I haven't done a FS program in three years...only been back on the ice a litle more than a year after a hiatus ...so for the next three Saturdays I'm competing in prebronze fs - leading up to adult midwesterns...and I'm getting weird.

There should be no pressure because I don't even have a chance at finishing second to last without even a salchow, and placing is not what compete for. I just enjoy being part of the party - I like to go, and get my goodie bag and get a pretty dress. January I competed compulsary and it was the first time I ever skipped the "I hate this, why am I doing this???" phase and enjoyed myself while competing and picked up a gold medal but that was a fluke cuz there were only two of us and I just happened to be better that time.

Freestyle is different. I'm probably gonna take out the 3 turn toe taps because I just couldn't do them today...everything else I feel pretty good. I was wimping out on my waltz jump after a back spiral and my coach yelled at me (in a friendly way) "Bless your heart but YOU ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH to do a waltz jump out of a back spiral. Put your foot down and SET IT UP FIRST" and what do you know, I actually jumped when I did that.

I think my goal is going to be to keep my head up and keep smiling, because no matter how bad you are if you look like you are having a good time, people don't feel as sorry for you

j

Just want to wish you have a great fun time. Like you said, keep head up and smiling. It always lights up everyone. Remember,

All the best!

Go out there with your head held high and have fun! I found this wonderful e-card on Amazon.com, which I sent to a couple of friends to wish them good luck on their tests. Says it all, I think! (I'd send it to you if I were sure your email addy was still the same - are you still with AOL?).

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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!

Good for you! Have fun and good luck.

hehehe...yup, same email still AOL, which is why I stopped reading the ng...but you don't have to send it me, I got a kick out of seeing it

I was really was being ridiculis this morning and acting just like my daughter does before a competition, she moans "I can't do anything" and that's exactly what I was saying and I told her her bad habits rubbed off of me and

she says "Yea, but I really can't do anything..."

ME: "No, I can't do anything.." and so we went on the whole ride home from the rink.

Maybe though, her seeing how ridiculis and pathetic I looked playing that game will make her less likely to do it.

j

Okay, this is the time where I would start practicing and concentrate on keywords to get you thru the program. Sorta like little mental Post-It notes where when you get to a certain point in the music that you tell yourself "bend knee" or straighten free leg. etc....

I think one time when I competed, my DH told me this is the time to bring out the DIVA in you. Perfect, I have my primary coach with me, I'll pretend to be him in his Kwan outfit!!! Skated a pretty good program!!!

I was actually MORE nervous than the competition b/c I knew there's a good possible chance that I might not pass my Bronze FS tests. Realizing that it was also my birthday, I said to myself "You know...I've done this program TONS of times and competed with it TONS of times. I'm just going to go out there and give it my all on the program and NOT think about what's going on it." The rest was focus on MY program keywords and where in the music I am and what I'm supposed to do. That also got me thru.

The other thing: If you DO mess up, keep going!!! The judges don't know your program!!! Don't yell "ACK!!!" out loud like I did at Sectionals. (I'm sure daisies heard it from the judges section. DH sure heard it from the stands and he was NOT at the bottom of the stands either.)

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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!!!

I just went through the same questioning on the weekend (I compete for the first time in 2 weeks) and it led me back to why do I skate. The bottom line is that I developed a new motto for the next few weeks:

LIGHTEN UP & HAVE FUN!

Might help you to....

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Dianne
(A.O.S.S.? Got it BAD! )

Oh, everybody does that just before a competition, it's not just you and your daughter. I call it the "darkest hour" syndrome, on the grounds that the darkest hour is just before dawn, and am expecting it to descend upon me in a fortnight, as we have the first competition of the season in three weeks!

The kids, who have their first competition next Monday, were totally in that sort of mood today, I noticed!

And I've seen elite skaters do it before a national (or even European) Championship, so we are in good company. I think it must be part of the warm-up, or something!

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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!

I have that too. I always have a practice session before a competition where I cannot do anything. I don't feel right unless I have a bad session....

I've even had my darkest hour right before a competition. At the BAC last year, up until my warm up I was a nightmare, saying I could do nothing and wanted to go home.

But it was ok in the end. It's always ok in the end.

Okay, well just about every road in Iowa is closed or snow covered, so it looks like my daughter won't be making it to her 3:50 competition in Cedar Rapids today - two hours away.

Still up in the air if we'll make it to her am Novice MOves test tomorrow or my 6 pm competition. If we don't make it to her morning test, I doubt I'm going to drive up there just for my competition and turn around a drive home.

So there's competition & test fees, plus hotel (prepaid hotwire) down the toilet.

J

Awwww. You're right, the cost isn't worth risking life and limb in that storm.
I've been thinking "good weather" thoughts but the weather reports for Iowa sound terrible. Sorry!

Have you spoken to anyone at the competition?
They might be planning to adjust the schedule because of cancellations.
At least, you could let them know that your DD's going to scratch today's event.

Be safe and warm!


(If you do decide to go, please pack some emergency clothes, blankets, water, food, etc., okay? Thanks.)

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I'm not really sure who to call, since the competition has already started and everyone is going to be working, I suppose. Considering the entire state has been declared a disaster area...can't imagine they have a lot of competitors...I'm not even sure how or if the judges made it.

We were at a competition in Omaha this Jan when the weather got bad. We were done by Sat but stayed over and they went ahead and held the basic skills comp on Sunday because they didn't have any way to get a hold of everyone...that is what is hard about changing the schedule"

Of course the adult comp was the last thing of the evening Sat when the weather got bad...and the lady I beat sez to me, "You don't want to stick around a take podium shots do you?" Mind you, this is the first time in my life I didn't finish last, much less won a gold medal and I"m "UH YEA I DO" She was so afraid of the weather and I was so mean, I made her get on the podium and get her picture taken with me

j

Coach called about 20 minutes ago and she's going and says there's some blowing but it's not too bad. So we are rushing around to go. We are going to have to back track and pick up my dds skates from her locker at the rink. ANd I had to shovel an 8 foot snow drift in front of my garage....

j

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oops sorry isk8NYC for not keeping this together. Anyway, we made it last night, 6 hour drive for what should be a 2 1/2 hour drive. Probably not a good idea, but the roads didn't really get bad until after about 3 hours and the choice was 3 hours bad roads home or 3 hours keep going...and the roads did get better as we went along. Yes I did pack emergency items, including a shovel and my snowboots.

And when we got here and I called our coach, she is very apologetic...because....see when we got the test schedule - only her skaters were testing today, they were being very nice, the test was yesterday but our skaters needed to test today because it was exactly 28 days from their last test...the schedules says 8:15. Not am or pm and of course both the coach and I assume it's am. Yes, I know, don't assume, but we did. And of course you know where this story is going. It's 8:15 tonight. And I'm thinking WHAT AM I DOING HERE?

And see, Mrs. Redboots is not the only skating clergy on this board and I need to be back home by tomorrow morning because I'm taking Sunday off in two weeks for adult midwesterns--I was even debating whether I would stick around for my competition at 6 tonight.

Coach is willing to let dd stay with her tonight and bring her home tomorrow if I need to go home. But if I stay to compete, it will be almost 8:15 before that's all done with anyway. And DD tested last time on a Sunday without me and it didn't go well and she was stressed out and I just think it will be nicer for her if I'm with her.

I'm probably going to stay because I'm thinking they will clear the roads better by tonight and hopefully it won't be another 6 hour drive home.

Geesh, what insantity skating brings

j

You can always stay till DD's test is over, drive home, stay up, do your clergy thing, then go home and sleep after! I used to do that when I worked a second shift job (when I was first supervising people)! I'd get up Friday afternoon, go to work from 4PM to 5AM, drive to the rink, drive home, shower, go to a college football game (in the fall), drive back to work, work from 4PM to 5AM, drive to breakfast, drive home, crash!!

Got home about midnight last night.

DD did not pass her Novice moves I posted that story in the parents forum.

I competed --there were only two of us and she was a bronze skater -- it was funny, she was very nice and before we skated, she was saying "Oh I'm not going to do well, I'm coming off an injury and I can't get down in my sitpin" and I'm, yea well wouldn't worry about that since I don't even have a sit spin

All in all, I'm pretty pleased with how skated, considering it's new program and I haven't done a freestyle in competition in more than 3 years. I was nervous, but not the debilitating nerves I used to get. My coach said the nerves showed by me getting stiff leggs and I wasn't down in my knees enough which made everything more difficult. The first waltz jump and my half flip were more walked through but my half lutz was good and I did jump for my last waltz jump. I felt good about my one foot spin, got few revolutions going, though my coach says she's seen me do better. I stumbled on of all things, these cross over, lean on your outside edge, pretty hand movement thingys (whatever you call them). I kept smiling and she said I had good flow.

It was so cute, the other lady had her parents there and they were taking her picture on the podium. Parents are parents! And they were very nice to me, telling me what a good job I did and how I didn't look nervous.

And I got a silver medal, which I never got before. Funny, of all three color medals I have, the gold is the only one I ever won for beating someone.

So next week I'm competing again, in a small mostly basic skills competition - the only adult event is adult bronze...but a friend I used to skate with asked me to do it so she didn't have to skate alone. She always wins pre-bronze events...but it will be another experience skating in front of the judges...and that's always a good thing...

j

Actually I mean the inside edge, it's a glorified premiter back crossover, everybody, does these, very simple, but look pretty.

j

Well done! Sorry about your daughter, but you seem to have had a good time, which is what matters.

Hope you were able to get up this morning!

We didn't skate as we were on a Church weekend away - if we'd thought about it, though, we could have taken our skates and skated at Slough or Oxford before breakfast this morning! Needless to say, we didn't think of it until we were nearly there.....

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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!

You mean I'm not supposed to DO that... You should see my face in some of the pictures

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If you keep your eyes on God, you can walk on water.

Without pain, there would be no pleasure. It's unfortunate, but true! Because you are going through the painful process of competition stress and seeing how it affects your skating, you are going to make valuable progress that you could not have made any other way, and you are going to be SO much better at the competition that really counts! I speak from experience!

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"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics

Thanks Doubletoe and congratulations!

I don't really feel any pain--I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out...when I used to compete a few years ago I would get so nervous I would be incapable of doing anything...I felt like I have really made progress in conquering them
J

Thanks for your posts - been lurking over them to see how others deal with all that internal pressure. Well done and good luck
Lyle