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."
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Friday, September 20, 2013
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 :)
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 :)
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
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 ;)
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 ;)
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