By Sandra Loosemore
CBS SportsLine Figure Skating Writer
Nov. 16, 1998

The beginning of the skating season always coincides with the holiday gift-giving season, and once again this year there are several new skating books on the market.

First, the bad news: Changes to International Skating Union regulations approved over the summer -- including changes to the scoring system, required elements for singles and pairs short programs, and requirements for ice dance -- have already dated any discussion of ISU rules, even in skating books published this fall. The best source of information about the rules is always an up-to-date rulebook from the ISU or United States Figure Skating Association.

WITH THAT CAVEAT IN MIND, the pick of this year's bunch of skating books is clearly The Official Book of Figure Skating from the USFSA. It's a glossy, large-format book with numerous black-and-white and color photographs, many of them full-page. The photos alone make this book worthwhile.

The book focuses on the historical development of the sport. New fans are often drawn to figure skating because of the personalities and achievements of current competitors, while having little appreciation of the significance of past achievements or understanding of the larger context or traditions in skating.

Dick Button, for example, is known to today's fans as a TV commentator and producer of professional events. But in his competitive days, Button was not only a five-time World Champion and two-time Olympic champion but also the first skater to perform a double axel, triple jump, or flying spin.

Similarly, many of today's fans have never heard of Madge Syers, who placed second at the 1902 World Championships while competing against men. Before then it was unheard of for women to compete. And many younger fans might not know about the plane crash that killed the entire U.S. team and its coaches and families en route to the 1961 World Championships.

AS WELL AS THE NARRATIVE TEXT on the history of the sport, there are profiles of many current and past competitors throughout the book. Other sections deal with topics such as skating fashion, choreography, the test and competition structure that skaters follow to qualify for U.S. Nationals, basic skating techniques, and judging and rules.

Aside from the problem with the rules section being out of date, there are relatively few factual errors. The primary fault of the book stems from each chapter having its own author. The leads to an annoying amount of information being duplicated.

Some editorial decisions surrounding the book are also a little questionable. For example, there's an entire chapter on skating fashion, but only one paragraph on the criteria judges use to assign the presentation mark. While fashion material is entertaining, the judging is surely more important in the overall scheme of things, and more misunderstood by the public.

Likewise, it's not clear why there's a chapter on off-ice conditioning for skaters when this book is obviously not intended to be a training manual. The section on the technical elements of skating is of average quality. For people who really want to learn about skating technique, either as a spectator or participant, the best reference is still John Misha Petkevitch's Figure Skating: Championship Techniques.

ALSO COVERING THE HISTORY of the sport is Michael Boo's The Story of Figure Skating. This is a trade paperback with numerous black and white photos. It's aimed at younger readers, although it's hard to tell this from a casual examination of the book or its cover.

While the USFSA book gives equal space to the early days of the sport, Boo's book concentrates on the "television era," with roughly half the material focused on only the past 10 years or so. Almost all of the photos in this book are also of relatively recent vintage.

The main problem for serious adult fans, aside from the writing being geared toward children, is what is completely swept under the rug. Christopher Bowman's problems with cocaine addiction, which destroyed his career, are referred to only as unfortunate "personal decisions." Nicole Bobek is described as being "misunderstood" and presented almost as a role model instead of as a skater who has squandered her talent because of a lack of training discipline. The profile of John Curry never mentions his death from AIDS, or even the fact that he is no longer alive.

Surely it's possible to write about such things in a way that's understandable to younger readers without whitewashing the truth.

IN ADDITION TO A NUMBER OF factual errors scattered throughout the book, Boo sometimes goes off on tangents based on erroneous information. He comments, for example, on the lack of reinstated professionals at the 1998 Olympic Games, compared to 1994, and puts forward some hypothetical reasons for this. But he totally misses the point that the ISU had changed its rules in the intervening years so that professionals were no longer permitted to reinstate as eligible competitors, even if they wanted to do so.

Boo also dismisses compulsory figures as "a bore for singles skaters who really just wanted to go out and show the world how good they were and how much fun they were having." But figures are an important part of the history of the sport, and the skaters who were good at them were showing the world how good they were, too. By the competition standards of their day, they were the best in the world and are deserving of more respect.

This is not a highly recommended book for adults. Children might find it enjoyable and learn something from it, but more knowledgeable readers will probably find it irritating. The USFSA book is probably a better choice for readers of all ages.

TWO RECOMMENDED BOOKS FROM last year have also been republished in trade paperback editions -- Beverley Smith's Talking Figure Skating and Steve Milton's Skate Talk. Both books provide a

1992 Olympic gold medalist Kristi Yamaguchi helped write Figure Skating for Dummies, which is mainly a guide for spectators. (Allsport)

behind-the-scenes look at the skating world through interviews with people involved in the sport.

Of these two books, Smith's is the more comprehensive. It features in-depth chapters on people involved in every possible aspect of the sport: parents, coaches, choreographers, judges, boot-makers, sports psychologists, and even fans. Rather than trying to present a tabloidish tell-all about the sport, as some other behind-the-scenes books have done, Smith treats the sport and the people involved in it with respect and intelligence.

The highlight is the profile of Frank Carroll. His reflections on his relationship with his own coach, Maribel Vinson Owen, (who died in the 1961 plane crash) and his most notorious pupil -- Christopher Bowman -- make fascinating reading.

Milton's book is somewhat more disjointed -- consisting of brief interviews with skaters and others involved in the sport describing their experiences. Milton provides a few paragraphs of introductory text to each section but generally adds little analysis or counter-argument so that his subjects can truly speak for themselves. But in some cases, one wishes for a little more commentary, both to provide more context for what the skaters have to say, and to challenge or expand on some of the ideas they present.

SOME OF THE INDIVIDUAL STORIES are fascinating, such as Marina Zueva's eyewitness account of Sergei Grinkov's death; Brian Orser discussing why he didn't include a second triple axel in his long program at the 1988 Olympics (he didn't think Brian Boitano was doing one, either); or Barb Underhill telling the famous story of how changing her skating boots was responsible for winning the World Championship in pairs in 1984.

The stories of lesser-known skaters are also interesting -- for example, two who toured with Ice Capades and Disney on Ice spoke of life on the road and how weekly weigh-ins led many of the cast members to eating disorders.

Another book from last season still recommended as a general reference is Figure Skating for Dummies by Kristi Yamaguchi. It includes a little bit of everything, but the focus is on understanding skating as a spectator sport. There is also a fair amount of information for participant skaters or parents of skaters who want to understand what their children are getting into. The technical material is not as detailed as in Petkevitch's book, but there is more information on putting programs together, judging and the culture of competitive skating.

Finally, one book to avoid is The Encyclopedia of Figure Skating by John Malone, published in trade paperback last spring. This book is so full of factual errors that it is all but worthless as a reference.