How to learn Wizard Skating: the getting-started guide

If you've never been on skates, start with freeskate or urban skating basics for 1-2 months: stance, propulsion, braking with the heel brake, T-stop, and falling without hurting yourself. Any local school works. There's no point in buying a wizard setup without this base.

Once you can confidently skate forward and brake, the next step is learning to transition between forward and backward — and from backward to forward — comfortably. Many of the most complex wizard moves are built on that fluidity between the two directions. Once the transition stops being an event and becomes a natural way of rolling, the rest of the vocabulary starts opening up.

To start, you don't need a high-end wizard skate. What matters is the frames: rockered. Wizard Skating, YoYoSkate and MAD Skating frames are the most popular. If you already have freeskate skates, you can swap the frames without changing the boot.

The wizard family includes 4×80, 5×80, 4×90, 4×100 and asymmetric hybrids like 100-80-80-80-100. The shorter setups (4×80, 5×80) are friendlier to start with because they pivot tighter; longer setups gain stability for wider maneuvers without losing the low center of gravity. Don't buy the most expensive option upfront — first understand what you want.

Before picking moves at random, it's worth understanding how Wizard Skating structures the learning process. The Wizard brand organizes the repertoire into three stages^[1], and projects like Eccentric Inline have built a rigorous curriculum on top of them^[2]. This will save you months of unstructured practice.

Stage 1 — Predator: the foundational stance, your "ready position" while rolling. There are 8 variations (one or two feet × forwards or backwards × left or right)^[1]. It's the foundation: if your Predator isn't solid, nothing that follows will work well.

Stage 2 — Turns: curving movements along an imaginary semicircle. Two families: Parallel, both feet on the ground (8 variations: open/closed × forwards/backwards × left/right), and Tree, on one foot (same 8 variations, more demanding on balance).

Stage 3 — Transitions: combinations of two consecutive turns. This is where the most recognizable moves of the style appear. Gazelle is the two-foot transition (a combination of two parallel turns): 8 variations — FOG, FCG, BOG, BCG (Front/Back × Open/Closed Gazelle). Lion is the one-foot transition (a combination of two tree turns), with the same 8 variations: FOL, FCL, BOL, BCL^[2].

Eccentric Inline distills the method into three words: "Turn On, Lean In, Drop Down."^[2] First you activate the turn with your stance, then you lean to hold the line, then you drop to gain control and projection. It applies to every move in the base curriculum.

Once you've mastered the base, you move on to base combos (sequential variations), bonus moves (Stunami, UFO Swivel, Toe/Heel Press) and beyond moves (advanced). The fakie gazelle, S move and toe press spin you see in most videos are all variations that live inside this framework.

Three one-hour sessions a week, for six months, gets you to a level where you can chain basic moves to music. One hour a day, for two years, gets you to solid intermediate. There are no shortcuts: the body needs repetition.

With the taxonomy clear, here is the order that makes sense. Weeks 1-3: solid Predator + comfortable forward↔backward transitions. Weeks 4-8: Parallel turns across the 8 variations, one at a time. Weeks 9-14: Tree turns (more demanding because of one-foot balance). Weeks 15-20: Gazelle transitions (FOG → BOG → FCG → BCG is usually a comfortable order). Weeks 21-26: Lion transitions. Then: combos, S move, fakie gazelle as a variation, toe press spin.

Structure each session like this: 10 minutes warm-up (dynamic stretching + propulsion), 30-40 minutes on one or two specific moves, 10-15 minutes of free play with music. Free play is where you actually integrate what you've learned. If a move fails in a session, drop back a stage: probably something in your Predator or in the previous turn isn't clean.

The most common mistake is skipping stages. You'll want to attack a fakie gazelle or a toe press spin as soon as you get new frames, and you'll get frustrated. Transitions are combinations of two turns, and turns are extensions of the Predator. If the earlier steps aren't solid, transitions never come out clean. Go back: spend whole weeks on a single element before moving on.

The second mistake is not warming up. Wizard demands a lot from your ankles, knees and hips. Our warm-up tutorial is a good starting point.

The third mistake is NOT practicing alone. Don't wait until you have an instructor or a group to start — many of the highest-level wizard skaters built their base in solitude. Go out, try, fail, repeat. Personal habit comes first; eventually you can attend jams, workshops and gatherings where exchange accelerates breakthroughs.

Two English-language resources are worth keeping at hand. The Wizard Skating moves page (wizardskating.com/pages/moves) documents the complete taxonomy across the three stages, with descriptions of every variation. It's the primary source and the only one that authoritatively defines the names.

Eccentric Inline (eccentricinline.com/base) — Billy Arlew's teaching project — goes deep on the base curriculum with detailed breakdowns of FOG, FCG, BOG, BCG, FOL, FCL, BOL, BCL, plus combos, bonus moves and advanced progressions. If you want to dig into the mechanics of each move, this is the reference.

In Spanish, Arco Skating progressively documents applied tutorials from this framework: warm-up, backward skating, fakie gazelle, S move, toe press spin, jumps and full lines.

After a year with a solid base, you have your own vocabulary. The next level is fluid transition between moves: linking gazelles, lions, jumps and shapes without pause. This is where music and improvisation take over. Start filming yourself: video is your best self-correction tool.

Later: jams, international gatherings like Return Berlin, exchange with skaters from other styles. Wizard Skating is community before technique.