Smooth ice beneath your feet, the wind in your hair, cold air pumping through your lungs — that's the feeling you get skating on the Halifax Oval.

Until you try and switch directions. Then all hell breaks loose.

Well, maybe not all hell. But the monitor is certainly going to blow her whistle.

Why? Because everybody has to skate in a counter-clockwise direction on the 400-metre skating track. That's the rule. No exceptions.

But is it really the best thing for skaters?

Kids get lots of practice skating counter-clockwise on the Halifax Oval, but no time skating in the other direction. (Nina Corfu/CBC)

Cheryle Gaston has been coaching figure skating in Nova Scotia for 40 years. She said if you want to play hockey or become a figure skater, it's essential that you learn to skate in both directions.

On the oval, kids only learn to do crossovers around the corners in one direction — counter-clockwise.

"You can't have a weak side," Gaston said.

It's like being in a pool and only swimming "with one arm," she said. Eventually, "you'd have to learn to swim with your other arm too."

Part of the rationale in keeping the Halifax Oval going was to support the next generation of speed skaters, and speed skaters only go counter-clockwise. (Zsolt Czegledi/MTI via Associated Press)

While it's true that most people prefer to skate in a counter-clockwise direction, Gaston said, there's also a small portion of the population — herself included — who favour the other direction.

It just feels "more natural," she said.

In figure skating they're called "reverse jumpers," Gaston said, because they prefer to jump and spin in a clockwise direction.

Gaston compares learning to skate in one direction to learning to swim using only one arm. (Nina Corfu/CBC)

"It should be equal opportunity," she said, as she watched skaters glide by at a recent public skate at the oval.

"If I brought a bunch of my skaters here — and I have maybe 20 per cent of them that are reverse jumpers — I would want them to be able to go out here and have fun as well."

Not going to happen

A direction change at the oval "isn't in the cards," said John Henry, manager of aquatics, leisure, active living and inclusion services with parks and recreation for the city.

For one thing, he said, there can be upwards of 1,500 skaters using the oval at one time during a busy public skate.

"One thing that we can't do is just arbitrarily change direction in the middle of a skate," Henry said.

"You just can't do that on a dime" with a crowd this size, he said.

There can be up to 1,500 skaters on the oval during a busy public skate, which makes co-ordinating a change of direction difficult, a city spokesperson says. (Nina Corfu/CBC)

The oval was originally built on the Halifax Common to host speed skating competitions during the 2011 Canada Winter Games, Henry said, and one of the commitments city councillors made when they voted to keep it up and running was to "enhance and encourage the sport of speed skating."

Speed skating is a counter-clockwise sport. The skates themselves are designed to work best in that direction, Henry said. If you don't believe it, you can rent speed skates for free at the oval and try them out during the next public skate, he added.

Hockey player Dan Turgeon says he doesn't mind skating in only one direction on the oval, because it's his strong side. (Nina Corfu/CBC)

Besides, Henry said, the oval is so long — the total surface area is equivalent to three NHL rinks — you spend "most of the time skating straight" anyway.

If people really want to try skating clockwise, he said, there are smaller rinks in the city that change directions periodically, even if only for a few minutes each session.

'Doesn't bother me'

Hockey player and Montreal Canadiens fan Dan Turgeon, who accompanied a school group to the oval on a recent weekday, said he doesn't mind skating counter-clockwise all the time.

"It doesn't bother me," he said, adding, "it's on my strong side."

Jamie Williams, who runs the BeaverTails concession stand next to the oval, said he's just glad to see kids out skating, "rather than sitting at home in front of a video game. For me, whichever direction they happen to skate in, I'm good with it."