Skating, moreover, is one of the best possible exercises for the balance, for it teaches one to run steadily on one foot without the support of the other, and on this account alone you should by no means omit to learn it.
It is generally supposed that by skating down a gentle slope it is possible to increase the speed, but I think this is very doubtful.
A skating track is a zigzag one, and is therefore not such a short way over a given distance as a direct slide. Then, again, although each stroke tends to increase the speed, it must be remembered that the whole weight of the runner rests on one ski, causing it to sink deeper and travel slower, and also that the skis are travelling slightly across the slope instead of straight down it, which reduces the speed still more. Besides this, the stroke itself is not directly in the line of motion, since it is impossible to place one ski at right angles with the other one.
A better way of increasing the speed downhill is probably to lunge directly downhill with each foot alternately, keeping the skis close together—an exactly similar action to that of moving on level ground. Pushing with the sticks will, of course, make you go faster still.
JUMPING
Ski-jumping no doubt arose from the discovery that a slight inequality of the surface would sometimes cause a ski-runner moving fast downhill to leave the ground involuntarily for a moment. Some abnormal person having liked the feeling and wanted more of it, it is easy to see how his endeavour to accentuate the inequality, and so lengthen the jump, would lead him to construct a horizontal platform projecting from the hillside.
A competition jumping-hill at the present day is chosen, as to shape, and so arranged that the jumps may be as long as possible and the jumper may have a minimum of difficulty in keeping his feet on landing.
[Fig. 44] shows the usual form of the hill and position of the platform. (See [Frontispiece].)