WRONG HELP
I note that some books on skating advise the beginner to take a chair to the ice and learn on this till confidence is gained. Now confidence is never gained by leaning on anything or depending on any person. Start in to win by having confidence in yourself. This applies to your life work as well as to skating.
When you have mastered your legs somewhat, and can move fairly well forward, it will be quite time for you to learn some other way of getting experience and fun from the sport.
Begin the variation by trying to cut a forward circle. To begin, you strike out on the left foot, with the body leaning toward the left, the center of the proposed circle. When the weight of the body is on the outside edge, the line described by the skate runner will be a curve directed outward. As soon as you find that you can continue on that stroke no longer bring the right foot quickly forward and down. This last must be a short stroke of only sufficient duration to give you time for another outer-edge stroke with your left foot. At first you will make a very large circle, but gradually you will be able to contract the dimensions. When you have mastered the left-foot circle, try it on the right foot, and practice until you are able to go either way with equal speed.
The backward circle, when learned, is easier than the forward ring, for the push stroke is made with the toe. When going backward great force can be given to the toe-push stroke by slightly lifting the heel.
To cut the circle backward, you must simply reverse your forward movement.
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; and it is a favorite performance of boy skaters.
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.
The spread eagle backward will be found more difficult, for it necessitates turning the toes out until they point backward. In performing this last feat, it is no easy matter to keep your balance, but perfection comes with practice, and soon the boy who devotes time to practice will excite the admiration of his comrades by the ease with which he turns either forward or backward. During his practice the beginner will undoubtedly bend his knees, but after he has reached that point of excellence where his whole mind need not be centered on his feet, he may learn gradually to straighten his legs until at last he can do the spread eagle forward and backward without looking like a straddle bug.