A common problem that many new hockey players have is learning how to stop. I don’t mean stopping by dragging your foot, doing a 360 or running into the boards, I mean doing a proper hockey stop! I have written this article to help you learn how to stop in hockey, I have also made a how to stop in hockey video that I have added below. You can watch the video if you prefer a visual lesson, I will include key points below the video.
The first video shows the basics of stopping on skates. The biggest part of stopping on skates is getting over the mental barrier. Here is the first video
How to Stop on Hockey Skates Video
As you can see in the video the main concept to grasp is that you have to peel the ice, and you will be sliding sideways for a brief second. The most important point to take away from this video is that you MUST keep your momentum moving in the direction you are skating, otherwise you will just turn around. Now you can watch the how to hockey stop video
How to Hockey Stop Video
If you like this video you can subscribe to our channel on YoutubeLearning how to hockey stop can be tough, but by learning the proper technique, taking it slow, and practicing a lot you should be able to learn in no time! Here is the process of stopping in hockey
A player starts by skating forwards, when the player is ready to stop they will lift one leg slightly to take weight off of it (this can become the back leg or front leg but for the purposes of this example this will become the back leg). With a bit of weight taken off of one skate, the player will start to lean back, rotate their hips and shoulders and begin to turn with their other leg (this leg becomes the front leg). When the player has turned their front leg approximately 90 degrees they will now plant their back leg about 1 foot behind their front leg. At this point the player will be leaning back, and keeping the momentum moving in the direction they were skating. With both feet planted the player will slide for a brief second before coming to a full stop. This sounds like a lot to learn and a long process, but it happens in less than a second. You can see this process in action in the video above if you would like. I have also added pictures of how the hockey stop happens below.
Hockey Stop – Start
You can see here that I am just finishing my last stride from skating, and now preparing to stop. I am pushing off with my back leg (left leg) and getting ready to land with my front leg (my right leg).
Hockey Stop – Rotate Hips
You can see that I have pushed off with my back leg (my left leg), landed with my front leg, and now I am beginning the hockey stop. I am starting to rotate my hips, and turning my front foot. At the same time I will be leaning back, and bringing my back leg behind my front leg.
Hockey Stop – Planting Your Feet
I have now rotated my hips a bit, turned my front foot enough to begin stopping, and just starting to plant my back leg. the back leg is used for balance, and also a bit for stopping. Most of the weight will be placed on the front leg. The key here is to lean back (so you don’t topple over) and peel ice. To stop you will be using the inside edge of the blade on your front skate, and outside edge of the blade on your back skate. I will pivot both of my skates just a little more, then really lean into the stop.
How To Hockey Stop
Here you can see the stop in action. I have peeled a lot of ice with my front leg and a bit with my back leg as well (hard to see though in this picture) The key is to keep moving in the direction that you are skating. If you have trouble stopping like this (you keep spinning or going in circles) try some of the drills I mention in the video, or in the article below.
Now that you know how a hockey stop happens I will teach you how to do it.
Learning To Stop in Hockey
- The biggest obstacle in learning to stop on skates is the mental barrier that people put up. In the video and in this article I show you how you can overcome the mental barrier of stopping on ice. As you become more comfortable with the concept of how to stop on skates you will get better and better.
- Start slow – Start skating slowly, and stopping slowly, in fact at first you will only be using one leg to stop, not both. If you are just starting, try holding onto the boards and just pushing off with your leg and get the feeling of your skate sliding sideways. Then move onto the next point
- For your first hockey stop, take a few strides to get moving, glide for a second and make sure your balance is right. Now Lift a bit of weight off of the skate of your strong leg, rotate your hip a bit, turn your skate (of the leg that you just lifted) about 90 degrees (so it is almost perpendicular to your other skate) and plant your skate in front of you. Your strong leg should now slow you down and then stop you. You should use your other leg for balance. Practice doing this until you get used to using the inside edge of your strong leg to stop. If you feel comfortable at stopping like this then increase your speed a bit, practice doing it faster and faster until you have it down. Remember to practice stopping with both legs, in hockey you need to be able to stop with your body facing in both directions, so start practicing it now. If you can stop like this you are halfway there.
- You now know how to use one foot to stop, and the other for balance, with a hockey stop you should be using both feet to stop, but you are not ready to do that just yet, first you should practice stopping with only one foot! That’s right one foot and it is not as hard as you think. Earlier we were using one foot for balance, but your front leg was doing all of the work. Now we need to build your balance even more by taking away that leg you were using for balance. Perform the same motion as we talked about before, but take a bit of weight, or all of your weight off of your balance foot, try just using your front leg (your strong leg) to stop (as shown in the hockey stop video). Once you are comfortable taking weight off of your balancing leg, try lifting it right up. This will build your confidence in using your inside edge to stop, and the motion of sliding a bit, and keeping the momentum moving in the direction you were skating. That is pretty much it, now you can use both feet and do a full hockey stop!
- To do the full hockey stop, skate forwards, lift your strong leg, rotate your hips a bit, lean back, and turn your body to the side so that both skates are now sideways (compared to how they were pointing before). Plant your back foot and dig in until you stop. Congratulations, you have just learned how to hockey stop. The only thing you need to do now is put that knowledge into action.
Understanding Your Edges
As requested by Jacky – If you have read our How to Ice Skate article you will know that when you are skating, each skate blade actually rests on two thin edges. When you skate, turn, and stop you need to use your edges. When you are playing this comes as second nature, but can be hard for some beginners to understand, and may help you learn to stop and skate if you learn about your edges. I have included some pictures that may help you understand how to use your edges to stop.
This shows a front view of what a hockey stop would look like. This would be the front foot, in this case the left leg is leading the stop. On this skate you are using your inside edge, on the other foot you will be using your outside edge.
This show's a close-up of the hockey skate blade. You can see what I mean by the inside edge doing most of the work. The outside edge barely touches the ice.
You can see the inside edge of the left skate at work, while the outside edge of the right skate is being used. If a player were to stop in the other direction, the opposite would apply
This shot shows what the skates would look like if they were coming at you. You need to lean back in order to slide, and then stop. Remember, like in the video, practice with one foot, then try with both.
I hope this article has helped you learn how to stop in hockey. If you would like more hockey tips like this then you can subscribe to the articles with the box to the left.
Thanks for reading, let me know what you think (or add some tips of your own)
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{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey i am still having problems doing the hockey stop, everytime i do it i turn 360 what could i do to fix this problem any drills off ice?
For off ice you could put on some thick socks and go to your wood floor, or smooth floor. Stand with your feet a bit wider than shoulder width apart and push off sideways with one foot, slide with the other. Do this back and forth. This will get you used to the feeling of sliding.
Next time you are on skates go and stand next to the boards, hold on with one hand so your one shoulder is facing the boards. Push out with one foot, just so you get used to your inside edge of your one skate peeling ice.
Once you get comfortable doing this, then push off with your one foot, and slide / stop with the other (just like you practiced in your living room) Try it out and let me know if that helped.
Well im still not getting a hang of it, maybe im doing it wrong. Is it possible for you to make a video on how to do it? If you could that’ll be awesome cause im a visual learner
Oh yea, i was wondering whats inside and outside edge
When you skate you are actually skating on the two edges of the blade.Here is a quick diagram of what I mean.
Pretend you are on the ice, and looking down at your skates. Your inside edge will be the right edge on the blade of your left skate, and the left edge on the blade of your right skate. Does that make sense? When you do a full hockey stop, say leading with your right foot you are using the inside edge of your right foot, and outside edge of your left foot.
This video might help explain what I am talking about as far as learning the motions. The instruction starts at 1:30 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fsrc5TX6Y5M
I will be sure to make a video for you, we have some ice time on Friday and we have a lot of videos planned to shoot.
It can be frustrating, but it will take a while until you get it, the key is to keep on trying.
Okay thanks a lot now im less confused, does rental skates have an effect on doing this or is it just me? My cousin was able to do it the first time and i couldn’t
Only if they were freshly sharpened. If you are just starting then newly sharpened skates will make it harder to stop because they will be really sharp and have a lot more “bite”
With duller skates it will be a bit easier to slide
I found that the hardest thing about using rental skates to learn how to skate is the inconsistency of the blades. I was never sure whether my blades were going to be sharp or dull until I stepped out on the ice. If you’re serious about learning how to skate, go buy your own skates. It’ll make it much easier to learn.
I also roller blade and can i do the same for that?
NOOO! haha the first time I roller bladed I tried to stop like I do in hockey, big time face plant. In hockey you stop by sliding to a stop, the wheels on your roller blades do not work the same way, you will stop instantly and face plant.
well i personally don’t own a hockey skate myself, when i do get one it’ll be hard to stop right? also which skate is good?
so basically a hockey stop is using your outside edge on your left skate and using the inside edge on your right skate and make a 90 degrees turn
I have added some picures that may help. The edges you use depends on which way you are stopping. The best way to learn after watching our how to hockey stop video and this article is to practice A LOT!
Okay so if im trying to stop on the left i use the outter edge of my left foot and inner edge from my right foot
You have your edges reversed. If you are stopping and your left foot is the front foot you will be leaning back, and that will cause the inside edge of your left foot to be causing you to stop. Try to visualize what you would look like stopping, and then picture the edges. Remember inside edges are on the inside (think about the inside of your legs) Outside edges are on the outside.
what i mean is my right foot is leading
Great Site and Advice:
I’m trying to get back into the swing of things hockey wise and I can only stop leading with my right foot at the moment. For some reason, my left foot will not slide and I end up doing the majority of stopping on my lead (right) foot. I know its a psychological block but even when I think im concentrating on transferring the weight, rotating the hips, it just kind of fails me. Any advice and/or tips are much appreciated.
Well it is part psychological and also part that you just can not do it. In order to form the muscle memory to perform a task you need to perform the task a few thousand times, some times up to 10 000 times.
My best advice is practice a lot, and try some of the tips in the video and article. Try using just your left foot to stop, and your right for balance (like in the video). Start slow, then go faster as you become more comfortable. As you get better at this then take some weigh off of your right foot that you are using for balance, until you can use both feet.
Good luck!
Great article and videos!
I’m to the point where I can stop confidently on one skate, but I still have some work to do to do a full, 2 skate hockey stop. I think part of my issue is that I’m just not that comfortable yet on my outside edges.
Thanks for the videos!! Me and my friend are going skating later this week. We recently really got into hockey and have been going to the rink a couple times a week. I’ve found that Im actually not too bad at the skating aspect of it and I love to just go as fast as I possibly can but my method of stopping is running into the first thing that comes in my way… usually a wall… or another skater. Hopefully these videos will change that!!
I’ve been playing for about 6 weeks now and [the hockey stop] is the first thing I made myself learn. I skated public sessions several times a week for about three weeks before I got it down from both directions. This article has really helped
The way I learned, you’re pretty much doing all the work with your lead foot (the right foot if turning left and vice versa). Just get used to doing a plow stop with that foot and slowly put more and more of your weight on it when you do it. Then, when you’re more comfortable with that, twist your hips and while leaning “back” from the turn. Your momentum will throw you back up. It helped me at first to turn my head (but not my upper body) in the direction of the turn to focus me. After many, many repetitions you will begin to develop muscle-memory and it will become second-nature. Remember to practice in both directions!
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