Dragging toe when stopping and turning

[MatthewRoach7 130]

I have a C-Mite on my team that keeps dragging his back toe when he tries to stop causing him to spin out of control and crash into other players. He is older and much bigger then the other kids but can't move to b-Mites due to his skating skills.I have tried to have someone work with him one on one how to properly stop. We have tried to regress back to the snow plow stop and the 1 foot forward stop but he keeps dragging that back foot digging the toe of the skate into the ice spinning him out of control. He also does the same thing when trying to turn. Any advice or tricks to break this bad habit?

[Chadd 916]

Make him stop skating in inline skates. Short of having him practice it constantly on the ice, I don't know what you can do. He has to have the confidence that he will do it and do it right. It has to be something he does without thinking, I don't know how to make that subconscious trigger go off.

[MThockeydad 469]

Might be a balance issue.

I notice I drag a toe more when I start getting tired and my balance gets worse.

Have him bend his knees more--or something else to keep his balance forward, weight low and over his toes.

Flat out tell him he can move up to B-mites if he can consistently show you a good hockey stop and tight turn at all times.

Do stopping/turning relay drills and give candy to the team that wins.

[mc88 160]

T-stops! T-stops! T-Stops! Have him do a bunch of T-stops. This will force him to work the outside edge. When I teach a beginner how to stop, I break it up in up in parts:

Inside Edge:

1. One foot snow plow-stop

2. Two-foot snow plow-stop

Outside Edge

1. T-Stop

2. Reverse T-Stop (basically, stopping foot comes in front of the supporting leg to stop, instead of behind the supporting leg)

I've found this method to work best because you can break up the hockey stop like so:

Stop A: Inside edge first followed by outside edge

or

Stop B: Outside edge first followed by inside edge

This allows you to master both edges independently, then later combined for the hockey stop.

[fsteiner 0]

Yes toe drags r from rollerblading, when teaching kids

Its about angles a vertical skate loses grip that is the reason a goalie can slide post to post

First I check their skates and posture

Id tell the kids to sit into your hips bend ur knees to lock ur ankes forward

2. Next I have them do goalie post slides in their strongest foot -

Video helps when u can demonstrate then video them doing it

3. Angles approaching 90 degrees create slippage that is what cause a skate to slide

Sometimes ii tell kids it is a drift not a stop kids try to dig into the ice cut vs shaving imagery shave the whiskers leave the face alone

4. The foot that is drifting stays in line under the hip knee ankle. It is the other leg that provises rhe push to slide to do goalie slides

Hope that helps

[salayc 8]

Sharpen his skates with a 5/8" ROH so he can get the feel of sliding.

[Chadd 916]

The other thing to consider is teaching a "control stop" that USA Hockey preaches to officials. The back skate essentially mirrors the front skate with your inside edge scraping the ice. If his back foot is already down, teach him to drag it flat. Once he has that, work on the other parts.

[AfftonDad 88]

Wish I could learn to toe drag. ;)