Absolutely thrilled!

I skated SO well today.  Probably my best to be honest.


I came off the ice absolutely ecstatic.  I am READY for my test.  If I skate like this, I am pretty sure I have a pass.

I started my warm up with possibly the WORST scratch spin ever- barely two revolutions, falling over on the inside edge, huge loops traveling down the ice.  Embarrassing for sure.  I told myself "this is not the skater you are!" and got to work on everything else.  I ended the warm up with a great scratch spin.

So the actual program- yeah, my scratch spin isn't fantastic, and since it used to be, I'm a little annoyed, but my loop looks like I'm going for a loop, and was landed on one foot.  I didn't cheat the toe loop in the combo, my sit spin was decent, my backspin was decent, my toe loop wasn't cheated at all, and actually looks like a jump.   It was GREAT.

I did have competition, and I got 2nd.  But here's the thing- she's been bronze for a year, and has gone to adult nationals.  I think I spin better than she does, but she jumps much better than I do.  But my program was a test program, and hers a competition program.  Once the test is out of the way (please please please let me pass, skate gods) we'll add combos to it, my sit spin will become a sit-upright, my backspin a change foot.  I have so much else I can get out of this program, and yet, already- one of the judges put me in first!  Knowing this competition was a warm up for the real thing, the test tomorrow, seeing that first place ordinal was like getting a gold medal.  I couldn't believe it.


Sorry the lighting is bad in places- we have huge windows that back light, and Kevin told me I kept skating into the wrong light...


I am going into tomorrow thinking that I skated great today, I've had good run throughs, I can totally do this.  But I am going to cry if I only get one amazing skate per weekend and I used it up today.

Photos

Rhythm 'N Blades
Here are some pictures from synchro this weekend. I keep meaning to post an actual entry...
Maybe later...

	Entering the ice for 60s.
	Deep breathe before 60s program. I didn't have nerves before the performance and this is where they really kicked in. I was trying not to hyperventilate.
	Yes, I'm one of THOSE skaters- I make faces.
	Thriller program, pinwheel
	Program DONE!
	4th/5th. Courtenay and I did a pretty darn good job on those dresses, didn't we. (Hint: don't look up close. But on ice- I love 'em)
	Thriller- 1st/1

April 23, 2009

2:01p

Long update
Hmmm... let's work backwards.

First off- the rink gossip, man is it good this week. But I won't be
sharing. Sorry. Club annual meeting is this Sunday, I'll find out if i'm
on the board or not. It's a 12/13 chance I am, but we'll see. Have a girl
scout training on Saturday so I won't skate then.

Wednesday Synchro-
Not much to this practice as the season is over. We tried some new
transitions and some footwork stuff. I'm glad synchro is over. My shoulder
needs the break. Still not sure if I'll be coming back to the team next
year. There are lots of "cons", but I do like the thrill of actually getting
to skate fast, and I love skating team programs. A lot is going to depend on
if I have a job.

Wednesday Freestyle-
The ice was divine! Really smoove, quiet uncrowded. Had a pretty good
practice. Since the ice was nice I started with power pulls, and I can tell
I'm really bending my knee on the right side. The way I could tell this- I
pulled it, and it HURT! Oops. The forward ones are better than the back
ones now, which is a switch. Still scraping the toepick and dancing my upper
body going backwards. Did 3-turn patterns and they are getting more solid.
I'm actually able to turn at the top of the lobe. Ran through my program
once with no music and decided I'm not even going to try to make the June
test session. I don't have the money to lose, and don't know if I'll be able
to go out on a weekday (please let me have a job!), and I can't even do all
the elements without music, I'm going to be lost with it. My biggest issue
is my salchow- as the entry is just incredibly fast, my footwork, which has
a "wrong way" mohawk in it..., and ice coverage, which really suffers once
the music is on and I have a time limit! Worked on jumps and I'm toe
waltzing again, but hey- I worked on jumps. That has to count for
something! Had a 10 minute lesson with Courtney and did loops (she gave me
the okay to test if I wanted to- this was the last element) and landed on my
toe MOST of the time. I still clomp down occasionally, but it's getting to
where this is a real jump, and toe loops- which aren't looking too hot.
Afterwards my knee wasn't bothering me too much and the ice was fantastic,
so I did sit spins. I need to tape these, but they were feeling really good.

Tuesday- learn to skate
Didn't get to teach, so I came just for the group lesson. We started with
3s on a line, and thank god I'm an adult. Man are those things impossible.
Inside is easier than outside (or the other way around?) Then we did
spirals on edges on the line, and my left side in general, and inside edge
especially are just horrible. I feel like a hippopotamus imitating an
airplane. Needless to say- this did not make me feel like a good skater.
Then we moved to spins and Andy had me do sit spins, which hurt my knee, but
I tried my best to really get down. He complimented 2 of them, which has
never happened, but told me I really need to sit.

Saturday- Synchro Nationals
Skated both programs really well. Was a bit nervous before Thriller, but not
too much once I was on the ice. Skated really well, but clapped early in the
barn door pass through. GRRR I never clap early, it's never occured to me to
clap anytime other than on the beat, but we had stressed it so much before
skating that I screwed up. Video evidence shows that other people were all
over the place, and it wasn't really a huge problem :) 60s program went
well. I have no recollection of the early part of the program. I remember
catching Sheri in the 3-spoke pinwheel (thank goodness!), but not of
spinning before that (pictures show that I did!), I remember leaving the
3-spoke in an odd place, but not getting to, or doing the line at all. I
remember being yanked on right before spiral/lunge pass through (really want
to see video of that! Sheri doesn't remember catching a rut or it happening
really, and Courtenay doesn't think it was her- and I know it wasn't me! I
want to know what happened.) but can't recall anything from then to when we
started our block. I think I skated well though! I know I made faces during
the entire block, and can remember thinking I'm glad the video camera is
behind us. There is one picture of me pulling a giant smile, but I think
sometimes my faces can rival Benji Schwimmer in the cheesyness (SYTYCD
reference for those who don't get it.) We got 4/5, which I think is the
best we could have done. The 1st place teams did loops off of a pinwheel,
the 2nd did Y-spirals. The 3rd place team wasn't as good this year as last
year (you could tell a few skaters were new to it all), but even with all
their bobbles it would have taken more than a few falls for us to catch up.
The 5th place team had music troubles which threw them off, but based on
their practice, I think the placements would have been the same no matter
what. I don't mind not winning, but it might as well be an exhibition. I
wish the placement had more to do on how we skated on that particular day,
then how we skate at all. Maybe 1-2 could switch, maybe 4-5, but probably
not. The placements would be the same no matter what happened, I think.

Friday- Synchro Nationals
We had practice ice and did only program run throughs, with a lap in
between. 6 full out run throughs in 30 minutes is tough. I am NOT an
athlete. The ice was nice, better than ours, but a bit bumpy. I'm good with
that because we practice on pretty awful ice so it's an improvement for us,
but sometimes perfect ice can be a bit scary. The bonus is that Tim hasn't
been doing triples leaving holes everywhere. That's the downside to our home
ice :) We left practice knowing we were ready to skate great.

ISI Competition! Monday, April 28th, 2008

Time	Event
8:59a	Competition report: Day 2 Sorry this is so long. Here's the funny part for those who won't read on. My supportive husband and his friends brought signs to hold up for me for synchro and interp. A "go Jessi" sign so that I couldn't disown them and a giant "D" and a cutout of a picket fence- like you see at football games. Goofy, but I was so glad they came. 2nd day of the competition had some ups and downs. Downs: Compulsory program. The compulsory elements were salchow, change foot spin, toe loop. It did NOT go well. My jumps were alright (they are never really good), but the change foot spin was not. I wasn't spinning very well in warm up, but I was doing the spin. Well, in the compulsory program I did an okay forward spin, then about half of a backspin, bobbled a bit, set my foot down, completed a revolution on 2 feet, then went back into my forward spin. It was horrible. Burton told me it was the worst one he's seen me do since I figured out how to do them (I imagine my very first attempts were actually worse). The only small concession is it did get called as a change foot spin, rather than a missed element. I did enough of it that it was just a really bad one. I got 2nd place, since I was competing against another girl. I probably would have gotten lower against the book. The small victory- as I came off the ice "Coach Jenny" from Capital Ice Academy in Des Moines told me "You have beautiful extension in your landing position." Well I'm doing something right I guess. Latin Program: It actually wasn't THAT bad, but it wasn't good. I didn't lean in enough on our traveling circle at the beginning (which wasn't traveling at all...) and got flipped around momentarily to be moving forward, I got back to backward quicker than I normally do in practice though. Then in our breakout traveling circles from the S pinwheel we broke out funky, and had to dodge the other circle. I thought we were clear and went to pump and Jen and I had our blades collide. It was a LOUD click and a huge jolt. Courtenay said she hung onto me because she thought I'd stay up, but I ended up falling and breaking our circle. It was a pretty good fall though, and I managed to kind of slide in a trajectory so that even though my circle kept moving I was mostly able to get back up in the right place (plus they didn't move too much). We got back together for the next pass through though, so it wasn't a horrible fall. Then at the end, this wasn't so much MY mistake, as the team apparently just got lost in our last pass through- I don't pass and am on the end of the line, so I didn't really know it was happening. We still got a first place though, the books at this competition were easy to beat. Ups: Thriller: Program went fantastic. I judged the event immediately afterwards and the judges told me that they really liked that program- it was a real fun synchro program and it looked great. Then they made snide comments about how I managed to stay on my feet. :) I actually really love the Thriller program, but I think most of the team doesn't like it so much. They are crazy. The circle footwork went pretty well too. For some reason with the smaller group we do the tap toe hops much better than the large group. I did however go the entire season without hitting a back lunge :( Apparently we not only beat the book here, we also got a perfect score. Mostly it was just a lot of fun. Kevin, Amanda, and Erin came and watched the program- and they brought signs. A "D" and a "fence" (like a cutout fence) like you'd bring to football games, because they are big dorks, and a Go Jessi sign, so that I couldn't claim to not know them. I just really appreciated the support, and at least a few of the synchro girls thought it was funny. Interpretive: When I said I wanted to do this on skatingforums, someone told me it was a horrible event. Essentially they said they just got nervous and only did crossovers and maybe a spin. I have horrible nerves, so I laughed it off and said- but that was my plan! I convinced Courtenay to do the event with me and we called it our official "arm off" - neither of us has too many tricks, but emoting on ice we can do! We went to the locker room and the monitor played us a super fast "are you kidding me" music. It turns out she played the wrong one!!! The actual music we were skating to was a Gloria Estafan song that I now can't remember the name of. (Courtenay was appalled I didn't know it. But I was only 4 when she remembers it from! I missed some of the 80s). Anyhow it was slow and the perfect song for emoting on ice. The warm up went well, I did my back 3 turns, I warmed up all my jumps just in case I found myself in the entrance to one of them while I was skating (I can never tell what I'm about to do! I had no plan). I did my spins, though the lean over one wasn't going too well. Made a promise to myself that I WAS NOT to attempt a camel or a backspin, which are the things I practice the most now. Warmed up my forward 3- outside 3-forward 3 extension thingy I've been wanting to do. Then went back to being sequestered while the first person skated. Then I was pulled out, gave Courtenay a big high 5 as she took the ice, and faced away while I listened to the music one last time. (I wish I could have seen her skate. I want to know what an inside slide chasse is, and she said she pulled off a jump!) Then it was my turn to take the ice. This was, without a doubt my FAVORITE event of the entire competition. I wish I had asked someone to tape me, because I have no recollection of what exactly I did. Lots of arms, that's for sure. I did a forward spiral to a backward spiral and Kevin told me they were both pretty high. I did a waltz jump toe tap, but then forgot to do the 2nd waltz jump. Kevin told me he could tell I was jumping. I did a good scratch spin (Kevin's comment when I asked if it was fast was diplomatic and nice: It was faster than I expected you to be able to spin.) I did a forward 3-backward 3 to an extension but didn't have the power to get the third one on there. I threw in a salchow when I realized I had only jumped once. I did another spin, but didn't center and traveled a ton- this was the one where I kept my leg out and tried to lean to the side. I only "learned" to do that Tuesday. Towards the very end, I kind of ran out of ideas, did a two foot spin and the music just ended (the song was repetitive and the cut odd, it was hard to tell when it stopped) and I managed to hit a pose maybe 1 or 2 counts late, so not too bad. But mostly I felt great, and Kevin said he didn't notice the 'deer in the headlights' moment I felt like I had towards the end when I ran out of things to do. It was an awesome awesome event. (And I placed first.) I'm so glad I did this- I wasn't nervous for it like my freeskate- and it actually turned out really well. It's my new favorite event. (Though the fast music might not have turned out quite so well- when we heard it I said "I can do it, but I'm gonna kill Burton." Thankfully it was for the high freestyle group, not the low one.) So I came home from the competition with all kinds of hardware: 4 first place medals and 2 second place medals. (Comment on this)
5:16p	This is my freeskate program from this weekend. The quality of the video isn't good, and I don't really know why. It's fine on the file I uploaded but looks bad on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N510cq8V94o I'm kicking myself for not asking someone to tape the interp.

Sunday, April 13th, 2008

Time

Event

8:50p

ISI Synchro Nationals Just got home from synchro nationals. It was a fantastic time! Although I get frustrated with my skating a lot, i'm so glad I joined the team. We got into St. Louis Friday night, and had a quick team meeting. We had to be at the rink at 7:00 for practice ice at 8:00. I barely slept at all, which made the day get off to a rough start. I was incredibly nervous on friday, and had to force myself to eat Saturday morning. But once we were on practice ice, the nerves went away- thankfully it was not a test session repeat- those nerves were horrible. The practice ice was wonderful. We have never skated so well. It was thrilling to be able to do the programs that well. Our compulsory program was first. It was pretty quick after practice ice, so we got new gloves to wear, put on some 80s pink eyeshadow and lipstick and some hair glitter. Then we took the ice. We skated SO well. It was a fantastic program. I was SO excited getting off the ice, it just felt wonderful to skate like that. On ice awards was kind of a silly thing, it was impossible to tell what the announcer was saying. Anyhow, we placed first! Out of one :) But beating the book felt fantastic, because we've never skated it that well. After on ice awards (10:00) we were released until 3:00. A few of us went to Jack in the Box, then we just hung out the rink and watched other teams skate. At that point it was mostly teen teams, which was fanastic. It was a bit reassuring to watch GOOD teams still have crooked lines, and then it was amazing to watch the incredible tricks they did. Back lunge cross throughs were very popular, as were traveling pinwheels (straightline and three spoke). The BEST thing I saw wasn't a whole team event, but 2 featured skaters- the team did footwork in a line while 2 skaters did outside spread eagles around the outside of the lines (from opposite sides) then met in the middle where they leaned on each other until they joined the team. WOW. At 3:00 we met to do off ice for the latin program. That's when we found out that my dress, which seemed too long, really is too long. The dresses bought this year are clearly dance length, while the others are freestyle. (Mine comes to mid calf, older dresses are mid-thigh, maybe to the knee on the shorter girls) We had to go outside and it was cold and kind of spitting rain. Reminded me a lot of high school drill team. Then we came in and got our skates on. The long program had 6 teams compete and we were up first. It didn't go well. There were no falls, but just little mistakes everywhere. I broke out of our straightline going completely the wrong direction. I've never done that before and have no idea why I did. I was so mad at myself. (I also turned the wrong way in the first block, but I always do that- so it wasn't as frustrating, though it's yet another thing I did that affected the team). Anyhow we watched the rest of the flight and there were 2 teams that were FAR out of our league (I would assume they mostly skated as kids) and then 2 teams who were about our level. Both skated much cleaner programs (and both teams had traveling circles that actually traveled), but one of the teams was clearly better, and another we weren't sure about- their program looked slightly easier than ours, and most of the team thought they looked slower (our coach said that was about how we skate- apparently it just FEELS fast). Anyhow on ice awards came and they called 5th place and it wasn't us. The gasp just made me laugh. We placed fourth. I wonder if we skated clean if we'd have been able to get 3rd, but we definetly just beat ourselves for that one. The medal doesn't really make a difference, but it was frustrating to know that we didn't do as well as we could have. (Then again, we started this program in January- and I started it 6 weeks ago b/c of my injury) But the competition was tons of fun and I can't wait to do it again.