New Guards, Who Dis?

I got a much overdo sharpening yesterday and also got a new set of guards too since I have been having some strong feelings lately about my Edea guards. 

Guards - When I got new boots and blades last spring, I had to give up my Rockerz guards because they were too big for the new blades. I tried to buy new Rockerz from the Rockerz website but they did not have my blade type listed on their site. I contacted someone from Rockerz and they told me that the reason was that they didn't have the specs on my particular blade so they weren't going to cut guards for them. But, he said I could go to my local skate tech and they will cut them (apparently, they need the blade present). I ended up getting Edea guards since those fit most blade types and was really happy with how they felt once they were on, but getting them on and off has been a struggle, especially with my bad hands. So, I decided I've struggled enough and asked for some Rockerz to be cut while waiting for my sharpening. I cannot tell you how much better it is! Never again will I stray from Rockerz. 

Stamina - I skated at the Y today and immediately realized how good I feel. Not only because of the sharpening but I just had a load of energy! I ran two Free Skates, my Free Dance, and the Hickory Hoedown with the music. And! I still had energy to spare! Yay! I haven't felt this strong since pre-surgery. 

Spins - My spins were AMAZING today! All of them were centered and solid. Amazing what a sharpening can do! 

Jumps - These were nice too. I mean, my Flip and Lutz are what they are but my other jumps were pretty good as well. In fact, I had two loop jumps that were BIG! I even worked on Axel prep. 

Overall, I felt awesome today! I don't know what changed but I like it and I hope it sticks around.

Harnessing My Skills

Lesson today and Christopher was running a bit behind so I had extra time to practice stuff before my lesson. I felt inspired to work on some Axel prep and I'm glad I did because that's what we worked on today!

Harness Lesson - We only had about 10 minutes left in the session when Christopher got there. I told him about this weekend's competition and how out of place I feel at Silver. He gave me some encouragement and then asked me if my doctor has signed me off to get back in the harness. I said I was good to go and he said "Great, let's do fun stuff today!" It's been 6 months since I got in the harness for Axels so it took a few tries to get it right but I was able to land two of them towards the end. I forgot how much I needed to jump up and on a curve (I was jumping out and on a diagonal, oops). It feels good to work on these again. Maybe I can make this an additional goal for this year - to at least attempt them off the harness :)

2023 Casper Invitational Recap

I'm back from Wyoming! Ugh, it's always so windy there. It was a good time and I got to skate with my Unicorn Sisters (and meet a new one!). Most of the Unicorns were in Colorado Springs volunteering with 4 Continents so I didn't have too many people to compete with. Here's how it all went down. 

Morning Practice Session - I was placed into a "high" practice session and by "high" I think they just meant "old" since it was just the adult competitors. It was nice though because there were only 6 of us on the ice and I didn't have to dodge the Snowplow Sam skaters who rarely look out for other people. Because of this, it was a really productive practice session. Despite the ice being insanely hard, I managed all of my spins and jumps. In fact, my husband said one of the sit spins I did was really nice. So yeah, it was a good session and I felt confident going into my two events. 

Solo Free Dance - There were only two of us competing in this event and we both skated well. I ended up placing second behind Angie and I'm really okay with that. She skated beautifully! I got first place ordinals from one judge so I can be proud that at least one judge thought I did well. 

Silver Free Skate - There were three of us competing in this event (one lady had the flu and withdrew). So it was me, Angie, and Dawn. I knew what I was up against and so I expected my placement (I got third). I didn't skate a bad program, it just wasn't as good as theirs. They have really low sit spins and flawless combos so I get it. I have room to grow still. 

Final Thoughts - I have so many thoughts about this weekend. The biggest of these is I really need to get my spins in shape. I'm just not the best spinner but I think I can at least get them better. At this level, I really need some spin combos. Trying to get by on just a Sit Spin, Scratch, and a Camel isn't going to cut it. Another thought is that the judges were absolutely fair in their placements. Angie and Dawn are on a whole different level. Basically, I was a big fish in a little pond while I was in Bronze and now I'm a tiny fish in a big pond in Silver. I just need to "get good." However humbling it is, I know it's good for me to be skating at this level. I need to be challenged and pushed and this is sure as hell doing that. Finally, I have to give myself some grace considering I just had surgery about 2.5 months ago and then I just jumped right back into competing. My lack of stamina comes through in the video playbacks (which I am not going to post, sorry). I just looked a little slow and cautious. I know I've been skating pretty guarded since I got back from surgery but I didn't realize how much until I watched the videos. Alas. It's all part of recovery. Anyway, it was a fun competition and it was run well. The medals were pretty snazzy too. First competition of 2023 is in the books!

Casper's Comin'

 Oof, I've been really bad about updating this past couple of weeks. My apologies. Anyway, Casper is approaching this weekend and I'm in super cram mode trying to fit in as many practices as I can. 

Solo Free Dance - In general, this is in good shape as long as I remember to make eye contact with the judges and emote. Working on this is difficult in a busy practice session. It feels like lately I've had to abort parts of it because people are in the way. I'm always aware of who is running a program and make a point to stay out of their way but sometimes I don't think that same courtesy is extended to adult skaters. Sigh. 

Silver Free Skate - This has been rough lately in practice and, usually when that happens, it means my performance on competition day will be pretty good. I hope that holds true. I ran it this morning and besides having to abandon my final jump combo because someone wouldn't make way, it was okay. I got the schedule and I know who my competition is for this event (except for one skater who I haven't met yet) and I know I'll be up against some tough competition. I'm really trying to focus on skating for me and doing my best rather than focusing so hard on what medal I will earn. If I can stay calm and really feel this program, I might do okay. 

Nationals - Well, I'm registered! I guess I'm committed now, lol. I'll start really working on the Bronze Free Skate again once Casper is over. It had to take the backseat for a couple of weeks. 

Future Solo Free Dance - Once Casper is over, I really want to get my Solo Free Dance tested and passed because I already have my music picked out for the next one (and a custom dress on order!). It's going to be lovely!

It's Still Not Low Enough!!!???

Lesson today! I started our lesson by asking Christopher his thoughts on me switching the first spin in my Silver FS to a sit spin. Of course he wanted to see it before he gave his answer so I reeled one off for him that I thought was lovely. It had speed, it had rotations, it felt really low. Alas. He said "If this were an IJS event I would say don't do it, it's not low enough. But since it's 6.0, go for it." I was like "It's not low?!" It certainly felt hella low. So he took video and yeah, it's lower than it's been in the past but it's not 90 degrees low. Damn. He gave me some tips on getting it lower. Basically, it's not so much an ankle thing as my ankle is bent enough to get to 90 degrees. Instead, I really just need to push my ass lower. He said working on single leg squats will help a lot (preferably with some TRX cables as an assist). 

Warm-up Practice - In preparation for Casper in a couple of weeks, Christopher wanted to see me do a full 4 minute warm-up as I would on competition day. So, I started with about two laps of stroking, backward power stroking, forward cross strokes, and backward power pulls. Then I did some spins and jumps in the order that I would do them in the program. Finally, the footwork sequence to round things out. That was exhausting and I hate skating with that kind of pressure. Since I was good and tired, he wanted me to immediately run my Silver Free Skate. 

Silver Free Skate - The speakers weren't working (why does this happen so frequently at every rink I skate at?!) so he had to follow me around as I skated with the music blasting from his iPad. I'm not gonna lie, it was really hard to hear some of the subtle musical cues I'm used to and I bet it was hard for other skaters to know that I was skating my program and to move out of my way. It was challenging but I got it done. It wasn't a bad program but I could definitely feel my soul leaving my body during the final 30 seconds where I'm doing six jumps and a spin. It was a little sloppy with the technique but I finished on time with the music. He immediately told me to take a lap (for endurance) and by the time I skated back to him I wanted to die. We spot checked some stuff and then moved on to the Free Dance.

Solo Free Dance - I was exhausted! But I skated anyway and got through it. 

I felt like he was pushing me extra hard today and I know it's to help with the stamina issues I've been having so I know it's going to help me in the long run but damn, I'm so freaking tired.

Sunday at the Y

Wonderful practice today at the Y. There were about 8 skaters (half were adults, yay!) and the rest were higher level teens. So it was busy on the ice but everyone was respectful of space and giving each other room to run programs. I stayed for an hour and 15 minutes and worked the whole time so I guess that means my stamina is gradually improving. 

Free Dance - After my standard warm up and Moves practice, I got right to work with running programs. I started with the Free Dance because there's no jumping and I hadn't warmed up my jumps yet. It was nice! I'm ready to skate this in Casper. 

Silver Free Skate - After my Free Dance, while others were running their programs, I warmed up my jumps for the Silver FS. Jumps felt good today besides the same technique issues I always have with my Flips and Lutzs. Soon it was my turn to run my program so I got my music spooled up and got into position. It went well. In fact, I feel like I'll be proud of this program if I skate it this well in Casper. I know one of my competitors already and she's an absolutely beautiful skater! I'm not aiming for Gold in Casper because she's gonna kill it but I think if I skate like this, I could at least not be embarrassed to share the video. I've been thinking a bit about my spins, though. I'm doing two camels and they count as two spins of a different character because one is a combo and the other isn't but, to me, they really seem too similar. I thought about changing the first camel to a sit spin. So I practiced sit spins for a bit and they felt fast and low so I think I'll bring it up to Christopher tomorrow and see what he thinks. 

Bronze Free Skate - This will be my Nationals program so I need to run it too. By the time I run my third program, I have no gas left in the tank and I'm just all over the place. Maybe I should practice it earlier in my session. It's just not as high as a priority since I won't be competing with it until April so I don't want to waste what good energy I have early in the session on running a program I'm not competing with anytime soon. Ugh, I'll figure it out. 

So yeah, I'm exhausted but I got a lot of work done.

No Testing For Me

Welp, I won't be testing anything on Feb 9th. I went to go register for the test and right there on the website was a big red notice that basically said they weren't running any dance tests this time because they couldn't secure any dance judges. 

It's fine. I've waited almost a year to test, what's another month or two more? Sigh.