Roller skating involves gliding over a smooth surface on roller skates, which are specially designed boots with two wheels at the front and two at the heel. Roller skating can be enjoyed outdoors or at indoor roller rinks. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, roller skating lost some of its appeal as in-line skates became popular.

In the early 18th century, a Dutchman named Joseph Merlin came up with the idea of attaching wooden spools to a plate to simulate ice skating on dry ground. In 1763, the first roller skates were created, featuring metal wheels. In 1863, American inventor James Leonard Plimpton patented the first roller skates that enabled the wearer to move about more smoothly by shifting weight. Roller skates with ball-bearing wheels took over several decades later, and vaudeville acts often made use of these skates. Plastic polyurethane wheels were introduced in the 1970s; these wheels allowed for easier maneuvering, increasing the sport's popularity.

Roller skating competition has included artistic skating, speed skating, roller hockey, and roller derby. Artistic skating shares similarities with figure skating, and can be performed with or without a partner. Speed skaters race through a course, competing against each other and the clock. Roller hockey utilizes rules similar to ice hockey. Roller derby, which died out in the 1970s, was a contact sport involving teams racing around a track. During the 1990s, inline skaters began competing in derby events.

The standard rink for long track is 400 meters long, but tracks of 200, 250 and 333? meters are used occasionally. It is one of two Olympic forms of the sport and the one with the longer history.

International Skating Union rules allow some leeway in the size and radius of curves.

Short track speed skating takes place on a smaller rink, normally the size of an ice hockey rink, on a 111.12 m oval track. Distances are shorter than in long-track racing, with the longest Olympic individual race being 1500 meters (the women's relay is 3000 meters and the men's relay 5000 meters). Races are usually held as knockouts, with the best two in heats of four or five qualifying for the final race, where medals are awarded. Disqualifications and falls are not uncommon.

Roller Sports initiates children in to the arena of sports at a young age of 4 years itself. In India the competitive age groups 0-6 and 6-8 years both for boys and girls are retained at state level while 8-10, 10-12, 12-14, 14-16, 16 and above years are for State and National levels. However in case of Roller Hockey, the age groups are maintained as 8-12, 12-16, 16 & above years and for Inline Hockey the age group is 12 years and above.

Roller Skating Federation of India (RSFI) founded in 1955 is the National Governing body of this sport in India. It has a history of great achievements.

In 1990, The Government of India recognized Roller Skating as a National Sport and RSFI as the National Federation to govern and promote the sport of Roller Skating in the Country.

Besides RSFI, School Games Federation of India and Central Board of Secondary Education are annually conducting their All India level Skating Championship under technical guidance of RSFI.

The number of participation easily crosses the figure of 25,000 young players from all over the country who are taking part in various Club, District, State and National level competitions. Each year more than 1000 skaters are being added to the said number.

The Federation has been conducting annual camps and seminars for its 3 main disciplines i.e. Speed Skating, Roller and In-line Hockey and Artistic Skating. The said camps are conducted by experienced coaches who mostly are retired International Skaters/Players from India. RSFI has been inviting Foreign Coaches for imparting training to our national level players and national coaches for improving the technical standard of Roller Sports in India.