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Show COACH TELLS Of' ART OF SKATING Nothing Can Beat a Bump as Teacher, Says Smythe. "No book can beat a bump for teaching teach-ing you bow to skate," says "Connie Smythe, coach of Toronto university's international college hockey champions, cham-pions, writing in the American Boy Magazine. The way to become a whirlwind hockey player, a world-beating speed merchant or a breath-taking fancy skater, Smythe says, is to get out and play shinny, or tag. For the beginner who Is trying to select a pair of skates, Smythe recommends recom-mends the hockey typo, which curves slightly at the front and back, and is short so as to permit quick turning. The man who finds that his ankles are weak will do well to support them with strips of canvas about two Inches wide and two yards long. Start wrapping wrap-ping well above the ankle, bringing the strip clockwise around the leg and overlapping about half. Wrap down over the ankle and bring the strip around the Instep twice. Then continue con-tinue it up around the leg and tuck It under the top strip, making sure that it is not too tight. It Isn't hard for the beginner to learn the racing start. The way to do It Is to stand crouched over, with your left side pointing In the direction direc-tion you are going. Jump sideways, throwing your left foot out and bringing bring-ing the right foot up. Follow this with several side steps, using the edge of the skate for traction, until you have gained erjugli speed for a forward stride. The quick slop takes more practice. Imagine yourself coming full tilt down the Ice and headed straight for the shore. At 15 yards from the shore you're still going at top speed. Now what? A wild sprawl and a skinned nose? Not at all. Turn sideways, dig the edges of your skates into the ice and lean backwards, and you'll come to a stop with yards to spare. The man who wishes to become an expert hockey player should never skate without a stick and puck, even if the puck is a piece of wood and the stick is borrowed from a nearby tree. Skating with a hockey stick requires a slightly different sense of balance and a different set of muscles from that demanded by ordinary skating. As an example of the dash and presence pres-ence of mind required by hockey, Smythe tells of nn incident that occurred oc-curred in the fourth game of the series between Toronto university and- Port Arthur for the Canadian championship. champion-ship. The third game the'one that should have decided the title went 30 minutes overtime to a tie. Early in the fourth game, Red Porter, Por-ter, Toronto defense man, obtained the puck and started racing for the opponents' op-ponents' goal. With a terrific burst of speed he took the puck the length of the rink, eluding the opposing center and two defense men. Squarely in front of the goal he tripped, pitched forward and skidded ahead on his chest, with Ids stick out in front of him. The Port Arthur goal keeper took a single step out to get the puck from the fallen man, but Red, although al-though he was prone on the Ice, had managed to keep control of the rubber. rub-ber. As the goal keeper reached for It, Porter pulled It closer to him, and when the goalie took another shep out. Red shoved the puck between his opponent's op-ponent's skates for the goal. It was such a magnificent example of coolness cool-ness in a crisis that the 8,000 spectators specta-tors went frantic. |