Hippodrome Skating Book Practical Illustrated Lessons in the Art of Figure Skating

Skating on ice is the best sport in the world. It is also the best method in the world for developing grace of carriage, supple muscles and fine health through a fascinating exe...

The tracing of certain set figures on the ice is by no means all there is to figure skating. The correct carriage of the head and body, the arms and the balance leg are not mere...

Start with the idea that good skating is a hard thing to acquire. It is. For the same reason it is interesting. Easy things never hold their interest very long. Graceful skating...

Next to the outside edges in importance are the inside edges. Indeed, it is more accurate to say that they are of equal importance. For some reasons the inside edge deserves the...

Most spectacular and most applauded of all the items on my programme in the ice ballet in “Flirting at St. Moritz,” at the Hippodrome, are the backward outside edges or circles....

Some of the very difficult jumps in mid-air which I do are taken backward because it is really easier to do them that way than forward. There is one jump where I am skating back...

The change of edge is one of the most important school figures and should be carefully practised by every skating pupil. It is not spectacular, although it is very graceful and...

I feel convinced no one can be called a skater until he can do the school figures. Every day I practise the simplest of the school figures—outside circles, forward and backward;...

We have now reached the place in the school figures where they are of sufficient difficulty and interest for their introduction into my programme as premiere of the ice skating...

Skated in a series, as I do them, backward, threes always interest even those who know nothing about skating. They are necessary to the mastery of the ice waltz and all the othe...

Double threes make a very pretty tracing on the ice and are especially useful in determining if the skater has learned the correct carriage for the various turns comprising them...

The second half of the double threes are skated backward. That is, both parts of the lesson of the day start backward. Double threes have the interesting peculiarity of finishin...

The importance of loops cannot be exaggerated. They are in some respects more important than the threes, which precede them. They are an entirely different balance from figures...

Loops are so very important a part of the equipment of the finished skater that I have divided them into two chapters. They should have large place in the careful, studious skat...

It is most important, in learning the school figures in the correct continental style, to remember that all the school figures should be done in large size. The matter of size i...

The rockers are very hard figures to learn, but they are very beautiful and very delightful. Perhaps the big soaring rockers are the most fascinating of all skating figures. Man...

Although the rockers, or rocking turns, as they are sometimes called, are very difficult and very beautiful, they are not especially adapted to a place in theatrical skating. If...

Counters are very similar in appearance to rockers but the turn is made away from the centre instead of toward it. A rocker is a form of three out of which one comes onto the sa...

The advanced school figures, as will be seen from a glance at the diagrams, consist of developments and combinations of the elementary school figures. There are no really new fi...

While the school figures, both elementary and advanced, have been described or illustrated, there are other important figures which the skater should learn. These will be useful...

The term free skating is applied to that portion of the programme not included in the school figures. In all championship contests certain selections are made from the school fi...

Pair skating implies adaptability. One must not only be an independent skater but must also watch his partner and meet that partner’s stroke or change of stroke. Evenness and ac...

There is no greater stimulus to skating interest than a competition in which numbers of the best skaters enter and in which the judging is satisfactory. In Europe these competit...

There should be encouragement of skating on the part of every community by the maintenance of skating ponds and rinks. No better exercise can be provided for by any city or town...