Final Touches

Lesson today and I told Christopher that I signed up for the Exhibition and Critique on May 22. So, of course, he wanted to see where I'm at with the Free Dance. I got the sash on and ran it. 

First Run Through - This went well! I hit all of my musical cues and ended on time with the music. The only snafu was the catch foot camel. It didn't happen. I replaced it with a regular camel. He seemed pleased but still had corrections for me. No surprise, he wants TONS more expression. I know this. He's told me this. I would also like more expression. I just go into survival mode when I'm running a program and expression takes a backseat. I really just need to practice this with expression every.single.time. We also worked on the catch foot camel for a bit. On average, it take about 3 revs for me to grab my foot which is entirely too long. So we worked on arching my back more and bending my knee to make things easier to get to while spinning. I did a couple that were okay but these still have a long way to go. Next, we talked about the end pose that I made up. It's not bad but he would like something a little more challenging and way more dramatic! He proposed a pretty arm tornado thing and then I drop to one knee while the other leg extends and my left arm swings up. That's certainly dramatic..for my knees! I expressed concern over how my knees aren't getting any younger and I want to keep them working for as long as possible (I already have a weird crunching noise in my right knee. Doesn't hurt, just makes me cringe). He insisted that I do this ending. He said, "if it were easy, you'd be able to do it." I want the challenge so he showed me how to do it. He then wanted to see the program again in its entirety with the new ending. 

Second Run Through - Here we go again. It was pretty much the same as the first and I was able to do the knee thing at the end except my supporting foot slipped out from under me and I went full sploot, lol. This is a risky move but if I get it right, I know it will look great. The trick is practicing it, but not too much. It's really hard on the knees and too many attempts will certainly start to get painful. Fun. 

Gold Moves - For the second half of the lesson, we worked on Forward Double 3s and the Backward Circle 8. I was not able to repeat any of the little successes I had yesterday during my practice. Sigh. He asked if I've been working on the Backward Power 3 turns from the Standard Juvenile test and I admitted that I've completely forgotten about them. I have a lot that I work on and often only an hour to do it all in during a session. So yeah, sometimes I forget things. I promised I would bring them back to my practices. I know they will help. 

So yeah, he seems to think this Free Dance is in a good enough place to be presented to judges. I'm excited to put it out there. 

Sunday Grind

There was an hour and half long session at the Y today and, since it was Mother's Day, the place was practically empty. Just me and two other skaters! Yay! My practice was divided into quarters and I got a lot of work done!

Gold Moves - I was able to make it down the entire length of the rink without a foot down on the FO-BI side of the Forward Double 3s. I'm sure the lobes were a wonky size but I did it! I cannot say the same for the other side. That still needs a lot of work. Then, I spent a good chunk of time on the Backward Circle 8 and I was able to make it around all four circles!!!! I know it wasn't perfect (the circle sizes weren't consistent and my pushes were weak) but this gives me hope that it can be done. I did some brackets but nothing extraordinary happened with these. 

Spins - I dedicated a good portion of my practice to spins sine I'm not entirely comfortable jumping until my new boots come in. I did a lot of sit spins, backspins with the leg crossed, camels, catch foot camels, and upright scratch spins. Everything felt nice and centered today but I'm still struggling with the catch foot camel. It takes about 3 revs for me to make the grab and then I can only hold the position for maybe one rev after that. I'm able to grab on solid ground so I'm guessing the problem is that I'm fighting physics. This is frustrating. 

Free Dance - Now that it is fully choreographed, I was looking forward to running it in its entirety with the music. After practicing the footwork section for a bit, I put the music on and off I went. Man, this is a fun program to skate to! I hit all of my elements (except for the catch foot camel, I just did a regular camel) and I ended on time with the music. Christopher didn't give me an end pose so I added one myself. I'll see what he thinks about it tomorrow during my lesson. I think this is the quickest I've ever gotten a program to a point where I feel okay putting it in front of judges and I'm really excited that my club is hosting an Exhibition and Critique for club members on May 22! There were just a few spots left so I did the thing! I signed up! It will be nice to get some good feedback from the judges and still have time to make changes before I compete with this in September. My dress should be ready on the 16th so I can wear the dress but I won't have time to stone it. That's fine. I don't think they are judging me on the sparkle (or non sparkle) of my dress. 

Bronze Dances - I worked on the Ten Fox without the music. It's such a quick dance and I'm not entirely confident on the end pattern with that dreadful mohawk so I'll keep working on it slowly until I'm ready to pick up the tempo. The Hickory Hoedown feels pretty good though. I think that one might be ready to test by the end of summer. Hopefully, I can test the HickHoe and my Free Dance at the same time. 

I pick up my new boots and blades on Monday the 16th but with the Exhibition coming up, I'll hold off on skating with them until after I skate my Free Dance for the judges. I'm really nervous about the blades. I feel like it's going to be a huge adjustment. Yikes. 

How Fitting!

This post is all about change and it's a long one!

Schedule Change - My home rink got rid of my Monday morning and Wednesday morning sessions in favor of hockey (*cue internal screaming*) so now I need to find other times and places to practice. I was able to do a couple of hours at the Y this past Sunday so that helped make up for the two practices I missed last week but I feel so behind now. I have a lot of work to do and I'm frustrated that my typical morning practices are gone. Boo. 

Boot and Blade Fitting - I went for my fitting yesterday morning expecting to get a Jackson boot one level higher than my Premieres and hopefully keep my current blade since they still have 3-4 more sharpenings left in them. That is not what happened! I asked about the Jackson Synergy and the Supreme boots and they pulled them for me to try on but as soon as I said I'm a toe heavy skater, my fitter suggested I try Risport since the heel on those are significantly lower than Jacksons. So I tried on the RF3 and they were super comfy! He measured the heels between the Jackson and Risport boots and there is a half an inch difference in height! That's huge! He also convinced me to consider a new blade since my current ones only have so much life left in them and I'll have to replace them next year anyway. He suggested the MK Professional Lite which will help my spins and turns eventually but the adjustment period will be tough since it's got a 7 foot rocker instead of the 8 foot I'm used to with my Legacy 8. Since he had a used boot and blade setup in this configuration already in the shop, he let me test drive those. I could tell the blades will be a challenge. It felt like I was going to slip off of my heel. Yikes. I did a couple of spins (just a two foot spin and a one foot spin) and they were easy to center so I know this will be a good blade for my spins. So I placed my order and I pick my new boots and blades up next Monday! Aghghghg!

Dance Dress Fitting - So the Brad Griffies dress I ordered a couple of months ago to go along with my new Free Dance does not fit up top. I took it to a local seamstress and she's going to take it in for me. She also did my measurements and I lost two inches in my bust so it's confirmed that I indeed shrunk. The dress should be ready in two weeks and then I can start stoning it!

Free Dance Choreography Complete!- During yesterday's lesson, Christopher gave me the final bit of choreography for my "Lifts" Free Dance! We haven't settled on an end pose coming out of the final element (an RFI 1.5 rev twizzle) but it's done! Yay!

Silver Free Skate - I picked out my music and I'm having a dress made! Yup, I'm having one made! The music I chose is too pretty to try to buy and stone a dress myself so I'm having a lady down in Florida make one for me that goes with the music I chose. She has my new measurements and my deposit and now I anxiously wait for it to be made and sent to me. It's going to be GORGEOUS! And the best part is I don't have to stress about stoning a dress. Everything will be done by her! My first custom dress!

Hickory Hoedown and Ten Fox - Also during our lesson, we ran a couple of the Bronze Pattern Dances. I feel like I'm actually skating them slightly better now after having not worked on them in a few months. I still need to learn the Willow Waltz. Hopefully I can get one or more of these tested by the end of the year. 

So yeah, lots of changes happening!

You Win Some, You Lose Some, and Sometimes You Hecken Surprise Yourself!

The 2022 Spring Funtastics is in the books! My final competition of the season is done and, honestly, so am I. I'm exhausted from this season but I'm already making preparations for the next competition season. So, how'd I do?

Silver Compulsory Moves - There were four of us skating this event and it was a tough one! But is was fun. It was all Unicorn Skaters so it was great camaraderie! Outside of the skater who won first, the rest of us skated really well and the judges ordinals were all over the place. I had some second place, third place, and fourth place ordinals. Ultimately, I got fourth but I'm not mad about it. I know what I did well and what I didn't and can take that information and work on those trouble spots (ahem, spins). 

Bronze Free Skate - There were supposed to be three of us competing but one of the ladies scratched at the last minute. So, again, it was a Unicorn Show! Just two unicorns competing together! This was my last time skating this program and I was ready for it to be done. I skated it well and got first place! 

Memorial Swing Dance - This was the one event I just wanted to have fun with. Since this event is open to all levels of skaters I knew I was likely going to place somewhere in the bottom half of the 8 person group. Here's the surprising thing: I tied for second place and, after the tie breaker I got third! What?! Was it a perfect skate? No. There were a couple of bobbles (including one where I tried to make eye contact with the judges and smile and almost ate it, lol). However, I was one of the only skaters who chose actual Swing music that was the proper style and tempo and I stayed on the beat and skated the pattern correctly. I'm just really proud of how I skated and really surprised at how I placed. Out of the five judges, two of them gave me first place ordinals!!! It was insane sharing the podium with a Senior level skater! Here's the video. 

What's next - I had my lesson with Christopher yesterday and we worked on the Free Dance. The footwork section is pretty much complete and there's just the last 15 seconds to choreograph. It's almost done! We are also going to get back into some of the Bronze level pattern dances since it's been a while since we looked at those. Finally, I sent him my Silver Free Skate music selection for next season and I'm really excited about it. It's one of my most favorite pieces of music in the world and I love that I'm finally ready to skate to it! So now the plan is to test my Free Dance sometime this summer in time to compete with it at CSI in September. We'll start choreography for my Silver Free Skate and I'll work on it all summer to hopefully get it ready by CSI as well. I'll probably officially test Silver Free Skate sometime at the end of the year. It's going to be a lot of work!

Shake it Off

Today was my last practice before my events this Saturday and Sunday! I got a lot done but tried not to overdo it or obsess going into the weekend. 

Warm-up - I did the standard five minute warm-up that I would do for the competition. Unlike Monday where my short warm-up felt okay, this morning's warm-up did not. I felt shaky and unstable and couldn't get any height on my jumps (especially the combos). 

Swing Dance - I ran it twice with the music. Both times were okay. I tried for more expression but my smiles seemed forced and unnatural. However, I feel like I was able to get my feet together more so I didn't give the appearance of wide-stepping and I was able to push out the corners of the pattern more to fill out the rink the way Christopher suggested. I'm as ready as I can be for this event (which will be on Sunday afternoon). 

Silver Compulsory Moves - I ran this 2 or 3 times. As I relaxed into it, it started to feel (and probably look) better. This will be my first event on Saturday and I'll be going in cold since all of the slots for the practice session right before were snatched up. I'll really have to make sure that five minute warm-up is as effective and efficient as possible. 

Free Skate - I only ran it once because I didn't want to obsess. It was nice. A little bumble on the opening jump combo because I forgot to warm it up prior so it was rushed and not in time with the music. Anyway, I'll be fine. 

I did all of this in the first 30 minutes of the session. I spent the second half of the session working on field moves, spins, and parts of my Free Dance. 

Gold Moves - I only worked on two things but I spent quality time on them. The Backward Circle 8 got worked on and I feel better about completing 3/4 of the circles. It's that last inside circle (the LBI, of course) that is still giving me grief. As per usual, it will take a lot of time to get that left leg to work with all of the metal hindering progress. Moving on, I used the same circle to work on the double 3 turns. The first half of the circle going CCW is the LFO-LBI and the second half is the RFI-RBO. Then I switched directions and did the same thing going CW (RFO-RBI to LFI-LBO). The good news is that all of the turns are happening, the bad news is that the lobes are nowhere near a consistent size. After many many circles of every 3 turn known to man, I moved on to spins. 

Spins - Mostly just polishing these for the competition. I worked on leading with my left arm, arching my back and lifting that free leg for the camel. 

Free Dance - I wasn't able to run it with music because the speakers were getting choppy (I love my rink but we really have the worst sound system ever). So I ran it without the music trying to get some flow and confidence. 

So yeah. That's it. I'm going to relax and read some books, calm my mind, cuddle a cat or two, and not really think about this competition until I need to be there on Saturday. Stay tuned :) 

Final Touches before Funtastics

I skipped my morning practice and my Pilates class today and only went to the rink for my lesson. I had a good excuse, though. I had a really soft cat snuggling with me under blankets and it was too sweet of a moment to disturb. Besides, I've been running my Free Skate for about a year now and I doubt missing a practice would ruin me too much. 

I was first for a lesson today so Christopher had me do the same 5 minute warmup that I would do on competition day. He only stopped me twice for corrections. After that, we got started on all the things. 

Free Skate - I did a run through for Christopher and it went mostly well. I didn't get to do the loop jump because there was a young skater in my way (even though I was wearing the sash, ugh). He made an adjustment on my camel spin to make it look slightly more advanced. I was doing the camel to forward upright to backward upright. He wants me to do a scratch spin instead of the forward upright. It looks better. Overall for this event, I think he wants me to have more expression and confidence. 

Compulsory Moves - I ran this a few times for him on both ends of the rink. He timed me on one of them and I clocked in at 1:17 which is great. He wants more speed going into the salchow-loop combo and a stronger push on the camel. Since I'm under the time limit, I can really spend some time on the final spin and draw it out a bit more. He gave me a nice compliment on my spiral - beautiful extension and arch in my back :) 

Swing Dance - Just some minor corrections on this. Mostly, he would like a ton more expression. Also, he corrected some of the places where I was wide stepping (mostly on the back chasses). He also spent some time with me on pushing the pattern out to the edges of the rink and getting that mohawk to be a bit more smooth. He asked me what my plans were for exit choreography and I'm glad I had a plan because he asked to see it. I think this is in good enough shape to compete with this Sunday. 

At the end of the lesson, he asked me what my goals are for this competition and I told him 1). strong camel spins 2). Lutz-Toe combo looks deliberate, and 3). EXPRESSION! All very obtainable goals. He mentioned how much I've improved from two years ago when I skated my Star Wars program. I really needed to hear that. I know I've made progress but sometimes I get mentally stuck on obsessing over the things I'm still struggling with that I forget how my overall skating has matured over time. It's a refreshing reminder going into my final competition of the season. 

Girls just wanna have fun

Ooof, this morning was a lot! I packed about three hours worth of practice into one hour and I feel like I got some meaningful work done. 

Moves - I started on moves right after my warm ups. Since we were just working on the backward circle 8 during our lesson on Monday, I spent some time on that using the theraband to help with my arms. I'm not sure the theraband helps as much on the inside circles as it did for the outside circles but I feel like I'm getting around better on the first inside circle. I still wasn't able to get a strong push on the second inside circle but I know it will come in time. I have to keep reminding myself that this is one of those moves that looks super easy but in reality takes a lot of technique, core strength, and persistence. I'll just need to keep at it. Next, I worked on the backward double 3 turns. I worked on the BI-FO side mostly since it's been a struggle lately trying to get my free leg right. I think I'm finally understanding where to place it and can start working on getting the feel of it. I dabbled in some forward double 3s before moving on to Dance. 

Dance - Feeling warmed up enough on edges and turns, I thought working on dance next would be a nice transition. I ran my competition Swing Dance about three times focusing on expression (SMILES!) and making sure the pretty arm movements Christopher gave me were consistent. My first run through was not the best but the next two were pretty good. My goal for this event is not to get first place (because I'm up against some senior level skaters and that's just not going to happen realistically). But, I would like to not place last and it would hella nice if I could place in the top half. I'm working hard to look my best. Next, I ran my "Lifts" Free Dance. I ran it a few times to get timing, extension, and expression up to a level I can be proud of. This program is still not finished being choreographed but hopefully we can finish that up after the competition is done. So far, my biggest struggle with this is the dance spin. It's supposed to be a catch foot camel but I'm having a difficult time grabbing my free foot in time to get the required rotations and finish when I'm supposed to. I'll talk to Christopher about it. 

Free Skate - I ran it twice. Both times, I had one little mistake that I don't normally make. The first time it was accidentally leaving out the last step of my choreographic step sequence and, during the second run through, I rushed my salchow and almost biffed it. I need to remember to breathe, take my time, relax into the music, and remember that this is my last time skating this program before I retire it. I need it to shine!

Silver Compulsory Moves - I actually lost count of how many times I ran this. It was the last 10 minutes of the session and I packed as many run throughs as I could in that time. Considering each run through is a minute and a half, that's probably at least 5 run throughs with rest and sips of water in between. It got better the more times I ran it. I'm up against some pretty stiff competition for this event and I'm still pretty new to the Silver level so I'm not expecting first in this event but I would like to get at least one first place ordinal. 

I'm pooped. I worked my ass off this morning to fit everything in and I think I made some progress on some things! Like Monday, I had the ice to myself so I could play whatever music I wanted to (it felt like an 80s pop kinda day) and I didn't have to worry about where other people were in relation to me. I'm ready for the competition and I'm feeling better about my skating today than I was on Monday. Hooray!