Woo hoo! I'm mostly a lurker on this board, but I'm so excited that I just had to post. This past Friday I took my Adult Gold MITF and FS for the first time, and passed them both!

I'm particularly excited because I had really wanted to pass up to gold before the Jan 15 deadline for Adult Nationals. I competed at AN in Silver I in 2002 and 2003 and after medaling in 2003 I told myself I wouldn't compete there again until I moved up to gold. Only problem was those moves - I had passed up to silver before the adult moves requirements were passed and
so had not done any moves before. I figured it would be a little much to jump right into doing the gold moves, so first I did Pre-pre, prelim, and pre-juv on the standard track, then started working on the gold moves. Local competitions allowed me to skate up a level to gold so I did several of those as well (great for testing because then after competing, I could "dumb down" my program for testing, making the test seem so much easier!).

I always get terribly nervous before a test or competition and this was no exception - in fact, in my warmup I had two hard falls (one on the novice threes, and one on a bracket - ouch!). But thankfully that seemed to get the falling out of my system and I made it through the actual test without any major errors. Not to say that I did the moves well - the power circles went ok, but the forward double threes were somewhat scrapy (why is it so hard to bend your knees when you're nervous??) and I think I had some edge wobbles. The back double threes were a little better but also not as good as in practice. The BI3-FI3 novice move went more-or-less ok counterclockwise (end pattern was kind of jerky, though)...but the clockwise direction was really an exercise in survival through the end patterns, for some reason. (I know a lot of people dislike the novice move, but I actually had more trouble with the brackets in practice, I think.) I remember thinking, "oh man, I'm going to have to reskate that one to pass!". The clockwise end patterns were very scratchy and bouncy and my weight was all over the place on the blade. Then came the brackets, which I think must have looked like I was skating through molasses, because a couple times I just baaaarely made it back to the line. I was totally thinking that I'd never pass without a reskate, and so I thought it was a pretty bad sign that they didn't call me back when the test was over. I couldn't believe it when the test chair brought the papers over and said I had passed!!! (Two of the three judges were obviously in a kind mood since they passed me; the third judge wrote a lot of well-deserved criticisms of the moves and failed me.)

The freeskate went a lot better although I didn't do the axel nearly as well as I could have (two-footed the first one in the program, landed the second one but it just didn't feel like a very good jump). Everything else was okay, though, and all three judges passed me. So now I'm officially a gold skater, and I'm signing up right away for sectionals and AN in 2005!

This is a very HUGE HAIRY deal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Congratulations on all your hard work and on persevering though the rough spots during the test! Mistakes often feel worse than they look--and you just never know. WELL DONE!!!!!

WOO HOO!!!! GOLD MOVES and FS too!!!

Time to update your homepage too... to add this BIG accomplishment, of course!!!

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Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

CONGRATULATIONS!

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Awesome, congrats!

Hey Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!

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FSWer

Magic! Congratulations!

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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!

We all learn from our mistakes!!!

CONGRATS ANYWAYS!!!!

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I worship Mr. Canadian Idol....(Kalan Porter)
I also passed my Dutch Waltz and Canasta Dance Tests!!!

Wow, that's so exciting! Now your plate is clean and all you have to work on between now and March/April is your competition program! I know how great that feels! What elements are you planning to put into your first Gold competition program?

Congratulations!!!!!! That is totally AWESOME!!!!!!!

Congrats! WTG!

Woo Hoo!

Welcome to Gold! We're a fairly nice bunch, I think

Will you be trying Sectionals, or just doing the open at AN? I just did the open my first year, because I didn't really know what to expect. Going back and forth about sectionals this year - it's a long way away for me.

Anyhoo - enjoy!

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"The only place where success comes before work is in a dictionary." -- Vidal Sasson

"Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway." -- Unknown

Thanks for the congrats, everybody!

Yes, I'll be trying Sectionals - I live in Colorado so they are really convenient for me this time, in Colorado Springs. I figure my chances of making one of the top 4 spots are slim-to-none, but I thought it would be a fun experience anyway! I'm assuming I'll do open gold at AN. And I think I'm going to get to do that ISU adult comp in Germany - I'll just squeak by on the age (I turn 30 in April), and as it turns out my husband and I are going to Austria anyway around that time, so I talked him into a side trip.

As for elements in my program, here's what I had when I competed locally in gold:

Jumps: 2 axels, 1 dbl sal, lutz-toe loop-loop, loop-stag falling leaf-toe loop, flip, sal, toe loop.

Spins: flying camel, sit-layback-backsit, camel.

I'm hoping to improve my dbl loop or dbl toe to the point where I could put one of those in the program as well (in place of one of the single jumps), but I'll just have to see on that!

D'oh!! I just took a closer look at the ISU adult competition announcement and realized I'd misread it - the age cutoff is July 1 2004, not 2005. Dang. So I don't qualify, even though I will be 30 by the date of the competition. Oh well, maybe they'll have another one next year!

If I decide to do sectionals this year (I'm going back and forth still), I'll be in your group!

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"The only place where success comes before work is in a dictionary." -- Vidal Sasson

"Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway." -- Unknown

Congratulations!!! What an accomplishment! I can totally relate to the CW novice threes being an "exercise in survival." Good luck at sectionals and nationals! I am also trying to decide about sectionals, although I will be competing silver.

Congratulations! To pass both in the SAME day!!

I tried to do that but failed. I was toast, mentally and physically after the moves test. I remember how bad my legs shook during the brackets, but my coach said she couldn't tell. So I'm sure it always feels worse than it looks. That's awsome you were able to land your axel after that...I could barely land my loop

This will be my first year at gold too, but I'm class II. I'm sure I will only be skating the open event at AN. But I will skate the qualifying event at Sectionals just for the experience. See you at AN!!