I remember when I was a kid learning to skate, I would challenge myself to go backwards. Maybe this doesn’t apply to you just yet, because you’re still trying to figure out backwards skating at all. But after you have the ability to skate backwards maybe a few seconds in a row before you have to face forward again, then start forcing yourself to do it for longer distances. In an indoor skating rink, you start off doing the straightaways. Then you have to get the corners where you’re having to turn while skating backwards. When you find you can comfortably skate backwards the entire distance around the rink, keep going. Make it 2 times around without facing forward. Then 3. Then 4. When you can do 4 times around without facing forward, move on to cross-overs while skating backwards in order to turn. If you don’t have forward cross-overs, get those first, then come back to backwards. And you have to force yourself to keep skating backwards, no turning forwards. This will eventually make your skating so much better. And one last thing. Indoor skating is typically one direction, counter-clockwise. If you’re lucky, your rink switches the direction half way through public skate. If not, you need to get into the center of the rink where people typically go to practice. And skate in the opposite direction there. It won’t be the best way to do it. So you might have to skate outdoors somewhere where you have it all to yourself. I was lucky. When I was a kid, I was a member of the artistic freestyle program. So we had access to the rink outside of public skating sessions, when the rink was mostly empty. So we could practice anything without worrying about whether we were going to bump into anyone or having to follow the rules of public skating… For learning to skate backwards at all, practice your backwards swizzles. Then once you have that, lean to one side, putting your weight over one foot as you push off with the other foot. It’s like a half swizzle, but you’re moving your body to the side instead of keeping your body centered between skates. Then after pushing off the left foot, you keep your left foot still, move your body over the left foot, and push off the right foot. And this goes back and forth. Try it.