Читать книгу Hippodrome Skating Book. Practical Illustrated Lessons in the Art of Figure Skating онлайн

5 страница из 19

To skate properly or to learn to skate, the right equipment is absolutely essential. The skate is the first essential; one may skate fairly well with shoes which are inappropriate or costume which retards free action, but with the wrong skates it is impossible to learn the art.

The proper skate has two stanchions or uprights running from the blade to the foot and heel plates. There seems to be scientific warrant for the statement that this method of construction makes it “run farther.” The old pattern having three stanchions or supports has been discarded by the best skaters of all skating countries for years.

The toe of the skate should curve up and around the toe of the shoe, in many patterns even touching the sole of the shoe in front. This curved front is deeply cut in with very sharp sawteeth, and it is on these sawteeth that so many of my pirouettes and pivots and dance steps are made. The height of the foot plate from the ice is much less than that of the heel plate from the ice, which naturally throws the skater into a forward balance. Most of the time I am skating upon the part of the skate directly under the ball of my foot. The curve of the blade from toe to heel is about a nine foot radius.