Beginner roller skating
Spinning Out on a T-Stop Isn't a Strength Problem
If your T-stop keeps turning into a spin instead of a slide, it's tempting to blame weak thighs. It's almost never that: too much weight on your sliding leg twists your hip, and your front skate pronates inward. Two drills fix both: the scissor glide, shifting 80% of your weight onto your back leg while lifting the front skate; and the toe roll, gliding on your front leg with trailing foot pointed back. Technique from ICP-certified coach Asha Kirkby.
If your T-stop keeps turning into a spin instead of a controlled slide, the easy conclusion is that your inner thighs are not strong enough yet. That conclusion is almost always wrong.
The real causes are about weight and edge, not strength. Too much weight on your sliding leg twists your hip out of position, and your front skate pronating — rolling inward — sends the whole stop off course before it starts.
Two drills fix both at once. The scissor glide: shift 80% of your weight onto your back leg while lifting the front skate briefly, which proves to your body that it can actually stand on one leg. The toe roll: glide on your front leg while your trailing foot points behind you, which forces your weight forward and trains the small edge adjustments a T-stop depends on.
Neither drill needs speed to be useful — both work at a walking pace, which is where they should be practised first. Inline technique, from Asha Kirkby of Skatefresh, an instructor certified by the Inline Certification Program. She teaches inline skating, and that is the discipline this page is about.
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