Beginner roller skating
Build Your T-Stop With 2 Drills Before You Try the Real Thing
The T-stop looks simple on an experienced skater, but it demands single-leg balance most beginners skip past. Most remove their heel brake and jump straight to a full T-stop — ending up with short, shaky slides. Build it in order instead: a static drill, 80% of your weight on your front leg, deep knee bend, back foot light enough to scrape; then a short rolling slide to build edge stability to a full stop. Technique from ICP-certified coach Asha Kirkby.
The T-stop looks deceptively simple when an experienced skater does it. What it actually demands is single-leg balance and centre-edge control, and most beginners try to skip straight past both.
The common shortcut that backfires: remove the heel brake and jump straight to a full T-stop attempt. The usual result is a short, shaky slide that does not inspire confidence in either the stop or the skater.
Build it in order instead. Start with a static drill: 80% of your weight on your front leg, a deep knee bend, and your back foot light enough to scrape the ground smoothly without digging in. Then move to a short, one-to-two-metre rolling slide, which is what actually builds the edge stability a full stop needs.
Skipping straight to the finished move is what makes the T-stop feel unreachable; building the two pieces separately is what makes it arrive. 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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