Hey guys!
After making 2 different stops tutorials a
lot of you wanted to know how to spray more
or higher.
So.. here is how.
What I told you in my basic hockey stop tutorial,
to gradually build up from a curve until you
reach your ultimate level.. was true.
But the does the road end with a solid hockey
stop?
No of course not!
You can still add one thing: a dense cloud
of fractured tiny frozen water particles to
make it cooler...
How?
Okay, let's start with the obvious ones: speed
and angle.
These 2 go hand in hand.
If you increase the speed, you have the possibility
to stop more aggressively, provided that you
also lower your angle.
This is something you can't practice while
going slowly so it might take time to improve
because might get tired easily.
Technically I think there is no limit for
the leaning angle, other than -of course-
the physical limit where your skates can't
go lower anymore.
I've talked to a hockey trainer, we don't
see any disadvantage of using higher blades.
It will feel just a little bit different,
but you'll definitely have more space to lean.
Next that can help spray higher is force that
you apply.
When I really want to do a big stop, I push
my feet into the ground harder.
It's probably just my muscles that twitch
harder, because I can't go under the surface
of course.
But I still feel I have control over my weight.
If you go a bit deeper before the stop then
try to extend your legs during the actual
stop, that will help.
Also while we're here you can almost double
the force with a simple trick.
Just remove 1 leg from the procedure.
Medium speed stop on 2 legs:
Medium speed stop on 1 leg.
Not much, but noticeable difference.
If this is the speed you can handle, apply
this trick.
Full speed stop on 2 legs.
Full speed stop on 1 leg.
It starts to become unpredictable here.
My skate got stuck in the ice.
Just look at this deepening cut.
Maybe the angle was too high?
Let's go deeper.
Now it just slips.
There must be a middle point somewhere, but
it's easier to go with the 2 legged version.
Super mega speed stop on 2 legs:
Super mega speed stop on 1 leg:
Are you crazy? It's so uncontrollable, there was no way I leaned in for that much.
Using this high angle resulted in a longer
and bumpier stop.
Pressure.
If you further decrease the surface that contacts
the ice, for example by shifting your weight
a little bit on the nose area at the end,
that will also generate more pressure.
So instead of arriving with parallel feet,
you open up a bit.
Your back leg can be a support leg.
Which means you don't put as much weight on it.
Radius of hollow.
This shouldn't be the reason why you would
use deeper radius, but it's clear that deeper
hollows are more destructive, that's the reason
why they are slower.
It happens that I have an extra pair of skates
with me which we manually sharpened to be
a destroyer.
I just tried one stop from medium speed and it was awful, same as the 1 leg full speed stop.
This cuts way too much.
Deep blade is for lightweight people, kids
and girls.
Ice temperature and quality can also be a
factor.
However you have almost zero control over it.
I like natural ice for spraying, but what
you can do on the rinks is that you target
clean areas.
If there is debris on the ice already it can
block the particles.
It seems to me that spraying can also be trained.
But after a level there is no point making
it bigger.
Body weight also has an impact on the pressure, and I guess, you're not gonna eat more to
spray higher.
I never had the highest sprays on the rink,
but I'm very confident with quick unexpected
stops and that is more important.
That's it guys for this tutorial, we also
touched sharpening, I have a video on that,
and I'm still being asked, I do have a guide
on how to choose ice skates.
Check that out.
Have a nice icy day!
See you.
