The alterations and additions to this book in its present form are due partly to fresh practical experience; partly to adverse criticism of which I now see the justice; and partly, as I freely admit, to the picking of other people’s brains. Since this book was published I have read for the first time books on ski-ing by Zdarsky, Bilgeri, Luther, and Arnold Lunn, and have re-read those of Richardson, Rickmers, Paulcke, and Hoek. As a result I have had to alter a good deal of my theory and some of my practice, and to alter and enlarge this book accordingly. To all the above-named authors, therefore, I am more or less indebted, and feel correspondingly grateful.

In adopting an idea one can seldom help altering it more or less, and if in the body of the book I have made few direct acknowledgments, it has been from no lack of gratitude, but rather from a doubt whether the originator of the idea would be gratified at its development or indignant at its distortion.

I must however make special acknowledgments to Ober-Leutnant Bilgeri. From his excellent book I have gained much fresh knowledge of the theory and practice of ski-ing. This book, moreover, while confirming me in my opinion of the vices of the Lilienfeld system of ski-running, has given me a fresh insight into the virtues of the Lilienfeld system of teaching, and consequently a fresh sense of my indebtedness to the chief apostle of this system, my first teacher, Mr. Rickmers.

If Herr Bilgeri has ever happened to read my book, certain resemblances between it and his own—the analogy of the bicycle and tricycle with the single and double-track runner, for instance—may, since his book was published first, have struck him as remarkable. I take this opportunity of assuring him that when I wrote this book I had not read his, nor for that matter any of his writings, and that, if I had, the resemblances would have been not only fully acknowledged, but considerably more numerous.

To Mr. E. C. Richardson I must return special thanks for criticism that has shown me the error of some of my ways of thinking; I have also to thank Mr. C. W. Richardson for new ideas gained from an article by him on “Knee Action in Ski-ing.”

Finally, I wish to express my gratitude to everyone whose suggestions I have adopted, or who, either by precept or example, has taught me anything new and so has had a hand in the revision of this book, but to whom I have not referred individually.

This heavy list of acknowledgments makes me realise more than ever how difficult it is nowadays for a writer on ski-ing technique—or at any rate for this writer—to say anything new. I am afraid that even a succÈs de scandale as the fanatical prophet of complete sticklessness will soon be out of my reach, if it is not already, for we are all agreed now that the stick should be used as little as possible, and therefore that not to use it at all is, if possible, best. It is a short step from this to finding out by practical experience that, so long as one is travelling on snow, not ice, and has a little more than room enough to place the skis horizontally across the slope, one can move just as freely, quickly, and easily, and with just as perfect control, without the stick as with it.

E. V. S. C.

December 1912.