stopping!

[ouijaouija]

okay I can kinda to the tstop best, the hockey stop is a pain in the arse because its a quick stop. is this important to learn?

Also, is it imprtant to learn on both legs? because the snow plow i can only do that using my left foot to create the stop

This goes for turning etc, is it important to learn to turn both ways/learn everything on both feet?

thebook i bought said stopping hsould be as good as your skating, is this true?

[Isk8NYC]

Why would the book lie? Yes, it's incredibly important to be able to stop as well (read: FAST) as you can skate.

The ISI usually requires you to be able to do the stops on both sides for their tests. The USFSA LTS curriculum isn't as picky, but sometimes at Basic Skills competitions, they'll specify which one they want you to do. (Here's a secret: it's usually not the one you do best! LOL)

If you can handle a one-foot snowplow, start practicing a two-foot version. Then, you'll be able to transition to either foot more easily.

If you think about emergency situations, if someone comes at you from the left, you can't freeze their motion while you switch to stop on the right...

When I used to be a lifeguard-in-training in high school, we would joke with our friends when they pretended to be drowning: "Hey, you can't do that! We didn't cover that chapter yet!"

[Easton-Skater]

okay I can kinda to the tstop best, the hockey stop is a pain in the arse because its a quick stop. is this important to learn?

If you can snowplough stop on 1 foot already.....then I think you're like 90 percent there with the hockey stop. Because a hockey stop is basically to use 1 foot to slide or scrape the ice, while the other foot is used for extra balance or extra scraping power. So if you're applying the brakes with your left foot, and when you get very good at doing that, then it's just a matter of just getting the feel of doing a tad extra with the right foot...... that is, instead of having the right foot lifted off the ice while you're using the left foot to stop, you just have to slowly get the feeling of easing the right skate onto the ice as you're sliding along.

And when you're good at doing that, you'll eventually be able to do it all systematically and more quickly.

I think some important things with learning to do hockey stops are :

1) get used to doing the 1 foot stop, where you start from a snow plough position and gradually do necessary weight transfers to allow yourself to do slide/stop on 1 foot.

2) have the knees quite bent

3) weight on the skate blades on the ice during the process of the stop should be towards the front portion of the ice blade.

Actually, there's various kinds of hockey stops. The standard one is probably the one you're wanting to do now, which is just to get 1 foot to slide on the ice, while the other one gradually comes down onto the ice to help with balance and things like that.

Other hockey stops can involve various tricky little things with the ice blades on either feet and also in either direction. These things are just learnt with ice-time and experimentation, observing others, and getting tips from others (like figure skating coaches and hockey skating coaches, friends and friendly folks at the rink).

[beachbabe]

snowplow stop is probably the most important.

The hockey stop is useful but you just kinda learn it without doing anything. i never practiced it, but after a while i just kinda noticed myself jsut using it when I come up to the boards. You jsut kinda start doing it without really trying.

In programs I always use a t-stop or a 1 foot stop (is that what its called- you just kinda turn it parallel).

and yes, learn everything both ways. I had a real pain when I was starting out when i realized I couldn't do my LFI3 or RFO3 becasue I'd never had to use them for a jump, but it was important for moves in the field tests.

[sarahg]

With your snowplough stop it sounds like you may be favouring your right leg (which is probably your stronger one) and so the weight is too far over on that side. To get a 2 foot snowplough stop (which is what they will require for your Skate UK Level 2 test - or at least that is what they require at my rink) just make sure your weight is in the centre and equal over both blades. Both blades should then slide easily if you are on the flat of the blade.

[Easton-Skater]

That's right .... it helps to be on the flats of the blade. And also helps if the weight on the ice blade is toward the front portion of the blade, which I think reduces the amount of contact area between the skate blade and the ground (the ice), so the skate can slide easier as compared to just having the weight on the middle portion of the ice blade.

[ouijaouija]

hi all!

i've learned snowplow fairly well, i don't loo ktoo glamorous but it does the job!

I mean when stopping from a slow pace I can stop striaght off and requireno skidding.

about the hockey stop, how does one scrape the surface and slowly come to a stop? I either stop straight off and fall down bad, or jus... fall down!

[sue123]

I hate stopping, absolutely hate it. Although it's a necessary evil, especially if you skate on public skates or crowded sessions. I learned to stop when I was still on hockey skates when I was little. The way I learned it is probably not the greatest method. My dad, who played hockey in Russia, would pull me around the rink. He'd be skating really fast, and then let go of me when we got close to the boards. I had to learn to stop or else I'd go crashing into the boards. Yea, my dad was one of those throw the kid in the deep end and let them learn to swim kind of dads. But it worked :D

[Easton-Skater]

hi all!

i've learned snowplow fairly well, i don't loo ktoo glamorous but it does the job!

I mean when stopping from a slow pace I can stop striaght off and requireno skidding.

about the hockey stop, how does one scrape the surface and slowly come to a stop? I either stop straight off and fall down bad, or jus... fall down!

If you skate along in a forward direction, you can try a half snow plough by keeping one skate facing directly ahead, and the other skate gently scraping the ice with the inside edge of the blade. The weight on that scraping blade should be on the front 1/3 portion of the blade. If you experiment around enough, you'll eventually be able to teach your body how to change body positioning so as to keep the scraping skate on the ice while very gradually reducing weight on the skate that's pointed straight ahead. There is a certain positioning of the skate that you will eventually be able to find that will allow the skate to scrape the ice while you're balanced on just that scraping foot (with your body correctly balanced and positioned as well that is).

Understanding that the less contact surface between the blade and the ice makes it easier for the skate to slide sideways will help a lot - which means reduce weight from rear of skate and try to concentrate weight towards FRONT part of skate. You may also have to play around with the angle of the skate blades relative to the VERTICAL position in the search of the best skate positioning that will allow your skate to slide along sideways most easily.

Keep the knees quite bent will help with balance and things while you're trying all that. Try to keep your upper body and head facing the front more or less. And try not to lean your body forward too much. Once you know how to lift one skate off the ice while the other skate is still scraping, you can then hone your balancing skills so that you can slide for longer distances with more practice. At first you may only know how to do teeny slides, like 10 centimetres! But the more you play around with that, the more your body will tune to give you longer and more controlled slides. Then once you have learned how to slide for long distances on one foot, it is then possible to practice adjusting skate angles and things to scrape that ice with more aggression (to give better stopping power).

[ouijaouija]

thanks for the help!

plows are easy now, concentrating on one foot to stop and the other just gliding. T stops are going good too.

I just can't get this hockey stop sorted, its the hardest thing so far! Ill probably concentrate on it this week, if i get some space to practise!

[MQSeries]

Any tips for learning the one-foot stop where the stopping foot is in front of your body? That move scares me.

I mean the front foot is in the position like in a T-stop but it's in front instead of behind the gliding foot.

[Easton-Skater]

Any tips for learning the one-foot stop where the stopping foot is in front of your body? That move scares me.

I mean the front foot is in the position like in a T-stop but it's in front instead of behind the gliding foot.

There's areas on the ice blade that you can feel or find (with practice and experimentation...and skating experience) that allow your blade to transition from a glide to a slide. When you discover the skate positioning to do that and get used to stayng balanced on that sliding leg, you'll be able to do that one-foot stop too. Anybody will be able to learn how to do this given a bit of time. It's not one of those intuitative moves though I guess....just as spinning one 1 or even 2 feet on the ice and power pulls aren't intuitative either. Actually, the 1 foot stop with the 'inner skate' is definitely easier than power pulls and spinning. For the 1 foot stop....sometimes it's easier to learn by making yourself skate around a circular path....sometimes easier to initiate the slides when you do that.

[WannabeS8r]

okay I can kinda to the tstop best, the hockey stop is a pain in the arse because its a quick stop. is this important to learn?

Also, is it imprtant to learn on both legs? because the snow plow i can only do that using my left foot to create the stop

This goes for turning etc, is it important to learn to turn both ways/learn everything on both feet?

thebook i bought said stopping hsould be as good as your skating, is this true?

Well, most people already told you what I planned to say...But you mentioned that you are taking (or took) classes. Did you take the "Basic" classes? (just curious)

[ouijaouija]

hi, i just started 3 weeks ago, ive had two lessons one on one, not learned a lot from the man yet to be honest, and its a lot of money. Everything i am learning is from books i bought.

Hockey stops, i got some done today at slow speed, but i have this problem that i can't do it in the middle of the rink, i have to be doing it into the barrier for somereason it must have something to do with imagining the stopping distance etc

other than that i would love to learn backward crossovers, but i think that is one thing my instructor could help mne on becaus ei can't make head to tail of it by looking at others.

[Easton-Skater]

Yep..... learning hockey stops along the barrier is a very good and smart way of getting into it. Because then you can slowly get used to the feel of things and have the barrier there next to you in case you need to hang on to it. You can hone your skills there until you get to the stage where you will feel confident enough to go it alone (away from the barriers). When you're ready, stay close to the barrier and simply don't touch the wall when you slide....just have the barrier ready to hand on to if you need it. Don't rush things. Just take your time enjoying the new experience and thrill of learning it. Because later, once you get very good at it, it's not that fun anymore hehehe.