Merry Christmas!!

Well - I have a video from the Holiday competition that I really want to share. But I can't get it to play in our dvd players nor on my computer. So - I'm hoping I can get some technical help from my sister she's kind of good at that stuff. Hopefully I'll be able to share but even if she can help it will probably be after the holidays before I can post the video. At any rate, I wanted to wish anyone checking out the blog a Merry, Merry Christmas. Happy Hanukkah or whatever else you celebrate this season. And check back soon and you can see my baby fall down a LOT in her program. Its really, really cute. I don't think in over 4 years of competing she's ever fell that more than once in a competition. Trust me - its absolutely adorable. And it'll make you smile I promise. Such is life though - a series of falling down - and getting back up and moving forward. I noticed a poster at our rink some time ago that said "There's nothing like ice to teach children about standing on their own two feet." I was reminded of that poster as I watched her skate.
Happy Holidays to everyone.

High School Musical on Ice - the Aftermath

I have to say that I was really impressed by the West Coast Cast of High School Musical the Ice Tour. What a great group of people. They skated with our kids (and moi) for about an hour. We took loads of photos. I took pictures with two of my daughter's friends' moms' cameras. And zero pictures with the camera I brought. It was hard enough juggling two cameras without adding a third. My daughter's best friend had to work their camera for me. I'm sure I looked real intelligent needing a 9 year old to operate a camera for me. And constantly having to say - "hey honey, can you fix this for me?" Not quite as bad as when I mowed down a 3 year old girl about yea big. I saw her dart out in front of me. And well I have crappy reaction time. When I see something about to happen I tend to think 'oh that's gonna hurt' and before I get to 'that' - its already hurting. To add insult to injury I apologized by saying "sorry, baby." If you want to really piss off a 3 year old try calling them a baby.

Did I tell you how great the cast was? Everyone was so friendly and they posed for lots of pictures. They showed off their skills for the kids. Even better they let our kids show off for them (and cheered for them too). After skating with the kids. They sat at a table and a line formed for autographs... some of the kids went thru twice. A lot of kids were getting their skates signed and some of them who were near the front wanted to go back thru again to get theirs signed as well..:) They have some really cool looking signatures. We grabbed some pizza at our rink before heading to the show.
The show was great. They combined two almost 2 hour long episodes into two 45 minute acts. Kelsy played the Playmaker/Narrator. She did a great job. I only saw one fall the entire show. The guy who played Chad dropped the ball twice during "Getcha Head in the Game" - but hey nobody is perfect. There was tons going on on the ice. I think it was a show I could've watched several times and got something different out of it each time.

Crazy Skating Dreams

I want YOU to share your crazy skating dreams. The other night I had the weirdest dream that caused me all kinds of stress. Now I don't know about you, but I stay stressed enough in real life without having to be stressed in my dreams. So we are at this really big competition. I don't know if it was a big Open or supposed to be Regionals. But we were in this huge arena. It didn't look like any rink my daughter has ever done a competition at. It was more like a professional Hockey Arena. I'm stuck way up in the nosebleeds about as far away as possible as I can get from my child. Some of the competitions she has done have No Parent Zones. I'm SO not a fan of those. My daughter is down on the ice and the music begins to play. And she begins to skate. But the music isn't right. It is her music from 2 years ago. The length is just about a minute long from the level that she was in then. The music sounds different than her current music so not conducive to the moves (jumps, spins, spirals, etc) that she needs to be able to do. Think Cinderella, IMO a great cut of music, it ended with the actual ending with the music to "I'd rather rescue myself" (sans vocals which was good for current level but was allowed 2 years ago though it was cut without vocals per then coach's request). Because this is music she recognizes as 'hers' she begins skating. And skates program to music that's not long enough, not working with her current program. I'm hyperventilating up in the nosebleeds. And then running down the bleachers. I didn't think the judges would let her reskate as she didn't know it wasn't right. And because I wasn't even sure we had the right music at all.

Now what causes crazy dreams like that. The season has ended. We've been taking the off-season pretty relaxed this year with no shows or anything. There is a small competition that our rink is having at Christmas. The program is pretty much her old program from the Fall so no new cut of music or moves to learn. A few minor changes but nothing to stress over.

Sweeper Day Arrived

It has been a LONG day. And at almost 8pm I haven't even had a nap yet. Today started at a quarter til 5am when my alarm went off. We headed to the rink with just enough time to stretch and warm-up before her lesson at 6:15am. She worked on a few changes to her 1:08 Tots program for a Christmas Competition she is doing next month. Its been at least two months since she worked on the program... She did really well remembering it I think. She had nice low sitspins. Not much changes toe loops to loops and power threes to footwork (so its a matter of getting the changes straight) but there's time. Continuing on.. we stayed at the rink thru synchro practice so we could all follow each other over. **I got lost last time. We got to Wake Forest around 10am. Got the girls in their skates, vests and gloves. We stayed in the locker rooms mostly until Junior Ladies (our sweeping assignment) skated. But I did see some of the dances prior. It was freezing cold in the rink. My toes were cold. I'm used to skating myself and being rinkside with my daughter and I'm normally okay with rink-cold. Outside I like it to be warm. Yeah I know I'm whiny. But its my blog and I get to be whiny. From 10am to 1:30pm seemed like an eternity. Did I mention my toes were cold? After we were done with sweeping we got lunch. And then came back to see the Senior Mens skate. I told an online friend I'd check out Derrick Delmore and say a hello to his coach (their choregrapher). So I watched a few of the men leading up to his skate. It seems like everybody I watched skate messed up something. A stumble, fall, a hand down, popped jumps... something. I'm not so good with judging what's wrong with jumps I know I saw a lot supposed to be triples that were maybe over rotated singles or under rotated doubles or something but not triples. I hope they do better at Nationals... whoever gets to go. As far as scoring - I didn't even look at the results sheets. So I got nothing to share. I imagine they will be posted at usfsa.org tomorrow or soon. I want to share pics of my little one in her uniform/dress whatever I'm supposed to call it. At least we got a cool souvenir.

Good Luck at Eastern Sectionals!

I imagined writing some long post wishing all the skaters that I know Good luck at Sectionals. When I'd been skating for about a year I skated in my first Nutcracker on Ice. In the dance in Act I, I was paired with a young girl named Mariah. I apologized to her that she had to dance with me. She said "That's okay I haven't been skating that long I'm not very good either." Anyway on Wednesday Mariah will be skating in Novice Dance at Eastern Sectionals. I wish her lots and lots of luck. To Jane Bugaeva Senior Ladies - I hope she has an awesome Sectionals. And knocks them off their feet at Nationals. Well that's all I've got. Lots of luck to all the skaters.

HSMoI

I started to just post this here to see how many people emailed me asking me for pictures and autographs and stuff. Oh well - I was too excited to wait to blog.

***drum roll*****

our rink which is of course the best rink ever is having a preview of the numbers from the cast of High School Musical on Ice. And we can get photos and autographs of the cast. Did I mention the showing at our rink is free??? I hope they don't make that known to the general public. We want to actually get close to the stars of the show? Right. Well since I already emailed everybody and told them.. and stopped people on the street.. and told just about everybody I could tell in one day THAT I'M seeing HSMoI up close and in person. I know that only sub-thirteen year old girls and those of us who are parents of sub-thirteen year old girls actually care about seeing the hottest show on ice.

You know you are jealous.. admit it.

I'll post pictures.. next month.. after it happens here.

Getting into new blades

Its been a while since I posted and thought I'd give a skating update as we are gearing up for Sweeper Rehearsals this weekend. So two weeks ago I had my daughter's skates sharpened at the rink where she takes classes. And they cut off the bottom of her toepick which makes the blades just about useless. Can't control edges, can't glide straight either, problem with edge jumps (salchow, loop), etc. The rink is paying for replacing her blades which is really nice of them especially since these are a little nicer than stock blades. I didn't complain because I wanted them to pay for the blades. Despite complaining on my blog I really hate the idea of people seeing me as 'difficult' I just wanted the rink to know that person had messed up because I know he does sharpen other figure skater's blades. So again EVERYONE has been great. The blades were mounted overnight and all done. So she's back skating tomorrow without missing a beat.. well other than having had two lessons on messed up blades.

Lips Together

Okay - so I love that. My daughter's off-ice coach said that to the girls on Saturday to get them to stop yapping. That's great. I like it better than hush. Anyway - I decided to take down my laziness post after the email I got on the subject. But I thought I'd give update on how the laziness was going. My daughter had a really great Saturday. I know her Saturdays are long but having good Saturdays is so important (and making the most out of a whole day of skating) since she can only skate for so long in the mornings before school. She had a very good on-ice session. No messing around when the skating director wasn't looking. Then she had a very good off-ice lesson. She still finished last on the running part but she didn't get lapped. And she never fell so far behind that anything got skipped so that she could catch up. She learned (or started to learn) a donut off the ice. It was great because they did spiral (count 1,2,3,4) then grab the foot with opposite hand to make a donut (and she kept trying to do a chinese spiral). Then when we back on the ice she saw one of the other skaters doing a donut on the ice and was like what's she doing. I said what you were just supposed to be doing off-ice a donut. And she was like that's what that is and tried to do one. About broke her neck doing it - but at least she was trying to do something new. And her off-ice coach said she landed her axel off-ice on Saturday for the first time. Yay! Not sure how her loop and flip were off-ice but it sounds like she did good. I didn't go into the area where they were jumping but I did do spirals and donuts and such outside with the kids. Another mom was doing it too so... Anyway it seems like she really enjoyed off-ice yesterday and got something out of it. So maybe we'll stick with it and I'll teach my kid something about not quitting.

Sweeper Co-Captains

So sectionals are coming to our state. And our club has been invited to create a sweeper team of little girls 7-11 years old. No one had volunteered and the deadline is Friday. So kind of sort of without thinking it through - I volunteered. Luckily my daughter's best friend's mom volunteered as well. So at least we are in this together. We've got all of four days to convince 3-4 other parents to sign their kids up for our team as well. This should be a great experience for our daughters. I don't think Sectionals get televised so its not like being a sweeper at Nationals or the Olympics or something. Can you tell I'm slightly excited? I almost like this sport. I'll post pictures of the girls (or at least my girl) in the dresses/uniform.

A Few Videos

So I was looking through old video of my daughter skating. Like I said her first jump was a toe loop and I think this video was shot around the time she was learning to do a waltz jump. Still pretty good jumping for 5 years old. I was impatient even then:)

Okay so next this is a video of her practicing - I skated in Nutcracker on Ice as well so I couldn't actually video her skating it during the show or legitimate rehearsals. I did film her skating on public ice. Note the incredible disappearing toeloop at the end. She still has loads of trouble with combination jumps and what goes where to get into the second jump. The half-lutz/toe loop (which was a half lutz/bunny hop something the other here it turned out right in the actual show) was her first combination jump ever and her first attempts at it were for this show. And of course me still being impatient with her. Note marked improvement at 6;)


also at 6:



I'll try to find some videos from age 3 or 4... maybe for a future post.

Skating Movies

It occurs to me that I said I was going to use this blog to talk about skating movies as well and so far I've only used it as an outlet to complain about skating.

Best Recent (21st century) skating movie:
Go Figure. If you haven't seen this movie and you are into skating it is definitely a must-see. It is about a little girl who has devoted her whole life to skating. She has an opportunity to skate with a famous Russian coach because for some reason Russians are just better skaters that Americans right? There's only one problem they can't give her a scholarship to this boarding school unless she plays hockey. She gets a crash course in learning how to play hockey and in the process learns how important friends and family are.

2nd Best Recent Figure Skating movie:
Cutting Edge 2: Going for Gold
Okay so who doesn't love Kim Possible - and seeing Christie Carlson Romano in a skating role is always great. But her co-star Ross Thomas really set the ice on fire. Were his 'stunts' real? Can anybody skate like that.. flips and stuff on ice. Saweeeet! Only drawback - they could've brought in Moira Kelly and DB Sweeney to play Christie's parents. Maybe the directors thought they were too young for those roles? Moira Kelly plays mom to Chad Michael Murray on OTH and he can't be that much younger than her?

I'll save some other lesser skating movies like "Ice Princess" for later.

Here Come the Tears Again

This time last fall my little girl was learning her back scratch spin. It took six months for her to learn it. Six months is a long time to keep trying over and over to do something that you just can't do no matter what. She cried a lot during those six months. Her tears made me feel bad. I felt like everybody was looking at me - judging me - blaming me because she kept trying. She kept skating. And she kept on crying for six whole months. I told her to stop. I told her to quit. Through her tears she told me that she loved to skate. And she told me in no uncertain terms that she refused to quit. Sometimes people just need to cry. This has been a hard year for me, in my life and I've done some serious crying. Sometimes people just need to cry. That back scratch spin came all of sudden some time around New Year's. One day she was crying the next she was getting 6-8 revolutions no problem. The tears stopped then. A few months after that she started working on her loop. Uh falling on her loop. And falling a lot. Then she started landing it. About 10% of the time at first. And then almost all the time she was landing. She cried a lot about it. It was hard. Then she lost her loop. And in the midst of the competition season we focused on what she needed for her programs jumps (combos with salchow, toe loop, half flip, half lutz and waltz jump), forward scratch/back scratch and sit spin. And footwork. And the loop was lost for a while. Now that loop is happening again. Maybe 15% of the time. Every time I think she can't do it she does. She surprises me. But she's crying again. Not so much as with the back scratch. But its been six whole months since she started learning that loop and its not mastered. I think we'll be done with those tears soon. Her single Flip is great. I think the single Lutz will be another story. I know how much she struggled learning the difference between half-lutzes and half-flips and I imagine I'm going to be seeing some flutzes in my near future. And a whole, whole lot of tears. Probably more than I've ever seen come from my little girl. God give me the strength to handle those tears. To be supportive. To resist the urge to tell her to quit. And for God to remind me that if I tell her to give up then I tell her I don't have faith in her. Maybe God will have mercy on her and have that Lutz come easy as salchow and toe loop did? A lot in this sport has came easy for her. The things that don't - the things that come through tears, falls, and bruises - I suppose those are the things that she really learns something from.

Five Months with No Competitions or Shows

We are skipping the Halloween show this year (well if there is one) and our seating area is being torn out (replaced by balcony seats which will be really, really awesome) so there will be no Christmas show this year. And the competition season won't start back in full force until February so that means 5 whole months with no programs to memorize. The settling down from the last competition has already caused my child to skate better. She's learning footwork. Really getting it - not stumbling through it. Its clicking and looking good when she does it. Landing her loop again - uh - knock on wood. How much can a kid learn in 5 months??? Yeah - well just this summer I learned how much a kid can forget how to do in just a few months. My daughter's been figure skating four and a half years. She's learned a lot. So have I. I've been skating myself for 3 whole years now. And what I can do and what I know how to do are light-years from each other. I know the difference between a loop and a salchow (and the difference between a flip and lutz for that matter). Yep I do. I can watch my kid do a salchow and say that was a salchow not a loop you are on the wrong foot. She can't feel she is on the wrong foot. It feels right. I put markers on her toes so she can tell a salchow from a loop. So she knows which foot to jump off of for her toe loop even. Toe loop - been doing toe loops for 2 and a half years. It was the first jump she learned. Yep before she could do a waltz jump my baby could do a single toe loop. It was what she did naturally when she went to jump off the ice. And two years later I still have to tell her occasionally she needs to launch off her right foot and pick off her left toe. I learned this when we thought she broke her left big toe at Tae Kwon Do and it turned black and blue and swelled up real big. The toe loop was the only move in her program that required 'pressure' on her left toe. It wasn't broke and the swelling went down before the show. I'm sure her doctor thought we were all evil for not making her miss her solo. It was important to her. And had the swelling not gone down or gotten worse we probably would've had her skip the show. Doctor's don't grasp how much work kids put into these things. Maybe most people don't get the work that goes into it. I know a lot - can't do most of what I know. My daughter can do a lot but has a hard time grasping what it is exactly that she is doing when she does it. She's accidentally landing her loop again. It may be a while before she's landing on purpose. Five months to get all her singles straight in her head so she is landing purposefully and with confidence? Yep - I think that will happen. And I think she'll have a really great back sitspin (better than her current back scratch). And maybe she'll have a flying camel by then. She thinks it flies now but it doesn't. Five months for me muster up enough love for this sport to give her another season of shining boots and stoning dresses and spraying glitter in her hair. Yeah it definitely could happen.

Off-Season Phase

It doesn't seem like this sport gets an off-season. I'm told that in summer kids typically train harder because they are out of school so it is important to keep up with what the other skaters are doing. And since Fall has arrived and we have to decided to not go to regionals - it is officially the off-season. The competition Saturday happened. Thank God my daughter didn't get last. Every competition, I seem to become more and more aware of how arbitrary this whole sport is. A child can skate a perfect program no falls, beautiful moves, jumps, spins, etc. and come in last place. And a child can stumble, fall, and mess up in pretty much every possible way and get first place. My child has been both ends of this (coming in 1st for no logical reason and coming in last for no logical reason). It seems like a lot to put yourself or your child through when the whole judging system doesn't seem to make any sense. I don't have the love for this sport. And over the years it becomes more and more taxing to support my daughter in this. Maybe I'll get a little break for a few months with just lessons and practices. No stress. I'm hoping that next season will be better. My daughter is fairly average at her level and with the split I think moving the more competitive skaters to the Well-balanced Freeskate track (the ones who are training for hours everyday) and the skaters who are only skating a few days a week to the Competitive Test Track will allow her to skate and compete in a less stressful atmosphere. I have high hopes for the new season.

I Hate This Stupid Sport

Figure Skating -- I want to start this blog by saying how much I hate this stupid sport. And sometimes I just need to vent. There are aspects of it that I love. For four and half years I've tried to love this sport because my daughter loves it. But honestly I am sick, bored and tired of it. The glitter, the sequins, the scrunchies.. everything that makes this sport "pretty" I hate - I really, really do. Tomorrow is the last competition we are doing this season. I say "we" because I have boots to clean, tights to stone, a dress to touch up and make up bags to check. I'm ready for this season to be over. Its been a rough last few months.
I envision this blog as a place to talk about my favorite skater. And other skaters that we like and admire. To talk about issues with rinks and clubs. Whatever skating relating.
But tonight I just need the strength to make it through this weekend.