Skate

“ As I now look back on that dismal scene, and remember the sinking heart that throbbed so feebly within me, and the wasted trembling limbs with which I attempted to flee from my prison-like bed, I cannot help smiling;—now, when I can skate as fast as any one, on my solitary foot, swim as well as I ever could, climb like a squirrel, jump on a saddled horse and ride at any pace I please, place a hand on a fence as high as my head and spring over in a quarter of a second, or walk twenty-five or thirty miles a day—all this with one good leg, a crutch and a cane! ”

“ A few careful ones are soberly tightening their straps; others halting on one leg, with flushed, eager faces, suddenly cross the suspected skate over their knee, give it an examining shake, and dart off again. ”

“ In fact, I had not been on the ice fifteen minutes, when I got to skating too fast—my skate going so fast that I couldn’t keep up—and the result was that I presently had the ice for a pillow, and lay there gazing at the clouds, with only one overhanging skate-clad foot to interrupt the view. Then, before I had time to stir from this novel position, a handsome young lady, who was trying the backward skating, endeavored to skate over me—a feat frequently attempted without success—and the result was, she violently took a seat upon my stomach and jobbed one of her elbows in my eye. ”

“ The skater having got his impetus by leaning against the inside edge of one skate, launches himself on the other. Now there are two edges to a skate, namely, the inside and the outside. There is also the flat base of the skate. Both theoretically and practically, he never uses the flat of the skate in his actual progress. When he turns, whether the turn is a three-turn or a rocker, or a counter or a bracket, he comes up to the flat for a moment, but instantly leaves it again. He progresses on one edge, the inside, or on the other edge, the outside. ”

“ The stroke must be taken, i.e. impetus must be set up, not with a push of our skate-toe into the ice, but from the inside edge of the skate blade. The reason is obvious, for if a skater thrusts his sharp skate-toe into the ice he will make a hole in it, and damage the ice. ”

“ I pretended (it seemed safe) to be desperately fond of hunting, and to despise skating. Besides I had work, literary work, I told CECILIA, an article on Miss AUSTEN. This pleased her, but nobody accepted the article. In fact, I was bent on secretly learning to skate. I sent to town for a pair of "Acmes," for I knew I never could manage all the straps and buckles of the ordinary modern skate. I knew of a pond where nobody came, and thither, under cover of night, I smuggled a bed-room chair. ”

“ The toe of the skate should curve up and around the toe of the shoe, in many patterns even touching the sole of the shoe in front. This curved front is deeply cut in with very sharp 12sawteeth, and it is on these sawteeth that so many of my pirouettes and pivots and dance steps are made. The height of the foot plate from the ice is much less than that of the heel plate from the ice, which naturally throws the skater into a forward balance. Most of the time I am skating upon the part of the skate directly under the ball of my foot. ”

“ You see what a very perfect contrivance the skate is; and what a
similitude of intelligence there is in its evolution. Blind
intelligence, because it is certain the true physics of skating
was never held in view by
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the makers of skates. The evolution of the skate has been truly
organic. The skater selected the fittest skate, and hence the fit
skate survived.
In a word, the possibility of skating depends on the dynamical
melting of ice under pressure. ”

“ As one becomes more expert, lighter skates become more important, for in spins and turns on one foot the weight of the shoe and skate can seriously affect the balance and throw the skater into a false curve. ”

“ This ought to be done across the stone, so as to give the bottom of the skate so slight a concavity as to be imperceptible, which insures an edge whose angle is not greater than right. Care must be taken that one edge is not higher than the other; so that, when the skate is placed upon an even surface, it may stand quite perpendicularly. The wear of the iron not being great with a beginner, one grinding will generally last him through an ordinary winter’s skating on clean ice. ”

“ The most important things to have in mind as one skates the elementary figure are carriage, poise and deliberation. If the body is correctly poised a slight stroke will carry the skater in the right direction; no amount of straining or kicking will cause the skate to execute the right figures if the body over that skate is in the wrong position or wrong balance.
19My own skating as head of the ice ballet at the New York Hippodrome is fast and spectacular, I admit; it has to be so to be theatric, to catch the crowd, to startle the sensation seeker. ”

“ Pirouettes are done on the toes of the skates and imply extremely difficult balances. Jumps on to the toe of the skate are not so difficult, although they appear very difficult, are very effective for exhibition purposes and often form very pretty interludes to introduce into a skating programme. ”

“ On skates thus fastened anything may be accomplished.
Always put your own skates on, and put them on deliberately; for if you really mean skating in earnest, limbs, and even life, may depend on their running true, and not failing at a critical moment. The slope of the bank must be descended sideways—avoid [Pg 23] the stones concealed by snow, for they will destroy the edge of the skate. When within a foot or so, leap on, and the impetus will carry you some yards out upon the lake, clear of the shadow of the bank and the willows above, out to where the ice gleams under the sunshine. ”

“ While cabs must crawl and ’busses must creep,
All long to say, from Fleet to Chepe,
“O, good-bye to the Bar and its moaning!”
Punch, September 26, 1874.
The Three Skaters.
Three ladies went skating at Prince’s one day,
And happy indeed were one and all;
For their hearts were light, and their dresses were gay,
But ’ere night they each had a terrible fall;
For women will skate, whate’er be their fate,
And its perfectly useless objections to state,
So heigh ho! for the rink and the skating. ”

“ You must skate straightaway until you have gained sufficient headway, then at the end of the last stroke turn the toes out so that the runners of your skates make a straight line, heel to heel, one skate following the other. In this position you will glide over the ice until the momentum first gained is exhausted. At first the beginner will be only partially successful, but gradually he will be able to describe a wide circle forward, and in a little while gain sufficient control of his feet to slide across the skating pond in a straight line. ”

“ Every boy should secure a pair of these skates at once.
This Skate is a fac-simile of the genuine Barney & Berry Keyless Skate, and is thoroughly made of the best material. It will give entire satisfaction. The heel plates, foot plates, toe clamps and brackets are made from crucible cast steel. The Blades are finely finished. Price $1.25. Postage and packing 30 cents extra, or sent by express at receiver’s expense.
We can supply the same Skate with nickeled blades for new subscriptions amounting to $3.00; or, for new subscriptions amounting to $1.50 and 75 cents cash additional. ”

“ The hockey skate should be just high enough to prevent the plate or the sole of the boot from touching the ice when turning or cutting corners, because a low skate is not so straining on the ankle as a high one. ”

“ With this kind of unrestricted opportunity the skaters blossomed in all directions, inventing new leaps, jumps, spins and positions, in ways they only the truly artistically expressive can do.
When the time came for that year's Winter Festivals and Carnivals— virtually every prize was won by one of the "Winter Wonderlanders," as they had come to be known that year. . .those for whom a skating life was a joy. . .not work. . .those who wanted to skate more than they wanted the prizes or recognition. ”

“ There is a new skate now in use by the London Skating Club, [319] called the elastic skate, or spring skate, in which a spring is introduced at the bottom of the foot, which keeps it fast in every part. Skates are also now made of gutta percha, and these are well worthy the notice of the young skater.
HOW TO START UPON THE INSIDE EDGE.
Having risen to the perpendicular, the learner should first ascertain, by moving his feet about on the ice, whether the skates are firmly and comfortably fixed on his feet. ”

“ Standing with both feet together on the ice, the starting stroke is made by pressing firmly with the flat part of the left skate on the ice and lunging backward strongly on the outside edge of the right skate. The chief difficulty in mastering this important figure comes from the innate hesitancy of the beginner to throw his balance backward. If this backward lunge is firm and strong, more than half the difficulty of the stroke has been mastered. ”

“ The plunge is the main thing in learning to skate backward. Make up your mind some fine morning that you are going to practise outside edges backward or inside edges backward all of the skating session of that day. Then do it. Skating is a matter of will power after all and not at all a matter of strength. I took up skating just because I was not strong and the doctors said it was outdoor life or a little narrow box for me. ”

“ Never look at your feet, as it is almost impossible to keep your balance when doing so. Look straight in front of you at a spot about level with your eyes.
There are various ways of stopping yourself. One is to dig the heel of your skate in the ice and turn the other foot sidewise. Another is to direct your course around a circle and to stop your forward pushing; but perhaps the best way is to turn your toes in, thus putting the line of your skate across the direction of your forward movement. ”

“ That skating has actually become fashionable among the gentler sex we regard as the strongest indication of an awakening national taste for exercise. But there is need of caution. Most persons skate with too heavy clothes. The quick movements of the limbs in the changing evolutions of this pastime—though the practised skater is unconscious of much muscular effort—quicken the circulation enough to increase palpably the animal heat and produce a very sensible perspiration. ”

“ It is well not to look at either the ice or the feet, but to keep the face erect and looking forwards. When persons first begin to skate they balance themselves with their arms almost involuntarily, and, when one foot is off the ice, they raise up the arm on the opposite side to prevent themselves from falling. ”

“ Nevertheless, on the scratched and
torn ice-surface skating is still quite possible; on the smooth
plate glass we know we could not skate.
Some little time after this discussion, the connection between
skating and a somewhat abstruse fact in physical science occurred
to me. As the fact itself is one which has played a part in the
geological history of the earth,
[1] A lecture delivered before the Royal Dublin Society in 1905.
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and a part of no little importance, the subject of skating,
whereby it is perhaps best brought home to every one, is
deserving of our careful attention. ”

“ Built at the heel as at the toe, it affords equal facility for backward, as well as for forward skating, an excellent point, and being forged and hammered, it is stronger and more reliable than the ordinary skate that is only cast. ”

“ A second condition essential to the art of skating is also
involved in the melting of the ice. The sinking of the skate
gives the skater "bite." This it is which enables him to urge
himself forward. So long as skates consisted of the rounded bones
of animals, the skater had to use a pointed staff to propel
himself. In creating bite, the skater again unconsciously appeals
to the peculiar physical properties of ice. The pressure required
for the propulsion of the skater is spread all along the length
of the groove he has cut in the ice, and obliquely downwards. ”

“ The technology of skating is imperfect. Few of the great feats, the Big Things, have admitted names. If I attempted to catalogue Wade’s achievements, this chapter might become an unintelligible rhapsody. A sheet of paper and a pen-point cannot supply the place of a sheet of ice and a skate-edge. Geometry must have its diagrams, Anatomy its corpus to carve. Skating also refuses to be spiritualized into a Science; it remains an Art, and cannot be expressed in a formula. ”

“ Also these turns teach him to hold his edges out after the turn, the tendency being to let the body rotate, whereby the curve curls in, and the skater soon finds himself in a position that it is impossible to maintain. But if he skates his turn, and then can hold an edge for 50 feet away from it afterwards, he may congratulate himself on the fact that he is beginning to skate his edges big and in the proper style. ”

“ At all events, the skater should bear in mind that the skate must be fastened securely and firmly to the foot, by being well fastened to the heel and sole of the boot by means of the screw and points, and well, but not clumsily, strapped round the ancle, exactly so tight as to confine the foot without hurting it or impeding the motions of the ancle joints. ”

“ To skate backward, work or scull yourself along any way, until you are able to detect the proper movement and proper manner of giving the strokes. This accomplished, you may call yourself a good plain skater.
The spread eagle is one of the first steps in the advance from plain to fancy skating. Even when well done, it lacks the elements of grace, but it is most excellent practice to render the limbs supple, and make other more graceful tricks possible ”

“ By referring to the above table the skater can easily determine just what strokes are necessary to produce the figure properly.
Racing skates should be attached to shoes of special design either by screws or rivets. The most important thing is to have the blades carefully ground by an expert. They should be keen enough to cut a hair. To become a fast skater, practise if possible with an expert. Have him skate ahead of you and measure your stroke with his. By keeping your hands clasped behind your back your balance will not only be greatly improved but your endurance will be doubled. ”