Haven't Been Posting!

Sorry everyone!  I know I haven't been posting for a long time, I've just been so busy with skating and my school work that I haven't had a lot of time to post on this blog.  But I'm going to get back into the habit and tell you what's been going on!  OK, so a couple of weeks ago I had a competition and it was at a rink called Strongsville.  I was so excited because the previous weeks before that competition I took out my harder jumps like the double lutz and double flip, and now I just have an axel, a flip-loop combination, an axel-double toe loop combination, a double salchow and ending with a double toe loop.

This will be so much easier for me than before I thought to myself!  So when we got to the rink I was feeling really confident and ready to beat everyone!  I was competing against one of my friends that I skate with at our rink.  When it was time for us to warm up we all got on the ice and started stroking around.  The ice felt a little weird but when I did my first jump it felt REALLY BIG!  I was super excited and was thinking, "Oh my gosh!  I'm going to do a perfect program!"  I was feeling really good so I warmed up some spins and they were really good too!

When they finally called us, after five minutes, to get off the ice, it was my turn to go first.  I stepped onto the ice feeling really good.  I stroked over to my spot and then the music began.  I landed a great single axel and went right into my broken leg sit spin and then into a tuck sit spin position.  "Yes!"  I was thinking to myself.  "Great start to the program!"  I was feeling so happy and confident,  that right after I did my biellman I went into my axel double toe loop and I fell!  I was so tilted!  I think I was thinking so much about how good everything was going to be that I totally got caught up and then fell over!  I was shocked.  I got up right away and did my falling leafs (just another skating term) and then into an illusion that I kind of stumbled on (I've stumbled on this move for the past two competitions!  In practice, this is one of my best moves!)  After those two bad stumbles I wasn't feeling too good.

 I felt the 1/4 of Gatorade that I had just drank coming up my throat.  I hadn't eaten anything before that, so my stomach just had Gatorade in it and it was totally sloshing all around in my stomach.  I went right into my footwork and tried to seem upbeat and really into the music, but after watching the video when I got home, I realized I was just sloppily going through the motions.  After my footwork I had my good jump, the double salchow, I was feeling better because I knew this jump would be good.  I set up for my jump and then I fell again!  Oh my gosh how many times am I going to fall?!  I thought to myself.  I was so mad!

 For my last jump, which was the double toe loop, I was really determined to land it, so I set up for it and....  I landed it!  Yes!  What a relief!  I then went into my final spin and ended.  I got a pretty big applause, which surprised me since I didn't do that well.  I got off of the ice disappointed but I knew that there was always a next time.  My group was made up of six people including me and I was sure I was getting last.  After my friend went, (she went last)  she fell once on an axel, and then almost fell a couple other times.

After we finished we went to see the scores.  I was really surprised to see that I got 5th place and my friend got last place!  I'm guessing that I got that place because of my spins and my opening axel.  Apparently at the rink I was skating at, Strongsville, gave out medals all the way up to fifth place.  The color was a weird, gross brown, but what the heck, it's a medal!  And you also got a free stuffed animal!  I like this place!  I thought to myself.  So all in all I had a pretty good day other than those falls and a stumble.  Oh I almost forgot to tell you, I have another competition coming up this Friday.  This will be my first out of state, solo competition, and it's in Michigan!
I had one other competition in synchronized skating that was also in Michigan.  I'm really excited for this competition and hope I don't make the same silly mistakes!


Thanks
Alyssa :)