Having trouble stopping!

[NiGhtt]

I'll keep this short... I'm just really getting into playing ice hockey recently. I've played on pond with friends and plenty of roller, but never real ice hockey... I bought new blades recently and skated in them fine, I could stop and so on. Today, I had them sharpened and skated... They feel really good when skating but stopping is a whole different story...I don't have much of a problem going slow, really slow... At normal speed I seem to catch an edge? My blade starts sort of skipping. Maybe I'm not committing enough on the stop? Any help is appreciated, thanks!

 

[hockeymass]

You just don't have the form down. It's a lot easier to execute a stopping motion on a dull blade, because you don't have to worry so much about shifting your weight to avoid catching the edge.

 

[7toZulu]

I'll keep this short... I'm just really getting into playing ice hockey recently. I've played on pond with friends and plenty of roller, but never real ice hockey... I bought new blades recently and skated in them fine, I could stop and so on. Today, I had them sharpened and skated... They feel really good when skating but stopping is a whole different story...I don't have much of a problem going slow, really slow... At normal speed I seem to catch an edge? My blade starts sort of skipping. Maybe I'm not committing enough on the stop? Any help is appreciated, thanks!

Sounds to me like the skates are too sharp, I'd get them resharpened to a level or two below what you currently have and try again. I know that when i switched skates recently, the new steel on my skates somehow gets waaay sharper than on my ****** 50 dollar skates i had before. I went from a 7/16th cut to 5/8.

 

[IDuck]

could be the things that were listed about, but to me it sounds like you have been playing a lot of roller hockey...i love watching when the guys get out of roller season and jump back on to the ice for the first few times

 

[nystromshairstylist]

Had exactly the same problem with my new skates this past week; make absolute sure that the skates were sharpened and balanced correctly.

My new skates had to go through several different sharpeners until they were balanced correctly. I thought it was me at first until the guy I like best checked them out and confirmed they were "off."

I had no problem stopping on my other pair, and while I rarely sharpen them - yes I like them dull for the reasons mentioned above - I still can tell the difference at this point after almost 2 years on the ice.

If you are able to stop alright, then get your skates sharpened, and all of a sudden have problems stopping even with effort - its probably the skates. Get them re-done.

 

[kurt83]

I'm more of the middle of the road person. I prefer my sharpening to be right in the middle of its lifespan. This way I still have strong confident crossovers, but still have a forgiving slide when my footwork is *ahem* not the greatest.

It's all personal preference but I'd say, for the most part, the better skaters love there skates very sharp. There's a reason why NHL equipment managers see every players' skates every day.

 

[JoeCool16]

If you're just learning to throw on the brakes then right after sharpening it'll be hardest to stop. By "committing more" I assume you mean applying more pressure; that'll increase the skipping feeling you're experiencing.

You COULD go get them redone... if they have indeed been poorly sharpened that's probably your best bet.

You could also try to dull them a bit by pushing them across the ice while standing prone against the boards, and just snowplow a bit to take off the edge. It may take a few minutes of that but it usually helps for me!

 

[Droid6]

Any help is appreciated, thanks!

How much do you weigh? Depending on your weight you should change how sharp your skates are and make sure you tie your skates nice and tight. I notice a lot of beginners are afraid to really tighten the laces on their skates because they are too sharp and loose skates keep them in a slanted position all the time so they feel like they won't lose an edge while stopping. After you get your sharpness right go out and work up to a hockey stop, until you get there there is nothing wrong with dragging a skate behind you to stop like you have to on rollerblades.

 

[NiGhtt]

Thanks for all the responses... I think the problem is my wight distribution/angle. Without edges on unsharpened skates I was able to put a lot of weight on my front foot, meanwhile with my new edge, my blade doesn't slide, it just goes into the ice.

I'm not completely unable to stop. Only when I'm going at normal to faster speeds, is when I have trouble.

 

[Dreadnaut]

If you are a competent skater you can do what I do to check its not a skewed-angle grind.

Glide on one leg and gently put the other into a non-pressing semi snow plough. Gently press. If the skate doesn't like it and judders around they are probably too sharp for your weight, or the grind is at a funny angle (i.e they weren't done properly). This is how I learnt to stop as well, going for the snow plough and then eventually putting the hip/torso twist into it too so all body weight is going into both feet

I've skated for a while so know what nicely sharpened blades feel like, so I can appreciate if you've never stopped you don't know what it should feel like.

The only time I ever got that juddering that leaves a zig zag on the ice is a wonky grind, or overly sharp.

A proper 1/2 inch sharpen has always been ideal for me. Standing still can you shave snow by pushing your skates outwards?

 

[Stickmata]

I agree that it's most likely technique, but one time I had my skates sharpened they totally f'd it up and I literally could not stop. If I tried to do so, my blades dug in and I went right out the front. Almost broke my neck stopping at the bench during warmups and had to play an entire game stopping like you would in roller hockey. Sucked.