Ice vs. Roller

[MDE3 0]

One way to learn to stop quickly on inline skates is the "jump" stop. Make sure when you start this you are wearing protecive equipment for butt, hips, knees, head gear, hands etc. etc.

Place your stick on the floor, at 90 degrees to your skating path. Skate slowly towards it and jump over turning 90 degrees in the air. Land on one foot or both, but let your knees sag to take up the shock, then push up with both legs to create "bite" with the wheels.

Start slowly and jump just high enough to clear the stick and make the turn. Alternate sides as you practice this so you can stop both ways. Gradually increase speed as your balance get's more comfortable.

Eventually you will get to the point that your wheels barely come off the rink (no stick in front any more), and you just pivot and flex then rebound with the legs. Stopping this way you can stop on a dime just like ice...at least with the right wheels and floors in good condition. The knee flex is the critical element along with learning the balance as you land, because this knee flex and rebound not only creates the bite needed to stop fast, but prepares you to drive off in the opposite direction. Good grip between the floor and the wheels is of course incremental for this type of stopping so pay attention to your equipment.

Learning to stop this way is fundamental to learning to play inline at the higher levels....Stopping on inline skates was always one of the reasons that ice hockey was a faster game...ice players could change direction and momentum on a dime from full stride, where most inline players would make a fairly large circle to effect the same thing, or go into the corners using the one footed drag to slow momentum.

Using the RHI as an example is not really germaine to the way the inline game is played now at the elite levels, as most if not all the current elite players can stop as fast on inlines as players can on ice.

[sdcopp 1]

i've tried both, but eat it every time. in my high school league we travel to 3 or 4 different rinks throughout the season and every surface is different. of all the surfaces in Colorado, Bladium in denver is probably my favorite. it grabs my wheels much better than my home rink (O.D.'s in Fort Collins).

I've heard nothing but horror stories about the Bladium and it's surfaces, also heard from some of the PIHA guys that OD's is a pretty nice place.

A good floor can make all the difference, the arena I play at has a fairly new and well maintained floor, whereas the facility 20 minutes north of me had a much older floor that was very loose feeling.

[phshockey53 0]

i've tried both, but eat it every time. in my high school league we travel to 3 or 4 different rinks throughout the season and every surface is different. of all the surfaces in Colorado, Bladium in denver is probably my favorite. it grabs my wheels much better than my home rink (O.D.'s in Fort Collins).

I've heard nothing but horror stories about the Bladium and it's surfaces, also heard from some of the PIHA guys that OD's is a pretty nice place.

A good floor can make all the difference, the arena I play at has a fairly new and well maintained floor, whereas the facility 20 minutes north of me had a much older floor that was very loose feeling.

well O.D.'s itself is a much nicer place. the rink is overall better, but my personal preference is Bladium. everyone i know either hates bladium or loves it and with switching between roller and ice all the time, i feel it grips my wheels better.

for your home rink, are you talking about the Tour arena? i've played a few tourneys there and liked it quite a bit. nice seating for watching too. i've also played at soc n' rol.... i know what you mean. what league(s) do you play in?

[sdcopp 1]

yeah I'm at the Tour Arena. Soc N Roll's floor was a lot less fun, but since it was the olympic size it made playing much more interesting. I'm currently playing in the 16+ silver since I haven't played leagues in a year, so I need to get my legs back before jumping back into gold leagues.

It is funny though, I'll take a marginal sportcourt floor over the best roll-on or wooden skating rink floor anymore.

[MDE3 0]

yeah I'm at the Tour Arena. Soc N Roll's floor was a lot less fun, but since it was the olympic size it made playing much more interesting. I'm currently playing in the 16+ silver since I haven't played leagues in a year, so I need to get my legs back before jumping back into gold leagues.

It is funny though, I'll take a marginal sportcourt floor over the best roll-on or wooden skating rink floor anymore.

Interesting comment....one of the things I noticed when coaching at a lot of different tournaments, was that teams who played and practiced on wooden floors or roll-on surfaces, could never quite get their stickhandling or pass timing right(due to the different cf of the puck to the floor) on Sport Court type floors in time to be competitive with teams who played/practiced on the sport surfaces constantly...Also if they didn't change their wheels when they came to the tournament, they were at a significant skating disadvantage as well.

In fact these difference are one of the reasons that grass roots inline hockey has faded at the local "disco" roller rinks....because teams who practice on these surfaces only..tend to get their hat's handed to them at tournaments..and become discouraged...whole hockey programs have failed because of this difference..although many may not be aware of the root cause of the problem.

[sdcopp 1]

we have some former top notch speedskaters/hockey players here who's family owned a wooden floor rink and even compared to the roll on at the other two rinks it town it was a noticable difference. I can't imagine ever playing on that surface again since I'm now on Sportcourt with a significantly larger skating surface, it is night and day difference. The eldest of the siblings is a very good hockey player, very very fast playing for the Prowlers, but both of his sisters went to ice to get the better play surface and faster game. I don't think even they would go back to wooden floors at this point.

[gman 0]

What should you do with your wheels if you are going from a roll-on "disco rink" to sport court? Harder to softer or softer to harder? What can be expected in terms of puck speed?

[sdcopp 1]

wooden/roll-on floors usually demand harder wheels than sportcourt, and the puck is slower on these floors than sportcourt. Basically, the surface of a wooden/roll-on floor is grippy by nature whereas sportcourt is slick. 78A-84A is the norm for roll-on surface, 76A-80A normal for wood where we have 72A on up for sportcourt. If you take a fall on a wooden/roll-on floor you may come up with less skin because they grip like this.

[OhMyGodImOnFire 0]

Still kind of confused because you're contradicting each other, and some of you are actually good at stopping. Not the case for me.

So, how would you teach some completely new to hockey to stop? For ice AND roller?

[sdcopp 1]

when I was assisting/running learn to play programs it was always the feet shoulder width apart with a sharp C turn for stopping. This of course is for roller, I haven't really touched ice since high school. This was for very novice players who were new to skating in general, but it seems to be the best foundation I've found until people develop their own style. Try that and remember to keep your knees bent, back straight, etc. Once you get your own feel for when/where/how the wheels catch you'll find what works best for you.

[MDE3 0]

Still kind of confused because you're contradicting each other, and some of you are actually good at stopping. Not the case for me.

So, how would you teach some completely new to hockey to stop? For ice AND roller?

I have coached and run clinics for both inline and ice....from beginners to elite.

Due to the nature of the inline chassis versus the ice hockey blade, you cannot execute identical stopping techniques, however they can be very close.

The inline chassis' for the most part have the contact of the wheels in a flat plane, with a few notable exceptions. An ice hockey blade is rounded or "cambered".

For inline stopping, the technique I described in my previous post above has been taught to beginners and elite players alike, and is very effective...Obviously it's not the only method, but once learned it's the most efficient. Balance fore and aft, as well as balance from side to side is the key learning element in the technique, and the angle at which you plant you feet varies somewhat with speed. That's why you start slowly and gradually work your way up to game speed...alternating sides always when you practice. On inline with a "flat plane" surface contact, either your feet must leave the floor to pivot or you learn to pivot on the front or rear wheel(s)..depending on the situation..this is the biggest difference between inline and ice stopping. I recomment you learn this techique using a two footed stop for two reasons. First, the grip from having eight wheels on the floor versus four means you will stop faster. Second you will be much less prone to turning your ankle(s) when learning.

For ice hockey, you can pivot without your feet leaving the ice surface due to the cambered blade. As you go to make a stop, lift up slightly, "unweighting" your skates and turn 90 degres (using your knees rolled inward to create the turning momentum)to your direction of travel. Then let your weight come back down, let the knees sag, and then push back up driving the edges of the blades into the ice. This is almost the same as a ski turn. As you get comfortable doing this, the amount of "lift up" you need will decrease significantly because you can feel the bite of your blades much more easily with practice, but you still need to sag your knees and drive up to effect the stopping. The harder you do this the more bite you create, and the faster you will stop. This principle works the same for one footed or two footed stops, but you can always create more bite with two feet.

[OhMyGodImOnFire 0]

Then let your weight come back down, let the knees sag, and then push back up driving the edges of the blades into the ice. This is almost the same as a ski turn.

Thanks, that helped a lot. I ski a bit myself.