One of the first and most essential skills to learn is stopping. Let’s take a look at how to stop on inline, roller hockey skates.
How To Hockey Stop On Inline Roller Hockey Skates – Stance
First things first is the athletic stance:
Skates shoulder width apart
Knees slightly bend to give you a low centre of gravity and better control, balance over your body
How To Hockey Stop On Inline Roller Hockey Skates – Shifting weight
During stopping and a lot of different aspects of hockey you’ll need to develop your ability to shift weight. What this means is positioning your body so the weight distribution between your legs can be adapted when required. Do you do this by leaning towards to direction you want your weight. If you want the majority of your weight in your left leg, do this by positioning your nose directly over the toe cap of your left skate “nose to toes”. This will direct your weight into your left skate.
How To Hockey Stop On Inline Roller Hockey Skates – Stopping direction
At this stage you’ll need to decide which direction feels more natural stopping in. Your toes can either be pointing left or right either or doesn’t matter. Which ever skate ends up in front, this will be referred to as your stop leg, the skate behind will be referred to as the pivot leg.
While skating forward at a speed you feel comfortable with, swing your hips towards your preferred stopping direction. At the same time you’ll want to have your weight positioned towards the pivot leg which means you’ll need to lean back during the stopping motion. With your stopping leg you’ll need to try and dig the wheels into the group to stop while keeping your pivot leg behind (most of your weight will be in your pivot leg). The quicker you want to stop, the more weight you’ll need to put into your stopping leg. The angle of the skate also plays a vital role, if you’d like to stop more suddenly, the angle of the skate must be higher. The lower the angle of the skate the more you’ll slide.
