LTP Drills: Stopping for the First Time

1. Face the boards and put your hands on the boards for balance.

2. You don't have to be holding your stick.

3. Then push out to the side with your left foot for 10 reps.

   • Your toes should still be facing the boards (perpendicular to the boards) during the entire action.

   • You will also have to be on your inside edge meaning that your ankles are slight bent inward.

   • Leaning too much to the inside will crank your ankle and not give you good balance on your skates.

4. Next, push out to the side with your right foot for 10 reps.

5. If you have some snow built up, then rotate one push with your left foot, one with your right foot. Otherwise, do 10 more reps with each foot until you have some snow.

6. Lastly, push both skates out at the same time.

   • This is snow plow action, which isn't a hockey stop. But it is a building block to doing a hockey stop.

Gliding Before Stopping

Next, it's important to glide before stopping so that you don't do a turn rather than a stop. It's also a good opportunity to practice skating (i.e. the action of moving your feet to go faster) and then gliding. The gliding sets up your balance so that you can be in a strong position to shave ice.

Push Out to the Side

Lastly, push out to the side with one foot. This is the most difficult part because beginners are not as familiar with their inside edges. Without the inside edge control and being able to grip the ice with your edges, you will most like turn rather than stop. Turning can definition slow you down and it's fine for public ice skating, but in ice hockey, we will need much more control over our skates.

If you are turning more than stopping but you can shave ice, then try this trick. As you skate forward with your toes pointing forward in a glide, turn your head 90 degrees to one side. Then turn only your shoulders. Your hips and feet should still be pointing and gliding forward. When you want to initiate the stop, then twist your hips and feet to the side you are looking at, and grab your inside edge. This should lead into the slide and shaving ice. The trick is that your are creating more torque that can help get you on your inside edge easier.

The final word with anything in skating is to keep trying! You can do it! But skating on ice is not a natural human skill - so don't be too frustrated but keep with it and making little improvements. Every little improvement will one day lead to more control and good stopping. Good luck!

1. Start on a blue line in the neutral zone.

2. Skate forward towards the center red line.

3. 5 feet before the red line, stop skating and glide.

4. Push out to the side with one foot and shave ice so that you stop moving and end up on the red line.

5. Turn around and repeat going towards the blue line, except this time, push out with the opposite foot.