I read this book in the early 1970s when I was ~8-11 years old. It was about a girl who was learning to be a figure skater and was frustrated by all of the time she had to spend learning to cut figures in the ice rather than doing more exciting skating routines.
Stump the Bookseller
New format, same book stumper solving.
Sounds like Noel Streatfeild’s SKATING SHOES, where Harriet, who has been told to skate to recover after an illness, meets Lalla, a more experienced skater, at the rink. Lalla is the one who is bored by figures and prefers what we’d now call freestyle.
Noel Streatfield: White Boots (the girl’s name is Lalla)
This could be The Silver Seven by Rita Ritchie. Published by Whitman in 1972. About a figure skater who’s working towards the seventh skating test but her goal is disrupted by her family’s move to a small town. She practices on an outdoor rink. There’s definitely a part in the book where she wants to be doing jumps or something fancy but has to practice more mundane loops or figure eights. I also think she failed the big skating test once and had to go back and sit it again. Here’s the book description.
“Challenge On Ice: For as long as she could remember, it seemed, Sandra Miller had had only one goal: to master the joyous, graceful freedom of figure skating. All this meant time – not just hours of practice but also years of lessons and twice a day skating sessions. Of the hundreds who started this sequence, as few as ten might pass the Eighth Test and earn the coveted Gold Medal. Sandra had advanced steadily to the Seventh Test, with determination as cold and clear as the ice itself. After that, nothing could stop her. But there was one thing Sandra had not anticipated – a thing that could stand between her and the Silver Seven. And one evening in October, it happened…”
I was also thinking of The Silver Seven, which I loved as a kid. It was a hardcover, showing the heroine skating outdoors on the front and in a fancy costume on the back, and the background was vivid pink.
Could be Skates for Marty by Barbara Clayton.