from How To Inline Skate on 21 Mar 2017
5 Ways to STOP on Inline Skates – Beginner to Beast
Heel Stop
T-Stop
Grass Stop
Power Stop
Slalom Stop
The heel stop is the most basic stop. Place the stopping skate a bit in front and lift your toes. That’s it!
For some more power, bend your legs and push harder.
… Not good enough …
The t-stop is more difficult but a good second stop to learn.
Keep almost all weight on the front skate. Gently drag the back skate behind.
… Too much weight on the dragging skate and you’ll go for a spin.
The grass stop is the most important emergency break.
Stay low, keep one skate in front and more weight on the back skate.
… A grass roll often turns into a grass run.
The power stop looks much like an ice hockey stop.
However, it’s very different. Make a sharp turn. On your outside skate, keep most weight on the heel.
Fall back on the inside skate.
Like this.
… NOT like this …
The slalom stop is useful at high speeds and going downhill.
Make a sharp turn until outside skate loses grip. Fall back on the inside skate and repeat.
… It does requires some space …
* Comments
I usually remove the heel break from my skates. Not using it is just my personl preference.
There are soom good reason to use the heel break even if you know other ways to stop.
First off, with the heel break on your wheels last longer.
The heel break is much cheaeper and easier to replace too, so it may be worth keeping it just for this reason.
It’s also a lot easier on your joints. Knees and hips may suffer from other stopping techniques, especially if you do them wrong.
For me the reason to remove the heel breaks is partially that they may mess up when going backward or doing transitions,
and partially that removing the heels breaks save some weight.
Another important thing to keep in mind about heel breaks is that they are not very effective.
Going downhill it’s very dangerous to rely on the heel break. Slalom turns are much better at controlling speed.
The t-stop is my most used stop. It’s like my everyday stop.
It’s more powerful than the heel break.
It does wear down the wheels quite a bit so I try to make it a habit to use my left skate, that’s my weaker side,
more for controlled stops and my right skate in more challenging situations.
At higher speeds and going downhill it’s a good idea to alternate between left and right to avoid flat spots.
The grass roll is mostly for emergencies. It’s super useful to know. I recommend everyone, including beginners,
to practice it. It’s not that difficult either. Just be aware that the wheels may get stuck.
Instinctively you then start to run so it’s shouldn’t be a problem.
The power stop is maybe the most difficult stop. I really need to focus every time I do it.
It’s called power stop for a reason. A lot of energy goes into it.
I often start with a T-stop until the speed feels comfortable, and then I continue with a power stop.
Other times I do slalom turns, and finally when the speed feels right I do a power stop.
Actually it’s by doing slalom turns I learned the power stop. Slalom turns are very much the same thing.
You can feel that if your weight balance is over your outside skate, and a bit toward the heel, you slow down tremendously.
You’ll also notice the outside skate starting to lose grip. With the slalom turn I let my balance shift over to the insde skate.
With the power stop I just let the skate lose grip, then slide to a full stop and finally fall back on the inside skate.
Finally, I’ll say a few words about skating on wet pavement.
First of all it’s more slippery, so it’s extra important to focus on when and where you may lose grip. Second it will kill your bearings.
I use my old skates with old bearings when I skate in rain. If I only had one pair of skates, I’d think twice before going skating in the rain.