she competed this weekend and demonstrated EXCELLENT sportsmanship! She placed lower then she has ever placed before and was so mature about the whole thing. She placed 4th(freeskate) and 5th(showcase). Usually, when you place 5th, you earn a ribbon. She went up to collect her ribbon and was given a trophy! That came as a surprise to both of us! She is so proud of her trophy.

Before we went to collect, what we thought would be a ribbon, I asked her how she was doing. She said she was fine. She said she was a little disappointed, but she felt she skated as well as she could have. I'm so proud of her! She also moved up 2 levels and is skating at the exact level she should be skating at. She does not skate down and infact technically skated "up" since she had only passed through freeskate 2 when we signed her up. She's passed Freeskate 3 2 weeks ago and will continue to skate at this level until she passes freeskate 4. I was going to have her take a competition break but she wants to compete again in November. After that, she won't compete until February(my mom will be visiting then, so we're going to compete then too). I'd honestly like to take a competition break.

Anyway... all in all it was a good weekend.

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skating mom to 3 angels on earth and 1 in heaven

Congratulation to your daughter! Learning to handle disappointment with grace is an important skill for all kids to learn. It sounds like she has learned well. Best of luck to her in November.

Good for her! She is learning that you can't control what the other skaters do, nor what the judges think, so you might as well go out and skate your best.

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

Thank you! I am very proud of her response to her placements. We've talked a lot about what is an OK response and what isn't and what we should do if we are looking at the results and she feels like she is getting upset. We talked a lot about walking away if she wants to cry. I told her it was OK to feel sad or disappointed but that she was NOT to exibit bad behavior in the area where the results are posted. I also told her if she wins, she is not to be boastful about it and to just calmly look at the results and move on and THEN get excited. We've told her she is to always compliment other skaters when she sees them. She's now been on both ends of the spectrum so I think this weekend was a good experience for her. She came home happy and content knowing all was well. We told her how proud we were of her and that we were very, VERY proud of her sportsmanship! I really don't know what the difference was...she placed 1st with nearly the same showcase 2 months ago. The freeskate, we kinda figured she would not place overly high(4th out of 6) since it was her 1st time in this level. It really is hard to say how things will go. I do have her freeskate on youtube if anyone is interested in seeing it.

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skating mom to 3 angels on earth and 1 in heaven

It's so refreshing to come across a skating parent who understands and teaches the value of good sportsmanship! Congrats to you both!

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Congrats to your daughter and to you! Sounds like she is learning the lessons in sportsmanship that you have taught her.

Thank you. We're certainly trying to do our best to teach her how to be a gracious "loser" and winner. We've seen negative behavior from kids who place low and kids who always seem to win 1st place. It's not acceptable for her to act out. I really was quite pleased with her behavior. She is definately learning a valuable life lesson!

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skating mom to 3 angels on earth and 1 in heaven

I always feel the same about my dd. She is always willing to skate at her level, no sandbagging and pushes herself. It is a great attitude IMO.

That's great! There is another little girl in dd's club who also has this attitude and I think it says a lot about the kids and what type of people they will grow up to be. They are not going to grow up expecting the world to give them everything. They will learn what it is like to actually EARN something. KWIM? I think that is a very valuable life lesson that a lot of kids don't learn until much later in life.

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skating mom to 3 angels on earth and 1 in heaven

I agree and I'd love to see your dds freeskate. My dd was willing to skate Pre Pre less than a month after learning her axel, I know kids that spend 2 years there. She is already looking forward to at least preliminary next year as she is starting to land some doubles.

Good for your daughter! That is fantastic! We're hoping to be non-test pre-pre by the end of the season. So far she has up to a half lutz. We'll see. She has landed axels off ice tho. Anyway... here is the link to her video. We know there needs to be improvement(fluidity, backspin, some jumps need to be higher, ect) but it's getting there! In her showcase, she had a very pretty scratch spin at the end. The scratch in this program isn't as pretty as that one! Go figure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItBcimWRtnQ

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skating mom to 3 angels on earth and 1 in heaven

I think that is a lofty goal! It took my dd (8 yo) about a year and a half after finishing up FS 6 in learn to skate to be competitive at pre pre FS. My 10 year old dd isn't as smooth as your dd in the video and she was doing beginner test track this year. Her dress is cute too!! How old is your dd?

Hi. My daughter is 11. I think she'll be ok in non-test by the end of this season... actually more like the begining of next season. That's what I meant by the "end of the season". Once she hits that level, she won't move to non-test/pre-pre until the begining of next yr. We'll see. It all depends. Her best bud was in basic skills this time last yr and is now pre-pre. My daughter is about a year behind where she is(give or take since everyone develops differently!) and her coach seems to think we can make it. It really will depend on where dd is on her jumps and spins and over all flow by then. If she isn't there then, that is ok too. Honestly tho, I tihnk she can do it! Anyway... thanks for loooking at her video.

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skating mom to 3 angels on earth and 1 in heaven

It is true that the kids can be different. My 10 year old is intimidated by the jumps and spins but my younger dd is not- so even though the 10 yo is really good on MIF, she isn't so quick in moving on the jumps.

I think my younger one did Beginner (no-test) at the end of the season last year, and in the spring of last year she was doing FS 5- she was younger too, so certain things eluded her young mind. I find my older dd 'gets' some things quicker (in her mind).

My daughter isn't intimidated by jumps and spins and just today was working on them. Sometimes she gets a little intimidated by the speed of some of her spins, but does them. The camel spin is a tad intimidating for her. She had a great start to one today and rotated a few times only to stop! LOL

I talked to dd today and she's decided we are taking a break from competition. November is her club's comp, but we've decided instead of competing, dd will test Pre-Pre MIF. Then, she will help at the competition and watch her friends compete. THEN her coach can focus more on other elements then on her program elements. By the time she competes in Feb, she will be well rested and hopefully a much stronger skater. Working on mif will only improve her overall skating, so I think this is a GREAT thing and testing pre-pre MIF will be a lot less stressful then trying to get her programs perfected. This will give us 5 months off from competitions. Now her coach will have time to work on her skills... I'm quite excited about this.

Anyway... thanks for the replies! I love being able to talk about all the different aspects of this sport!

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skating mom to 3 angels on earth and 1 in heaven