Holding my own

I had to drop off hospitality items for the test session this morning and, since I was at the rink so early anyway, I decided to drop in on the earliest Friday morning session. I usually don't skate on Friday mornings because I know that there are a couple of senior level skaters on that session and I don't want to feel inadequate. But I have a competition coming up soon and, feelings be damned, I need the practice! When I got there, I saw one of my adult skating friends whom I haven't seen in quite a while (the last time I saw him was back in the summer!). I honestly thought he quit or got injured so I was so relieved to see that he has been well. We just skate on opposite days so we are like ships passing in the night. It was nice to share the ice with him again. At one point during our session he skated up to me and said "looks like we're holding our own out here!" so I think we did okay today. We talked about how we are both struggling with twizzles right now so it's nice to have a "struggle buddy" out there on the ice with me! :)

I worked on all of my compulsory and free skate requirements. My loop-loop combos felt better today although I know the second jump in the combo still needs some work. But at least I was landing them and they felt like they flowed a bit better. Spirals felt good and spins were relatively centered today. I've decided not to risk a deduction in my compulsory moves by doing an attitude spin. I need to stop trying to be fancy so I'm going to do the standard one-foot upright spin. Boring, though. Speaking of compulsory moves, that program felt really nice and secure today (almost like I know what I'm doing!). If I can skate my compulsory program the way I did today, I think I'll be in good shape.

So, funny story (but also kind of sad): As I was getting on the ice, I saw a young male skater (maybe about 7 years old) whose mom was lacing up his skates for him. I made a mental note to self to stay out of his way since it looked like he might be a beginner. He gets on the ice and he was pretty amazing. Way better than me, anyway (but, like, who isn't, right?). I just had to laugh to myself a bit because here's a kid who has to have his mom tie his skates for him and he's still better than me. Ah...being an adult skater is both awesome and humiliating at the same time...lol.