Passed Pre-Juv. Freeskate!

I passed my pre-juv. freeskate on Wednesday. It was an easy test for me as expected. Sorry to keep everyone in suspense until today, but I've been pissy because of work/school and haven't been in the mood to post.

I took a sick day, so I had the whole day off of work. I figure that it would have made me ill to wait another month to test, so the sick day was justified.

I went to the uncrowded 8:10-9:10am freestyle so that I could have a nice, long warm-up. I skate much better if I get to skate a good 1/2 hr or more before testing. I'm not sure if I should get out of this habit because I won't always be able to have that extra ice time (especially for competitions) and I need to practice getting warmed-up in just 6 minutes, or if I should take advantage of extra practice ice when I can.

The weather has been kinda weird here lately - suddenly very hot and humid with lots of storms. So, I walked into the rink to find myself in a cloud of fog. I could barely see across the rink. It was a good thing that I didn't wear the light purple dress that I'd been considering. The judges wouldn't have been able to see me!

I skated about 40 min. on the freestyle session. I warmed up with perimeter xover stroking forward and backward, forward and backward cross rolls, and some junior moves (rockers and choctaws). Then, I ran through each program element by itself. Everything was fine, so I did a run through of my program. Nothing went really wrong in the run through. I did the spins again and concentrated on getting a really steady entrance to the camels and centering the scratch-back scratch. Then, I decided to call it quits before I messed anything up.

My warm-up was at 10am, so I had time to eat a cereal bar, put on my dress (red/black velvet with long sleeves), and do my make-up. Then, my mom came to put my hair in a french braid with the end tucked under. (If left to my own devices, my hair would never go in anything but a ponytail.)

My six minute warm-up went well. I ran through each individual element. I only reskated the solo lutz since my o/s edge wasn't very strong on the first attempt. I had to wait for one person to take her pre-juv moves, and then it was my turn. I wasn't nervous at all. I took my time and skated the whole program well. The only two things that weren't done as well as I can were the lutz-loop (I actually leaned a bit forward on the lutz landing instead of back like usual and was so surprised that I almost forgot to do the loop, but my coach said she couldn't even tell.) and my flip (I'm very dizzy b/c it's pretty much right after a spin, so it wasn't as big as usual and my left shoulder opened a bit on the landing, but again coach said it looked solid.). My first camel spin was really nice, perfect snap into it. My scratch-back scratch was well centered (sometimes a problem for me). The spiral sequence was the most fun because I got to really hold it and I didn't have to worry about hitting anyone!

My coach said that I skated the program really well and that I looked totally relaxed. Even one of the toughest judges told me I did a really nice job in front of a crowd of other coaches and skaters. That is HIGH praise coming from her. It really made my day b/c she's the one who failed me on my novice moves test, and I wanted to show her that I really am a good skater on this test.

Passing average was 5.4 and I got 5.8, 5.5 (from the toughest judge), and 5.4. I was a bit surprised by the 5.4, but I'm chalking it up to some judges just giving passing marks and never over. They all complimented the program saying that it was musical, well skated, and had good connecting moves. The only negative comments were to watch my edge on my lutz (guilty!) and to try to skate with more kneebend and power. Actually, all of the negative comments were from the judge who gave me 5.4.

The more kneebend comments are beginning to piss me off. I've had them on almost every test, and in most cases I've felt that they were unwarranted. I mean, do they want my butt dragging on the ice? Even my coach seems a bit baffled by them. I know I'm not an extremely fast/powerful skater, but I do bend my knees. Oh, well. Once again, that's why there are 3 judges.

All in all, it was a nice relaxed and fun test. And, my mom, brother, and I went to get a celebratory Auntie Anne's pretzel from the food court afterward (skating rink is attached to the mall) :)