Tuesday skate, long lesson

I skated for about an hour and a half today, and most of that time was spent working with my sister. We worked alot on spins. My backspin improved significantly once she convinced me to tightly cross my left foot. I'm looking forward to working on that more. My new sit spin position is a hit and going very well. It is much more consistent than it was before. Now I need to start working on sit-back sit spins. We worked on trying to get my camel faster. That's still not going great. She also had me work on waltz jump backspins. Those are just wierd to me. You have forward momentum coming out of the waltz jump, and I just don't get how you're supposed to stop that for a backspin. I sort of got a few, but they weren't that great. I'll have to work on that. We didn't do much toher than that. We decided to just have me test my preliminary moves and pre-bronze freeskate at the test session on August. This due to the fact that I won't be ready with pre-juv moves by then anyway. I would like to test those this fall, however. I've got my music and my dress all picked out for my silver program, so I'm ready to get that learned. I plan on Houston Invitational being the last competition that I skate bronze.

Monday morning and ISI Worlds

Well...I drug myself out of bed and went skating this morning. It went pretty well. I'm really working on thinking about bending my knees on all my movements. I worked for a while on spins. I'm trying to get my camel spin to rotate faster, but that wasn't going very well. I worked a little on laybacks. They feel very good, but I need my sister to confirm that they look good as well. I worked on my sitspin some. I've changed up my position. My sister has had me have my right leg straight out with me leaning forward reaching out for it. I haven't ever felt like this looks that great on me, especially since I'm not very low. So, I'm trying more of a position where I slightly bend my right leg and sit up a little straighter. I've seen several other skaters with not so low sit spins do this position and it looks lovely on them, so hopefully that will work, and my sister will approve. I'm still really struggling with my backspin. It's really frustrating. I just need to really commit to working on it every time I skate.
Nothing to report on jumping. I'm still not working on my axel or doubles because I'm waiting (and waiting and waiting) for some coaching from my sister. I really want to get some practice on the harness. I am working the axel of-ice, and they're consistently 1/4 rotation short.
Other than that I just putted around, and working on various things. My spiral, and my artistic routine mostly.

Onto worlds. Overall, they weren't very exciting. They were actually much smaller than I anticipated, seeming about the same size as the Houston Invitational competition I like to attend. I didn't do any individual events, but I did fill in for a friend on jumps and spins, and we got first. Although, we weren't competing against anyone else. Our team also was only skating against the book. We skated very well, and I think we could have beaten most of the skating (we're formation) teams that were there.

Plano Skate

I skated today at the Dr. Pepper StarCenter in Plano. I just want to note that they have a gazillion freestyle sessions. I'm very jealous. It was just a basic practice day. I ran through Preliminary moves as a warm up. Then I worked alot on spins. I'm trying to get my camel spin going faster. I'm getting pretty consistent at getting more than 3 revolutions, they're just very slow. I worked a little on laybacks. Those are surprisingly not terrible since I haven't really done them much. I had a revelation on my backspin. I'm trying to spin too far back on my blade. Now that I've realized that I hope to see some improvement. I basically just ran through all my jumps and combos. Nothing to really report there. I really need to start working on my axel. I also worked on remembering my artistic program since I'll be doing that in Houston. Overall it was a good skate. I skated well and it was a good day.
I do need to get on the ice more. Since summer started I can count the number of times I've skated on two hands. I really want to be competitive in Houston, and the only way that is going to happen is if I start skating more than 3 times a week. I just need to suck it up and do it.

Cannon Texas Open

Well, the Cannon Texas Open is over. Overall it went okay. My competitor had to drop out which was dissapointing. I skated alright. On my freeskate I two-footed my lutz, and I sort-of did a half loop instead of a real loop. My camel spin was a little wobbly, but my sit spin was good. I as pleased with how I skated.
My compulsories went well except my sit spin wasn't great. It wasn't low and it was wobbly. I got 2 2nd place ordinals on that, and I'm not sure exactly why. So that's a little frustrating.
I didn't feel like this competition was very well run, and there weren't that many adults, so I probably won't come back. I am looking forward to the Houston Invitational, however.

Mini Rant

I'm pissed off that I'm getting to Chicago 2 days before I have to for this stupid synchro competition. I don't have anyone to go with me. I'm sad. My routine for this weekend is only okay. My skates are giving me blisters and I think I'm going to have to shell out $500 for new boots. Things just aren't going my way. :(

Bad Program

I only got to do my program once with music this morning. Let's just say it wasn't very good. I two-footed my loop, and put my hand down on my salchow. My camel spin was barely 3 revolutions, and my sit spin wasn't that great either. I really need to get my skates sharpened, but there's no way to get them done before this weekend. Also, my boots have started giving me some serious blisters, and even with my moleskin, my feet hurt.
I'm sending off my paperwork for the Houston Invitational. I'm going to do freeskate, artistic, and compulsories. All Bronze. Hopefully I'll be scheduled to skate at times that won't interfere with school.

Two days in a row!

I skated the super-crowded, full of ISI kids that don't really skate, just hang out, session last night. I ran my program twice with music. Overall it went better. It's still a little choppy and I'm having trouble hitting my flip-loop. However, my compulsories went pretty well.
I'm having major boot problems, however. I've had these Reidell Silver Stars for about a year now, and I've loved them until the past couple months. Just this week, though, my heel has started slipping and I'm getting the first blisters I've ever gotten. I'm not sure what I'm going to do to fix this, I'm afraid I'm just going to have to get new boots.
On a bitchy note...the cannon open is in one week and they STILL haven't gotten out even a tentative schedule. I'm not sure I'll ever do a competition hosted by Stars FSC ever again. They said they would put out more practice ice once they put out a tentative schedule, but surprise surprise, no schedule. I think there is NO excuse to not have at least a list of events out AT LEAST two weeks prior to a competition. Applications were due over a month ago. That is plenty of time to get a list together.

Skating...again...sortof

I skated yesterday for maybe the 4th time this summer. For some reason I just haven't wanted to drive all the way to the rink. But, I have the Cannon Texas Open in two weeks...so it's time for me to buckle down. I ran my program twice with music yesterday and my sister tweaked it. We changed my salchow-loop to just a salchow and my flip-toe loop to a flip-loop. My sister says that big singles are better than cheated combos. My camel spins were good yesterday morning, but not last night. We also changed my change of edge spiral to change feet in the middle. I think I can do the change of edge, but I need my skates sharpened. Overall my program is a little rough. I really need to run it a million times with music, and I think I'll be fine.
I have to register for the Houston Invitational by next friday. We were hoping to have me skate silver, but getting me tested for Bronze is a whole other story which I'll tell in a second. I've been so unmotivated I hesitate to skate in Houston, but I love skating in Houston because they have so many competitive adults. So, I think I'm going to suck it up and go. We'll have to make some changes to my program if I'm going to do that. I got 5th last year, and there is this one Bronze skater I've never beaten, so I really want to do well. I also want to do my artistic, which I'm not sure I remember, so that will take some work.
Onto testing...I still need to take my Preliminary MITF and Pre-Bronze freeskate. I'm ready to test, it's just a matter of getting it done. My sister was considering having me test Bronze MITF (I'm taking the standard MITF, but to get my Bronze freeskate out of the way I may take Bronze MITF because they're easier than Pre-Juv...and then I'll still take Pre-Juv later) and freeskate before the Houston Invitational paperwork was due. I am certainly ready for the Bronze freeskate, but I don't know 3 of the MITF patterns. So...we're going to work tonight and see if we can get those down by next week. I'm guessing not, but I guess we need to get at least the Pre-Bronze stuff out of the way.

In other news, my husband and I have decided to get ourselves a Wii for our anniversary instead of getting eachother gifts. However, we're having some difficulty acquiring one. Gamestop gets their shipments on Mondays, so hopefully we can get one this coming monday. I still need to figure out what to get him for his birthday which is friday, though.