The Off Season

After my second place finish* at the competition a few weeks ago, it has officially become my off-season. I won't compete again until Sectionals in March 2014. So what's happening in the meantime?

Well, I'm anxiously waiting on a new pair of boots and blades to arrive. I've made a drastic change in both, so I know that getting used to them and breaking in the boots is going to take some time and pain. I hope to be starting to skate in them about two weeks from now, but I don't think production on them is even finished yet.

I've been working on lots of spins, and particularly some variations and a new camel spin entry. I'm searching for music to put together a new free skate program. I've started on gold moves as well. I want to pass them by next summer, but I think I overdosed on moves when I failed silver. I like the double threes patterns, but I've decided that power circles are evil, and the backward 8 is almost impossible. I'm making good progress on my bronze dances. So I'll certainly be keeping busy.

But the thing I'm most excited about right now is that I've officially started on the axel!!! Today, I attempted them on the ice sans harness for the first time. I was waiting on the go-ahead from a coach before I tried these and today, in my lesson, after a few walk-throughs, my coach told me to go for it! She was very pleased with my attempts. She told me I had a good concept of the axel and thinks that I will have it in no time. In our next lesson, we'll put them back in the harness (and work on brackets). Video proof:



*It sounds like I'm bitter or upset about the whole thing, but I'm not, not in the least. That same weekend, I did my first solo dance event and won both my dances. I also received all first place ordinals for the bronze compulsory, out of five competitors. And my team won the team event! It was a truly wonderful weekend, and a second place finish in the "main" event just makes me want to work that much harder :)