Walker's manly exercises / Containing rowing, sailing, riding, driving, racing, hunting, shooting, and other manly sports

by Donald Walker

To accomplish this, the skater, after making the 3, and placing the outside edge of his left foot on the ice, should at once turn his face over the right shoulder, raise his right foot from the ice, and throw back his right arm and shoulder. ([Plate XIX.] fig. 2.) If, for awhile, he is unable readily to raise that foot which has made the 3, and leave himself on the outside of the other skate, he may keep both down for some distance, putting himself, however, in attitude of being on the outside only of one skate, and gradually lifting the other off the ice as he acquires ability.

When finishing any figure, this use of both feet backward has great convenience and beauty.

Before venturing on the outside backward, the skater ought to take care that the ice is clear of stones, reeds, &c., and also be certain of the good quality of his irons. When going with great force backward, the course may be deflected, so as to stop by degrees; and, when moving slowly, the suspended foot may be put down in a cross direction to the path.

Such are the four movements of which alone the skate is capable: namely, the inside edge forward; the outside forward; the inside back; and the outside back; in which has been seen how the impulse for the first two is gained, and how the third flows from the second, and the fourth from the third. By the combination of these elements of skating, and the variations with which they succeed each other, are formed all the evolutions in this art.

The Double Three is that combination in which the skates are brought from the inside back of the first three, to the outside forward of the second. Here the skater, after having completed one 3, and being on the inside back, must bring the whole of the left side forward, particularly the leg, till it is thrown almost across the right, on which he is skating. This action brings him once more to the outside forward, from which he again turns to the inside back. While he is still in motion on the second inside back of the right leg, he must strike on the left, and repeat the same on that.

It is at first enough to do two 3’s perfectly and smoothly. Their number from one impulse may be increased as the skater gains steadiness and skill; the art of accomplishing this being to touch as lightly as possible on each side of the skate successively, so that the first impulse may be preserved and made the most of.

The Back Roll is a means of moving from one foot to another.

Suppose the skater to have put himself on the outside edge back of the left leg, with considerable impulse, by means of the 3 performed on the right,—not bearing hard on the edge, for the object is to change it, and take up the motion on the right foot,—this is effected by throwing the left arm and shoulder back, and turning the face to look over them; when, having brought the inside of his left skate to bear on the ice, he must immediately strike from it to the outside back of the other, by pressing it into the ice as forcibly as he can at the toe. Having thus been brought to the backward roll on the right foot, he repeats the same with it.

The Back Cross Roll is done by changing the balance of the body, to move from one foot to the other, in the same manner as for the back roll. The stroke is from the outside instead of the inside edge of the skate; the edge on which he is skating not being changed, but the right foot, which is off the ice, being crossed at the back of the left, and put down, and the stroke taken at the same moment, from the outside edge of the left skate, at the toe. As in the back roll of both forms, the strokes are but feeble, the skater may, from time to time, renew his impulse as he finds occasion, by commencing anew with the 3.