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.

Dance Lesson

My dance coach intimidates me. He's kind of goofy but also very exacting. And sometimes it's hard to tell when he's kidding. I hate practicing on the same ice that he's on when I'm not in a lesson. I always feel like he's watching out of the corner of his eye and disapproving of my skating. I always want so very badly to please him during my lessons. I try to apply the specific instructions he's giving me while trying to also perform the dance well and to do so, I have to concentrate very hard. This concentration often shows on my face. Sometimes, it's just a look of pure determination. Once, while working on the swing dance, he told me to relax, that, "sometimes, you get a bit stare-y."

Recently, we were going through the ten-fox and doing the dance in hold. It was the first time we'd ever done it in hold and we never get through a dance in hold the first time. He always stops me to give me a correction. So when we got through the side pattern and started going around the end, I kept expecting him to stop me at any second. At the same time, I was trying to follow him and figure out how the partnering part was supposed to go. And while I was keeping up with that, I was trying to read him to figure out if I was on the right path. I see him giving me a strange look as we finish the pattern.

"Why are you giving me a funny look?" he asked me.
"You were giving me a funny look!" I explained.
"Oh, well that's because you were giving me a funny look."
Oh, well, that's settled.
"I guess we have a chicken-and-egg situation here," he quipped, "which one do you want to be?"
We both paused a beat and then spoke at the same time.
"I'll be the chicken."
"I'll be the egg."
"Oh, good," he said, "at least we're on the same page about something."

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 :)

Second

I faced off against one of my best skater friends in competition for the first time this weekend. We had been greatly anticipating this for some time. She's been one of my biggest supporters since we started skating together and still hasn't stopped accusing me of sandbagging at my last competition, when I skated pre-bronze. But when I passed my bronze test, we knew that we would have a face-off sooner or later.

We've made jokes about sabotaging one another but verbally agreed several weeks ago that nothing would change between us no matter the outcome. We've cheered each other on as we prepared our programs. We've now even decided to hold our own personal Grand Prix where we accumulate points. But Saturday came the real test, the first event in our competitive series.

She came out on top.

I skated first in our group of three. Since I botched my spins in my competition in June, my primary goal was to nail those. I wouldn't say I nailed them, but they definitely took a step in the right direction. I'm not too upset about it since I've struggled severely with consistency in my spins, especially the camel, and I managed to pull off a recognizable camel-sit, even if it wasn't as strong as I would have liked. But I also had my first competition fall. I fell between the loop and toe loop in my flip-loop-toe combo. I have no idea what happened. In fact, I didn't even know when I had fallen until I watched the video. My final spin was not as strong as it could be, but I finished with the music, after picking up after my fall. Despite the fall, I felt better about the performance than my June one.

My friend skated a lovely debut of her new program. She said I must have lent her my jump combo for the day, as her flip-toe loop-loop came out much better than it normally does. She was a joy to watch and skated a clean program.  At the end of her program, there wasn't a doubt in my mind that she would take first place.

We took a funny picture of me trying to push her off the top of the podium when we got our medals, but besides having wanted to win, I'm pleased with the outcome. I think, at least for this competition, that had I won, the joy of it would have been spoiled by my disappointment for her. Maybe it's because I think I only could have won if she had made a serious error or two and nobody wants their friend to skate that way. But I did get one first place ordinal in the event, and I am very, very proud of that.

And so ends the first event in our Grand Prix. And I'm already behind! Train, train train! Because next time, I plan to put up a better fight for first ;)

Birthday Axel!

The day finally came. I got to try my first on-ice axels. On the harness, of course. And, it was my birthday! I got to say, that is a great way to start out a birthday.

We actually spent my entire lesson adding some style to my compulsory program, at the request of my primary coach. But I noticed when we were finished that no other students had showed up for a lesson, so I asked if we could take a few extra minutes and do the axels on the harness that she had promised in our first lesson.

She strapped me into the harness and we started with a couple waltz jumps to get a feel for the harness. Then she had me try a waltz backspin and after that we were off. The first few felt so much like the waltz backspin that I wasn't really sure that I was doing anything different. We tried getting more explosive, we worked on the take-off. Some attempts were wild, some were underrotated. And some were actually pretty decent, I think.

The strangest thing to me about the harness is that you can't hold a landing edge for very long because it pulls you away from the harness track. I was never really sure if I was standing up on the landing because shortly after I'd land, I'd pull against the harness and couldn't keep my balance. I had to rely on feedback from the coach to know how it had gone and she pointed out some things on one and other things on another.

I loved trying them. I was so excited at first, my legs were shaking and that made everything a little harder. I can't wait to try them again and it was a birthday event I will never forget!

Not Flutzing Around

Coach Picky is moving sometime this month and I decided to go ahead and end the relationship. It's been hard for us to make our schedules mesh and as I'm preparing for multiple events in upcoming competitions, I wanted to make sure I was getting lessons on a regular basis without turning my life upside down. I told her in person at our last lesson. She completely understood and we went on to have a really good lesson.

We worked on the lutz, and she focused on getting me to stop leaning to the left on take off and to bring my right arm close to the body. I never completely got it, so those are things that I need to work on. But she did say that I'd made tremendous progress since I'd first started working on it. And she told me, "Not a single one of those had an edge change." I nearly flipped over that because I did a LOT of lutzes in that lesson!

The rest of the lesson was spent on spins, and she had me play around with different combinations. She confirmed that it's a good idea to put more difficult spins into program run-throughs, because you can always simplify them if they're not there come competition time. I've already been trying camel-sit and sit-back sit in my program, but she suggested even camel-sit-pancake or sit-pancake-back sit. I've thought about it, but honestly, the camel-sit is still inconsistent enough, that when I get a good spin going, I don't like to try the extra position and mess it up. Same for the sit-back sit.

I haven't had another lesson with my potential new coach yet, the one who wanted to start my axel in the harness. I'm hoping to get one this week. But in the meantime, I've been working that waltz-backspin and I've even tried salchow-backspin. Coach Picky mentioned that she was a big proponent of getting the axel rotated off-ice before trying them on-ice so I revisited the off-ice axel after a freestyle session recently. There was a skating friend who's a coach hanging around as well as the friendliest senior mens skater ever and they both gave me some pointers. That was so much better than practicing them at the gym where I don't get advice, I get strange looks! I so hope to get to try these on the harness soon!

It's a little more like a jump twizzle, but it's a start.

Bronze FS Test and Other News

Bronze Free Skate Test
First things first, I took my bronze free skate test last week, and I passed! Looking back after a week, my feelings are that I did a respectable job on my elements (with a few bobbles), but I feel like the rest of the program was kind of half-hearted. By the time I got to take the test, I really just wanted to get it over with so that I could focus on my competition version of the program. But my performance at the test has made me realize how much I want to polish my skating, especially my transitions, for upcoming competitions. Now that I've passed this test, Adult Nationals 2014, here I come! Here's the video:


Coaching Changes
Coach Picky is moving next month. We've been able to meet less and less, and with the amount that I'm skating right now, I realized that one 20 minute freestyle lesson a week is not sufficient. This past week, I took my first lesson with the coach that my current primary coach often teams with. We took a few minutes at the beginning of the lesson to discuss goals and then she had me show her what I could do. She gave me some tips on my sit spin, back spin, flip and lutz which have made for good homework. It was a good first lesson. It was so satisfying to do a really good camel spin for her, because it's been eluding me so much lately.

Could it be...?
The last thing I showed her in the lesson was waltz-loop and waltz-backspin, since I told her that axel and beyond are part of my goals. She gave me a correction on bringing my knee through more on the waltz-backspin, and I think I did quite well with it. Her response was, "I think you're going to have a very nice axel." We scheduled a lesson for the beginning of next week. She said she wanted to start axel on the harness with me in our next lesson! She told me excitedly, "I want to be the one to start you on your axel. I'm selfish that way!" That's fine with me, since I haven't been working on any drills with either of my current coaches. I am beyond excited. Maybe she's stroking my ego to get my business, and if she is, it's working. But I also hope that the enthusiasm is genuine, of course. I will be sure to keep you posted on my first outing in the harness, and my first attempt at the axel on ice!

My Skating Story, Part 1

I can't remember the first time I went skating. To be honest, I can't even really remember learning to skate. I grew up in the American south where skating is not a popular pastime, but my dad grew up in hockey territory, skating on ponds and eventually playing hockey in prep school. He used to take us to the rink once or twice a year. I always loved it, but I never knew it was something I could do more of. It never even occurred to me to ask for lessons. In my family, we danced, and I always (mostly) accepted that.

During the summer, my sister and I roller skated in the garage and driveway. The garage, being flat, was the perfect place to pretend to be ice skaters after seeing some on TV. We both wanted to be Kristi Yamaguchi, but because I was older, I claimed her and made my sister be Michelle Kwan. Those were the only two skater names I knew.

I always wanted to have an ice skating birthday party, but I have a summer birthday. My mom told me I could still have a skating party, but I was convinced that my friends would think it was stupid to skate when it was hot out and I felt begrudgingly fated to pool parties. By the time I turned 22, I'd realized my friends didn't care and I threw myself a skating birthday party. My friends were good sports.

Travelling Europe with some friends in January a few years later, I learned that Paris has a free rink in front of its city hall in the winter months. I was determined that skating would be part of our Paris itinerary. We'd walked all over town that day, but we still trudged out to the rink and rented our skates. I told my friends not to ask me if I was ready to go--I never would be. Whenever they came to a consensus that they were ready to leave, they should just inform me and I would resign myself to turning in my skates.

A few months after I started working at my first long term desk job, I noticed my pants didn't quite fit the way they used to. And I hated being stationary all the time. In the past, I'd done various forms of dance, ultimate frisbee, flatwater kayak racing and they were all things that I really enjoyed doing so that they never felt like exercise. But I didn't feel like going back to any of them. I started looking around for another form of exercise that I would be motivated to do, not because it was exercise, but because I enjoyed the activity itself. You can see from the above stories--and they are just a sample of many--why ice skating occurred to me as an idea.

I looked at the website for the local rink, wondering if I could work it into my schedule to go to a public and skate laps. On the website, I discovered that a session of skating classes was about to begin and that they had classes for adults. I remember being giddy with excitement waiting for my first class. I had no idea what I would learn in a skating class, and skating EVERY week for 8 weeks seemed like such a luxurious arrangement.

And, well, is it any surprise? I got hooked.
(To be continued)

New Toys

The competition's over, and you know what that means? Freedom!!! Well, what I mean is practices and lessons don't have to be focused on my program every single time. I had two really great lessons this week. My primary coach started me on sit-back sit and camel-back camel. "These are your new toys," he said, "I want you to start playing around with them."

And, it's been determined. Moving up to bronze, I'm going to need spins with either a change of position or a change of foot, or even both.

Coach Picky also gave me some new toys:

• Camel-back scratch, which went well. While working on this, she challenged me to push harder into the camel spin. Last time I tried that, I ended up with a giant bruise on my right knee. But my camel spin entrance has gotten stronger since then, so I went for it and she counted out those revs: 5!
• Cannonball spin, or as she called it, a pencil spin. Oh my gosh. So disorienting. Coach Picky said that I hit a good position on my first try, but I just got down there and lost all body awareness! I had no idea if I was falling over or not, so I freaked and bailed before I could get very far. 
• Sit, pancake spin, back sit. - Meh.
• Aaaaaand..... (drumroll) layback! Oh, I'm so excited about this spin. We spent time practicing the position at the boards, and breaking some of my ballet habits which were counter-productive for the spin. I. want. a. layback.

So, new toys, yay! We've also gotten a chance to work on the lutz, which is not great yet, but it seems to definitely be on the mend. I'm really glad to be working on some new things, and I'm even pondering some new music... But for now, the new elements:

Droop and Flop

As someone who came to the sport of skating as an adult, I have a distinct advantage because of my strong dance background. A lot of good things, like posture and carriage, carry over from my many years of ballet. Sometimes I explain my ballet background to others when they ask about how long I've been skating, but sometimes I feel like I have to couch it a little bit and say, yes, I have many years of dance training, but that doesn't mean it all stuck! And it doesn't mean I didn't have bad habits as a ballet student that are still with me! For example, I had notoriously floppy feet, even in dance! 

Some people think that skaters don't need to point their feet (or at least that's what dancers think about skaters) but it's not really true. Skaters do point their feet, but the effect is not quite the same as it would be without skates. And so now, my floppy feet have carried over into skating, except now they look like club feet. I'm embarrassed to admit how many times I've caught my heel in the ice on a sit spin. The other day, it caught me so much by surprise, and I had enough speed that the effect was much like a pole vault. My spin suddenly stopped and I catapulted sideways over my foot and onto the ice.

Coach is always yelling at me to point my toes. A week or so ago, he told me that for the next 6 months, I should work on developing the habit of pointing my toes all the time when I skate. He also wants me to extend my free leg 3-6 inches higher on all my jump landings and spin exits. And he wants me to focus on looking up. I agree that I should do this, because I think it will improve the overall effect of my skating.

And I've added one more self-identified habit I want to break. This one didn't transfer over from ballet, it's new to me in skating. It's hand droop. I think I extend my arms and carry them well through the wrist, but then my hands just kind of hang off the end of them. Well, not both my hands. Primarily my right hand. In case you're wondering what that looks like, here's two examples of my right hand caught in the act of drooping.

Spread Eagle with Right Hand Droop

Solo ChaCha with Right Hand Droop

So, in the months to come, down with droopy hands and floppy feet! Do you have any nasty habits you're trying to kick to the curb?

Competition Video

I've decided to post the video from my competition, though the quality of the video is not great. Two of the jumps are completely out of focus. And then of course, there's the matter of the botched spins. Oh well, here it is. Can't just share the perfect things.

ETA: I'm surprised at how little the stones on my dress show up in the video. You can hardly see them at all!

My Second Competition

A recap of my second competition:

I didn't belong in the pre-bronze category. I had much more difficult elements in my program than the other two skaters in my category. I was 99% certain I'd take first before I even took the ice. I didn't exactly belong in bronze either, but I don't think I would have come in last.

I skated okay. I opened well, with my waltz-toe, and then the spirals were nice and steady. I took a deep steadying breath prepping for my camel spin, but I kind of lost it once I stepped into it. I think I completed two revs in the camel, but I wasn't even able to pull it into a one-foot spin to finish up. I was a little early starting the footwork before the loop. Out of the loop, I stumbled a little on the side toe hop and I'm not sure why. The flip-loop-toe seemed decent, though I muscled through the toe loop, but then, I always muscle through the toe loop because I don't really have enough flow coming out of the loop. The salchow was big and solid, but my legs were a little bent. Then I wound up for my final element, the sit spin. I just did not want to end up on my butt. I fought for it, but I never got my legs close enough together, and was tilting badly towards the inside. I ended up putting my free foot down, pushing up into a short one foot spin, and then ending with time to spare, so I struck a few extra poses on my way to my regular final pose.

Coach looked a bit resigned when I got off the ice. Later, I saw him and said, "I botched both my spins!" He just gave me this sideways glare that said, "We both know you can do better than that."

I placed first. I received all first place ordinals from the judges.

My take-aways from the competition are that it's definitely time for me to move up to bronze and that I am really going to work to get my spins more consistent. And despite how I felt I skated, I had a really, really good time! There will hopefully be many more competitions in my future.

Sick

I left work early on Thursday feeling a little queasy, thinking that after lying down for a spell, I would feel better. I didn't think I would spend the next two and a half days in bed with a stomach bug. I've skipped three days of skating and 2 lessons. I'd normally skate today, too, but I'm planning to go to our skating club's award banquet. According to my coach (and because I got a guest of honor invitation), I'm getting an award. I'm still dragging quite a bit, but I think it'll do me good at this point to get out of the house.

I compete in 6 days. And from my last bout of stomach bug, I know it took me a while to get my legs back under me at the rink. And I'm scheduled for a business trip this week. At least it's only a one day deal, and not on a day I normally skate, but it will require an early morning flight. Getting myself up to competition shape in this amount of time is not going to be easy, or maybe even possible. And this time, I'm actually competing against someone. Two people in fact. Oh well, in the grand scheme of things it doesn't really matter, and I can withdraw if I have to. I just hope that isn't necessary.

Well, I'm off to see if the banquet was worth venturing from the house for. Wish me luck (and a stable digestive system).

Ice Dance Weekend

Over the weekend, I went to an Ice Dance Weekend hosted by my home skating club. Around 40 participants came from far and wide to enjoy many hours of social ice dance and some instructional clinics. I've never participated in something quite like this before, but I throughly enjoyed it and *highly* recommend it if you do any ice dance at all.

So why should you do an ice dance weekend?

1. Meet new people
   Who doesn't like to meet others who enjoy the same activity as you do? You'll meet people of all different stripes, at all different levels and ages. One girl was a synchro coach who skated international level dances with amazing skill. One woman who skated her heart out this weekend was in her 80s!
2. The opportunity to dance with many partners
   This was hard at first. The first night, I had a hard time skating with a partner. I felt like I was going to run some partners over and like I was tugging away from others. I shied away from dancing with others and skating the dances by myself. But as the weekend went on, it was less of an issue (and kind people kept asking me to partner with them!). I was able to see for myself the importance of some of the partnering tips that my coach has given me because I could see how things went wrong with partners who aren't as good as my coach.
3. Learn new dances, tips, techniques
   I got to learn the steps to the bronze dances and even try out the willow waltz and hickory hoedown with some brave gentlemen. In the workshops, I learned a small part of the Killian and we worked on quick crossrolls from the paso doble. I'm nowhere near being able to do those dances, but I can add working on those steps to my practice repertoire, even at my level.
4. Improve the dances you're working on and review old ones
   After many more run-throughs than I'd normally practice in a single weekend, I feel much more confident about the pre-bronze dances that I'm hoping to test soon. We skated the lower level dances a lot because lots of people know them and it gave me the chance to work on pointing my toes, swinging my leg through close on swing rolls, proper pushing on progressives and adding more expression with my arms and head.
5. Practice with music (a lot)
   If your area is anything like mine, there's not a lot of ice dance. You practice on freestyle and the tweens monopolize the CD player. Once, a coach turned off my compulsory dance music in the middle of a dance and was surprised to find out that somebody was practicing to it. As if anyone would listen to compulsory dance music for fun! But ice dancing to music is waaaaay more interesting than just counting it out in your head and at this weekend, we had lots of modern music at the right tempo for various dances. Though I have to admit, it was a little strange to do the Fiesta Tango to "Gettin' Jiggy with It". 
6. Get inspired by other dancers
   Seeing some of the other skaters was a reminder of how much I have to learn about ice dance. There were some seriously amazing ice dancers there. I learned that I really do want to continue ice dancing because the higher dances look so cool and I want to be able to participate in more dances next year!

When I got home on Sunday, after almost as many hours on the ice as hours I'd slept over the weekend, I felt like I'd been run over by a truck, but I was jazzed. I couldn't fall asleep because my brain seemed to be afraid that I'd forget the steps to the Willow Waltz and kept playing them over and over again. I can't wait to have the opportunity to ice dance socially again. I may wait until I'm more advanced to travel out of my city for an ice dance weekend, but you better believe I'll go to more ice dance weekends in the future!

Spinning Tales

The very last element in my program is a sit spin. I have rarely actually hit it at the end of my program. My first competition was one of the only times I had ever successfully executed it up to that point. In other run throughs, it went less well, as documented here, for example. Consequently, the actual end of my program is under-rehearsed, because it's not unusual for me to end up in a butt spin. Then I dizzily pull myself to my feet and strike a pose.

The original choreography was to finish the sit spin, then do a few back cross strokes and end in a back snowplow with dramatic arms. Two things have happened recently. I've actually managed to do a real sit spin during program run-throughs and the spins themselves are lasting much longer than they used to. A friend saw me do the original choreography the other day and she thought the cross strokes were me falling over after the spin. Then, in a run-through for Coach, I finished the spin with the end of the music, skipped the cross strokes and struck a pose. "I finished late," I told him. "No, you finished right on time," he replied. I decided at that point to cut the cross strokes.

So in a run-through for Coach today, I made a point of holding the spin so that I could end it right on the music. But this time, I held the spin even longer and rushed the ending of the spin to finish on the music. I wasn't used to standing up so quickly from the spin and after the pose, I fell over. "What happened? Why did you lose your balance in the pose?" he asked me.

"I spun too long."

"There is no such thing."

I tried to protest. "No. You cannot spin too long. There is no such thing." I'm going to accept the spirit of the correction rather than the letter of it. I don't think I should keep spinning long after the music ends (ha! as if it were possible!), but I guess I won't rush it either.

Practices of the end of my program are going much better. Here's the salchow through the end, without music.



In other news, my lutz has gotten worse. But more on that another time.

After the Test

For about 12 hours, I was happily occupied with my success passing the silver moves test. And then I started wondering about what was next. Will I start on gold moves right away? With everything else I'm working on right now, I don't think I will. But that got me thinking, why did I start on silver moves when I did?

I had to think all the way back to August when I passed bronze moves. I took both my pre-bronze and bronze moves in the same test session. After I broke my ankle, I couldn't jump, so Coach started me on bronze moves alongside pre-bronze. All my lesson time was spent on those two moves tests. Before leaving the rink that test day, I said to my coach, "Yay! New moves!" because I knew we would get started on the next moves test right away.

At the time, I could not spin. At all. So pre-bronze free skate test was not even on the horizon. The only upcoming competition was only 2 weeks away with nothing else until March. And shall I repeat? I couldn't spin. It's hard to put together a program with no spins. I was also still only just getting back to jumping after my ankle injury. So we began silver moves.

This time is completely different. I'm registered for a competition taking place in less than a month, and I'm aiming at a September competition as well. I think my backspin is good enough to pass the bronze free skate, so I'm thinking about when I might take that test. I'm working all my single jumps up through lutz, and a few combinations. Sit spin, camel spin, scratch spin, change foot, backspin. I've got plenty of stuff on the horizon without adding gold moves into the mix.

When I set out to make skating goals for this year, I didn't want to test bronze free until the end of the year, so I could have the option of skating pre-bronze at the September competition. But I've made a lot more progress in freestyle than I expected. One of my skating friends has called me a sand-bagger on a couple of occasions. And well, I'm beginning to feel like maybe I am. I might like to have a slightly more consistent lutz before bronze, but I think it will get there if I actually start practicing it more. I know it's not required, but most skaters in my area have one in their bronze programs.

In other news, I'm falling in love with the camel spin. I caught one of my best on video the other day. I showed it to my sister and she said that I am no longer a remedial spinner. But then what can I use as the tagline for my blog?

Silver Relief

Today, my lucky numbers are 16.4, 16.5 and 16.6. Those were my passing scores on my silver moves test! A 16.2 is passing, so let me assure you, I am very pleased!

I didn't expect to feel so relieved but I was so happy and relaxed that I was halfway home from the rink before I realized that I'd never turned on the car stereo and had been singing to myself in the car. (I kept singing "Yellow Submarine" and I have no idea why--maybe because it poured today?)

But yes, I am relieved. Partly because it's nice to pass, and partly because it's a contrast to last time. A month ago, I went to the test and when it was over, I had to go back to work on the same test. It's so nice to actually have it over with this time!

Before I went out to test, Coach told me that he was thrilled with the panel. That didn't necessarily make me feel any better. What if I failed with an optimal panel? Afterwards, I could see what he meant by the scores I received. I definitely skated a better test than last time. My 3 turn edges were more consistent. I soared through my outside spirals and didn't come close to touching down on the inside ones. But it wasn't a perfect test. I wanted to cringe at how noisy my 8-step and back cross strokes were and I felt like I skidded a lot of my 3s. And the judges noticed, but they still passed me. Here's the comments, with some of my own (parenthetical) commentary added in.

Eight-step mohawk sequence:
2.7 - timing is good -or cadence- a bit heavy footed.
2.8 - Quickness, flow and strength nice. A bit noisy.
2.7 - nice rhythm. continuous flow. Steps were a little choppy, but overall ok.
(last time, more than one judge called it "rushy". No sign of that here.)

Fwd & bkwd free skating cross strokes:
2.8 - good deep edges - moves down the ice
2.7 - For: Ok-could use knees more. Back: Same as forward-use knees (this judge is an ice dancer)
2.8 - Good strength and flow. nice posture.
(hey! At least no one said anything about noisiness!)

FO-BI three-turns in the field:
2.8 - Turns clean. edge quality good. Well done.
2.8 - Nice 3s and edges. Nice and steady.
2.7 - Nice extension and control overall. edge quality on RFO side was good. LFO started strong, but as you increased your speed, the quality went down. (I find this comment very interesting and very observant. And, I got faster!)

FI-BO three-turns in the field:
2.6 - Rt inside 3s are scraped. Not clean edge to edge turn. All other turns okay. (I would have expected this comment about the LFI, not the RFI. Also, this was my only below passing mark on the WHOLE TEST!)
2.7 - OK. Right BO some loss of control at times.
2.7 - Overall ok. good extension. edge quality on both sides started strong, but weaker towards the end.

Consecutive outside & inside spirals:
2.7 - O: very good. I: transitions a bit wobbled but overall OK.
2.8 - Lovely spirals. Some loss of control on inside spirals after the spiral.
2.8 - FO - very nice. good control and extension. FI - off/on with balance, but did a good job trying to control the edge quality
(on my last test, nobody passed this move.)

Forward & backward power change of edge pulls:
2.8 - good
2.7 - OK. edges could be deeper (I think I could have done deeper if my edges had been sharper)
2.9 - good job - overall good flow and strength
(Imagine! Once upon a time, I considered these my weakest move on the test.)

16.4
16.5
16.6

And now, with a big sigh of relief, I'm off to skate another day!

Ice Traveler

When I was learning the salchow jump, I scoured youtube for videos to try to understand how on earth I was supposed to take off from a back inside edge. In the process, I found a video of a girl doing a beautiful salchow (and double salchow) that really captured my interest. Not only was the jump breathtaking, but I couldn't believe how gorgeous the rink was where the clip was filmed. I wanted to know where it was, I wanted to know why more rinks weren't as pretty and I wanted to skate there some day. Through some clever sleuthing, I discovered the whereabouts of the rink and I was recently able to skate there!

I was so giddy when I arrived at the rink! I could hardly contain my excitement! I even took a picture of the ice while my freestyle payment was processing! The funny part was that to everyone else, it was just business as usual. I did ask the front desk attendant if there were any particular rules I should be aware of. She told me not to run over the old people. (It was an adult only session).

I had a nice long skate. Moves were not so great, and I had to be careful not to get run down by one phenomenal dance team. Jumps were pretty good. One lady clapped her hands a little at one of my lutzes, which was very kind, but it was nearly flutzed (it was on a flat). Spins also okay. I was the youngest person on the ice, and my skills probably fell near the bottom of the pack. It was pretty cool to see so many other adults passionate about skating, who had obviously been at it for some time, given the levels they had reached. One skater I talked to is aiming for Nationals next year, and I hope I get to see her there!

I had to take some video to capture the event. Loop-loop is getting much more consistent and I got two nice ones on video, so here it is for your viewing pleasure. Also, keep an eye out for my skate gear twin. I guess I got the dress code right!

Inside Edges (and bonus video)

My lesson with Coach Picky this week started with spirals on an edge. It was a good place to start since not a single judge on my test panel last week passed my spiral pattern. The outsides were nice, but there was much despair over the inside spirals. I tried them, and then tried them again. Coach Picky came up to my side on the last lobe.
"Lean! Lean against me! No! You're on a flat again!"
I sighed.
"Can you feel that? Could you feel when you flipped onto a flat?"
"No," I admitted, exasperated. It felt like such a telling moment. I couldn't tell when I was on an inside edge and when I wasn't. A moment when I realized I know so much less about skating than I thought I did.

We tried spirals around a circle. Nope, I got on the flat again. "You're not trusting your edge. You have to push against it. Exaggerate it." So then it was back to basics. Inside edges by themselves. Coach Picky again came up right beside me. "Lean, lean, lean, there it is!" Oh, I felt it. I felt the edge and I felt the difference from what I had been doing. And I understood what she had been saying all along about not trusting the edge.

This morning I practiced the spirals, concentrating on pushing against the inside edge. It made all the difference in the world. Part of the reason I was losing control when switching feet at the axis was because I had nothing to push against. Suddenly, I was able push against that inside edge and calmly straighten up to switch feet. Hooray! Maybe on my next test, I can blow the spirals out of the water!

During the lesson, I also realized and pointed out to Coach Picky that the other weak spot in my test was the exit edge of the BO3s--also a forward inside edge. She commented that she's never worked with a skater whose outside edges were stronger than their insides. She wasn't more specific than that, but I assume she means forward edges. What do you think of this? Are your outside or inside edges stronger?

Today, I was able to take a little video of one proposed change to my program. A change position spiral and a camel spin. I'm loving the spiral, and hoping to grow to at least accept the camel :) I practiced and filmed just this excerpt. Watch for me to come in from the back right of the video.

The Next Competition

Yesterday it was decided--I'll do the local competition in June, and I'll compete again in pre-bronze.
I haven't been keeping up with my program much since my competition in March. I showed it to both my new coaches for the first time this week. Both times, I was running ahead. After the first time, I tried to figure out where I got ahead, and I realized that I was just getting to my destinations a lot faster. I hadn't noticed that I'd gotten faster! How'd that happen?

Both coaches assured me that being ahead was a good thing--it means we can add more things to the program. "Let's replace that flip-loop with a flip-toeloop-loop," one coach (nickname TBD) decided. "And can you do a camel spin?" he asked me.
"Ha!" I scoffed, letting him know what I thought of my ability to do a camel spin, especially in a program.
"That's not what I meant! I mean, are you allowed to do a camel spin!"
"Oh, well, unfortunately, yes."
"Add it in. Replace the scratch with a camel."
"Bbbbut... I kinda like the scratch."
"Well, you can do a camel-scratch. But I want you to add it in so you'll practice it."

Like I'm not already practicing camel spins! I don't know why, but I feel like I take up about an 8th of the rink when doing a camel spin, so I feel self-conscious about practicing them. The fact that I also feel they're so bad it's silly doesn't help either. But I'm definitely practicing them.

Coach Picky saw the program today.
"Do you have time to change positions in the spiral? What about a cross foot forward spiral?" I do not know *how* I'm supposed to get into that position!
"And you have a strong salchow, there's no reason you can't land it with one or both hands over your head." Earlier, she'd called my salchow beautiful <3 <3
"Are you allowed to do a lutz? No? Oh, too bad. A change foot spin? Yes? Okay, I want you to start working that in."
She also suggested some footwork just as the session was ending, so I didn't get time to learn it.

So I guess we're getting back to work on the program. I'm interested to see where it ends up and hope to be able to perform it well in June. And, I hope this time I'll have some competition!

A Test Worth Passing

I went for my silver moves on Saturday. I've been planning to test them this month since December. This was my first test to go through without my original coach. I've been doing lessons with two different coaches for the past six weeks or so. One of them was supposed to take me through the test. He announced last week that he couldn't make it, but a coach he team teaches with was going to take all of his students through. I've met her, but I haven't worked with her before.

My warm-up went fine. I didn't feel nervous. But even when I don't think I feel nervous, my legs still manage to shake. I think perhaps I wasn't really thinking much about the test at all. Maybe that was my problem. Nothing felt too strong. Everything was just okay. On the RFO-LBI 3s, the transition between lobes felt completely weak. I was really close to the wall on the last one and turned way early. Because I'd been so close to the wall on my last set of FO-BI 3s, I decided to only do three lobes of FI-BOs. I really wanted to knock the spirals out of the park. When my spirals are good, they get a lot of good reactions. But I never got into the groove and actually touched down between the last two inside spirals. *sigh*.

In the end, I got one pass and two retries. I was supposed to call Coach as soon as I had the results. "Who passed you?" he asked. I deciphered the signature and read him the name on the test form. "What?!? She passed you? She doesn't pass anyone! You must have been really close!" I told a few other folks when they asked who passed me and got similar reactions. One friend said, "Oh, I've heard of that judge! I heard if you walk in and she's on your panel, just start moaning about your knee, withdraw, and don't even bother trying!" Both coaches I'm working with and the one who took me through the test think I should try again on the next test session in a month. I'm disappointed in the result, of course, because I'd had a crummy week and also because I was hoping to keep up a streak of passing on my first try. But at the end of the day, a test isn't worth passing if nobody fails it.

Here are my more detailed results:

Eight-step mohawk sequence:
2.7 - rushy, but cadence almost there
2.7 - 2nd circle a little scratchy, nice flow & edges shallow - nice speed
2.6 - scrape-y transitions - nice cadence/timing CCW

Fwd & Bkwd free skating cross strokes:
2.8
2.6 - nice flow F, B - need more knee bend, a little scratchy b/c F on blade
2.7 - lifted posture, good acceleration over ice, watch toepick!

FO-BI three-turns in the field:
2.7 - R okay, L control ok
2.6 - RFO/LBI - nice 3s F&B, clearly not stepping on BI edge. LFO/RBI - F 3s shallow, B OK
2.6 - R/L LB turns too early w/ balance control issue. L/R Nice control/flow

FI-BO three-turns in the field:
2.7 - edges mostly good
2.6 - RFI/LBO - only 1 set of clean 3s. LFI/RBO - 3s edges not true
2.6 - difficulty maintaining inside edge following back turns

Consecutive outside & inside spirals:
2.6 - 0 1 (stepdown between last two)
2.6 - very nice extensions. FO. FI - bobble-two-foot, watch toe pushing, nice extension & edges
2.5 - nice high free leg,but inside edges lack rotational control. foot down.

Forward & backward power change of edge pulls:
2.8 - nice upper body
2.7 - F - well done. B - OK.
2.7 - strong rhythmic knee action. good progress across ice.

Totals:
16.3
15.9
15.7

Need 16.2 to pass.

Goal Progress!

So, one of my goals for 2013 was a scratch spin of 15 revolutions. I've been getting 11 in most spins, but today was a very good spinning day. In fact, it was after I had started spinning that I decided I had to pull out my camera. In particular, it was to see what the mini "layback" looks like. Unfortunately, I wasn't always spinning in the frame of the camera, and the scratch spin in question is only half captured, but if I count the stripe on my sleeve going by, I'm pretty sure I got up to 16! The spin in question is at about 20 seconds in.

I may not be able to reproduce it again soon, but it's only March, so I'm thinking it'll happen again in 2013. Also, I had the goal of 3 revolutions in a camel spin, so I'm making progress towards that too.

I had another trial lesson with a coach today. I really liked that she talked about my jump technique in light of preparing me for axel and doubles, as starting axel and double sal is another one of my goals for 2013. It was a really good lesson. But so was my lesson with the coach on Monday. So now I'm torn! I may pick one to help me get through my silver moves test in April and postpone the long term decision a little while longer. Test papers are due this weekend and somebody's gotta sign 'em!

Moving on...

So I had a fabulous first competition last weekend. And then Monday, I had some skating related news in my email:

My coach announced she was taking a break from coaching.

Big sigh. I'm not 100% surprised. I saw a few signs. And in fact, she told me a few weeks ago that she was going to stop teaching LTS once the 8-week session wrapped up. I think at that point, she was planning on continuing with private lessons. But for reasons she didn't elaborate on, she's taking time completely away from the rink.

This leaves me coachless. Okay, not exactly. I do have an ice dance coach and a spins coach. But neither of them work with me on anything else and I had a plan to test silver moves in April. My coach left me with a recommendation of someone to try and we unsuccessfully tried to meet up last week. I guess we'll try again this week. I at least want to do a trial lesson with her, since my beloved coach gave her a recommendation.

I've also decided to do a trial lesson with the coach who did my spins class during the session we had the recital. I'd considered it after I heard the news about my coach, but the recommendation of a fellow adult skater who works with him made me decide to go for it. She said she thought we'd be a great fit.

I shared the news with some other skating friends today, one of whom has opinions aplenty. She wanted to know if I was going to try out a lesson with a particular coach (and I don't plan on it--we've worked together some, and I don't think she's my style) and who else had I lined up. She didn't say anything in particular, but she made it clear she disapproved of one coach I'm lining up a trial with. Once she did, I decided I'd shared enough information with her.

Even bigger sigh. I hate drama. I'm going to do the trial lessons I want to do and go with the coach who works for me. And I think I'll refrain from discussing my coaching options further with skaters who want to make a stink. Maybe I'll also hold my cards a little closer to my chest. Well, it's bedtime now. First trial lesson is tomorrow before work.

Skates Well with Others

I made a brief foray into skating pairs this week. Yesterday, a recent skating acquaintance showed up wearing the exact same colors as me. We took it as a sign to try some pairs elements. After side by side jumps, we did a throw waltz jump and some pairs spirals. He wanted to try a death spiral, but I refused, because it was too crowded. Earlier in the week, I did some side by side jumps with an adult pairs skater, and we had decent success with our timing.

I've never wanted to skate pairs, but this was really fun. It's just fun to strive to do something with somebody else. I'd still never want to skate pairs because I'm pretty terrified of lifts, and I'm not suited for them--I'm not short and I'm heavy for my size. Even as a 12 year old in ballet, I was almost never lifted during partnering class. But I think I'd enjoy dabbling it in every once in a while. My partner from yesterday says once I get my axel, we'll do a throw axel :)

One of the things that initially appealed to me about skating was that it is an individual sport, so something that has surprised me greatly is the joy of skating with others. I've had the good fortune to find good communities of adult skaters in my area. We watch and advise, videotape, encourage and challenge each other. A few weeks ago, a group of 4 of us spent the better part of a public session playing monkey see-monkey do. One skater would show off a skill and then everyone else would take turns doing the same element (or a variation they were capable of). The next week, everyone was still talking about how much fun it was.

Speaking of skating with others, I have only one competitor for my competition next weekend. And that's only in one of my two events. I wish there were more, but it does make me a little less nervous for my first competition. My parents will be coming to watch, and maybe a few others, but I didn't want to invite a lot of people because I have no idea how I'll react to the situation yet. But here's hoping that next weekend, I'll skate well in front of others!

And then this happened...

I asked a skating buddy to film a run-through of my program this week, so I could see for myself what I hated about it and wanted to change. The run-through went pretty well. I landed all my jumps, but when it came to the end, this happened:

Luckily, today we fixed the ending ;)

Real Figure Skater Moment #1

When I first started learning the loop jump, my coach started out by teaching me what she calls a walking loop. You do backwards crossovers into a regular loop entry, but instead of jumping, you pull up into a quick double three: back outside 3 turn-forward inside 3 turn and then check out. Recently, as I've watched some of the performances from Nationals, I've noticed that this is a common alternate entry sequence to the loop. I imagine it garners extra points under IJS. I particularly remember that Mirai Nagasu did it. Here it is in her short program at about the 1:10 mark:

Thursday, I was on a relatively empty public session with a skating friend, and we were playing around. I thought, you know, I can now do a loop jump. And I can do forward and backward three turns. Maybe I could do this entry into a single loop.

It worked SPECTACULARLY.  It was actually easier than from backwards crossovers, because it was more like doing the loop from a forward inside three. I was absolutely giddy. I had one of those, "I am a real figure skater!" moments. Look at me! Like Mirai! I know that adult pre-bronze doesn't use IJS, but it's still gotta count for something, right?

When I ran through my jumps for my coach this morning, I did the whole sequence that she choreographed as my loop entrance for my program, but included the walking loop. She apparently liked it because when I didn't include it in my first run-through she asked me why I left it out. So I guess it's now part of my choreography. Hooray! (I think)

In other news, I hit my flip every time in the program this morning, but I did wipe out on some back crossovers. I ended up on my belly, army crawling trying to get back up and continue the program. Also, my sit spin was pretty on. Though I did do a run through where I fell out of my sit spin and landed on my butt precisely on the last note of the song. If I don't skate my program successfully, it at least looks like I will die gloriously.

Coach says my waltz jump is a good 4 inches higher than it has been. I mentioned to her that I was considering doing bronze compulsory moves in this upcoming competition as well as the pre-bronze freeskate. But when she described what I'd have to do, it made me tired just listening to it! I still think I'll do it, though, just for the experience. Registration's due next weekend and competition's in 5 weeks!

Last Day of Spins Class

Wednesday was my last day of spins class.

To start out, we were divided into two groups to practice scratch spins, and the instructor took one group and assigned his teenage assistant to the other, which happened to be mine. She watched the other skaters in my group and gave them some tips, but didn't approach me. After a while, she seemed to just be chatting with them and I started to wonder if I was going to get any help.

Now, I have nothing against this girl. She's helped out throughout the whole class with a professional attitude and an encouraging smile. I once asked to borrow a tissue from her on a free style. She told me yes and with a smile, that in the future, I didn't even have to ask. But I can see how it could be intimidating, as a teenager, to approach and correct an adult, even if you are loads better at the thing you're giving advice on.

After a few minutes of scratch spins, the instructor called us back together in one group. He asked his assistant if she'd gotten to everybody on her side. She looked a little embarrassed as she said everybody but... and pointed to me, trying to remember my name. "That wasn't very nice!" the instructor teased her. But he wasn't going to let my scratch spin go without a critique and had me do one right there in front of the entire class!

I panicked a little. I did. But I steeled myself. I can do this. I decided to go from a standstill, so as not to prolong this little impromptu recital. My first two revs travelled a little, but I fought for it, not willing to have a spin meltdown in front of my class. I pulled it together and got my free foot across and down, a good number of revolutions, too. Everything was going well, but by the time I tried to check out, I had spent all my mental energy on the spin. I pushed onto my landing foot and flailed a bit, and bobbled dizzily back to join the rest of the group.

"That was a very good spin!" he exclaimed. "Can anyone tell me what was so good about her spin?" he polled the class. His enthusiasm for my performance helped me focus on the positive of what I'd done as I waited for my evaluation from my much younger classmates. Two hands shot up, from some of the more animated, though not clued in, members of the class. "She held her arms like this!" one said, sticking her arms out in an L to illustrate. "She started it with a dead-end three-turn!" the other said, parroting back the answer to the instructor's favorite question about what starts a spin. "Uh, any other ideas?" he prodded. "It was centered," someone added. "Yes! It was centered!" he had gotten the answer he was looking for, and went on to make a point out of it. I didn't hear what he said. All I could hear was:

It was centered.

We went on to work on scratch spins. The instructor traded with his assistant and worked with my group this time and with me first. He gave me pointers about looking to the left on entry, getting my legs closer together, pointing my foot. None of the sit spins I did then were fabulous, but before he moved on to the next skater he had some words for me. "Your spins are night and day different from when I first saw you spinning. Even from four weeks ago, right before the recital. Have you been working a lot on your spins?" I could only manage a nod. I've been working my butt off on spins for the past few months and I was positively glowing to hear him recognize my hard work. "It shows. Good work."

After sit spins, we only had a brief minute or two to do back spins and class was over. I've decided not to do another session of spins class. It was exactly what I needed for these past four months, but it no longer makes sense for me. I got to experience the teaching of two different coaches, I got to participate in the recital, it forced me to dedicate at least half an hour a week to working on spins (though I did more than that), I got to see what it looks like when people progress in their spins by watching the other girls around me, and made me feel on several occasions like I was actually living in Disney's The Ice Princess. But now I'd prefer to leave work early for ice time when I can get to a freestyle (instead of 30 min of public plus 30 min spins class) and work one on one with one of the coaches who taught the spins class maybe every other week. That way, I'll get twenty minutes of focused instruction, instead of 2 or 3, and the cost will only be a little higher.

But spins class, it's been a good run. I won't forget you.

"Rinking" in the New Year

It's the fifth day of the new year, and I've already skated three times at two rinks in two different states and had two lessons! I'd say I've hit the ground running.

New Year's Day
I started with a public session on New Year's Day. Ten minutes into the two hour session, the skate guard had the crowd start going clockwise and never changed it back again. That put a pretty serious limit on being able to practice many jumps. I took advantage of the opportunity to work on the CW side of the 8 step mohawk pattern. I also spun a fair bit and left the rink feeling very, very sick to my stomach. I've been struggling with dizziness or motion sickness more recently and it finally clicked that it might be because I'm actually getting 7 or 8 rotations in every time I attempt a spin. That's a lot more cumulative rotating then it used to be.

Skating on the Road
A few weeks ago when I was making arrangements for the business trip I went on this week, I decided to bring my skates. A rink nearby (well, 25 minutes) to the client site has a Thursday night public I went to once before. After the new year's day skate, however, I didn't feel a real compulsion to go skate at another winter break public session. But I had space in my luggage, so I brought my skates. The night of, I still didn't really want to skate, but decided to make use of my skates since I brought them.

I don't know why I bothered. It got crowded quickly, I forgot to put my gloves on before I closed up the rented locker, I visited the world's slowest snack bar because I forgot to bring a bottle of water. I couldn't practice much more than a couple of spins but I was getting dizzy and didn't want to get to feeling as sick as I did the other day. When they resurfaced the ice mid-session, I bailed and drove back to the hotel. That'll probably be the last time I take my skates when I go to visit that location.

Incomplete Sharpening
Dance coach sharpened my skates first thing this morning. He happened to see me two foot a loop during my freestyle lesson. "Oops! I didn't include that jump. Blame the sharpener!" "Argh! I can't do anything on these blades!" I called back, in mock irritation. "What was that all about?" Coach asked when I skated back to her, and I explained. Coach joined in on the faux complaining: "Hey, I think you forgot to include the lutz, too!" "Well, she asked for axels and double sals!"  Yah, right!

Speaking of Jumps...
They didn't go so well in my lesson. I kept getting freaked out on my loop, due to weird crowd patterns. I two footed a lot of them.  Flips are coming along okay, but I've noticed that my picking leg comes up really high and I sort of tip forward. I can overcome it and still jump on the flip, but I think it's the same problem that's affecting my lutz, and I can't get all the pieces of the jump together after that. Coach tells me to tuck my hips under. I think I also may need more knee bend.

Coach says we'll need combinations for the competition I want to do, so we tried waltz-toe. My toe loop is a disaster. I don't know why. It tends to be better in combination than by itself, but even that seemed to be toe-waltzing today. "Let's try something else," Coach suggests, "how about flip-toe or flip-loop?" The idea freaked me out a little, since I haven't been doing a full flip that long, but I went out to try it. It wasn't until I landed the flip that I realized I hadn't decided which combination I was going to try. I at least had the presence of mind to notice I landed the flip with my foot in front so on the next try, I decided to go for the flip-loop. I landed it twice! I need to work on the flow out of it and Coach says adding some speed to it will help with that.

My First Competition Cometh
The details for the March competition were published this week. Pre-bronze freeskate is limited to a maximum of 1:40 seconds. Coach and I picked a piece of music several months ago and have been playing with it, but I had a hard enough time cutting it down below 2 minutes. There's no way I'm going to get it to 1:40, so it's back to the drawing board. And now we're 9 weeks from the competition with no music and no program. This is going to be my very first program and my very first competition. It's too early for me to be getting nervous, right?