“Carriage upright but not stiff; the body not bent forwards or sideways at the waist; all raising or lowering of the body being effected by bending the knee of the tracing leg with upright back; the body and limbs generally held sideways to the direction of progress. The head always upright. Tracing leg flexible with bent knee. The eyes looking downwards as little as possible. The knee and toe of the free leg turned outwards as far as possible, the toe always downwards; the knee only slightly bent. The free leg swinging freely from the hip and assisting the movement. The arms held easily, and assisting the movement; the hands neither spread nor clenched. All action of the body and limbs must be easy and swinging with the direct object of assisting the movement of the moment; violent or stiff motions are to be avoided, the figure should seem to be executed without difficulty.
“The figures must be begun from rest—that is, by a single stroke with the other foot; and at the intersecting point of two circles. Every figure must be repeated three times consecutively. No impetus may be taken from the ice by the foot which is about to become the tracing foot; and every stroke should be taken from the edge of the blade, not from the point.”
There are also the following directions for correct tracing, i.e. the marks left by the skate on the ice.
“The essentials of correct tracing are:
“Maintenance of the long and transverse axes (as the long axis of the figure a line is to be conceived which divides each circle into two equal parts; a transverse axis cuts the long axis at right angles between two circles); approximately equal size of all circles, and of all curves before and after all turns; symmetrical grouping of the individual parts of the figure about the axes; curves without wobbles, skated out—that is, returning nearly to the starting-point. Threes with the turns lying in the long axis; changes of edge with an easy transition, the change falling in the long axis.”
In this form, then, and with this accuracy of tracing, the following figures must be skated for the third test:—
| Eight | Rfo—Lfo |
| Eight | Rfi—Lfi |
| Eight | Rbo—Lbo |
| Change | {(a) Rfoi—Lfio {(b) Lfoi—Rfio |
| Threes | RfoTbi—LfoTbi |
| R = Right. L = Left. T = Three. | f = Forwards. b = Backwards. o = Outside. i = Inside. |
Into the system of marking—candidates have to get a certain proportion of marks in each figure—we need not go. It will be sufficient to say that it is necessary to skate each figure passably, and to earn more than half marks on the whole.