While learning the Penguin Stop there are a few points you need to learn FIRST:
- Body position
- Balance
- Edges
- Confidence
Your body position controls where your weight is going and also your balance, by getting yourself into a athletic stance (skates shoulder width apart, head up, chest up, shoulders parallel to the ice and knees slightly bent) This gives you a low centre of gravity and increases the level of control and balance you have.
Making sure your using the correct edges will be essential in learning this stop correctly (while also avoiding injury). With the Penguin stop, you will be using your outside edges on both skates.
Learning the technique is important, but if you don’t have the confidence to apply this in practice, it will be long an painful. In order to develop the confidence we have a few drills and stops that you can work on before trying the Penguin stop. These drills will build your confidence and help you achieve your overall goal.
Inverted Snow Plough
This inverted snow plough stop allows you to learn how to stop on your outside edge while building your confidence and leg flexibility (which will all benefit you while doing the Penguin stop).
Once you have master this inverted stop on both sides (left skate and right skate), try to lift your back leg off the ice while stopping, if your confident enough to do this your half way to the Penguin stop. The next step is to integrate this stop with both your skates, while stopping shift your weight from one skate to the other (if your right skate is on the ice stopping then your left skate should be off the ice).
Normal Snow Plough
Another stop that will help develop the confidence and use of your edges is the T-Stop on one foot, this stop uses the outside edge like the Penguin stop. Check out the video tutorial below.
