I (or at least my spins) will not be denied

All this spin drama has me determined to nail my spins at Nationals. And I will say, my spin consistency does seem to be improving. I took some video during practice the other day to see how I was doing. I felt really good about the camel-back sit I caught on tape and then it looked sooooo slooooowwww on video. I also know that I used to do lower sit spins in my old boots (see here), so I've started pushing those lower and hope to get video of that sometime soon. I'm still having a hard time getting the back sit lower, but I have sore quads on both legs as evidence that I've been working on it. And to show you all that I'm not lying when I tell Coach that I *do* practice my spins, here's a little tiny bit of proof:



Edit: I added a link to an earlier sit spin and found a video of me doing better camel spins six months ago. Bummer.

Sectionals

I'm back from my first Adult Sectionals competition. I had a lovely time and it was wonderful to see adults competing in so many events.

I was pretty happy with how I skated, even though I fell on a spin. I also had a few of those normal competition bobbles, where I tripped here and there. But I held onto my sit spin at the end, even though it wasn't the best. It's too bad, since I did a terrific one in warm-up, but it was also a triumph, since I've screwed up my sit spin almost every time I've performed a program.

I thought when I fell that I had for sure lost my chance at winning, but I quickly pushed the thought aside and kept going. I got to watch the last four skaters in my group and they skated wonderfully. I was hoping I still had a chance for a medal, but I was preparing myself for other eventualities while waiting for the results.

When the runner posted the results sheet, I saw my name at the top and was confused. I'd been scanning for my name in the middle of the pack. What was this list? It wasn't the start list, wasn't it the results? And then it hit me. I'd come in first. I was shocked! And then thrilled!

I was happy it turned out as it did, especially since some family I don't get to see very often got to come and watch. I hope to continue to make some improvements before Nationals, where I hope to nail both my spins. Here's my performance:

Return of the Remedial Spinner

About six months ago, I showed my sister a video of some of my spins and she said that I no longer qualified as a remedial spinner. I'd hoped she was right, but I still didn't think it was time to change the tag line of my blog.

Well, I still deserve the title in spades. I may manage quite a nice camel, sit or back spin from time to time now, but my ability to do it on demand is horrendous.

I signed up for a club exhibition so I could try out my new program in a competition-like environment before Sectionals. They scheduled me last, for which I ended up being very glad. All the coaches left after their skaters finished and most of the skaters and parents had too.

A bronze level program is allowed two spins, and mine are a camel-back sit combo and a solo sit spin, which ends my program. My camel spin has been hot and cold this week, as always. Last weekend, it was eliciting compliments from fellow skaters, but mid-week in my lesson, it was garnishing admonitions from my coach that I need to practice my spins more. (Believe me, I practice my spins a lot!)

Well, in the program, I actually hit the camel! But the back-sit never got going. I kind of hopped around a little, trying not to lose my balance and finally stood up to move on, already late for the next segment of my program. At the end of my program, I step down directly into the sit spin from a salchow. I miss on the sit spin from time to time, but it's more stable than my camel. Well, not this time. I absolutely flubbed the entrance. I stepped into the entrance and then, next thing I knew, I was on two feet, standing up and not having a clue what to do. I absolutely blew it. I don't think I ever even got a single revolution. I basically did a nice deep edge into a two foot gobbledegook. I took a few steps forward, baffled about what to do and then posed when the music ended. It's devastating to end a program with a major mistake.

I was beyond disappointed. I've botched the spins in 2 out of the 3 competitions I've done so far, and now this. I was embarrassed as it was announced that I'd be competing at sectionals. "Not skating like that!" I wanted to shout out to the few people still watching. I felt like I'd had no business putting myself up for the exhibition.

I was so ashamed of how I'd skated. In addition to the spins, I tripped over my feet about 3 times on the hard ice. My parents and roommate who'd come to watch me were very kind, so I tried to shake off my foul attitude quickly. But I'm bummed. I was hoping I could boost my confidence with a strong showing. Maybe the fiery disappointment of knowing I can do better will strengthen me just as well.

I can't put the remedial spinner title behind me. Not yet. I can only work even harder at those spins and hope that eventually, I'll have something to show for it when it counts. (Hopefully next weekend, even?? Sigh, one can hope.)

Friendly Competition and "Compliments"

I've had the pleasure of having a few friends in skating with whom I am competitive, but completely friendly. It's so fun to compare notes on how we're progressing on certain elements.

One friend keeps staying one step ahead of me in her tests, so we've never competed against each other, but we're both trying to get our axels right now. We have the same coaches. She's dying to land her axel, and often talks about my attempts spurring her on.

She reported to me a recent conversation she'd had with Coach.
"How is my axel looking?" she asked him. "Does it look like an adult axel? Or a kid axel? How does it compare to Alejeather's?"
Coach was reluctant to compare our axels, but she pressed him, and he finally admitted, "She gets around more than you do."

"He said I get around more than you?" I asked when she told me the story. "That's only a compliment in figure skating!"

Never Enough

I did a clean run-through of my program in my lesson this morning. I landed every jump. I hit all of my spin positions, I didn't stumble in any of my footwork or transitions, and I finished on time. I was beaming when I finished.

There were still a few minutes left in my lesson and my coach asked me if I could do a split jump. I told him he'd seen me do one before, because he'd said, "I didn't know you could do that!" He didn't remember, but sent me out to show him one. I had no idea where he was going with this.

Then he said, "This time, after the split jump, do a mohawk into a flip jump." So I tried it.

Then he said, "Do it again, but add a loop-toe loop after the flip. Now that's a sequence!" So I tried it... and it wasn't so bad. I do a flip-loop-toe as the opening jumping pass in my program, and so I thought he was maybe trying to strengthen the combo by making me try something more difficult.

"That's pretty good! I want you to add that into your program." Um, what? I thought he was joking, but he wasn't and told me to show my choreographer/coach in our next lesson.

I'm not so sure about it. I think my split jump is okay--my extension isn't what it used to be and my arms always go way too high. I also think it takes away from the combo, which isn't as big and floaty with the split jump first, but maybe that will get better with practice. And finally, I don't know that it works choreographically. But we'll see what my other coach has to say.

The moral of the story is, you run a clean program for your coach 7 weeks before the competition, and it's never enough! You'll get more troubles heaped on!

Eulogy for a Pair of Skates

After a two month process of ordering and exchanging new boots and blades, I have finally begun to break in a new pair of skates. Around the time I ordered the new skates, I bought some colored laces for my current skates. After all, these skates have seen me through a lot and I figured I'd send them out with a bang.

They weren't technically my first skates, but they were pretty close to it.

I broke my ankle in these skates. And I returned to the ice in these skates.

I passed my first test in these skates. In fact, I've passed 11 tests in these skates.

I did my first competitions in these skates. I brought home 7 medals in these skates.

I learned to spin in these skates. 

I landed my first loop, flip and lutz in these skates. 

I attempted my first axel in these skates. (update: landed underrotated axels in them?)

I attended my first dance weekend in these skates. 

I've gone through 6 coaches in these skates, 3 of whom I take from now.

I've skated at ten rinks in seven states in these skates. 

Thank you, dear skates, for all you have seen me through. Happy retirement :)

Axels and Brackets

So much skating, and yet so little time.

The further you progress with skating, the more time it takes to maintain your current skills while adding new ones. I want to test gold moves and bronze dances by next summer. I'm planning to go to Adult Nationals in April and I'm working on landing an axel and suddenly all the many hours I spend skating a week just don't seem like enough. Especially with that axel.

I started full on working on my axel about two months ago and it has consumed a lot of skating time. In fact, all my lessons with one of my freestyle coaches have been dedicated to the jump. I'm starting to get it to a point now where I don't need the harness so axel can be part of the lesson instead of consuming the full lesson time with her. I haven't given any of my coaches a blog name yet, but let's call this one Maxine.

Maxine happened to enter the rink on our lesson day while I was running through back double threes and that ended up dictating that we would have a moves lesson. As dedicated as I am to the axel, it was nice to have a change. She was happy with my second run-through of the back double threes and she also thought my back 8 has gotten better. Then we started on brackets, which I'd only touched on briefly once with a previous coach.

Oh my. I want to like brackets, I really do. But they are scary. Maxine says brackets are like a clock. There's something for your hands, head and free foot to do at every hour marking on the lobe. Now keep in mind that between forward, backward, inside and outside brackets and 5 or so "hour markings" on each lobe that depend on which turn you're doing, there are A LOT of positions to remember. I didn't get them all right away. I took a good fall on a back outside bracket and after my lesson, another coach I chit-chat with asked me if I thought I was going to die on the brackets. I laughed knowing that my back outside bracket terror was written all over my face.

But there's hope. I tried them again today and they seemed somewhat improved already. I may be able to like brackets after all.

And since I mentioned my axel is making progress, here's a video of some of my latest attempts. It's still not fully rotated, but I have hope that it will get there some day if I can ever learn to hold a good air position.