Different ways to stop!

[batonstar]

After reading the post 'How to stop on the ice!' I have a few questions.

I was also having problems trying a snow plough, but there are some helpful hints in that post for me to try when I go skating next.

There were some other types of stops mentioned - the T stop and the hockey stop.
Could somrone explain how to do these so I can try to learn all 3 & maybe see which one is best for me, and if there are any other types of stops please list and explain also.

Also mentioned in the 'How to stop on the ice!' post was something called a Mohawk.
Can someone explain how you do this move so I may be able to try it in the future?

Many Thanks!
Shell

[Mrs Redboots]

Read these pages (http://home.pacbell.net/anamga/intro.html#Basic%20Skating), which have been compiled by adult skaters over the years and which explain several basic skills.

If you're going to start doing Mohawks and other turns, you'd be best advised to take lessons. It's all too easy to learn things wrong, and then have to unlearn them, which is far more difficult!

[flippet]

How stable are you on the ice? That's going to determine whether you even want to attempt the more difficult stops and turns at this point.

A t-stop is performed with the free foot behind the skating foot--the free foot forms the 'top' of the T. Put your instep against your heel, blade off the ice. Bend your knees, lower your free foot to the ice. Now, the trick here is to use your *outside* edge to dig into the ice. You don't want to drag your foot on the inside edge. You also don't want to step on the tail of your skating blade! (This is why it's helpful to have a coach watching you.)

A hockey stop is performed by quickly turning the hips and pushing both blades out to the side (of the blades, not to your side--it's still in the main direction of movement). Honestly, I've never been able to do this properly. I can get a nice one-foot hockey stop, but the two-foot one trips me up every time. I've seen people go down hard on this one, so again--you probably want a coach.

A mohawk is a 180 degree turn, with a change of foot. There are different varieties, but the usual first one learned is like this: skate forward on an inside edge. Place the heel of the free foot at the instep of the skating foot. As you begin to set that foot down, you'll also turn your hips in the skating direction. Set the foot down so that you're now skating backward on the inside edge of the formerly free foot. (Lift the original skating foot when you put the other one down.)

It's definitely worth it to have a coach, if only for a visual demonstration of what you want to know! (And you really don't want to pick up bad habits!)

[ibreakhearts66]

my favorite way to stop is kind of an opposite T-stop. I've head it called a tango stop, but I don't know if this is its name. If you are going forward on your left foot, you put your right foot perpendicular to the toe of your left foot, so it looks like a T. You put weight on the outside edge of your right foot. It can be tricky at first, but is a pretty spectacular way to stop when you get the hang of it. And it is really effective. for me, its the easiest way to stop when i'm going quickly.