It was like watching a different kid skate. In the past week, suddenly the light bulb went off or something and my 8 yo dd is bringing her "A" elements and skating to the program. I almost fell off of my seat this morning watching her practice it. It has been like that for the past week or so.

I hope she brings it to the competition tomorrow!

Good luck to her in her program!! Just remember she can just do the best she can do!

__________________
http://www.youtube.com/user/alaskanmom

That is all I want, to her to do HER best.

That's great and good luck to her!

__________________
Supporting my daughter's dream

Hi momof3chicks

It is not unusual to see your daughter perform badly just a week before her competition.

Hopefully on the day of the competition (tomorrow), she will skate her best.

londonicechamp

Good luck to your dd tomorrow! Hope this breakthrough sticks with her.


Did you actually read the OPs post? Her dd is not skating badly, she's suddenly skating great!

__________________
--renatele

Hi renatele

Oops, I misunderstood what momof3chicks wrote.

Yes, hopefully her dd will be able to maintain her good performance today.

londonicechamp

She skated well, though NOT as good as practice the last couple days- I think sometimes nerves take her back to some old habits that she is trying to break (like looking down at the ice!).

She ended up in 8th place, which was a bit surprising, she seemed to skate better than that, but who knows? She had to skate last in a field of 12- I always wonder how on earth they continue to judge one after the other with such big numbers.

She did however, place 4th in the spin challenge- which she had to do in the preliminary level (she is still no test) as it was the lowest one offered, so that was nice.

Nerves can get the best of us all. As long as she tried her best and had fun doing it. Was she able to meet or exceed any personal goals? I always like to point those out to my dd after her competitions.

Congrats on the spin challenge! Which spins were required of her?

__________________
Supporting my daughter's dream

I think it comes back to two things. She is only 8 and therefore will have habits of most 8 year old.DD looked down on the ice to at that age.She outgrew it.
Second, some kids are not meant to compete.They just cant get passed the head stuff. They might be wonderful skaters, they might end up testing to senior or doing ice shows.They just cant compete.
8th isnt bad out of 12 and 4th is great !!!

__________________
http://www.youtube.com/user/alaskanmom

My coach has said something to the effect that a competition or test performance can take a skater back about 3 months in their progress. She says that under stress we do drop back into those old habits because they feel comfortable and less risky.

Probably is why some coaches insist on skaters being well above the required standard.
So don't worry, cos next performance she will most likely build on what she did this time.
Post-competition is usually when a skater relaxes and skates really well.

__________________
Katz

Saved by Synchro!
I was over it, now I'm into it again !

She had to do scratch, sit and back spin.

I think this is what is going on- she skated better than her last competition, but not as good as practice- I am thinking that more muscle memory of the new habits will take place as she has more practice time.

what judging system was she judged on?

__________________
2010 Skating Goals

1) Land Double Axel
2) Pass Junior Moves at the end of January
3) Pass Novice Free at the end of January
4) Pass Senior moves by september
5) Consistant double flips and double lutzs
6) Learn a new cool spin!

if she is non test then it would be 6.0.

__________________
http://www.youtube.com/user/alaskanmom

Yes 6.0 and she went last. Oddly the first few to go took all the medals and then the others almost seemed to be ranked randomly.

Yes, she finished on time, she didn't forget any of her footwork and her arms were not flailing about!