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 figures and then the competitor is allowed a few minutes in which to illustrate his ability to skate special figures or elements not before shown by him.
While the skating of school figures is always to place, and the marking of that skating is dependent upon the ability of the skater to make his tracings upon the ice conform to correct designs, the free skating is, as its name implies, entirely independent of conventional form and may be located at any place upon the ice. The free skating programme is the most interesting portion of the contest generally and offers the best test of the skater’s ability to illustrate mastery of the spectacular side of the sport.
There are no set figures which the skater is expected to demonstrate in free skating. He has a limit of time, that is all. In that time he may skate as many different or similar figures as he sees fit, large or small, intricate or simple. Every resource of his skating knowledge may be brought into play here. Therefore it is not surprising that this portion of the skating contests in Europe attracts very large crowds from long distances. My skating on the stage of the Hippodrome is what might be called free skating, except that I am skating for the general public and not for skating judges. If I were skating for judges of skating I would introduce a few more difficult, if not more spectacular, skating figures.
Any skater intending to enter a competition should carefully work up a free skating programme, learn it by heart and be able to skate it without pause. Often this portion of the contest serves to rate a skater very high and helps out greatly when the skater has had low marks for the school figures.
Certain programmes are generally followed in free skating. Starting with a series of running steps, to get momentum, then a long spiral and a spectacular jump; toe spins; bold, large figures in the form of an eight; dance steps, a spectacle figure to time of music; finishing with a spectacular spin on one foot, crouched down close to the ice with the other foot curled about the skating foot in front: this makes a combination which suggests what can be done. The spread-eagle is another important figure to introduce into free skating programmes.
| EIGHT ON ONE FOOT. | THREE—CHANGE—THREE. | CHANGE OF EDGE—THREE. |
| DOUBLE THREE—CHANGE—DOUBLE THREE. | CHANGE OF EDGE—DOUBLE THREE. | LOOP—CHANGE—LOOP. |
| CHANGE OF EDGE—LOOP. | BRACKET—CHANGE—BRACKET. | CHANGE OF EDGE—BRACKET. |
CHAPTER 22.
Pair Skating.
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 accuracy in individual skating are more necessary in pair skating than in solo skating for on that accuracy depends the manner in which the partner is met after separating strokes. In many figures the difficulty is enhanced by not only having to execute the figure but meet the partner at the right spot and the right moment afterward. It is in some respects a finer art to skate well with a partner than it is to skate well alone. Where charm and grace are revealed in individual skating, the addition of a partner who skates equally well accentuates the grace and beauty of this poetry of motion.
Many other delightful features are characteristic of pair skating. It is the sociable form of skating, As in dancing, where few are expert enough to do solo dancing, thousands enjoy dancing with a partner. There is stimulus to individual achievement in skating with a partner. Weak figures are aided in their development by encouragement and the helping hand. Rivalry results and helps toward progress. The mere presence of an assisting hand will often aid the ambitious skater in the first mastery of a difficult balance or the sustaining of a long spiral. Individual skating, when it is highly perfected, tends somewhat toward an over-abundance of dance steps and toe movements, while pair skating remains skating at its best—the long, sweeping, exquisitely poised curves carried over two hundred feet of glistening ice.