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How to Stop on Ice Skates

Learning how to stop on ice skates can be tricky sometimes. It is helpful to understand why a skate moves forward, and exactly what makes the blade stop going forward. How to stop on ice skates in hockey style involves a quick, sharp turn that skids along the surface of the ice.

While skating forward, an ice skate blade creates a groove in the ice in the direction that a person is skating. When the blade is quickly slid into a path that is perpendicular to the original path, the ice skate blade will cease to slide forward and will instead skid sideways. The skater must learn to twist his or her hips at a 90-degree angle quickly while making the skate blades create a 45-degree angle with the surface of the ice. This 45-degree angle, combined with digging the skates into the ice, will create new grooves in the ice for the blade to stop against.

When initially digging your skates into the ice, remember to start with light pressure against the ice to start skidding, and exert more pressure when you are ready to stop fully.

To learn how to stop on ice skates, try practicing at slower speeds first. While skating forward at a comfortable speed, but not too slow, first twist your hips and your outside foot at a 90-degree angle to create a one-foot forward skid. Then complete the stop by angling the second foot (the inside foot) so that it is skidding parallel to the first foot. The distance of the skid can be altered by waiting to align the second foot to the first foot.

If you or a friend has a video camera, this is an excellent way to watch yourself to learn what you need to change in your skating technique to stop more efficiently. Learning how to stop on ice skates will take practice, but by watching others and having others watch you, you can learn what parts of your technique to fix.