Inline skating has been growing in popularity for some time. It’s an exciting thing to see, especially since skating wasn’t too important for almost two decades. There was a time when everyone wanted to skate, but the trend slowly died, but it’s been resurrected.
The new life could link to changes in the world, like the pandemic, but one thing you might not have expected is soccer’s contribution to inline skating.
What Exactly is Inline Soccer Skating?
Inline soccer skating is a game. It resembles the regular soccer sport that everyone knows. While soccer wasn’t popular in the United States for a long time, that’s slowly starting to change.
One reason it’s changing is that America has one of the best soccer teams. The USA women’s soccer team is considered one the best. They’ve won several World Cups, yet for some reason, it wasn’t until now that the sport started to become popular here. Combine that newfound popularity with the rise of inline skates sports, and you’ve got a new sport.
It’s not too surprising though. There are several inline sports rising right now. Some people are playing basketball with their skates, while others are playing hockey. Soccer is just another sport to fuse with skates. Inline soccer skating is played by 10 players, split down the middle. Five go to one team and five go to the other team. Sometimes, the sport is called roller soccer.
Now, there are big differences between roller soccer and regular soccer, and one of them deals with the goalie. While regular soccer has a goalie, that’s not the case for inline soccer skating. Nothing is standing between the other team and the goal except maybe their opponents. Once the player can overcome their opponents, the chances of scoring are pretty high, provided their aim is good. Hands cannot be used during the game though that’s pretty similar to regular soccer.
Another big difference between this sport and regular soccer is there’s no slide tackling. Sliding is common in soccer, and it’s honestly one of the most effective ways to steal the ball from your opponent, but it’s also quite dangerous. The danger is only increased if you are wearing inline skates instead of soccer cleats. This is the reason this type of tackling is not allowed in roller soccer.
As you can imagine, the sport is intense. The speeds these players have to reach to play competitively are pretty high. Everything moves quickly, but it helps create one of the most exciting ways to play soccer.
The sport continues to gather attention and grow in popularity. This is especially the case with the rise in skating due to the pandemic. Skaters want something new to do with their newfound skating skills, and they find activities like these. It’s important to wear protective gear when playing this sport. It’s an aggressive sport, and you don’t want to play without kneepads, elbow pads, and your helmet. Safety is always important for any sport people play.
How Did the Sport Even Start?
Inline soccer skating has an origin story. The person to remember is Zack Phillips. Back in 1995, Zack was skating and saw a stray soccer ball.
For some reason, he kicked the ball and saw how easy that was. This happened in San Francisco at the Golden Gate Park. He wasn’t a soccer player, but he knew that you’re supposed to kick the ball. As soon as he kicked it, Zack had a vision that involved playing soccer but on skates. To anyone else, this was just a wild idea or maybe something you try once and just stop, but Zack wanted to give this sport a fighting chance.
Zack called up a few of his friends to try the sport; these were other skaters like him.
Of course, they gave it a shot, especially because they had played something similar before. His skating buddies played “kick the cone” in the past. This was a game where they would kick a random pine cone they found while skating. The game didn’t last too long because the moment they lost the cone, they would just keep on skating. Still, for a bit, kicking the cone was fun.
Zack brought his soccer ball this time and attempted to play soccer with all of his buddies. It didn’t take too long for them to realize that Zack might be onto something. A few weeks after that initial run, they marked out an area and added goals to play the game properly. At the time, 23 skaters join the marked-off area to play this game. It was a wild and chaotic game, but everyone still had a lot of fun, which is how this game came into existence.
The game was sort of wild at first, and it took about a year for folks to come up with rules. Zack founded the RollerSoccer International Federation in 1996. The game had become popular enough to reach major cities across the world, including Atlanta, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, just to name a few places. People fell in love with how exciting the game was to play and watch. The players looked like they were defying gravity in the field.
While its popularity continued to grow, it didn’t really reach the mainstream. It remained one of those sports you know if you were into sports or if you love extreme sports. That hasn’t changed yet even with the rise due to the pandemic, but there’s interest in the sport. People are into it once again, and that might be enough to push the sport into new heights of popularity. It’s something to keep an eye on.
