A big problem with new hockey players and skaters is learning how to stop, keeping in mind, there is more than one way to stop on ice, but only a few of these different ways are correct. We’ll be showing you how to hockey stop correctly, we’ll also include a video tutorial as well as a written tutorials so you (the view) can decide which you would prefer to use (maybe both)
The hardest and most difficult part of learning how to hockey stop is getting over the mental barrier of stopping, this can be from the fear of turning both feet/skates simultaneously or the thought of your skate blades digging into the ice and you being thrown over. We at hockeytutorial.com have a number of videos and written tutorials on stopping on ice, these tutorials will help build your understanding and confidence of the techniques used when stopping.
Hockey stopping instructions (How to hockey stop)
Glide for a few seconds to slow your speed (as you improve, this wont’ be necessary) as you glide, make sure your feet are shoulder width apart
Keep your head and shoulder parallel to the ice, if your head is looking to far up, the weight of your upper body will be directed behind you which could cause you to fall back. If you’re looking down, the weight is directed over the front of your skates which would cause you to fall forward.
(Old method) Bend your knees at an angle (as shown in the picture below) as you glide use the leverage of the bend to lift all your weight off your feet, with this weight off your feet, you should be able to use this to turn both feet 90degrees
Hop method while stopping
How does the hop method work?
When i say “hop” i don’t mean lifting your skates or feet of the ice or ground.. this is how it works:
While you’re in your forward strides, you’ll have your knees slight bent almost all the time while skating, to perform the hop, you simply push up off the ground or ice (placing yourself in the upright position very shortly) allowing your weight to be temporarily reduced giving you time to turn your skates with easy to the 90degree angle to stop(remember to lean back allowing your blades to be placed at the right angle while stopping). The sharper your skates are, the more you should lean back along with bending your knees more, this gives you’re a lower centre of gravity increasing your balance and control.
(New method)
Bend your knees in line with your toe caps of your skates, this is a great indication that your knees are bent correctly.
Next turn your skates 90 degrees from the direction your travelling in, at the same time you’ll also need to lean back (not too much) just to change the angle of your blades or skates to place them at the correct hockey stopping angle:
Angle of blade
Depending if you’re stopping to the right or the left, these next instructions might be reversed. Stopping to the right, you’ll need to use the inside edge of your left blade (skate) and the outside edge of your right blade (skate) want more information about the blades edges? click here. The momentum of the stop will bring your body back to the upright position after stopping.
The next part is to understand the concept of shaving the ice, this is the process of shaving or ploughing the ice with the edges or your blades.
A great way to practice this is to hold the barriers of the rink and use the edges of your blades to shave the ice to get use to feeling and sound of ploughing or shaving the ice (as this is the same sound and feeling you’ll get when performing the stop. here is a video covering this subject, the video contains everything written in this tutorial.
Learn how to stop on ice – How To Hockey Stop
(This video is a video speach version of the hockey to hockey stop video tutorials)
Older video on How to hockey stop (learn to stop on ice)
(This video is a text and images version of the hockey to hockey stop video tutorials)
Learn how to hockey stop with both feet
(Learn how to hockey stop with both feet – This video shows you how to stop on the ice with both your feet or skates)
