Can someone please explain to me how to do a T-Stop. It's been a year since I've done them and I was just learning them last season.

Thanks in advance,
Kenton Sefcik

Well the first way I learned, and what my book says, is this:

"The T Stop: This starts with the skater standing on one foot and gliding in a straight line. The skating leg should be bent and the position of the free leg should be as for correct forward skating, in other words extended behind and turned out at 90 degrees. The blade of the free foot is placed on the ice directly behind the skating foot. The inside edge must touch the ice and then you must keep your body weight over the skating foot until you feel the free foot touching the ice. At this point you slowly transfer your weight onto the free foot. As you do this the inside edge will drag across the ice, creating friction and bringing you to a standstill. During the stop the skating knee will rise slowly until the stop is completed. At the completion of the stop the feet will be together in a T position giving the stop its name"

However some people here said that was wrong, as did some people I asked at the rink. The other way of doing it is to open the hips and bend the knees more, and use the OUTSIDE edge of the free leg to stop. This is the only way I've been doing it recently, though I can't stop as quickly as I could using the inside edge to stop yet.

Um, yeah, that must be a misprint or something, because you do use the free skate's outside edge in a T-stop...otherwise, you're just dragging your foot, which is incorrect.


In short, do a one-foot glide, putting the instep of your free foot against your skating heel. Slowly push the free foot straight down, putting pressure on the outside edge of the blade. (The toe of the skating foot may come up slightly.) The trick is to be sure the free foot is well clear of the blade tail on the skating foot---it's not much fun to step on a blade tail...you often end up on your own tail!

Getting the inside and outside edge mixed up in this position is common at first...just think of 'shoveling snow' with your back skate...you cut down into the snow with a shovel, you don't turn it face-down and drag it over the snow.

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I sometimes let students, particularly apprehensive adults, "learn" the stop by simply dragging the back foot. I make absolutely sure that they do understand that the correct way to do it (i.e. the way it has to be done to pass Beta/whichever USFS level it's on) is with the outside edge. I've found that adults who have been sedentary or are just plain closed-hipped may need awhile to train their bodies to do it correctly; however, I can't tell you how many adults who told me "I'll never be able to do that" HAVE been able to learn it. T-stops are not easy, I struggled with them too and I would have only been 11 years old at the time. I don't think I was made to learn them on both feet either- when I started teaching I had to quickly figure out how to do them the other way!

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Yes, it is the outside edge, and I couldn't do one to save my life until I switched from hockey skates to figure skates one month ago.

Then, miraculously, it was easy. At least on my right foot. Still not as nice on my left, but it's there.

Go figure.

Haha! Nice pun.

Most beginners start with an inside edge stop, then learn to do the outside edge stop. The hips and control are the most important thing to concentrate on in the beginning.


I learned it as an inside-edge-slowdown-change-outside-edge-stop! I think it was to demonstrate ability to make the edge change and control speed.

Make sure to keep your feet together or it is just foot-dragging!

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Intentional, too!

I think it's probably best to learn the inside edge version first anyways. For one, you learn the balance required to do it, so when you try the outside one later and your blade slips and is suddenly on an inside edge dragging, you don't fall on your face. For another, at least for me, it's the fastest way to stop. If a bunch of kids suddenly merge together in front of me and disaster awaits, an inside edge T is the way I'll stop or slow down, because it's the fastest way I've found to stop so far. Maybe that will change as I get better at the outside edge T...

Well, I always find a snowplow stop is the quickest way to stop in a hurry. I'm still working on getting the T stops consistent and unscary at medium speed -- I wouldn't even try it at full speed.

I'm the opposite! Snowplow stops aren't as easy for me, and I can barely manage them at all with my left foot. But I can charge down the rink at top speed, and start an inside T on the last line and stop before hitting the boards. As for the outside T...that needs a lot of practice, but I can start it at full speed no problem...I just can't slow down as fast, and often slip and end up dragging the inside edge by mistake.

Um, that's actually a LOT of space. You ought to be able to do a sudden, controlled stop within a foot or two at the most. I also find a snowplow (one-foot snowplow, actually--my left foot never really seems to get as much bite as the right anyway) to be the quickest way. It's just so easy--turn/shove, and you're stopped clean.

I would never teach an inside edge drag 't-stop' first, but I wouldn't berate a new learner for it...just keep encouraging them to work on doing it correctly. The key is to learn how to start with light pressure, and steadily increase it until you're stopped. If the pressure isn't steady, that's when you do that little 'chop-chop-chop' thing that can land you on your knees.

__________________
"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg."
--Thomas Jefferson

www.signingtime.com ~sign language fun for all!

I, too, prefer snowplow stops.

In my synchro program, we're ending with a tango stop. YIKES!! Everyone's been practicing that like crazy, even the instructors that are on the team.

A tango stop is a T-stop witht the free foot in front.

I never learned a regular T-stop on an inside edge -- always on the outside. But I have a very, very strong philosophy that even if it takes me six times as long, I want to learn stuff the right way the first time around. It's probably why I'm so very darn content working my edges and stroking like mad.

ITA. I use the one foot snowplow both forwards and backwards. A hockey stop would be even faster, if I had the guts to do one at full speed. I only learned it because I had to teach it, so I am never forced to do it at speed. A lot of the kids I teach a hockey stop to do it better than I do after their first lesson

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With hockey skates I could be going full tilt, and throw on the brakes with a hockey stop. One footed, even.

I still don't have it together enough to try it at full speed on figure skates, but I do think it will be the fastest way to put the brakes on. Just keep sinking down instead of rising up & the skates should skid.

We are working on a very interesting stop at the end of our free dance (test version), since neither of us can stop decently. We come to it from a chasse/swing sequence, where I am going forwards and Himself is going backwards, I am skating on a RFO edge and Himself on an LBO. After the swing, we step wide with our new feet right underneath us, sort of sideways, so I'm standing on my left foot and himself on his right, and we do a sideways push with my right/his left foot, which brings us to an immediate halt. Actually, I stop, he doesn't, just yet, but it's coming!

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