Long time no talk

Well..I'm sure by now nobody reads this anymore. It has been months since I last posted. I thought I'd just do a quick update. I have in fact been skating, but I've also been very busy with the drill team at school.
So first the skating news. I retook and passed my preliminary moves with flying colors. I'm currently working on my pre-juvenile moves which I have to pass before I can take my bronze freeskate. I haven't been doing any competing since the houston fall invitational last year. My first competition back is going to be the Bluebonnet open here in Austin. I'll still be skating bronze (and probably will for a good while). I started working on an axel sort of. I only get to have a lesson where we work on it when I have a lesson with my sister. Which is never. I'm just forcing myself to attempt them and get more comfortable with them. Then when I have a chance with her we get on the harness. I need to get better about the off-ice. The wierd thing is I used to be able to do them off-ice no problem, but since I've started actually working on them on-ice I can't do them off anymore. Humph.
In other news my drill team went to competition this year and the officers won the lyrical category with the dance I choreographed! I was so proud. I hope we can improve upon our competition performance next year. It's going to take a little more dedication, though and I feel like we're still lacking on that. Spring show was last weekend and boy am I glad it's over. It went off pretty well. I'm not 100% happy with the way they performed. They just have a problem with not taking any of these things serious enough. They talk about wanting a bigger team and things like that, but they don't understand that you have to be good for (good) people to want to be on the team, and that takes hard work, dedication, and taking performances seriously. There are some very talented dancers on the team, I just wish they would...you guessed it...take the team more seriously. I'm excited about next year, though. Tryouts are next week...I hope we get alot of girls trying out.
Well...I can't think of anything else right now. I'm going home for my high schools spring show this weekend. It's the first one in probably 8 or so years for me, but this is going to be my director's last official year, so I'd like to go see her last show. Anyway, that's it for real.

First Lesson

Well, after I 4 month break, I'm getting back on the ice. I have to. I had my first lesson today with a new coach. Right now we're just working on Moves which means I still need to try to get in a freeskate lesson with my sister.
This morning we worked on those preliminary moves that I failed. She explained what was wrong with my patterns on the backwards crossovers to outside edges. Hopefully I can fix that. They definitely felt better once I realized what I was supposed to be doing. Then we worked on my alternating threes. She's having me change the way I check out of my three turn. Finally we worked on power-3's. Fixed the pattern a little bit there. Overall she said my biggest problem is my stiff knees (obviously) and my upper-body.

avoidance

I haven't skated since Houston. Not once. Right after Houston I needed a break because of school just starting and I've been working very hard. Since then, though, I've pretty much just been avoiding skating all together. I miss it terribly, but I was so frustrated with everything I just need to make some decisions. I've had all these goals and I don't feel like I'm anywhere near reaching them. Or even getting closer. My sister hasn't been able to commit to a time for a lesson for me. Her afternoon sessions are completely booked and she's not doing morning sessions. Even the session that I could count on for her last year she has booked another student on. So I'm not sure what to do. I'm kind of leaving it up to her. If she wants to fit me in, then she will. I've been feeling for a long time like I haven't been improving like I feel I should/could and I feel like that's because I don't have consistent lessons. It is indescribably frustrating to watch all these kids working on their axels when I was able to do my singles consistently way before they could. I finally got one lesson on the harness this summer, but that was only after I broke down crying on a freestyle. Also, me failing that test was related to a lack of coaching. I did one of my patterns wrong and I had no idea. I felt good about it until I skated over to my sister and she told me I did it wrong. She had told me two days before the test that I was doing it wrong. I had been doing it that exact way for at least 6 months before that.
So I've got some decisions to make. I feel like the right decision has to be get a new coach, but I've got a few issues with that. One is money. Danny and I are buying a new house, so I just don't feel like I should spend alot of money on coaching right now. The second is my sister. I've really liked having this time we could hang out, and I don't really want to give that up (of course I guess I already have with my not-skating). Everytime I think about this whole situation I cry. So instead...I've just not been thinking about it. :( I don't know what to do, so until I do...I'm not sure I'll be doing any skating.

Houston: The good and the bad

First...the bad. My artistic. I skated pretty well, so that was good, but I placed 4th out of 4 which was very disappointing. I know I wasn't as comfortable with the boa as I should have been, but I still don't understand last place. Now I'm thinking I'm gonna ditch the boa. Or maybe I just need a different artistic.
Second...the good. My freeskate. I skated possibly the best I've skated it in a competition. I didn't hit my camel in the beginning, so that sucked. The only other mistake I made is that I two-footed my loop on my flip-loop. Everything else was fantastic. I rocked my lutz toe-loop which was very exciting since I just added that the other day, and I haven't done much working on lutz combos. My sister said my sit spin was the best she'd ever seen me do.
Overall I felt good about this competition. I skated well, and I had tough competition. I look forward to the Star of Texas adult open in January.

Houston

Well...I'm getting ready to leave for Houston. I skated exactly once this week. On a public session. On the small ice. After having a margarita. :) So yeah...I'm not as comfortable with my routines as I would like to be, but when I hit them they're good. My artistic is this afternoon. I feel okay about it because all I really need to do there is sell it. Which is my strong point. Then I have a practice ice this afternoon and one tomorrow morning, and I skate my freeskate tomorrow afternoon. So I think I'll be okay. I just really want to skate well. Alright. I have to go pack so I can get on the road.

No Practice

I haven't skated at all since my test on sunday. I have the Houston Invitational this weekend. I'm going to skate public tomorrow night and then freestyle on friday morning, but that's it. Looks like I'll just be winging it this weekend. I have skated both the programs before, so we'll see.
The start of school has been totally crazy. I've spent no less than 12 hours at school everyday since monday. I'm hoping that things will calm down some, but I'm not so optimistic. :-/

Failure

Well, I failed my preliminary moves test today. I didn't skate as well as I am capable, so that was really frustrating. That also meant I couldn't take my pre-bronze freeskate. So, that was $70 down the drain. Oh well. After Houston I'm just going to work on preliminary moves for the next month (until I'm allowed to retest), and then have one of the judges test me on a freestyle.
I'm also debating doing the Adult moves. I don't want to, but I'm afraid those 3-turn patterns on the pre-juv moves are going to kill me, and that means I won't be able to test bronze until then. *sigh* I don't know. I'll have to think about it.
School starts tomorrow. I'm partly excited, partly nervous. I hope it all goes well.

Artistic

I went skating at the little rink last night and worked solely on my artistic routine. I finally got it to where I want it to be. I added a boa to it, and I think it should be really great. My sister had thought it looked too much like a freeskate routine, so we worked some and then I had been working on my own to change and add things. I'm going to be doing that at an exhibition on saturday, so hopefully I'll have it a tad more polished by then.
I still need to work on my freeskate and my test. We still haven't gone over what we're doing for my pre-bronze test. I can't remember the last time I did my freeskate with music. :-/ I wanted to add some jump combos, but we never got that done. I did have a salchow-toe loop at the beginning that we took out because I was cheating my toe loop. Maybe we can put that back in. I don't think I'm cheating it as much anymore.
Okay...I'm off to school. Hopefully I'll be able to get in my classroom today!

I skated again today for like the second time this week. Whoopie. I did my artistic once with music. It sucked. I'm planning on adding a boa to the routine. I guess I need to get one and get that practiced since I only have 2 more weeks. :) I haven't done my freeskate program in over a week. :-/ I need to get on that too.
I have my Preliminary moves and pre-bronze freeskate tests next weekend (finally!). I ran through my moves this morning. They've been better, but they still should be passable. I need to get my skates sharpened and that should help. I haven't done anything to practice my pre-bronze freeskate. In fact...I don't even have a clue as to what's on it. I guess I should practice that once or twice this week. :)
I'm still trying to figure out these backwards three turns. The pre-juvenile moves should be a breeze for me to pass except for the three turns in the field pattern. The outside three turns I can do...right are great, left are existent. My inside ones, however, suck! I can do them on my right foot...sort of, but my left foot...in my dreams! I need my coach to work with me on those a boatload.
I think that's it. One week till my test, one week till school starts, two weeks till Houston Invitational.

harness practice

I've skated a bunch this week, but there hasn't been much new to report. Just working on all the basics. Yesterday, though, I finally got in the harness for the first time to work on my axel. It went significantly worse than I had expected it to. After about 15 tries, I finally got one that was one revolution. Woop-di-freaking-do. So yeah, for now I'm just going to keep working it off ice, and hopefully I can get on the harness once a week or so. And hopefully by January I can have some sort of resemblance of an axel. That's my goal.
Other than that I ran through my programs. My freeskate is starting to feel much more comfortable and smooth. I'd really like to beef it up a little before Houston. Just add some connecting footwork and maybe one more combination. We changed some of my artistic and decided that I need some sort of boa. I think I'm just going to take a scarf or something to the rink to see what I can do with that. I think it will really add to the routine. My compulsories are coming along. I hate what we have to do in them, but my sister did a great job on them. I have backwards three turns into a loop jump. I really like that. I looked at her like she had lost her freaking mind when she put those in, but now that I'm getting the hang of it, I think I love it.
I'm testing preliminary moves and pre bronze freeskate at the end of August. I'm not nervous about that at all. I'm over preliminary moves and ready to work on pre-juvenile so I can finally take the bronze test. I'm pretty scared of pre-juv, though. My backward inside threes are non-existant which is going to make those 3-turns in the field (which are on the silver moves), pretty darn difficult. There's also power pulls in pre-juv , which aren't that difficult, but getting them with speed is.
After Houston I have about 4 months until my next competition in January. My goals are to get new boots, test pre-juv moves, and bronze freeskate (I have to do bronze freeskate even if it means I need to take bronze moves). Learn my silver program for the next year. And finally, get some sort of axel. Lofty goals for 4 months I suppose.

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.

Back on the ice

Well...today I got back on the ice for the first time in two weeks. It went pretty well. I worked on my moves in the field, which, since I had to miss my test, I plan on getting judged on a freestyle session. I also worked on spins alot. Those are coming along nicely. I have talked to my sister and have decided to work with another coach on my moves in the field. So, all I have to do is talk to that coach and see if she has some time available to work with me. I'm pretty nervous about learning the pre-juvenile moves, and am starting to question if I made the correct decision in doing the standard moves. We'll see I guess. Worst case scenario I switch to the adult track so I can get my freestyle tests done.
Okay...I brought my niece home, so it's time to go entertain her.

no test, no bluebonnet

My father in law passed away last night so my husband and I made a last minute trip to Dallas. Needless to say I'm not going to be back in time for my test. I guess I will have to take it some other time.
Also, my bluebonnet paperwork is still missing, so I'm definately not skating. I guess that's a blessing, though because I'm probably not going to want to seriously practice much next week.