Hi

This may sound like a really stupid question and I appologise for asking it. I am an adult beginner and have recently sustained a really bad concussion which has totally knocked my confidence. I was skating for leisure 4 weeks ago and woke up in a freezing cold puddle on the ice. I was only cleared to return to normal activities this week, so I decided to go skating again.

After some time I regained some confidence and learned how to balance again on brand new skates but I am having problems stopping.

Instead of just running out of momentum and skating around in a circle until I stop I would like to be able to use the snow plough stop.

I realise that you have to turn in your left foot so that it is slightly pigeon toed but I do not know where I am supposed to shift my weight on the blades.

Do i shift my weight to the left skating leg and just gently trail the stopping foot across the ice, or do i lean my weight onto the foot that is turned in to stop?

I appologise again for posting such a basic question.

Andrea UK

well, the troublke stopping could be from a super sharp balde. You can run the blade on wood to make it a little duller.

To do that stop you shift your weight away from the leg you are pushing out and gently push out. Do it in place first then when you egt comfortable you can push it out harder.

Its not really a very good stop, I use ther t-stop alot because i think it looks nice and one foot stops for programmes. Once you learn more advanced skills you prolly won't use the snowplow stop at all so dont focus on it too much.

Snow plow stops are done with both toes turned inward. The weight is balanced evenly on the inside edge of both blades.

There is no trailing foot.

I know this can be scary. Start by hanging on to the board and taking each foot separately and scraping the inside edge outward on the ice. We call it "making snow" because if you are doing it properly, you end up with a little pile of shaved ice. After you've practiced with both feet, try gently gliding forward a few feet going painfully slow and putting your toes together (push out with your heels). You should naturally be on your inside edges.

It takes time and practice.

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Many go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. - Henry David Thoreau

Thankyou guys, I will try this on Thursday at a very slow pace or im sure to go head over heals

Andrea

Well, actually, you would only lead with your left foot if you are a clockwise jumper/spinner. Obviously, you haven't done any of that yet so you wouldn't know, but most people who skate are counterclockwise (I think right-handedness vs. left-handedness has something to do with it, but there are exceptions to that so it's not a 100% correlation). If you are having a lot of difficulty stopping using your left foot as the lead foot, try it with your right and see if that's easier.

I generally shift my weight more toward the back foot rather than the foot that is pigeon-toeing. The key is to use your inside edge to stop - if your blade is on a flat, it won't work, your foot will just slide around. Try it holding on to the wall first to get the feeling of it. You should move your stopping foot out with the ankle/foot turned inward toward you (inside edge) and if done correctly, you'll see snow kick up away from you.

Edited to add after I saw the other responses (guess we all posted at the same time!) that I was taught to move one foot out to stop, but it sounds like Gary does something different. Either way will work, depending on what your instructor is teaching and what you feel comfortable with. Like everything else in skating, there are always different schools of thought - lol.

hi andrea,

i'm not sure from your post but it sounds to me like yoor describing a cross between a snowplow stop and a T-stop?

for the snow plough you would want to turn both your feet in, you can do one footed snow ploughs but i think that it is easier to learn the two foot first IMO.

the way i was taught is to turn both your feet inwards so they are making an arrow shape that faces in the direction of travel, put your weight on the balls of your feet and really bend your knees so that they are lined up over your feet (so you can't see them), from this position you are in effect trying to push your feet apart (not so far that you cant get back up ).

you might find that you favour putting most of your weight on one foot, i did at first.

good to hear that you haven't let your fall put you off

good luck

ooh look at that by the time i'd typed all that 4 other people have answered your question i should learn to type faster

The two footed snow plow stop is usually the first one taught, but some people do find the one footed to be easier. Gary's instructions for the two footed are excellent, but I would add a few things to them: 1) Bend your knees 2) Keep your arms in front of you at waist height 3) Push with the balls of your feet (if your weight goes to your heels you may go over backwards in spite of bending your knees and having arms in front).

If you want to try the one footed snow plow stop: 1) Bend one knee deeply, this is the foot you will keep your weight on 2) Pigeon toe the other foot and allow it to slowly and gently slide forward, scraping the ice as it goes, this is the foot that stops you. 3) Keep your arms in front at waist height, and remain facing straight ahead, do not let your shoulders turn.

Even better than all of our instructions, how about having a few private lessons?

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FWIW, I've been skating about a year now with lessons, two for fun, and I still can't get a snowplow stop. I have a good T-stop, though. I find the one-foot snowplow to be really awkward, and I still don't think I understand how it's supposed to work.

That's very, very unusual. Are you using the outside edge on your T stop, or dragging your blade on the inside edge? In all of the snow plow stop variations, F, B, one or two footed, the inside edge is used, but the T stop requires the outside edge, which is what makes it harder for most skaters to learn.

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Can't add anything that hasn't been said already but just to say that I found the 'one foot snowplough' easier than the 'two foot'. Try both and see which you prefer and don't forget to bend those knees

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The best whisper is a click

crayonskater I have exactly the same problem. I can do a Tstop on either foot with no troubles at all yet I couldn't do a snowplough stop to save my life!! In fact the day I passed the test I'm sure it was just a fluke....

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AW1
mum to Miss Lil (6yrs old)
mum to be to #2 due in March 08

OK if I do the one footed snow plough, when i relax my weight back onto the left leg (skating foot) which edge do I need to be on? Also when i gently scrape the pigeon toed foot (right) what edge do I need to scrape with, inside or outside? Damn I feel so restricted becuase I cant even perform a stop

Saying that I havent had a lesson yet, I start next week

Andrea

Andrea: You will probably find it easier to use the inside edge of the stopping foot (at least I did).

I am one of those people who never mastered the snow plough stop, not the first time nor after returning many years later. I found it easier (this time) to go straight to the one-footed stop. Once you have your forward one-foot glide, it's easy to put your free foot down gently at 90 degrees to the direction of travel (or as close to 90 as you can) and then slowly transfer your weight to the inside edge of the stopping foot. It doesn't take long to master and it is a much nicer stop than the snow plough.

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Dianne
(A.O.S.S.? Got it BAD! )

Don't know if anyone said this, but when I was practising any of my stops I used the boards. I skated along slower than usual parallel to the boards. I kept my right or left hand hovering just above the boards. As I stopped, I would put my hand on the boards to keep myself from falling if I didn't stop good. I've skated next to the boards and used them to practice for many things. My coach showed me how to use them to turn myself for Mohawks when I was just learning those too.
I really used the boards when I learned my t stops!!!

I, too, never learned to do a two-footed snowplow stop, but I can stop very well with a snowplow stop using my right foot only. To this day, I can't really do it with my left foot. Debbie, interesting that you said clockwise skaters would be more apt to use their left foot since I am a clockwise skater!

A proper T-stop is much harder since you have to lean back and use that outside edge of the back foot. (Incidentally I can only do a T-stop with my left foot.) If you are doing a stop by dragging the back foot along on the inside edge, that's not a T-stop as far as I know. I've actually only seen beginners or public session skaters stop that way. The skaters I know all use one foot snowplow stops (sometimes literally skating only on the foot that's doing the stopping) or hockey stops or T-stops.

A funny note. In my group classes, I remember they didn't teach us how to stop until several classes had gone by, and our coach finally taught us (earlier than scheduled) because he got tired of us whining about not knowing how to stop! I thought it was funny at the time because, you know, it helps to be able to stop when you are skating around the ice in a crowded class setting!

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August 22, back on the ice!

LOL! IIRC, my Basic 1 instructor taught us the stop the first week, b/c he said that is usually the toughest skill in that level to learn, so he wanted to make sure we'd have the whole lesson series to work on it.

On the first day of group lessons, I arrived at the rink to check in and the skating director (who happens to now be my coach) commented that I looked like an athlete and was I sure I belonged in Basic 1 (I was wearing spandex leggings and a fleece sweater/jacket) - lol. I had actually taken skating lessons for about 3 months or so when I was 8 (post-1980 Oly rush) so that's probably why most of the beginner skills were easier for me to get than some of the kids in my group, but the main reason I signed up for Basic 1 at the start was b/c I'd forgotten how to stop! Weird - I remembered backward swizzles/sculls and I could stroke forward around the rink, but as AndreaUK described, I could only stop by letting momentum (or lack thereof) slow me down. I figured I'd better get that down before moving on to other skills.

LOL!! Strange thing . . . . After 36 years away and first getting back on the ice, the only way I could stop was with a pair of two-footed turns: tight 90 degree turn to the right pivoting on the right foot followed by 180 degree backwards turn pivoting on the left foot. Don't ask me where it came from (it must be a left-over from decades ago), it looks fancy, and it does work, but I sure wouldn't try to teach it !!!

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Dianne
(A.O.S.S.? Got it BAD! )

I always start teaching snowplow stops (2 footed) from the first lesson. Very few people get it right away, but it takes repetition and correction to master the maneuver so I repeat the lessons each week and correct their posture/feet/etc.

I refer to the beginner's t-stop as the "drag and pray" stop because everyone starts out using the blade wrong - toe picks grinding in, inside edge skipping along! LOL Eventually, students get the "use your OUTSIDE edge" hint.

Rusty Blades: If you can do a 90-degree turn, you can master a hockey stop. I'll try to find the thread where we covered it last year.

[Edited to add:] FOUND IT! Hockey Stop Thread

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That is so funny! Thanks for the laugh.

I wanted to add another funny "can't stop" story. I had gotten the hang of doing a one-foot snowplow stop, but I couldn't stop going backwards yet, and I used to let myself slow down and sometimes would turn 90 degrees so I would back into the wall. I couldn't skate very fast at that time, so that method had worked for me. Well, one day I was skating in a different rink, backwards, and tried to stop by backing into the wall, and there was no wall! Because there was an open door right at that point, but I didn't realize it! Well, I realized it when there was nothing there, and so I tried not to fall backwards out of the rink, and so I was leaning forward and I ended up falling forward onto my knees. In. slow. motion. Then I sat on the ice and laughed hysterically. Seriously. A little kid skated over to me and asked if I was okay, LOL! So that's my story of how I almost fell out of the rink because I didn't know how to stop!

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August 22, back on the ice!

Thanks but I have a nice one-foot stop now, one I find even more effective than a hockey stop (and it looks nicer to!)

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Dianne
(A.O.S.S.? Got it BAD! )

I teach my classes in much the same way as Isk8NYC. The snowplow stop does usually take a while to get--it's rare that it's instant. For beginning adults in particular, the thought of scraping a blade against the ice is counter-intuitive and takes a while to master--I remember doubting the snowplow myself.

That being said, as a coach and a skater myself, I am hesitant to recommend any form of t-stops (including both the "drag and pray" method and outside-edge t-stops) as the best way to stop, as was suggested at the beginning of this thread. Proper t-stops are beautiful stops that can be a lot of fun and that look great in programs, but they also require very good balance on one foot and the ability to maintain a straight line while stopping with one foot. The stopping with an outside edge at a 90 degree angle takes skaters a while to master.

No matter how aesthetic the t-stop is, it can't be performed as quickly nor effectively as a snowplow. When instructing our thirty-minute group classes, I use snowplow variations nearly once a minute--from playing games with the kids to demonstrating moves to skating quickly over to fallen students. When skating on public sessions myself, the snowplow has proven invaluable in allowing me to dodge the frequent obstacles I encounter on the ice. The extra second it would take for me to put my foot in the t-position would be too late for me to avoid many of these obstacles.

Andrea, keep practicing your snowplows, no matter how difficult they may seem. Once you've mastered them, you'll never look back...and your ts and hockeys will become that much easier!

What I explained is a true snowplow stop. Later, students develop the way you explained. We teach this way so that students will learn to stop with both feet. Always learn to stop from both sides.

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Many go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. - Henry David Thoreau

Same here! Backwards one foot snowplow is also a valuable tool in teaching groups.


In a one footed snowplow, you are not on an edge. You should be skating straight forward, basically on the flat of the blade with your weight just a little to the back of the arch. If you turn your shoulders, it will put you onto an edge (people usually go to the inside) and will cause you to turn instead of stopping (or turn and stop more slowly because of it). On all snowplow stops, you scrape with the inside edge of the blade. To do that, you need to drop your ankle a little on the stopping foot.

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Proper T-stop, with the trailing foot on an outside edge (and the shavings flying in a little line, whoooosh.)