Well, it only took me the whole hour but I finally skated and completed a clean program during the last 6 minutes of my practice session. I even had time after to practice my bow and curtsy! So yeah, 54 minutes of my one hour session were complete crap but somehow I pulled it all together at the very end. I shouldn't say it was all crap, there were some shining moments scattered throughout.
Movez - Per tradition, I ran through the entirety of my moves test right after my warm up. All went swimmingly except for the FO edges. My left leg is just a disaster and I'm on too deep of an edge. This is really the easiest element on the test and I just cannot get it right. I'm having a similar problem on the first push of my BO edges. Too deep. They are also getting worse the more I practice them so I'm kind of at a loss about what to do. Last week, when I skated my edges for Christopher, there were no issues. When I'm on my own, I'm everywhere.
Jumpz and Spinz - These were fine. Salchows and half flips are were I left them. I had one waltz jump that was extra hurty but I powered through it. The rest were good. I spent a lot of time on spins. Two foot spins are controlled and I'm facing the right way every time now. I practiced the one-foot spin from the forward entry as well as at speed as though I were doing it in my program. This whole time I have been thinking "one foot spin" but I have better success when I think "two foot spin but pick your leg up." I have become so used to entering a one foot spin from backwards crossovers that I just couldn't wrap my brain around doing one from a forward entry without a pivot. So, yeah, as long as I just think of it as a two foot spin with a leg up, I at least have less anxiety about the entry.
Programz - It was a crowded session with upper level skaters working on their programs so I could only fit in sections of mine where there was open space. As soon as I thought I had room to run the whole thing, a senior skater goes blitzing through to set up for a double or triple whatever jump. I will say that there was one young lady who I just couldn't take my eyes off of. She was so elegant and artistic in her movements and her landings were soft with beautiful extension. Really impressive. If I could skate with half the grace she has I would be amazing. Le sigh. Anyway, back to mediocrity...the session finally thinned out in the last 10 minutes so I threw some extra jumps and spins in and finally had clear ice to run my complete program (without music again, sadly). I pretended this was it! I'm skating for the judges! I made a point to show expression in my face and look up at the stands were the judges sit during key moments in the program. A dash of geisha here, a pinch of coquettish there and it was lovely. Because I was thinking about being more expressive, the elements just happened! A nice long, perfectly straight lunge, solid jumps, balanced spins, and an end pose that not only faced the correct way but didn't look like I was struggling to stay upright. I guess this is proof that I'm overthinking EVERYTHING! My body has trained for this and knows what to do. Let it do!
Countdown to Test Day: 8 days and ONE more lesson with Christopher
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