There are few forms of exercise that are more exhilarating than skating. There seems to be a peculiar fascination that holds you. There is a pleasing restfulness and a soothing feeling while you are gliding over the smooth ice. Surely there is nothing so interesting to watch as good skating. An intangible quality seems to draw you to it, to make you want to put on a pair of skates and try it yourself. Out-of-doors skating is, of course, preferable to rink skating, but the latter is a very acceptable substitute.

“I have weak ankles. I can’t skate.” How many times have girls offered this trite excuse! If anyone really wants to learn to skate, with a little patience and perseverance it can soon be accomplished.

The skates should be the right size for the shoe in order to avoid any accident. The shoe should be high, and not too stiff at the ankles. It is advisable to have the shoe and skate fastened together. The skates should be always well wiped, sharp and in good condition.

The skater must learn straight skating, that is, moving forward by long slides on each foot alternately while the foot not on the ice is held up backward and outward from the ice, before attempting intricacies.

To learn the elementals of straight skating, start with the left foot. This foot slides forward on the flat of the skate, the toe turned out; the left knee is bent, the weight of the body is forward, thus giving momentum to the slide. The right foot is back, raised a few inches. When the momentum is almost gone, then gripping the ice with the toe of the left foot, the right foot starts its slide. As the right starts, the left foot is lifted ready for the glide, and so on, skating straight ahead.

Skating backward is learned in the same manner, except that the back of the foot is turned out instead of the toe.

It requires practice in order to perfect these two forms of straight skating. They should be acquired and thoroughly mastered, so that the skater glides over the ice with ease and skill before any dancing or continental skating is attempted.

There are several points of form that should be brought to mind. The slides or strokes should always be of equal length and as long as possible. If one foot is stronger than the other, then particular attention should be paid to the weaker foot. The skating knee is always bent. The foot not in use is stretched outward and downward, toe pointed downward. The body is carried well forward, head erect; the arms move rhythmically, but not in an exaggerated position. The body must not be stiff. There should be no rigid muscles at all.

It is not the hurried, quick strides with a body bent over in a grotesque fashion that constitutes good skating, but the long, even glides, with the body poised naturally and responding to the rhythm of the motion.

Continental skating has in the last few years proved to be very popular. It is impossible to give a detailed account of all the intricate figures in a comparatively limited space. The more elementary school figures, however, can easily be explained. The skate has an inside and an outside edge, and progress may be made either forward or backward on either edge. Thus, there are four edges: forward outside edge, backward outside edge, forward inside edge, backward inside edge.

For the forward outside edge a circle is described on the outer edge of the skate. The first stroke is on the right foot. The start is obtained by a push from inside edge of the skate of the left foot. The body leans toward the circle.

For the backward outside edge, the circle is described on the outer edge of the skate. This is like the forward outside edge, only much more difficult; the body leans in toward the circle and backward.

The forward inside edge is a circle described on the inside edge of the skate; the outer shoulder is turned as far out and forward, the inner shoulder is turned back, the body leans toward the middle of the circle. When the circle is almost complete, the free foot is brought forward, the shoulders straightened.

The backward inside edge is more difficult, but the theory is the same as the forward inside edge. The foot at completion is carried back, not forward, however.

These are fundamentals for figure skating and should be practised carefully. After the edges, the five threes, the loops, the brackets, the four rockers, and the four counters are learned. These are easily learned if the four edges have been perfected.