From: dcchan@engin.umich.edu (David Chi Wei Chan)
Subject: FAQ: In-line Stopping Techniques
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 92 13:30:39 EDT
Organization: University of Michigan Engineering, Ann Arbor


The In-line Stopping Techniques File 
------------------------------------
(written February 1992)
(lasted changed June 27, 1992)


[Copyright 1992 by Anthony D. Chen.  All rights reserved.  License 
is hereby granted to republish on electronic or other media for which 
no fees are charged (except for the media used), so long as the text 
of this copyright notice and license are attached intact to any and all 
republished portion or portions.]


This document is written for rec.skate, one of the hundreds of 
newsgroups under USENET, the international electronic news 
network which reaches millions of readers.  You will see "8-)" in 
use throughout the text and if you look at it with your head tilted to 
the left the intent should be obvious 8-)  (This sideways smilie face 
is used to ensure that all computer terminals can display it properly.)

This file is a list of more than 30 stops, described in detail for those 
of you who would like to, or need to learn other ways to stop.  I am 
by no means the originator of any of these stops, except perhaps the 
combination stops.

This list is arranged in order of increasing difficulty, but skaters 
have all sorts of different backgrounds so your shredding may vary.  
If any sections seem vague, let me know and if I can't clear it up for 
you, I'll give you my skates! 8-)

Good luck, and skate smart.

-Tony Chen
 adchen@lee.cs.uiowa.edu
(7 Heather Drive, Iowa City, IA 52245, (319) 354-4456)


List of stops:

- grab-something stop           - backward stepping stop
- runouts                       - forward stepping stop
- billiard ball stop            - reverse stop (forwards snow-plow)
- wall stop                     - backwards heel drag
- windbraking                   - toe-drag spinouts
- the brake-pad                 - heel-drag spinouts
- V-stop/snowplow               - curb ramming
- (regular) spinout/lunge stop  - power stop/power slide
- spread eagle spinout          - chop-stop
- crossover stop                - New York stop
- slaloming/parallel turns      - combination stops
- T-stop                        - falling
- toe drag                      - collisions with stationary objects
- backwards T-stop



TOTAL NOVICE LEVEL
------------------

These first two stops I've seen many outright beginners do with 
absolutely no prompting, and so I'd call these intuitive stops.

* GRAB-SOMETHING STOP:  Simply put, you just grab onto 
any conveniently located object and hang on to slow down or stop 
entirely.  The object can be a wall, a pole, a person, a tree, a 
carwhatever.  For beginners who likely won't be reaching very 
high speeds, this stop is pretty natural and easy to do.  However, if 
you do find yourself moving at a significant speed, be sure to brace 
yourself for the impact (see Wall stop).

* RUNOUTS:  Assuming the path you're skating on has grass or 
packed dirt (or some other hard-to-roll-on surface), you can just 
skate off the path and reduce your speed by running onto the grass 
(hop-hop-hop-hop-hop). In the worst case scenario, you can tumble 
and hopefully you won't take any damage.


BEGINNER LEVEL
--------------

The following set of stopping methods, most beginner skaters 
should be able to handle.  They keep both feet on the ground 
throughout the stop, and don't require as much independent leg 
action as the advanced stops.


* BILLIARD BALL STOP:  Skate into another skater and push 
off with your hands to transfer your momentum to them.  To be 
safe, warn the receiving person about your approach.  It works well 
on flat surfaces and at low to moderate speeds.  It's not 
recommended at high speeds and especially on people you don't 
know! 8-)


* WALL STOP:  By extension of the billiard ball stop, you can 
stop against cars, trees, or walls.  At low speeds, this should be 
quite safe, so long as you take care to turn your head to the side 
(don't want to smash your face, do you? 8-)  You may or may not 
bang your skates, depending on your speed and how your are 
prepared to hit.  The key is to use your arms as cushioning springs 
(like doing a standing push-up.)  One way to practice this is to stand 
a few feet from a wall (with your skates on).  Now fall on your 
hands against the wall, and you should be able to bounce a little, 
while still avoiding banging your head.  The faster your approach, 
the less bounce will result.

See the collision section for more extreme cases.


* WIND-BRAKING:  Wind-braking is more a speed-control 
method than a stop (although on windy days, this can be practically 
all you need to stop).  Just stand up, spread your arms out and catch 
the air like a sail.  You'll probably need to lean forwards slightly, to 
counter the force of the wind.


* THE BRAKE-PAD:

Using the brake-pad is perhaps the most versatile piece of equipment 
you have because:

1) you can use it to stop, even at very high speeds;
2) it allows you to keep both skates on the ground while 
stopping (good for keeping your balance);
3) you can maintain a narrow profile (good for high traffic areas 
where cars or bicycles might be passing you);
4) you can still steer yourself;
5) the sound of braking can often alert others to your presence;
6) the brake-pad is the most cost-effective technique there is so 
far for in-lines. 

To learn how to use the brake-pad, first coast with both skates 
shoulder-width apart.  While coasting, scissor your feet back and 
forth a few times to get used to the weight shift.  To apply the brake 
then, scissor your skate so your braking skate is out front.  Lift the 
toe of your brake skate and press with the heel too.  Your body 
weight is centered and even slightly on your back skate when you're 
just learning it.  The key is a straight back and bent knees.

If you have trouble balancing or find your braking ankle a little 
weak, you can try the following trick:  form a triangle with your legs 
(from the knee down to your skates) and the ground.  This means 
putting your back knee either right behind or next to, the brake-foot 
knee to form that triangle.

Eventually you'll want to stop at high speeds.  Basically, the more 
pressure you use on the brake pad the faster you stop.  So for 
maximum stopping power, you put your entire body weight onto the 
brake by lifting your back foot, and leaning into the brake pad.  This 
takes a little practice but is very effective.  It is possible to stop 
within 15-20 ft even when going over 20 mph. 

Note that the amount of leverage, and therefore the amount of 
stopping power you have is dependent on how worn your brake is.  
A half-worn brake will provide more leverage than either a new 
brake or a worn-out brake.

One important point to keep in mind when using the brake-pad:  You 
can still steer while braking.  Just keep the brake-pad on the ground 
and pivot on your heel wheel slightly to go the direction you want.  
This is very useful while going down a very narrow and curvy path 
or while trying to avoid curbs, pedestrians, parked cars, trees, and 
the like.

A brake-pad generally runs from $3 to $6 depending on what type 
you buy.  Compare this with wheels which are $5.50 or more each 
and the freebie stops: runouts, wind-braking, billiard ball stop 
(freebies since you're not wearing anything down).  Wheels are 
expensive, and the freebie stops are infrequently available, if at all, 
for the large majority of skating situations.  The brake can be your 
most versatile stop, provided that you learn it well.

(I've listed the brake pad as an beginner stop since most skaters pick 
it up fairly quickly.  However, as used for fast stops at high speeds, 
it really is an advanced stop.)


* V-STOP/SNOWPLOW:  For a low-speed rolling stop, point 
your heels inward (for backwards) or your toes together (for 
forwards) and let your skates bang into each other.  This might 
throw you in the direction you're going (depending on your speed), 
so take care to be prepared to lean forward or backwards to 
compensate. 

Actually, you don't really have to bang your skates together.  You 
can do a more exaggerated snowplow by spreading your legs out 
past shoulder-width and pointing your skates inward or outwards as 
before.  Here, use leg strength to press your inner edges against the 
ground, and you'll slow down appreciably.  This can work even at 
very high speeds.


INTERMEDIATE LEVEL
------------------

* (REGULAR) SPINOUTS/LUNGE STOP:  This is where 
you skate into a spin to transfer your linear momentum into angular 
momentum.  To do this, you sort of stop-n-hold one skate at an 
angle to act as the pivot foot and the other traces a circle around it 
(and you).  It may help to think of having each skate trace concentric 
circles, with the pivot skate tracing the much smaller inner one.  The 
pivot skate will be turning on its outside edge, while the outer skate 
will be on its inside edge.


* SPREAD EAGLE SPINOUTS:  A spinout with your skates 
in a bent spread eagle position (i.e., heels pointed towards each 
other, skates at slightly less than 180 degrees).  There is no pivot 
foot here, instead both your skates trace the arc.

There are inside and outside spread eagles, where you skate on both 
inside or both outside edges.  The above paragraph describes the 
inside spread eagle.

A sustained outside spread eagle is more of an artistic skating move 
than a practical stop (like Brian Boitano does it).

NOTE that all types of spinouts require a fair amount of room.  
Your forward motion is quite suddenly changed to angular motion 
so I'd recommend this mainly for low traffic areas where you won't 
have people running into you from behind when you do the spinout.


* CROSSOVER STOP:   This stop works both forwards and 
backwards at higher speeds.  I call this the crossover stop because 
your feet are held in the position of a crossover.  In this stop, you're 
going to be turning to one side.  The harder and sharper you turn, 
faster you stop.  The key in this stop: weight slistop: weight slightly forward and to 
the direction you're turning.

The braking pressure comes from the turn. The harder you press 
with the outer edge of your back skate, the faster you stop.  So if 
you're brake-turning left, your right skate is in front, the left skate is 
basically right behind it (so that all your wheels are in line).  Press 
on the outer edge of your left skate (your back skate) and on the 
inner edge of your right skate.

There is also the inverted crossover stop where your feet positions 
are reversed:  so you turn left with your left foot forward and right 
foot back (and vice versa for right turns).

Both crossover stops are good for high speed stops for flat (or 
nearly flat) surfaces since you get to maintain your form and 
balance.  NOTE that this stop probably takes the most cruising 
space out of all the stops in this file, since you're skating off your 
speed.


* SLALOMING/PARALLEL TURNS:  For skiers, this maps 
over very nicely.  This is more of a speed control technique rather 
than a stop, but it's very useful to know.  Slaloming is a entire topic 
in itself, so if you can find a skier or a ski book to show you, I 
won't have to write a huge chapter on it 8-)

One way to practice this is to find a nice gentle slope with plenty of 
space at the bottom, set up cones in a line, and weave through the 
cones.



ADVANCED LEVEL
--------------

This next set of stops require good independent leg control.  These 
advanced stops will require you to be skating only one foot for some 
portion of the technique.  The stronger your legs are, especially for 
these stops, the more effective they become.


* T-STOP:  This stop uses your wheels as a source of friction.  To 
do the T-stop, place one skate behind you, perpendicular to your 
direction of travel.  Bend a little in both knees to drag your wheels.  
You should think of dragging the heel more than the toe.  Apply the 
braking pressure to your heel.  If you drag the toe too much, you 
will end up spinning around.  Keep your weight is mainly on your 
skating (front) foot, when starting out, but you will shift more 
weight and downward pressure to the back skate as you learn to 
stop at higher speeds.

I might suggest you develop some inner thigh strength before 
attempting this stop.  What may happen with insufficient leg 
strength is that you won't be able to hold the skate perpendicular to 
your direction of motion.  This results in your back skate rolling 
sideways and you will probably go into a spin.


* TOE DRAG:  This is like the T-stop except you drag only your 
toe wheel instead of all four/five wheels.  Unlike the T-stop it's not 
critical to keep the skate perpendicular to your line of travel.  In fact, 
you're quite free to drag the wheel anywhere in a 180+ degree arc 
behind you.  (If you have old wheels, the toe position is a good 
place to put them if you want to avoid shredding your good wheels.)

The toe drag is better than the T-stop in that you wear down only 
one wheel, and more importantly, you are also allowed much better 
control over steering, since you can still stop effectively even if the 
drag wheel rolls.  The toe drag can stop you even when at cruising 
speeds.

The thing to be aware of is that the toe-drag will take a significantly 
longer breaking distance than the brake-pad or the T-stop since you 
are dragging only one wheel.

NOTE that dragging wheels in the T-stop and the toe drag may, in 
the long run, reduce the life of your drive train (runners, axle bolts, 
spacers, bearings) due to the force felt upon them.


* BACKWARDS T-STOP:  This is a T-stop when you're rolling 
backwards.  There are two ways to perform this stop.  The first way 
is to stop by dragging the outside edge of your skate (i.e., toe 
pointed outward).  The harder way is to point your toe inward, 
much like a reverse New York stop (see New York stop).


STEPPING STOPS

These three stepping stops are essentially advanced low-speed stops 
("advanced" since they require good independent control over each 
skate).  They could also be called "pushing" stops, since most of the 
braking action is done by pushing a skate against your motion.  
Many advanced skaters will do this intuitively, but I will detail them 
here for completeness.


* BACKWARD STEPPING STOP:  This is like while wearing 
shoes, and someone pushes you from the front.  One foot 
automatically steps back to keep you from falling backwards.  On 
skates then, while rolling backwards, you simply put one skate 
behind you, 90 degrees to the other skate, and hold it there so that 
your body doesn't roll any further.  This is basically a very low-
speed power stop, and so without the sliding and scraping action of 
the wheels (see the Power Stop).  

The faster you are moving, the closer you are to doing a true power 
stop.  This may be a good method to learn the power stop, gradually 
building up speed.


* FORWARD STEPPING STOP:  A low-speed stop very 
similar to the backwards stepping stop except you're rolling 
forwards, of course.  This time you plant your skate 90 degrees out 
in front of or right next to the rolling skate.  Your front heel will be 
pointing inwards (it's probably easier for most people to keep the 
toe pointed outward here).  This is especially useful at curbs, like 
just before you accidentally roll into an intersection, in crowded 
indoor places, or if you just want to get a little closer to people 
you're talking with.

This stop should halt you immediately.  Once you plant your foot, 
your body should stop moving forward.   You may find it easier if 
you bend slightly at the waist and knee to give your skate a better 
angle to grab.

You can also use this stop in a sort of shuffling fashion:  stop, roll a 
little, stop, roll a little, etc., until you get to precisely where you 
want to be.


* REVERSE STOP (FORWARDS SNOW-PLOW):  While 
rolling, point one skate (only) inward, lift and set it back down.  
Roll on it and push off slightly at the heel.  Now lift the other skate, 
and do the same.

Essentially you are skating backwards even though moving 
forwards.  Keep doing it and you will eventually start skating 
backwards.  This can be done even at high speeds.


* BACKWARDS HEEL DRAG:  This is for rolling backwards.  
Similar to the toe drag except you drag your heel wheel.  If you find 
your drag skate rolling sideways, apply more pressure to your heel 
wheel.


Now that you can do toe-drags, heel-drags and spinouts...

* TOE-DRAG SPINOUTS:  This is a one-footed spinout with 
an accompanying toe-drag on the other foot.  The toe drag will be in 
the inside of the spinout.  So for a right-foot toe-drag spinout, you 
will be carving a right turn.  It takes a bit more balance and strength 
and will shred your toe wheel a lot.  The more pressure on the toe, 
and the sharper/harder you carve your turn, the faster you stop.  

At maximum effectiveness, it can stop you very quickly.  The 
skating foot will be nearly doing a power slide (see Power Stop) 
and the dragging foot will be doing a very hard toe-drag.  Done 
correctly at low to medium speeds, it takes up at most a sidewalk's 
width.  At downhill speeds, expect to take up most of a car lane.

NOTE that hitting a crack or rock during this stop really bites since 
you've got most of your weight on one skating foot.  Look for any 
debris or holes ahead of you and be prepared.


* HEEL-DRAG SPINOUTS:  For this spinout, just plant one of 
your heel wheels on the ground out in front of you and spin around 
it.  The only tricky part is that the pivot heel wheel may roll a little, 
so keep some downward pressure on it.  It probably helps to keep 
your pivot leg straight and slightly locked to help stabilize the pivot.

A variation on heel-drag spinouts is to use your brake-pad as the 
pivot.

This stop looks pretty neat when going backwards, although you 
should be careful to protect your knees if you have to abort.  To 
perform this backwards, start a heel-drag stop (you're skating 
backwards), carve the skating foot behind and to the inside, and you 
should spin around the heel wheel/brake.


* CURB RAMMING:  You approach the curb at around 90 
degrees (i.e., straight on) and lift your toes enough to clear the curb.  
This should jam your wheels and runners into the curb.  You should 
be prepared to compensate for the sudden change in your motion.

An alternative curb ramming stop is to do a spinout near the curb 
and ram the back of your skate into the curb.

Both these techniques cause quite a bit of shock to your skates 
(especially at high speeds) so if you really love your skates you may 
not want to do this stop too often 8-)


* POWER STOP/POWER SLIDE:  This is one of the fastest 
stops, and also one of the hardest.  To do this stop, you should be 
able to skate forwards and backwards well, and also be able to flip 
front-to-back quickly.

You can piece the power stop together by combining two things:
1) flip front to backward.
2) place one foot behind you and push the entire row of wheels 
at a very sharp angle into the ground.

You can practice this by skating backwards, gliding, and then with 
nearly all your weight on one foot, bring the other foot behind you, 
perpendicular to your direction of travel (see the Backward 
Stepping stop).

You should start out doing this while traveling slowly.  Your wheels 
should scrape a little.  If they catch, you need to hold your braking 
skate at a sharper angle.  Once you get this down, you can practice 
flipping front-to-back, coast a little, and then stop.  Eventually, the 
combination becomes one smooth move:  just get the braking leg 
ready as soon as you flip.

You can use any flip (mohawk, 3-turn, toe-pivot, etc.) for this stop.  
This stop is good for hockey, and a good stop when going 
backwards (especially at higher speeds).  A power-stop using a 
jump turn is called a chop stop (see following section).


* CHOP-STOP:  For skating forward or backward at low to 
moderate speeds. This is much like the hockey stops done on ice 
except, since you can't shave asphalt, you need to jump and turn 
both skates and hips perpendicular to the direction of travel.  Land 
with the skates at an angle (like in the power stop) and push your 
wheels  against the ground.  To maintain balance you can keep one 
skate mainly beneath you, while the other goes out forward to stop 
you.

Most of the shredding will be done on the lead skate, where the 
inside of your lead leg should make a sharp angle against the 
ground.

Basically what this is, is a power stop using a jump turn.

The jump isn't so much for air time as for lifting your skates off the 
ground so you can reposition them sideways.  The lower the jump 
you can get away with, the less off balance you should be when you 
land. However, if you don't jump high enough you may not be able 
to place your lead skate at a sufficient angle.  Caution should be 
used even more so in this stop than in others.

The particulars of the jump aren't crucial.  You can lead with one 
foot followed by the other, and land in that order; or jump and land 
with both feet at once.  Pick whatever style you're most comfortable 
with.


* NEW YORK STOP:  Harder than even the power stop, the 
New York stop is mainly a power stop but you don't turn your 
gliding foot!  It doesn't appear that just anyone can perform this 
stop, since it seems to require quite a bit of knee flexibility.

  L = the track left by the left skate,  R = ditto by the right skate

  ------ direction of travel --- >

  L------------------------   |  <-   slide with skate, grinding edges of
                              /   |---all the wheels like in the power-slide
  R-----                     /   <-
         \                 /
           \             /          (A NY stop with the right foot)
             \         /
               \_____/   

This stop requires your knee to be twisted inward (not a natural 
position, by far), so if you can't do it, I wouldn't say it's a big loss 
since it seems to have above average potential to cause injury if done 
wrong. 


* COMBINATION/SEQUENCE STOPS

Once you've got some stops perfected, the next thing you might 
want to try is a sequence or combination of several stops.  These are 
definitely more fun and a bit more showy.  These are some of the 
random combination stops that I do.  You can easily make up your 
own. (Sequences are denoted with "->" and combos with "+")

S-stop:  Crossover stop -> turn opposite direction -> toe-drag 
spinout.  So for example, you can crossover stop to the left, 
ride your left skate and do a toe drag (right toe pivot) while 
turning to the right to complete the S-pattern.

Double crossover stop:  crossover stop -> inverted 
crossover stop (or vice versa).  This also traces out an S-
pattern.

Braking T-stop:  T-stop with non-brake foot + brake with 
brake-pad

Braking toe-drag:  Brake with brake-pad + toe-drag on other 
skate The braking toe-drag and the braking T-stop are the 
two of the most effective ways to stop that I know of when 
cruising.

Braking spread-eagle:  Spread-eagle (follow w/ spinout 
optional) with braking skate in front + braking with brake-
pad 

Braking glide stop:  glide -> reverse feet positions -> brake-
pad.  The effect is that of shuffling your feet quickly and 
stopping.  (Glide:  skate with one skate out, and one skate 
back; use only the back toe and front heel wheels.  The back 
skate should be the one with the brake since the assembly 
gets in the way on the front skate)





* FALLING:

Falling should be one of your last resort techniques, but everyone 
falls some time, so it's a good and safe thing to know.  Falling can 
be practiced at low speeds to get used the idea that indeed, you can 
plop on your guards and pads, and come away safe as houses.

1) One of the less graceful and more painful ways to stop is to 
wipeout into a face plant or another nasty, bloody occurrence.  I 
daresay no one does this "stop" voluntarily.  These stops work 
vicariously:  If you see someone else do it...you're likely to stop or 
slow down too 8-)

2) At low speeds, a better (and less painful) falling-stop is to 
collapse your body in a way so that the primary scraping areas are 
the knee pads and your wrist guards/gloves.  Bend your knees, fall 
on your knee pads and follow by falling on your wrist guards.  
Keep your wrists loose since there is still some risk of injury.  See 
the collision section below.

If you tend to fall backwards, your rear-end will probably be your 
biggest cushion (just how big, depends on you 8-).  You should try 
to spread out the shock to your arms and over as much body area as 
possible (in general)...the less directly on your wrists and elbows, 
probably the better.  NOTE however, that your tailbone is, after all, 
located in your duff and a hard fall at too sharp an angle will either 
bruise or fracture/break the tailbone.

At high speeds, when you desperately need to stop, an outright 
collapse on your protection gear may not be enough.  High speed 
falls are best when you take the brunt of the force with the entire 
body, save for the head (besides, you're wesides, you're wearing your helmet, 
right?)

Rolling with the fall is a key to reducing the force of impact.  So if 
you happen to be careening down a hill, if possible, turn sideways 
to your direction of travel and fall uphill (to keep you from tumbling 
further down the hill).  When you hit, keep your body loose, with 
hands up near your face or over your head.  With luck, and no other 
dangers eminent (such as approaching 18-wheelers or rolling off a 
cliff), you should be able to stand up, thank your favorite deity, 
wipe yourself off, and go take a lesson in skating safety and control.


* COLLISIONS WITH STATIONARY OBJECTS:  
Hopefully you will never ever have to use a collision as a means to 
stop, but if you insistkeep your limbs bent and be a big human 
shock-absorber and cushion your contact with bending of the arms 
and legs.  Locked limbs will only increase the shock going into your 
joints causing likely ligament/tendon tears or other damage.




Bottom line

Practically speaking, all the stops that require dragging the wheels 
will put a bigger dent in your wallet since wheels cost a bundle.  If 
you don't use your brake-pad, harder wheels may slow down the 
wear on your wheels.



[Copyright 1992 by Anthony D. Chen.  All rights reserved.  License 
is hereby granted to republish on electronic or other media for which 
no fees are charged (except for the media used), so long as the text 
of this copyright notice and license are attached intact to any and all 
republished portion or portions.]

Newsgroups: rec.skate