I Passed Novice Moves!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I passed, I passed, I passed! Wow, I love saying that. One of three judges gave me a retry, but her marks didn't agree with the other judges. She said that my counters were on too much of a diagonal and that I didn't have any knee bend. According to my coach, "if you had any more knee bend, your butt would have been on the ice." And, diagonal counters that maintain the correct edge are supposed to be acceptable. (The other judges both liked my counters.) But, that's why there are three judges - we're all human and even judges aren't perfect. Another one of the judges (the national level judge) pulled me over after the test and told me that the first two patterns (inside-inside 3's and quick rockers) made her think that I didn't have any power, but the rest of the test was beautiful. She said that I do have power as evidenced in my counters, and that I was selling myself short on the first two moves by not pushing enough on the perimeter xover stroking. I thought it was very nice of her to take the time to talk to me about it. She is right of course. I tend to pose more than push on the perimeter xover stroking.

I'll post the judges comments from my test sheets later. And, my mom recorded the test, so if I'm really lucky, I might be able to figure out how to get some clips on here. (That might take awhile though - maybe this weekend I'll have time to play with it.)