Foreword - Some 17 million Americans, adults and children alike, annually delight in the pleasures of roller skating. It is safe to say that every city of ten thousand or more population, as well as a great many smaller communi­ties, is within easy reach of a roller rink. Schools and colleges, churches and recreation centers are making their gymnasiums available for skating in increasing numbers until there can be no doubt that roller skating is one of the fastest growing sports in the land.

Preface - This book has been prepared for the beginner who wants to take up the sport of roller skating and for the more experienced skater who desires to increase his knowledge of and proficiency in the sport. It covers the funda­mentals of four branches of roller skating—figure, dance, freestyle, and speed—as well as basic forward and backward skating technique.

01. Sport Growth - Roller skating, one of America's primary mass participant sports, has traveled a long and sometimes hard road since the day two centuries ago when an anonymous Dutchman first attempted to transfer skating from ice to ground. The Netherlands ice-skating enthusiast, who could scarcely wait for the canals to freeze over each winter, nailed some large wooden spools to wood strips which he attached to his shoes, and went bumping along his merry way.

02. Basic Technique - The object of this chapter is to give you some facts and suggestions about the shoe skates necessary for maximum enjoyment of roller skating and to instruct you in the basic techniques of correct forward and backward skating, turning, and stroking to music. When you are once on properly fitted skates and have the ability to handle yourself around a rink, you can progress rapidly to skating figures, dancing, or even speed skating.

03. Figure Skating - Figure skating is the sport of moving the body around a circle or a semicircle with a single stroke, and with apparent ease and grace, while balanced on a skate. It is a favorite sport with all ages. The physical requirements for figure skating are not so strenuous as to eliminate partici­pation of any group, from the youngest to the oldest. Though a firm taskmaster, figure skating is a relaxing and absorbing sport.

04. Dance Skating - Dance skating is the most popular of the branches of roller skating. It has the natural appeal of graceful physical motion to music, and this appeal is enhanced by the addition of the rolling motion. Dancing on skates attracts the old as well as the young and may be performed alone or with a partner.

An individual sense of rhythm is inherent in everyone. When walking, the flexing and relaxing of your muscles coordinate in a regular pattern to maintain balance as you stride.

05. Free-Style Skating - Free-style skating is the very epitome of the art of skating in that it demands the stamina of the speed skater, the edge control of the figure skater, and the rhythm of the dancer. It also offers a full opportunity for the individual interpretation of the music. It has three separate branches: singles, done alone; pairs, done with a partner; and fours, done with two male and two female partners in one group.

06. Speed Skating - Speed skaters are the most enthusiastic of all skaters who participate in the branches of roller skating. The challenge, skill, and the heat of competitive fire that is evident as each individual in the pack thunders to the finish line, in a seemingly desperate, frenzied effort to cross it first, are shared by the spectator in complete communion with the competitor.

Glossary - "And" Position:A position used when stroking from one foot to the other, when the new foot takes its place on the floor close to and parallel with the old foot, with the wheels laterally in line.

Apex:The top or bottom point where the long axis passes through a circle.

Bilateral Balance:The ability to skate curves or edges equally well on either foot. Border Dance Pattern:A pattern that does not prescribe the precise placement of edges on a skating surface, but generally follows the contour of the skating surface.

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