Hockey Stops & Power Slides -- What's the difference? This is one skill that rookies and veterans alike struggle to wrap their head around what it should look like and what their body should be doing to stop. Plus it's a bit of a mental game as you MUST USE SOME SPEED to get the stop to work, even more so with hockey stops than power slides.
Power Slides begin like the bottom of a question mark. You come in straight with hips squared, then do a dramatic swing of the hips out and around. You dig in with the outside edge of your leading foot. I was taught to finish with my hand in the air as if to say, "STOP!" It helps a little when you're getting the move down with your balance and accuracy. Maybe that part is just in my head. 😅You finish in a wide stance with perpendicular feet, almost 180 degrees from where you started. When your feet are pointed two different directions like this, you're more likely to be spun out on impact so it isn't as effective for blocking as the hockey stop.
Hockey Stops begin with a squared hips approach, but the feet always stay together facing the same direction, parallel to each other. The swing of the hips is not nearly as dramatic, but it does help to engage your glutes and sink down a little further when executing the stop. Engage your outside edges. You do so much work with your outside edge, you can almost pick up your inside foot (which will lead to one foot hockey stops in a future video).
The hockey stop is more efficient for quick changes in direction like evading obstacles when jamming. You only turn about 90 degrees which lets you keep going with loaded energy as you pick up your inside foot to run away. You can use the hockey stop when blocking to arrest the momentum of an oncoming jammer and absorb impact. With parallel feet, it's much harder for the jammer to push you forward and you can move laterally back and forth as much as you please.
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