English Figure Skating eBook

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. The object of the ensuing little treatise is an extremely ambitious one, for it is designed to help the skater at the very beginning of his career, nay, even before he has a career at all, unless a profusion of complicated falling may be reckoned as such. For much of the difficulty, which even the most athletic find in their first steps in skating, is due to the fact that they do not know what they have to do, bat only what it looks like when done. I have, therefore, attempted to analyze the movements and positions necessary for the proper progression and turning of the body on ice, and to build rules out of this analysis. There are, no doubt, many other ways of learning to skate, and I only (and that with diffidence) put forward one that in practice seems fairly satisfactory.

The object of the book goes beyond this, for it is also designed to help the skater even when he is well on the road to becoming a first-class performer. Many people who should easily emerge into those altitudes ::find themselves sticking at certain points for unconscionable periods, because they do not know how -certain difficulties must, be dealt with. And here again I hope to have indicated one way of dealing with these.