What are the best ways to stop when skating besides crashing into the wall?

Question

I have perfected crashing into the wall to stop; I don't need any more practice at it. I am looking for some other easy ways and the steps necessary to practice it.

Answer 1

Christopherrisi's answer's good.

To practice a regular hockey stop, and borrowing his "diagram," do this:

you start like this I I

Take one skate, pick it up, continue to glide on your other skate, and very, very slowly and carefully "shave" the ice with the other skate, at an angle where it's in front and to the side of the moving skate.

As you shave the ice with that skate, you'll have to bend your knees.

You'll also slow down.

It looks like this, only that second skate should be slightly in front of the first: I \

Eventually, you want both skates to shave like that. \\

That's a proper hockey stop.

If you're having problems learning to snowplow, try grabbing the wall, facing the boards, and shussshing your skates out in the snowplow shape over and over again. Sometimes taking some weight off the blades (by leaning on the wall) makes practicing that motion easier.

Using your edges (turns, stops, crossovers) takes three things: 1) trust of your edge and familiarity with where it is and how it digs, 2) strengthening your foot and ankle muscles so you can make those minute changes of angle and hold them and 3) a lot a lot a lot a lot of practice. Don't give up.

Hockey becomes exponentially easier and more rewarding as your skating skills improve. Keep at it!

Answer 2

The two easiest stops are the t stop and the snowplow stop. The t stop is the first stop i learned as a skater. just pick a foot and turn it sideways, dragging it behind you as you glide, forming a 't'.

I
--

That one's not hard to master. Just drag for a bit, exerting pressure, and you'll soon come to a clean stop. Just try not to put on too much pressure, or you'll find your face smash against the ground.

The other stop, the snowplow, consists of taking your left or right foot (whichever one you're more comfortable with-for this example, let's say it's your left) and, gliding with you feet a shoulder-width apart, slowly sliding your left foot so that it comes to about a 45 degree angle and your right foot is still straight. Your two feet look like this:

/ I

Keep moving your left foot sideways until it's almost perpindicular to your right, but still in front and off to the left side. Once you apply pressure to your left foot, you should slowly skid to a halt.

I hope this info helps. After you've mastered these stops, I'm sure you'll be ready to try the hockey stop, which is a little more difficult.

Below are some sights that might provide further help. Good luck!

Answer 3

If your skating is decent try bending your knees as you slow down and slowly curve your body in the direction of your choice. You'll have to practice for a bit but eventually you'll find your own rythym. The whole trick is to find a good flow and continue with it. Only you will determine what's more comfortable. Most players in the N.H.L. don't skate the same. You could always take powerskating classes.

Answer 4

Slowing down when you want to stop is a good way, use the wall if you need to at times to help you keep your balance. I wouldn't suggest sliding in an arc just yet until you get a little better at skating.

Answer 5

the easiest ways to learn to stop while skating is to use a turning technique. a hockey stop is essentially a very fast turn and thrust, if you can get comfortable with wide turns and then gradually shorten the turns as you gain confidence, you will be able to hockey stop in no time.
practice makes perfect.

Answer 6

For beginers its called the plow, try and do this first, it will slow you down enough until you become skilled enough on your skates to try a turn stop.

The trick to it is to turn both of your feet inwards a little bit...I will try to do a diagram of the skate blades if you were looking at your feet.

You are skating like this....

I I

This will slow you down if you turn your skates like this.....

/ \

Try that out, it should serve your purpose until you become good enough to sideways stop.

Answer 7

hmmmm....... well if you would like you could try crashing into other people, i mean that will stop you but most likely knock them over................ I'm sorry i can't even think of a really good answer to this......... : ) yeah that's all i got, try running into people it would probably be a lot more fun running into them instead of the wall. : )
Have Fun!

Answer 8

you can drag a skate (either bladewise or use the blade point) to slow down, you can "ice"(sliding sideways and spraying ice shavings)

Answer 9

Fall on your patute.

Answer 10

crashing into someone else??
sorry couldnt resist