To stop on ice skates as a beginner, bend your knees, push your heels out so your toes turn slightly in, and press gently on the inside edges of both blades until they scrape the ice and slow you down. That's the snowplow stop, and it's the first stop most learn-to-skate classes teach. The T-stop and the hockey stop come later, once you can glide on one foot and turn your hips without losing your balance.
Key takeaways
- Learn the snowplow first. Bend your knees, push your heels out and press lightly on the inside edges of both blades, adding pressure until you slow down.
- If a blade catches or judders, you pressed too hard too soon, so ease off and build the pressure up more slowly.
- In a T-stop your back foot does the stopping. It sits close behind your gliding foot at a right angle and drags on its outside edge.
- A hockey stop turns both blades sideways with a quick turn of your hips, with the front foot on its inside edge, the back foot on its outside edge and your knees well bent.
- At a busy session, glide over to the boards before you stop, and practice your stops along the side of the rink.
If you've ever pushed off from the boards at a public session and then realized you had no plan for slowing down, you're in good company. Plenty of adults spend their first sessions steering toward the wall and grabbing it, which works until the wall is lined with people doing the same. Learning to stop on ice skates takes some practice, but the first stop is a simple one, and you can start on it at the boards.
I first skated at a birthday party when I was 10, kept at it for a few years, and started again in college. These days I skate off and on. Whichever way you come to skating, stopping is one of the first things you'll work on, because everything else feels easier once you trust that you can slow down. Below are the three stops most adult skaters learn, with what each one feels like and what usually goes wrong.
Which stop to learn first
The snowplow is the one to learn first, and it's where learn-to-skate classes start. Both feet stay on the ice and it works at a slow glide, so you control how quickly you slow down just by how hard you press. The other two each need something extra. For the T-stop you need a steady glide on one foot, and for the hockey stop you need to turn your hips sharply while you're moving.
Which of those comes next depends on who's teaching you. Learn to Skate USA's adult classes put the hockey stop in Adult 4 and leave the T-stop for one of the later adult levels, while Riedell's beginner guide treats the T-stop as the next step after the snowplow and the hockey stop as the harder one. Rinks adapt the curriculum a little, so don't worry if your class goes in another order, and expect to learn each stop in both directions.
| Stop | What does the stopping | Learn to Skate USA adult level |
|---|---|---|
| Snowplow | The inside edges of both blades, heels pushed out | Adult 1 |
| T-stop | The outside edge of the back foot, set at a right angle behind the gliding foot | A later adult level |
| Hockey stop | Both blades turned sideways, the front foot on its inside edge and the back foot on its outside edge | Adult 4 |
The snowplow stop
Get a little speed going with a few pushes, then glide on both feet, about shoulder-width apart, with your knees bent. Push your heels out so your toes turn slightly in, and press gently on the inside edges of both blades. Instead of gliding over the ice, the blades start to scrape its top layer, and that friction is what slows you down. Keep adding a little pressure until you stop, then bring your feet back underneath you.
You'll know it's working when you hear the blades scraping and see a little snow building up in front of them. Light shavings are what you're after. If your blades catch and judder, or you're leaving deep grooves, you're pressing too hard too soon, so ease off and build up more gradually. Learn to Skate USA's advice is to start with light pressure and add more as you go.
Straight legs are the first thing to check. When your knees lock you feel wobbly and you're more likely to tip backward, so stay low through the whole stop. Another thing that happens a lot is pushing your feet wider apart without actually turning your heels out, so your skates just slide apart and you keep going. It helps to think about your heels doing the pushing while your toes stay fairly close together.
Practicing it at the boards
Learn to Skate USA suggests starting before you move at all. Stand facing the boards, bend your knees and push one blade out to the side to shave a thin layer of snow, then try the other foot. When that feels comfortable, hold the boards with one hand, glide a little, and try the stop at a very slow speed. Once it works every time at a crawl, you can add a bit more speed.
The one-foot snowplow
Some classes teach a one-foot snowplow alongside the two-foot one, and Learn to Skate USA's Adult 1 list includes a forward snowplow stop on two feet or one. You glide on both feet, shift a little more weight onto one of them, and push the other foot out to the side so its inside edge scrapes the ice. It's the same push you practiced at the boards, done while you're moving.
The T-stop
The T-stop is named after the shape your feet make. You glide forward on one foot, then bring the other foot close behind it, turned out at a right angle, so the two blades form a T. Lower the back blade until its outside edge, the little-toe side, touches the ice, and let it drag. As you add pressure to that back foot it scrapes and slows you down, while the front foot keeps gliding straight.
Keep your shoulders facing forward, the same way as your gliding foot, and keep the knee of your gliding leg bent. Your hips will turn a little because of where the back foot is, and that's fine as long as your shoulders don't follow them. Lean back slightly toward the stopping foot rather than tipping forward over your gliding blade. Press gradually, too, because you want a smooth drag rather than a sudden jab into the ice.
The usual reason a T-stop doesn't work is dragging the back foot on its inside edge instead of its outside edge. It's an easy habit to fall into, because the inside edge is the one you push with when you stroke. The T-stop is harder than it looks, and some guides suggest waiting until your snowplow is reliable at a moderate speed. Practice the shape at the boards first, then try it from a slow glide.
The hockey stop
The hockey stop is the one that sprays snow, and it's how hockey players stop. From a forward glide with your knees bent, turn your hips and shoulders quickly, about a quarter turn, so both blades end up sideways to the direction you were going. The blades skid instead of gliding, and that stops you. Learn to Skate USA says it throws up about twice the snow of the other stops, since it uses edges on both feet.
Your two feet do slightly different jobs. The front foot, the one nearer to where you were heading, scrapes on its inside edge, and the back foot scrapes on its outside edge. Keep your knees well bent and sit back a little, leaning away from the direction you were traveling. The knee bend is what soaks up your forward speed, and standing tall and stiff is a common reason beginners tip forward out of a hockey stop.
A good way in is to hold the boards with both hands and push one skate out to the side, so you feel the blade slide sideways across the ice, then switch feet. After that, try it from a slow glide, letting one foot skid sideways before you bring both feet around together. If you find yourself carving a curve instead of stopping, you're probably not pressing into your edges, so bend your knees more and dig in.
Stopping at a busy public session
Holiday public sessions are fun, and they're also full of people who can't stop quickly yet. Everyone skates the same way around, in the direction the rink sets, and slower skaters stay near the boards. If you need to stop, glide over toward the boards first instead of stopping in the middle of the traffic, and glance behind you before you slow down, because the skater behind you may not be able to stop as quickly as you can.
The side of the rink is also the best place to practice your stops, because you can try a snowplow there and still reach the wall if it doesn't work. Give small children plenty of room while you're at it, since they can stop or change direction without any warning. Our guide to rink etiquette covers passing and the other unwritten rules, and it's a quick read before a busy session.
When a stop goes wrong
Falling while you learn a new stop is normal, and so is the odd fall on one you thought you had down. If you feel yourself going, bend your knees and sit down to one side instead of reaching for the ice with your hands. Our guide to falling safely and getting back up walks through it, and it's worth practicing on a carpet at home. Wear gloves, since your hands may still end up on the ice.
What comes after stopping
Once your snowplow works without much thought, keep practicing the T-stop and the hockey stop alongside whatever your class moves on to, rather than waiting until they're perfect. Forward crossovers are one of the next big skills, and our guide to forward and backward crossovers explains how they work. If you're still in your first few weeks, your first 30 days of figure skating covers what else to expect, from sore legs to the skills most classes start with.
If you like keeping track, the free goals tracker at the bottom of this page is a good place to write down which stops you're working on and when each one starts to feel solid. I design all of the AST stickers, and yes, there's a Bend Your Knees Club sticker, which is good advice for every stop on this page. It looks nice on a water bottle at the boards, too.
This is general advice from adult skaters, not coaching. A coach can see things you can't feel, so if something here doesn't match what yours teaches, go with your coach.
