Firstly, let me tell you how the last week of preparation went. Not terrible but not well either. I skated Monday, Wednesday and Friday and each session was crowded. I did what my coach advised me (and I wrote about in in the previous post) and that was to warm up 5 minutes and do the program. On Monday I didn't jump the Salchow and the program felt shy. So I worked a lot on the elements and did few more run throughs... Wednesday the elements were all in but the Salchow was cautious and the program still shy. So I allowed myself to go a little bit bigger. On Friday the run through felt nice. The Salchow felt stable enough so I decided to work on it to make it better. When I'm not confident in an element I rather don't mess with it before a test. I let it be... The two foot spin ( from the inside 3-turn entrance) didn't center the whole session, but the regular one did. And I've got the back pivot working consistently. So I felt pretty good for the test.
I was scheduled to test at 12 on Saturday. My morning was quiet. Maybe I should have skipped the second coffee, but I usually have 2 each morning... I went to the rink at 11, fully dressed. At 11.15 my coach said to warm up my muscles, I did some light running and some stretches. Went to the restroom. At 11.45 I put on my skates and at 12 I had my warm up on ice. Everything went well. I even centered the two foot spin. I was the last one skating but it went very quickly. I was on ice before I know it. And here is the video.
I felt happy afterwards. Here is how it went:
- on the first move, the arms opening, I felt stretched out and in control.
- I didn't get in a big pivot, I finished it a little earlier then usually, so I felt I had to wait a little for the music and I kind of dropped into the next step, I didn't push from underneath me
- so the inside edges were wimpier the usually
- I don't remember the inside spread eagle, I suspect I was telling myself to get it together. In the test's video it seems again, smaller then in practice
- the toe pick turns and the stop were ok
- on the moment I pointed to the judges I gave them a big smile and eye contact.
- the steps towards the Salchow I don't remember
- I did remember to think "wait" before the Salchow. And I felt I've got a good landing.
- from the video I'm surprised I hold that power edge after the Salchow so little.
- the next steps were slower then usually because I realized I'm ahead of the music. I think that relaxed me as I've been afraid I'll be behind...
- I remember I wasn't totally happy with the Waltz Jump but looks good enough in the video.
- the two foot spin felt ok, but in the video you can see it travels
- I think I relaxed, in the sense of getting mentally tired, here, on the steps towards the spiral
- the spiral I could do better, but as the coach said, I'll do it in the performance just as I practice. And again, I fell I was thinking that the end is close, so I was slowly giving up my concentration...
- I don't remember the Half Flip...
- I gathered all my energy to tell myself to wait and center the spin. And I did :)
- and then I totally gave up on the inside pivot. The funny thing that I didn't even realized it until I saw the video. I finished early too, don't be fulled by the video, I edited it and faded the music at the end... Honestly this is my only disappointment in this performance.
- and then, I felt exhausted...
I mentioned few times during the posts describing the preparation of the program that I was purposely holding back on the frills (edges, speed and expression) to be sure I give the best chance for the jumps and spins to happen, as they are the elements judged for this test. I have proof now, that there is enough time to hold my extensions and posses in few places, so I should remember and try on my next showing of this program and the next programs. It seems it's a known fact that the adrenaline is making you move quicker. So I'll concentrate now in getting the underlined elements bigger and better. And the plan is to show this at my local rink competition in June. It's gonna be under the "artistic program" ISI requirements as I want to improve my expression, extensions and musicality on ice.
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