It may almost be said of the children of Friesland, a province of
Holland, that they learn to skate before they learn to walk. As soon as
the Frisian baby can stand upright, if it is winter, the skates are
fastened to his little feet, and he is launched upon the glassy surface
of the canal. At six years old he--or it may be _she_, for the girls are
treated in just the same manner--is probably an expert skater, and for
the rest of his life steel runners are to him almost as familiar a means
of getting about as his own feet. The Frieslander, we are told, goes to
market on skates, goes to church on skates, and goes love-making on
skates, and when he has won his bride the newly wedded couple are
escorted to their home by a gay torch-light procession of steel-shod
neighbors.
In Holland the races on the ice are regarded as a great festival. Prizes
are given, and the winners are heroes for the time. Women sometimes join
the men in the races, and not seldom they carry off the prize. Two young
women once won a race of thirty miles in two hours, beating several men.
Imagine a couple of comely Dutch girls flying along at the speed of a
railroad train between short stops, and keeping up the pace for two
hours!
And what sport is there to compare with skating on a perfect piece of
ice, frozen by a couple of nights' severe cold, and quite free from
snow? This quickly formed ice is by far the best, for not only is it the
smoothest, but it is also the safest kind of ice. It may crack, perhaps,
and bend, but it is so elastic that there is little danger of its
breaking. Hark to the ever-changing hum of a hundred pairs of steel
blades upon the shining surface of the pond, now swelling, and now
almost dying away in the clear, biting air! And mingled with it merry
laughter and shouts, with every now and again a half-frightened,
half-playful little scream, as some too daring beginner "comes to
grief." It is a poor spirit indeed that is not fired by sounds like
these when Winter first lays his iron grasp on water and on land.
The art of skating has been brought to such perfection that mere speed
is almost despised among our best performers, who devote themselves to
that graceful variety of the art known as "figure skating." Among the
Northern peoples, however, from whom we originally learned to skate,
speed and distance still hold their own. The reason of this is that in
those countries skating is necessary for travelling, especially in
Holland, which is literally cut up by canals that are frozen for several
months every winter. Among us skating is generally done on ponds, and
careering round and round a pond, however fast one may go, soon becomes
tiresome.
But although we have given up long-distance skating for figures, the
fastest time in which a mile is said to have been skated was done by a
certain William Clark, of Madison, Wisconsin, who covered the distance
in the wonderfully short space of one minute and fifty-six seconds. It
is difficult to believe this, and but little less so to credit the
"record" of an English skater named Tebbutt, who is reported to have
skated a measured mile in two minutes and four seconds.
In France they attempt to teach people to swim by making them lie across
a narrow table, and strike out in the most approved manner. It is not
recorded, however, that any one thus taught ever entered the water with
any confidence in his ability to swim, and it is probable that a
Frenchman thus taught would swim about as well as a boy or girl would
skate the first time they went on the ice after reading about it.
Skating, indeed, like swimming and many other things, can be learned
only by practice, but at the same time a few hints may help the beginner
over the most slippery places; and if he learns what _not_ to do, he has
learned a great deal. Here are a few useful hints:
Do not fall. At the same time do not give up trying because you do fall,
or for fear of falling. Young bones carry light weights, and falls do
not hurt if they are done properly. It is the backward falls that hurt
and are really dangerous. Keep the body slightly bent forward; hold the
elbows down by the sides; and, above all, when you feel you are losing
your balance, do not throw up your arms and wrench yourself wildly to
try and keep your balance. Let balance go to the winds, if it must go,
and then you may fall forward on hands and knees with all the grace you
are master of. It will not be much, perhaps; but never mind.
As soon as you have learned to skate forward, and can travel at a fair
rate of speed, you will want to begin cutting figures. Probably in your
first attempts you will "cut a figure" that will make people laugh. Let
them laugh, and laugh with them. Everything must have a beginning.
Your first figure is one that does not amount to much by itself. In
fact, it amounts to just nothing. It is O. When you can make a fairly
correct O on one foot, or, better still, on each foot, you will be
getting on capitally. But if O amounts to little by itself, make another
O on the top of it, and you will have the figure 8. Strike out boldly
with one foot, leaning well over to the side so that you make a rapid
curve. As soon as the circle is nearly completed, bring the left foot to
the front, and pointing it well to the left make another circle as
before. You will not make the second circle so easily as the first, but
after a little practice you will succeed in making a very fair figure of
8.
This is the only figure that can be made altogether on the inside edge
of the blade, and that is not the best way to make it, although it is
the easiest. Before you go any farther you must learn the "outside
edge." After skating a few yards at a good pace, bring both your feet
parallel to one another, and as you skim along without effort, lean your
weight first to one side and then to the other. You will find yourself
moving along in a serpentine course, and one of your feet will be
resting on the _outside_ edge of its skate, and the other on the
_inside_ edge. Lift up the foot that is doing inside edge, and see how
far you can go on the other foot alone. When you feel that you are
losing your balance, or coming to a stop, put the other foot down, and
push off again, repeating the outside edge trick with the other foot.
After some practice you will be able to start off on outside edge
altogether, and by throwing your weight to the side of the foot you are
on, you will soon be able to make circles on the outside edge.
Outside edge is the key to figure skating, and having learned that, you
may try the "three." This may be done in two ways: (1) a half-stroke
inside edge forward, a little turn, and then a stroke outside backward,
or (2) outside forward, the turn, and then inside backward. The turn in
the middle of the "three" is not easy to describe, but it is not
difficult to do. If you think of the shape of the figure, you will soon
get the knack of changing from one edge of the skate to the other, and
you will never forget it.
Having mastered the "three," you may try the "half double three," which
is a "three" and the first part of another one. This sounds easy, but it
is not so, for the reason that all your force will be exhausted by the
time you have made a good tail to your figure. The "double three" is
more difficult still, for the same reason. Now that you have learned the
outside edge, you should do the "eight" in the proper way, namely, by
making the second circle on _outside_ instead of inside edge.
When you can do "outside edge," "eight," and "three," the best way to
learn more difficult figures is to go to the corner of the pond where
the best skaters practice, and, watch them. You will thus learn more
than a whole book can teach you. Practice and attention to a few simple
rules are the only roads to success: (1) When skating on one foot keep
the other foot well back, with the toes turned out, and the heel close
to that of the other foot; (2) keep your head up--there is no need to
look down at the ice; (3) keep your elbows down; (4) straighten the knee
after striking out, and keep it straight. Remember that when you are
once in motion you increase your speed or alter your direction by simply
throwing the weight of your body in the direction you wish to move.