Video: Maple Leafs skating coach teaches Canada to skate backwards

For Canada's 150th birthday, Toronto Maple Leafs skating coach Barbara Underhill teaches you how to skate backwards.

Is skating becoming a lost art in Canada? As part of our survey of more than 1,500 Canadians from coast to coast, we asked respondents a simple question: “Do you know how to skate backwards?”

Fifty-one per cent of Canadians said they can do it, but the numbers are trending downward by generation. While 59 per cent of those born before 1945 said they know how, just 43 per cent of millennials said the same.

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We asked Barbara Underhill to help us reverse that trend. You may know Underhill either as the world champion pairs figure skater or as the current skating consultant for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Tampa Bay Lightning and Guelph Storm.

Point being: She knows her stuff.

So, if you don’t know one of the fundamentals of skating — or just need a refresher course — this is for you:

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