ages of 16-25 are pretty common but there’s also 20-30-40 year olds ready to teach group classes.
We’ll have more on picking the perfect instructor for your child in this article later.
14 Best Reasons To Hire A Skate Instructor
If we may, with over two decades of skate heritage we are qualified to list the best reasons to hire a skate instructor. Not only are we the largest collective of skate instructors, we also have the most comprehensive reviews of skateparks, skate coaches, skate camps, skate trick tips and skateboarding news to a full spectrum of learning about skateboarding. And our instructors also contain these skills.
The highest trained professional skate instructors: Like we said in our introduction, we have over two decades of skate heritage training and conducting skate lessons for thousands of students. Our students received the highest professionally trained instruction ensuring your loved ones learn how to skate in the most safe and fun way possible.
Mastering the foundations of skateboarding: The foundations of skateboarding can be easily overlooked or not intuitively understood just by stepping on a skateboard. However, they are the most important to getting our students rolling in the right direction, literally. Having a skate instructor can dramatically expedite this process and have your kid pedaling, turning, and maintaining their balance after their first lesson.
Learning the lingo of skateboarding: One of the hardest parts of learning about skateboarding is the vocabulary associated with tricks and localism at skateparks. A switch back tail, switch 180 smith grind, heel flip feeble grind, stalefish tail bash, are all terms a skater has mastered over time. But with a skate coach, your child can learn these with much greater ease and not be self conscious about asking questions.
Teaching proper skatepark etiquette: We all know what a snake is but are you aware of what that term means in skateboarding? A snake is someone who gets in someone else’s way oblivious to the skater they interrupted. Many kids have no idea the lines, the start points, when to drop in, and how to talk to older kids (or even kids their age) at the skatepark. Teaching proper skatepark etiquette not only boosts the safety of your child but everyone around them. This is arguably the biggest advantage and most impactful advantage to having a skate coach or skate instructor present with your child.
Learn what it takes to get better at skateboarding: Like we mentioned earlier in this article, learning what it takes to become a better skater is arguably more about the mental journey than the physical. Becoming a great skater is about time commitment, physical development and maintenance, healing injuries and pushing yourself to not just enjoy skating but to get better. This is an entire article in itself but for us now, you’ll have to take our word for it that our skate coaches can relay all this information and more to our students.
Learning how to fall: Shouldn’t you want your child learning how to land tricks not fall? Of course but in skateboarding you’re going to fall more than you land. That’s why learning how to fall is so important. Learning how to bail correctly, tucking, rolling over your shoulder, sliding out on your hip or back, avoiding your wrists, elbows and knees when not wearing pads, these are all essential to not only becoming a better skater but preventing injury.
Tips on nursing a skate injury: Skate injuries are unlike any injuries across sports or recreational activities. Luckily, skaters for decades have proven techniques to help you heal a rolled ankle, a swellbow or other skate injuries most doctors will have zero ideas how to treat. Most doctors’ first words are, “stop skating,” so yeah. Skate instructors come in clutch.
It’s the safest way to skate: That should be enough of a sentence to make you want to book a skate instructor but we’ll keep going. Skate coaches and instructors have all the tips to avoid skate injuries and prevent putting your child in dangerous scenarios.
Understanding of skate media: In a day of ipad kids and social media, there are numerous skate media outlets for your child to get into. That being said, not all of these are very kid friendly forms of skate media. They also might look at a form of skate media and not understand how skate media has changed or can impact their own skateboarding. This is certainly a whole article topic in itself but you can imagine in today’s world the amount of skate media your child can consume.
Mental struggles and triumphs of skating: The mental struggles of skateboarding surround trumps and failures and will give your child a range of emotions to deal with. Skateboarding will make your child the happiest and the angriest they ever have been and is a huge reason why it’s such a powerful developmental tool for your child. However, sometimes this can be hard for your child to navigate on their own and they might lose perspective or find it hard to smile in the face of failure. More on this down the line.
How to draw inspiration from other skaters: Whether you’re 13 or 30 every skater has a favorite skater. And drawing inspiration from the sources of your choice is what skateboarding is all about. Having a skate instructor can help your child be exposed to skaters and brands, artists, photographers that your child would otherwise not be exposed to.
How to keep things in perspective: Keeping things in perspective can be hard for a child discovering a new passion. Skateboarding can also lead to comparing yourself to others or interacting with all types of people that can sometimes be hard to navigate. There’s pressure in skateboarding, there’s also joy and jealousy, there’s really a playground of emotions out there that a skate instructor can help your child navigate with an older, wiser perspective.
Having a friend to skate with: Honestly, this might be the single best reason and motivation behind booking a skate instructor. Skateboarding is all about having fun and nothing is more fun than having a friend to skate with. Book a one-on-one skate lesson today and watch your child’s face light up when an older kid gives them a high-five after learning their first trick.
You get better at skateboarding faster: Some skaters will reach huge heights on their own but our students have shown us time and time again that learning with a skate instructor dramatically improves their skate skills. Whether they want to skate for fun or train to be an Olympic skater one day, learning to skate with a skate coach is by far going to make you a better skater, faster.
Selecting the Best Skate Instructor for Your Kid
Selecting the best skate instructor for your kid is going to come down to a few elements, the most basic being location.
Here is a link to finding the local skate instructors in your area:
We also invite you to check out our Pro Skate Instructors Tab here to learn a bit more about who we have available and what qualifies them as a world class skate instructor.
We have our Most Popular Lessons listed as well and group classes, intermediate versus beginner classes, camps, and birthday parties.
GOSKATE’s Pro Skate Instructors & New Review System
GOSKATE is excited to introduce to you our new review system for our professional skate instructors. Not only do we have decades of skate teaching under our belt and the largest collective of skate instructors in the USA, we also have the most direct rating and review system to ensure you’re picking the perfect skate instructor for your child.
We’ve also added additional testimonials with photos and reviews on our social media on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. You can check out the channels here and we invite you to follow, subscribe and stay connected for the latest and greatest from GOSKATE.
It has been our honor and a privilege to provide skate lessons for thousands of students for over twenty years. We can’t wait to see what the next decade of GOSKATE students and instructors accomplish and we hope to have a chance to teach your kids the most fun and safe way to skate possible.
