It Wasn't As Bad as I Thought (Southport)

I failed junior moves. I skated the test about as well as I can right now, but it wasn't good enough. The judges said that I didn't do anything wrong, but I just didn't look confident and aggressive enough. Coach K and I thought that I'd be a whole lot closer to passing. I passed the power circles, and was .1 under on the rest of the moves. My choctaws did suck, but the rest really wasn't bad. I fully plan on testing and passing in May. I have until then to learn to tear around the rink so fast that they don't dare fail me.

My freeskate went pretty well. Coach K took out the double loop the day before the competition, so that freaked me out, but I landed the replacement axel-loop just fine. I did fall on the double toe, but I hit the double sal-single toe right after the fall which was a big achievement. My lutz, flip, and final axel were all big and clean. Spins went ok. I had a bit of a bobble in the combo spin as I changed to back sit, but I still got the required revs. The layback was about as good as I can do it. The flying camel has been wacky all week, but I got a decent one to end the program. And, the footwork went smoothly - maybe a bit too smoothly as I got a bit too far down the rink and almost hit the wall. Really, the only thing that I was disappointed about was that I wobbled badly on my spiral. That's twice now that I've messed up the spiral for test/competition, but I never do that in practice. I think it's just harder for me to hold the spiral when I'm nervous and shaky.

I was so excited for interp, and I looked so freaking cute in my baseball jersey, baseball hat, blue skirt, and blue knee high socks. But, this was the last event of the day, and I had literally been at the rink for 12 hours straight (remember, no heated lobby!). I started out just fine, but I had this strange sensation that my legs weren't quite doing the right thing. I landed my first jump (loop), and did the wrong step. I did the cross front from my freeskate instead of the cross behind for the interp! I was just thinking, "Don't stop ! Just do something!" So, I did some kind of hop, but I still wasn't on the right foot for my double 3, so I just kept bobbing around until I figured it out. I was pretty surprised to see that it didn't look too bad on the video. I faked it pretty well. If that wasn't bad enough, I almost fell down when I tried to stop to "knock the mud off my feet" before my footwork. That made me mess up the first part of my footwork which became something like a power 3 instead of senior quicksteps. But again, it didn't look terrible, although you could tell that I almost fell down stopping. Then, I was trying so hard to catch up with the music that I forgot to land my flying camel and set before pulling the bat behind my back. So, I almost fell on that too. But, it was fun anyway. I can't wait to do it again for Sectionals when I might actually remember some of the choreography.