Ugh, this is the only problem about the weekend. I can never, ever skate! We always have something planned, which is good but I still want some time to skate in the day! This whole weekend I've been doing my off ice jumps though. Sorry this is a really short post, but not much to say today! :(
September 10 is drawing nearer by the second. This is the day of my first skating competition of the year, and I will have to be doing my doubles in it! I have to do my axel, axel toe-loop, double loop and double salchow! (Sorry it takes way to long to explain about what all those jumps are!) So I'm pretty nervous! And the bad thing about it is, about two weeks before the competition we will be going up to my great grandpa's cottage to celebrate his birthday, and then that next week we will be going down to Tennessee for a business trip that my dad has, AND THEN, we get back home at probably 10:00 from after having stayed there for a whole week, and the next morning at like 8:00 a.m, I have my competition! I know! Way too crazy! Oh, and did I forget to mention that I have to test my Juvenile moves on September 15? This will be a crazy couple weeks! Luckily my mom found an ice rink right in Tennessee near where were staying! :)
Lately, I have been having tons of awesome skating days! Today I landed my axel double toe loop (This is a combination jump.) And I also landed my double lutz!!! :) I also did my whole program with all of my doubles, I landed every single one nicely throughout the whole thing! (And of course with the two laps at the end!) Sorry that this is such a short post but I got to go eat lunch now!
Today was even better than yesterday! Today I did my 1 minute 39 second program with all my doubles in it, without falling or anything and, drum roll..............I landed my double flip! This isn't where you literally flip in the air twice (you probably knew that) but it's were you hit your toe-pick and spin around two times! I am so happy, once I get this consistent and well, also my double lutz consistent, which is really the same thing except you're taking off backwards and on an outside edge, I can go to qualifying regionals!! I am so excited and happy! Earlier before I had landed my double flip today, I spotted my sister trying to do her double flip and she was actually really close, and I'll be honest with you I did get a little jealous. So I started working on mine and walaa! I landed it! And so did Jessica! Now their's nothing to be jealous about! Yay!
Today was a great day!! I finally have landed all of my double jumps in my program! I usually get so tired by the time I have to do my first double jump that I either fall on the jump or I start to jump and then I just pull out of it before I even go all the way around. Today was completely different, I landed all of my jumps nicely without falling or pulling out of it! I think I wasn't as tired because first every night I do about a half hour to an hour of off ice jumps and then every time I finish my program on ice my coach (my mom) tells me to take two laps. At first I thought this was stupid, but now I know that this is definitely helping my cardiovascular system and making it easier for me to do my whole program without stopping! If I go to the Olympics one day and can't even skate to a program that is 1 minute and 39 seconds, I definitely won't be able to do a 3 minute program! I'm glad I'm taking her advice now! :)
Today wasn't the best skating day I've had. Today we went to another public skate. We usually don't skate at public skates, mostly just at freestyles. So when I do go onto public skate ice I get so annoyed! The ice looks bad, and just down right feels bad. When I first get onto the public skate ice I don't feel like I'm happily gliding over it, I feel like I'm a big monster that can't even stand up on the scratchy, beat up ice. I was working on my doubles today and I just kept falling! Now I know I can't blame my falls on the ice, most of it was just me, but I was so frustrated because only my last couple double jumps were pretty good. One and a half hours of working and only pretty good? I don't know today just wasn't the best day I've had. :( So we went home and I enjoyed playing Sorry with my little brother Ryan, and that made me feel a whole lot better :D
On the weekends I will most likely be posting very short posts or no posts at all unless something really great is going on! Today we went to the public skate and my dad came and watched. Every once in a while he decides to come and see us skate and gives us tips on how to do things better. My dad is not, not, NOT a figure skating coach, he is a total hockey guy, but for some reason he knows a lot of good stuff about figure skating. Today he said "Wow you have improved a lot since last time" but probably because last time he came it was around November or something! :)
Today was my last day of synchronized skating camp ;( so sad! I've had so much fun! Today we decided to choose which kids from the little Discovery team could move up to our team Clarity. In the end we decided that since we knew all of the kids wanted so badly to be on Clarity, we all agreed that we would call the little team Clarity as well, I didn't know if they would be OK with this but they ended up happy by this decision and so did our team, Clarity. Some of the kids just weren't physically or mentally ready to move up to our team. It would be way to hectic! Oh! I have to tell you guys something really exciting, this year our synchro team will be competing twice, and in many different exhibitions. Every year we skate for the intermission of some hockey game, it's so much fun! And also this year we will be competing in Michigan! January 14-15 if I'm correct! I'M SO EXCITED!! :) OK this is totally off topic but who says I have to write everything about skating all the time? Skating isn't the only thing I do in my entire life (OK well practically) but I also love to bake! I made these really good lemon, blueberry cupcakes! They are so good, and I made so many! Yay we'll have them for a while!! Unless we all scarf them down! Which we probably will anyway :)
Well, I have some exciting news! Like I said yesterday, one of my friends had her test today. She was taking her Pre-juvenile moves. OK so not to confuse you, here are all of the moves in order: Pre-preliminary, Preliminary, Pre-juvenile, Juvenile, (I'm on Juvenile moves) Intermediate, Novice, Junior and Senior! There, that should clear up some things for you! (I hope.) Anyway she took her Pre-juvenile moves and she PASSED! So now she is moving up to my moves, Juvenile! I am so glad she passed, she's been trying so hard! My mom, (my coach) was thinking I might be able to test today, but we decided I wasn't quite ready. So instead I went to see my friend test, and I gladly cheered her on! :)
So, today is my first real post about me ice skating! This morning at about 9:00 we arrived at our rink. We were actually about ten minutes late but whatever. Anyway always at 9:00 for this week, we have an hour of synchronized skating practice. In this practice session we do a whole variety of skating moves including the Ina Bauer, spread eagle, hydroplanes, choctaws, things like that. And even if you're not a figure skating expert it's OK that you don't know about every single move that I'm doing. Remember you can always comment or ask questions :) I'll be glad to answer em'! But back to this morning, part of the reason we're doing these synchro practice sessions is to see which people from the littler synchro team called Discovery, can move up to our team, Clarity. Many kids want to move up but they have to meet the certain requirements. Including the Ina Bauer spread eagle... you get the picture. Oh, and by the way they also have to pass their first skating test called pre-preliminary, (which is basically just stroking and three turns if you're wondering) but they have to do all of these things to be able to move up and be with the team Clarity. Alright enough about synchro, I hope I'm not boring you. OK some important things: this year (September 10) I will be competing at the Preliminary level. This includes at least two different types of... hold my breath... DOUBLE JUMPS, and two spins maximum, with a whole bunch of other requirements that I'm not going to go into. See the thing is I can land my double jumps fine it's mostly just my nerves. And , to be honest maybe I can't land then fine all the time. :) The music I'm going to skate to this year is the theme song from Kung Fu Panda called "Hero." Go ahead, search it up it's cool! Oh and one more thing before I go eat some lunch, one of my friends is testing tomorrow, she's taken this test a few times and I'm hoping and praying that she will do well! She's taken it already and hasn't passed ;( I hope she'll pass this time! Wish her good luck!
This is my first post on My Friend the Ice. In this blog I will try to post every day about myself ice skating. This blog will include my upcoming competitions, ice shows, tests, my synchro team called Clarity, and much more! I will also post some real pictures or videos of me ice skating on special occasions. ;)