Video:How to Stop, Fall, and Get Up on Skates

Transcript:How to Stop, Fall, and Get Up on Skates

Everybody falls. It's something that proves that you're actually learning something, so don't get discouraged if you wind up falling. Hi there, my name is Sean Bachand, and I'm part of the management team at Pickwick Ice in Burbank, California. Our topic right now is falling, getting up, and then - of course - stopping.

Best Ways to Fall on the Ice

So the first thing with falling is you want to bend your knees. The lower you are to the ground, the more balance you will have. You want to have good posture with your upper torso in place, and your chin up. If you feel you're going to fall, you can always assume what is called a "safe position." A safe position entails putting your hands on your knees and crouching down low. The best place to fall is actually right behind you - there's a lot of padding back there, so don't hesitate to use it.

Getting Up Safely on Ice

Our next topic: getting up. Getting up is a solo event. You don't want to pull somebody up, because there's an outside chance you're going to take them down with you, especially if they're not very experienced with skating. The best way that you wind up getting up is you actually start on all fours. So you have your two hands in front of you, as you can see, your knees are on the ice, and the the next thing you're going to do is you're going to pick up one foot, the other foot - your hands are still on the ice - and then you're going to raise to full position. What we don't want to do is to get up from behind. If you get up from behind with your hands out, you're probably going to wind up falling. Once we're there, we get our balance, our posture, then we can move out.

Ice Skate Stop: The Snowplow

So, our final topic on this is stopping. There are three different types of stopping. The first form of stopping is what is referred to as a snowplow. With a snowplow, what you want to do is you want to start - once again, you want to have good posture, you want to bend your knees - what you're going to do is you're going to put your feet, skating forward, then you're just going to start pigeon-toeing them together, applying your calf muscles and pushing forward on the ice. That move is called a snowplow.

Ice Skate Stop: The T-Stop

The next type of stop is called a T-Stop. A T-Stop is designated by a skater moving forward - I'm picking up my right foot, placing it behind my left foot, and I'm going to start to drag it behind me. That is called the T-Stop.

Ice Skate Stop: The Hockey Stop

The final one is called a hockey stop. With a hockey stop - once again, you want to start practicing by having forward motion, then you're going to make a sudden pivot turn, somewhere in the degrees of 45 and 90. What will wind up happening is at that sudden point where you make the pivot, your left foot is going to wind up making pressure onto the ice, creating resistance - and at the exact same time, your right foot is going to do the exact same thing. And that's referred to as a hockey stop.

I highly encourage you to practice on your own, which is always a great idea. Thanks for watching - for more information, visit us on the Web at About.com.