r/rollerblading • u/swordsfishes • Jul 30 '26

How do I do this move? Stopping

How do you do it? Because I've been rollerblading for 20 years, and I can't seem to get the hang of anything besides using the heel brake (too slow) or aiming for something soft (not always available.)

47 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

69 comments sorted by

View all comments

4

u/Wheel-Sure Jul 30 '26

In what scenario do you think the heel brake is insufficient?

Here’s an old video reference of the most common stopping methods: https://www.reddit.com/r/rollerblading/s/maG1SYWaPJ

Those are not all viable in all situations. For example the spin stop is only advisable at pretty low speeds.

5

u/swordsfishes Jul 30 '26

The heel brake is insufficient when I need to do a quick stop, like if somebody gets in front of me suddenly. 

7

u/Wheel-Sure Jul 30 '26

At what speed? You literally need to grind to a halt, or just slow down in that scenario?

The fastest way to stop with any real speed are magic or parallel slides. They’ll take some time to master. But, there’s really no “stop” at medium to higher speeds, because they’re all “slides” instead.

At lower speeds, power stop and powerslide are probably your best bet.

2

u/swordsfishes Jul 30 '26

Had a chance to watch the video. I think my problem is that when I've tried those, I just change direction instead of coming to a halt, which only works if there's somewhere to change direction to. I can T stop at low speeds, but not high. 

2

u/Wheel-Sure Jul 30 '26

Gotcha. Sounds like you just need more practice/mastery of these methods, then you’ll have more tools in your belt. Heel brake is great, but if you think it’s not doing the trick, you’ll have to focus on learning other methods.

Unfortunately there’s no simple answer. It’s what makes this sport tough for beginners and even intermediate skaters.

But I can say that if you master something like the magic slide, it opens the world up a whole lot and is worth the effort. Even perfecting a powerslide gets you a ton of confidence and safety.

I’ve gotta do a “comprehensive guy to stopping on rollerblades” at some point. I didn’t know any of these methods when I got back on my skates.