Roller Hockey Stop

Doing a hockey stop is a key fundamental to skating. You go from a fast speed to a dead stop very quickly. This is fairly easy to do thanks to the sliding nature of ice, but when on roller it can be a little tricky. It's really only tricky because everyone is used to the motions of the hockey stop on ice. Roller requires a slight variation.

Inline skates have a higher amount of friction compared to ice no matter which surface you're playing on. This means when you attempt to do a hockey stop similar to how you would in ice, then you're really just going to fall flat on your face since the wheels will grip the surface quicker.

When I perform a hockey stop in roller I'm actually doing a wide semi-circle turn, then pivoting my hips similar to how I would on ice. After I turn I dig my wheels hard in the mid-heel section to come to a full stop. If the surface is wood with really good grip, then I come to a screeching halt. If the surface is something with less grip though, such as asphalt, then I slide a bit.

If you're having difficult picturing this, think of a regular ice hockey stop as a straight line where you pivot your hips to keep in that straight line, and scape the ice to stop. But in roller hockey you start off in a straight line, make a quick semi-circle, then dig in your mid-heel and return to the straight line direction to stop.

Here's a video of myself doing this at the rink. Notice I'm doing a semi-circle turn before I go into the stop.