Today is the final day of 2004, and on my way back from the rink this morning, I was thinking about what type of year 2004 was. Last year, I had resolved to quit skating in 2004, and, er, move on with my life. That resolution didn't last long.

So here is what I've accomplished this year:

-Finally moved up to silver level, with my first freestyle performance at the New Year's Invitational. I'd had a silver program since mid-2003, but didn't feel like competing (or couldn't compete) in 2003, having made the transition from bronze to silver.

-Competed in silver FS in 5 other competitions (Washington FSC comp in Feb., local/regional CRC in March, Hershey in August, Peach Classic in Sept., and Halloween Open in Oct.). I finally captured the gold at the Halloween event. And, most important, I figured how to keep my nerves in check and just go out there and sell a program. Peach '04 will always be special for me because I did a near-perfect performance.

-Passed silver moves (after *only* 3 tries ) and silver FS.

-Started pair lessons in February with Loops. Put together a program and began to compete in August at the Hershey event, with 2 subsequent competitions at Peach and Halloween events.

-Learned pair elements on ice that I thought would be too difficult. Off ice, learned platter, press, and star lifts.

-Learned--sometimes the hard way--how to juggle singles and pairs lessons/skating. At one point, I was skating 7 times/week. Gack! And as it's obvious to state that singles helps pairs, pairs has really helped my singles skating.

-Put together a decent pairs holiday performance despite injury; lack of available ice; and at times, lack of will.

-Participated in USFS Adult Training Camp in Hackensack, NJ, at the end of June. Met lots of great people, learned some new techniques, and was fortunate to take a couple of pair lessons with John Zimmerman.

-Learned a few new spin positions and got back my flying camel.

-Lost 15 pounds, for good or bad.

-Learned/realized that I do not have to have an axel to consider myself a 'real' skater; that I can win without an axel; and that I have other talents on the ice, such as flexibility and good spins.

-Made some progress working on axel and double salchow.

-Garnered enough courage to revisit the double flip, the jump that caused my right blade to fall off my boot in October '03. I don't really think I'll ever land this jump consistently, but it was a huge confidence booster to even work on it in lessons (and I have the bruises to prove it!).

Anyone else have a decent 2004?

__________________
Doubt whom you will, but never yourself.
"Do what you love, and you'll never have to work a day in your life."
-Haha, I've *arrived*! I am listed as a reference on Wikipedia.

NoVa,
Sounds like you did more that me, but here goes my reflections of 2004:

It started off with a close win at New Year's Invitational in January. I won Pre Bronze freeskate and came in second in Bronze MIF.

That win gave me confidence, and really, I was a little too cocky going to Central Carolina Classic. Note to self: Don't compete on your birthday. I came in fourth at the event in the freeskate and skated compulsories for the first and last time.

Got badly needed new boots and broke them in just in time to go to the Adult Camp in NJ that NoVa and Loops were at.
At that time, also started on a new freeskate program, with FOOTWORK. Spent the ENTIRE summer working on footwork.

All that work on the footwork paid off at the Halloween Classic, where my footwork was not bad, but the spins were. Oh well, it was the first time out for the new program.

I ended this year on a high note:
This morning at 7:20, after a 2 week hiatus from skating it, I skated my freeskate cleanly!!!

__________________
Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

My end of the year wrap up includes another year of my MS not flaring up. WOOT! Just a couple little hiccups but no real big attacks.

I started back at skating for real in Jan (i bought skates in Nov and skated by myself about 4-5 times before deciding to commit again) Got myself a couple of awesome coaches, made a lot of new friends.

Competed in March at the first Canadian adult championships with less than 3 months of practice. Captured the bronze which felt so amazing.

Managed to get all my singles back from when I quit when I was 14. Managed to improve all aspects of my skating.

Did a two foot landed axel and double loop. Hey, its a start.

Passed my junior bronze freeskate..woohoo. This was a big one for me as my test results fo it were really good.

Am still enjoying skating and will be competing several times this year.

It's been a blast and I am so lucky to be skating that I enjoy every single day of it.

On the downside.....I'm poor

JP, I'm so happy your MS is in remission - long may it stay that way!

As for me, I think I've got faster (definitely, actually). I can now skate backwards with a fair amount of speed, and occasionally even finding an edge. I can do semi-okay back cross-rolls, and even "proper" back crossovers. I am beginning to be able to spin, but not yet reliably. I can even turn at speed as long as I have a partner!

Husband and I have done our first "real" free dance, and developed a dance spin that improves daily. We can't quite manage lifts or a pairs spin yet, but hope to do that next year. Husband passed his Level 3 Dance moves.

We competed at several competitions: the Mountain Cup, the Bracknell Adult Open, the British Adult Championships and the Scottish Championships. But we were last every time... it is becoming a triumph of hope over experience. Maybe 2005 will be the year we finally make it.... then again, maybe it won't. But who cares? It's such fun to try, and we are improving very fast just now.

Happy New Year to you all!

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

I think this is the 3rd year we've had this thread.

Here is last year's:
http://www.skatingforums.com/showthread.php?t=12051

My goals for this year were:
1. Improve spins and turns, land the harder jumps, etc.
2. Do well in my first competition - the Washington D.C New Years comp.
3. Pass Pre-Bronze MIF and FS
4. Compete in my first Bronze comp and try not to finish last

Hmmm, how I did:

1. Yep, I've managed to make progress on expanding my repertoire, especially over the past few weeks. Last night, I landed a bunch of loop-toe combos and even some almost-fully-rotated flips. Woohoo!
2. Yep, got 3rd at New Year's, with 2 judges placing me 1st. Unfortunately, my performances at Wilmington and Halloween did not match that.
3. Yep! Passed them in May.
4. This was, of course, contingent on my achieving goal #3. And yes, I competed at Skate Wilmington in July (they had Pre-Bronze for the first time but they set the program time limit to 1:10, and my program is 1:39). I managed to land a loop (well, sorta) for the first time in comp and I tried a camel-sit. Unfortunately, I did finish last.

For 2005:
1. Land loop, flip, and lutz consistently. Of course, I will have to learn the lutz first. And get a combo with a loop on the back end (sal-loop, loop-loop, etc.).
2. Improve spins, especially camel-sit. And get more than 2 revs in position on my backspin.
3. Pass Bronze MIF and FS.
4. Do well at New Year's, and try to compete Bronze at Chesapeake Open and/or Wilmington and not finish last.
5. Get a new program. My coach suggested this a few weeks ago, so I'm in the process of looking for music.

Happy New Year, everyone!

thanks for posting the link to last year's thread
pass Freestyle 3, bronze MIF and bronze free - check!
land loop - check!
exit on backspin - check!
more revs on camel (on a good day, about 4) - check!
get another USFSA comp medal - check!
finish my artistic program - check!
not swearing on the ice - er we still need to work on that...

I guess the only skating goals I didn't fufill were the flip and lutz, but those, along with freestyle 4 are on the 2005 list.

I feel like I accomplished alot this year, including the decision to continue skating synchro on my terms and not let someone else ruin the experience for me. And one big step that was not on my list for 2004 was beginning the process of becoming a test/competition judge. Another was performing a solo in my club's Christmas Show - it was wonderful and I wish I had tried it sooner.

Highlights of the year included competing at Mids in synchro, winning gold at the ISI Adult Championships, and winning my first USFSA bronze level gold in compulsories, artistic and freestyle. Other non-goal oriented highlights included meeting a great group of adult skaters that I have become tight with, another adult skater in KY who is like a long-lost sister, making small talk with Amber Corwin at Governing Council because she remembered me from last year.

Lowlights, of course there are some, but I prefer to focus on the positives. Let's just say I learned plenty from those lowlights, and have to be strong enough to learn from them.

As for my goals for 2005, some of them cannot be mentioned here *yet* as I have some big, life changing decisions to make in the next few months, but I can lay down a framework here:
flip, lutz
work on camel to become consistent
camel-sit
pass freestyle 4
actually medal in the summer event I usually enter and walk away with 0

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Champagne in 2005, 2008, 2009 - who's next out of the pre-bronze club...?

Wang chung!

In the past year I:
Got new boots and blades
Went through the loop drama and won!
Expanded my spins to scratch and sit
Started camels
Learned the flip
Started the axel
Sort of learned the back spin
Took an ice dancing class!
Skated in my first ice show
Started to feel like a real skater

In 2005 I hope to:
Consistently center my scratch spin
Get more revolutinons on the sit
Work on making more revs on camels
Turn my flutz into a lutz
Land my axel???
Skate a solo at the spring show
Work on smoothing out my basics
Improve my back spin to at least 5 consistent revs
Keep improving the ina bauer, get the outside spread eagle!!
And make a smooth transition to skating while in college.

Well...

The highlight of my skating this year was pretty much at NYC. Now I have pictures of me skating at NYC. (I didn't the last time I visited NYC to skate b/c the trip was just over a weekend and hubby was VERY SICK with the stomach flu on that trip...)

This year was marred by two skating injuries (both b/c of my black boots breaking down) and some trouble with the first purple boots' blade alignment. Too much experimenting this year!!!

I did skate at Skate SF this year despite my initial plans NOT to do that 'til I pass my Bronze Moves test. (i.e. I wanted to do the Christmas show, the coaches wanted me to do Skate SF. Guess who won??) :p I didn't do as well as I wished I did, but I still decently and had fun.

I had my first attempt at taking the Bronze Moves test. I got confirmation from the judges as to what I need to work on and those are the things I'm now working on to finally pass the freakin' test the next time I take it!!!

Spins... well, it got changed when I got the first pair of purple boots. Those nice spins I had... POOOF!!! GONE!!! I got them back when I went back to my old black boots (after losing the first purple pair...) But unfortunately now I'm nursing a bad pull/bruise.

I finally landed my flips a bit more consistently than my "once in a blue moon." Now I'm working on straight flip entries to make it even more consistent and on going into it at faster speeds. Of course, I have to keep in mind that I hardly ever worked on my jumps most of 2004. My coaches just concentrated on having me master the basics (crossovers, mohawks, 3turns) and moves for the most part.

And speaking of speed... POWER and confidence is the name of the game this year for me!!! WOW!!! My coaches are surprised this year, though I still could go a LOT faster than what I'm doing now!!!

I may have conquered the dreaded FI mohawk monster, but I now have to master them!!! I want them "neat and tidy" before I could take the Bronze moves test again.

And oh, those GAWD awful forward power 3's entries??? I was finally able to get into those at faster speeds this year! Of course, this is comparing my non-existing ones last year, so... But they are here to stay... at least I hope it will with the second pair of purple boots anyway...

AN 2005 is not to be for me. But definitely hope for 2006? (YOU GO, MEL ON ICE!!! YOU GO, GIRL!!!)

Happy New Year, everyone!!!

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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!!!

Sorry! Double posted on this thread. Pls ignore!!!

__________________
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!!!

Went to Nationals had a great time and met a great bunch of guy's at the silver events. Lake Placid was a blast Later in the year past my gold moves and free,
did 4 shows,
Landed a salchow ( on my stilts )
Worked on a lot of new stuff, footwork and new jumps,
landed a double lutz ( only one )
My axel now looks like an axel
skated the halloween event , that was a blast.
struggled with spins...... " Oh well"

2005
Got big plans for this year. The mind is willing but the body may have other plans
going to New Years event, sectionals, Nationals, Germany.

" The gratest risk in life is not taking one".

This past year, I...

• Got married, got a new job, moved to a new state, switched coaches and clubs...but still found a great adult skating community and continued to skate and improve.

• Finally started to land my axel consistently...until December, but we won't talk about that.

• Passed the silver FS test

• Learned (but have yet to really land): double sal, double loop, double toe, double flip.

• Learned a LOT of dances...Preliminary through Pre-Silver!

• Learned a flying sit spin that works sooo much better for me than the stinking flying camel

• Vastly improved my layback spin...got 10 revs on one before the holiday break!

My goals for 2005 include:

• Get my axel back, along with a double sal.

• Pass the Gold MIF.

• Compete in my first Adult Nationals, and have a good time regardless of how I skate

• Test some of those dances I learned in 2004

• Figure out how to do that flying camel

• For fun: learn a cool or unusual spin (e.g. broken leg, crossfoot, some form of catchfoot-camel or layback, etc)

...and in my dreams, I will also land a double loop next year and pass the Gold FS... ahh, well, maybe in 2006.

This year I:

Finally got myself into this sport (yay!), which in all honesty involved overcoming a lot of fear

Figured out (because I've only begun to be intrsucted):

-a simplified waltz jump
- forward three turns
- forward and backward hydroblade
- Advanced crossovers
- a backwards toe hop

I also got my own pair of skates (for 75$ don't laugh I'm really poor)
And in other news I did a FS bordslide (okay that's a snowboarding trick)

The next year I want to:

-pass freestyle 1, so I can skate with upper level people
- get a better pair of skates (like ones with toepicks larger than my thumb)

I guess I can't say more in a list. I really want to try and get better. In all honesty I think there is a lot more stuff that I can do, and I really want to find my limits and push them even further. I also want to meet more skaters. Meet more women, then again it would be nice to meet more male skaters (because I'm the only one I know that is less than 60). Really just expand in general.

I'd also like to tell my dad I'm into figure skating. He still thinks I only like hockey.

Anyway I'm really exciting about the new year. Only two more days until I get another lesson.

This year I enjoyed skating with it's ups and downs.
I started taking lessons in october 2003, and in the last year I learned all the jumps up to lutz, scratch, backspin, camel and sit spins and started working on backcamel and backsit and camel-sit, sit-backsit.
For this year I would like to improve my basic skating, to do spins better, to learn a flying spin, to be able to do loop as the second jump in combinations, an axel and maybe start working on a double jump and to compete for the first time.
Shinn reika I'm also a male skater I'm 23 how old are you?

Hey Shinn

Welcome to the club, your not alone, lots of people in this sport your age and older, Im 45 and getting younger. I look forward to meeting you some day, , Tell your dad real skaters dont where pads,.

The greates risk in life is not taking one.

I've loved 2004. I've been skating for a whole year now. Normally I give up hobbies after say three months, but not skating. Theres something about it that I love so much. I knew from my first lesson I was addicted. This year I have...

Fallen in love with the ice.
Learnt quite a variety of stuff, that I'm proud to be able to do.
Managed to crawl up to grade 9.
I got my on skates (I heard someone say they had $75 skates and said not to laugh because they are poor or something, I have £75 skates too, why spend loads of money on your first pair, and I absolutly love mine, they are so comfortable!).
I bought my own little skirt and tights, (My dad takes the mic and says they look like granny's tights) so I look like a proper ice skater!
I got over my fear of jumping. I figured that if you're going to hit the ice anyway, why not do it properly and come crashing down? You look good when you fall and just get up and do it again.
I have my own instructor, which is very cool. That too, also sounds good when telling friends.

My aims for 2005 are to skate for more than 5 and a half hours a week, and for more than one day. I also want to get my grades finished so I can move onto something different and exciting! To do a novice test might be a challenge!

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This time last year my goals were:

1. Pass my Novice moves: My coach and I decided to skip working on those this year to concentrate on my freestyle. I have been working on some of the basic moves, but nothing serious.

2. Consistantly land those darn doubles (sal, toe and loop): This has been the bane of my year. There is no physical reason why I am not landing these jumps. My sal take off is as near to perfect as you can get. My loop take off is decent. Unfortunately, there is something in my brain that is blocking landing this jump, and until we figure out what it is I think I will continue to be discouraged by this aspect of my skating.

3. Improve my placement at next year's AN (Lake Placid): Weeelll, I didn't exactly improve my placement, but then again I was skating in the championship event. So I would call this goal achieved, because qualifying to skate in the championship event wasn't even on my radar screen!

4. Keep improving and keep having the time of my life skating!!! Even though I still don't own those doubles, I have improved. Lake Placid was an eye opener for me. Yes, I want them, but to be honest, I don't need them to score well with the judges. All I really need is to remember that I love to skate, and to show that when I skate - to have FUN out there.

As for 2005 - I don't really have any goals right now. I guess it is to rediscover my love (I'm in a bit of a blue funk right now about my skating).

__________________
"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

Wow, looking back at my goals from the other thread, I've accomplished a lot! I said last year that I wanted to be finished my gold dance and working on my jr. silver skills by the end of the summer. I guess I underestimated myself! I finished my last gold dance in June and passed my Jr. Silver skills at the end of July. I just passed my sr. silver skills in November, and am aiming to test my gold skills in March. I can't believe how far I've come in a year, and am really proud of myself even if it sounds like bragging. This time last year I was working on my sr. silver dances and prelim/jr. bronze skills. Now I am a gold dancer and am finishing my gold skills. I never dreamed that after never taking a private lesson in my life until May 2003 (I've skated my whole life and competed synchro for years, just not tested), I would be this close to being a double-gold skater.

I don't know how much testing I'll do once I'm done my skills. I would like to learn a bit of freeskate, and maybe do some interpretive tests. My goal is just to improve my skating every time I hit the ice. I want to be confident with every step I take. Now that my technical skill has gotten so much stronger, I guess I might focus on presentation and style more.

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~No thinking, breathing, or hesitation!~

Well, since I returned from AN's I have lost a whole bunch of weight, increased my speed, flow, and edge quality, am able to skate a complete program, and got two additional doubles (although the loop is somewhat cheated at times) and can land all three doubles in my program consistently in practice although I have only tried and landed 2 of the 3 in competition. I would say, that makes my post AN's skating season near perfect as each successive competition I have skated a little better with the rechoreographed program and just had a few glitches each outing (which are getting to be less and less each outing)! We also put a SP together for Gold Ladies at Sunshine in a few weeks, which will be a first for me.

I haven't passed my Intermediate MIF yet because I changed jobs right around the time we were originally going to put my test out (it got scratched due to time constraints and judges) but it is definitely ready as we started working on some of the Novice MIF already and started patching the counters during patch class.

I also got in tight with a group of skaters which has been a God-send to have such great people to commiserate and celebrate with!

My golas for the year 2005

1. Pass my Gold Moves and Free

2. Compete at Easterns and Nationals and medal

3. Compete Gold after the summer

Ah, he's just a baby!
I'm so glad to hear that someone else is finding that weightloss has helped to increase their speed, flow and edge quality! I have lost a bit of weight and am finding that it's helping.... any of you others who I know have lost significant weight - Jazzpants? DBNY?

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

I also have found that. Maybe it was just time, but after I'd lost around 25 pounds, my skating made a significant improvement, to the extent that other people commented on it. I guess it makes sense!

Pat

I'm with you on that one. I'm looking forward to your visit this month so we can just get out there and play around. It's bound to help!

Things just have not progressed as I'd thought this year, and it's been rather discouraging. I thought I'd have everything back by now............but my flip and lutz are still nowhere to be found. That being said, AN is out of the question for yet another year.

I'm 18 an a freshman in college.

...good for you?

(Edit: Thats not meant nastily by the way)

__________________
http://www.yourphotoalbums.co.uk

It's taken me three years, but I've lost 35+ pounds. Since I started skating three years ago, I'm giving skating all the credit, because I haven't really changed my eating habits yet. I did give up diet sodas and caffeine--what a difference it made. I do believe it has made me faster. I started learning my FS program in February, and in April I was finishing with or behind the music. By June, I was well ahead of it, and we'd only changed one thing.

This past year, I've learned many new things:

Jumps--relearned toe loop, learned lutz and salchow--all are half
Spins--Not sure I will ever learn forward scratch, but back is coming along
MIF--learned all except for alternating 3turns
Foot work--Mohawks and 3turns are more consistant, but I need to check
Competed for the first time and met my goal of not falling
Mostly broke my worst habit of breaking at the waist.

For next year:
Jumps: Get them consistant and completely correct
Spins: Again, get them consistant, centered, and actually there
MIF: Learn alt 3's and pass Pre-Bronze
Foot work: Make progress on checking and get off my #@$%& toe pick
Competing: Better deal with the nerves that come with it.