1. When you start out, practice lots of different moves to keep practice fresh.

2. Get used to being on your skates for hours. Your sense of balance will rocket and you'll learn more. Stamina is crucial for skating so get building it.

3. Practicing new moves will be frustrating - but it's the same for everyone. Turns, stops, cross-overs, slides, jumps - they all take time to learn. So keep at it. If you practice, you will always be improving. Before you know it, someone will be stopping you and saying, 'Hi, that looks great, how do you do it?'

4. Make sure you work on drills that you find harder, but mix them up with easier ones to keep your confidence up. Spending 20 minutes on the same gruelling drill will kill the enjoyment factor that got you on skates in the first place. A little but often is the way forward - keep it fun.

5. Don't forget to work more on your weaker side (e.g on crossovers). Most of us have one, and if you don't put in extra effort on it, it will lag behind. You'll be a much better skater if your weaker side is only slightly behind the stronger one.

6. Knees bent. When starting out you probably won't be bending your knees enough, so work on your sense of ‘bum down'. It will aid your balance and speed your learning.

7. Look up. If you are always watching your feet then your balance will suffer and you won't be doing moves correctly. Watch how others do the move and then try to relax into it. Build a sense of where your feet, knees etc are without having to look at them all the time.

8. Get some music! Skating with music in your ears will lift the enjoyment you get from skating to another level. Thumping house works for me, but play what ever you like. You'll get so into the music you can't help but relax, and then the improvements will come just as one track follows another.

9. When do I stop practising?

Never. Skaters with 10 or 20 years experience still spend a lot of time honing their skills. The challenge never ends, and nor does the fun.

10. Safety. Pad up and keep you eyes open. Being aware of what is around you is basic skate etiquette. It is easy to get wrapped up in what you are doing and then skate backwards into a pram. Or you may fail to spot the free radical five year old that has just torpedoed his micro- scooter at you at full speed and then jumped off just before impact. It took the skin on my knees two months to heal properly. No pads, never again.

11. Do a quick weather check before setting off. Skating in the wet is best avoided. You lose a hell of a lot of traction and it isn't really any fun since you have to hold back on the power to avoid slipping. It will also knacker your bearings. Check on one of the many internet sites.