Cactus Classic 2012 Showcase Dramatic
Today I skated my showcase (artistic) dramatic program at Cactus Classic at the Ice Den.
I was at the rink early to watch various sk8r friends, then I had my own practice ice at 12:15. I put my costume on, then got my boots on early enough that I could let the pain from my toe subside a bit. Went and checked in for practice ice, and drew number 15 for music so I was pretty sure I wouldn't get my music played.
I had a pretty good practice. This was an "open" practice, but the one after was "medium/high" so it was mostly low. Unfortunately my experience is that low skaters (especially the little ones), while they aren't moving as fast, are much, much worse about watching out for others. I did witness a near-collision between a skater who was doing her program (her music was playing AND she was wearing the belt) and a very clueless young girl going through her program. Fortunately no one was hurt but I felt bad for the skater trying to do her one chance at skating to her music and having to deal with that. I was able to be fairly productive, and I ran through pretty much all the pieces of my program at least twice.
After practice I changed out of my costume since I wasn't skating for 5 hours. Had some lunch, then met up with some friends and watched more skating. About 4:30 I went to take my 800 mg of ibuprofen (per doctor's recommendation) and changed into my costume. Killed some time talking with Jose and JJ in the locker room, then got my boots on half an hour before skate time.
Went out and checked in with the ice monitor and met up with the rest of my warmup group -- all the adult dramatic programs (5 of us) were warming up together. Time came and out we went for our warmup!
Warmup went well, my toe wasn't bugging me too much most of the time. Ran through the program elements. I was feeling pretty relaxed, actually. Came off at the 4 minute mark since I was skating first, took off my jacket, got some last minute advice from JJ ("look at the judges! and keep your head up!") and a drink of water, did our little ritual, and they called my name and off I went to my starting pose.
Music started and off I went. I looked right at the judges as I was skating forward in the swizzles... it was a little unnerving actually :-). Then off I went, slightly behind. Waltz jump was a little ragged in the landing, but okay. I went into the spiral relatively fast -- I actually did the two pushes first that I'd been avoiding all week, lol :-). Spiral was okay but I felt a little unsteady. Into the stop, spin, RFO3s and they were okay. Lunge was slightly shaky I thought, then into the spin... which was GREAT! I was so happy! I wanted to look at the print but I made myself not look and just keep going. Salchow was okay though my position seemed a bit off afterward, then into the push-push and the half flip, came around and I was out of music so I skipped the final spin-in-place and just bowed. Went over to center, bowed to judges and audience, collected tossies and left the ice.
Hung out and watched Melissa and the rest skate, went and checked results. Same as the free skate, Melissa first and me second, straight 2s across the board.
All in all I was very happy with my skate, especially considering my toe injury. Holly wasn't happy I skipped the final spin, and she's right, I have 3 seconds of cushion so I could probably have done it. I think this is a good program and if I can do a few things a bit better -- especially, look up and engage judges and audience more, and smile -- I can win with it.
I was at the rink early to watch various sk8r friends, then I had my own practice ice at 12:15. I put my costume on, then got my boots on early enough that I could let the pain from my toe subside a bit. Went and checked in for practice ice, and drew number 15 for music so I was pretty sure I wouldn't get my music played.
I had a pretty good practice. This was an "open" practice, but the one after was "medium/high" so it was mostly low. Unfortunately my experience is that low skaters (especially the little ones), while they aren't moving as fast, are much, much worse about watching out for others. I did witness a near-collision between a skater who was doing her program (her music was playing AND she was wearing the belt) and a very clueless young girl going through her program. Fortunately no one was hurt but I felt bad for the skater trying to do her one chance at skating to her music and having to deal with that. I was able to be fairly productive, and I ran through pretty much all the pieces of my program at least twice.
After practice I changed out of my costume since I wasn't skating for 5 hours. Had some lunch, then met up with some friends and watched more skating. About 4:30 I went to take my 800 mg of ibuprofen (per doctor's recommendation) and changed into my costume. Killed some time talking with Jose and JJ in the locker room, then got my boots on half an hour before skate time.
Went out and checked in with the ice monitor and met up with the rest of my warmup group -- all the adult dramatic programs (5 of us) were warming up together. Time came and out we went for our warmup!
Warmup went well, my toe wasn't bugging me too much most of the time. Ran through the program elements. I was feeling pretty relaxed, actually. Came off at the 4 minute mark since I was skating first, took off my jacket, got some last minute advice from JJ ("look at the judges! and keep your head up!") and a drink of water, did our little ritual, and they called my name and off I went to my starting pose.
Music started and off I went. I looked right at the judges as I was skating forward in the swizzles... it was a little unnerving actually :-). Then off I went, slightly behind. Waltz jump was a little ragged in the landing, but okay. I went into the spiral relatively fast -- I actually did the two pushes first that I'd been avoiding all week, lol :-). Spiral was okay but I felt a little unsteady. Into the stop, spin, RFO3s and they were okay. Lunge was slightly shaky I thought, then into the spin... which was GREAT! I was so happy! I wanted to look at the print but I made myself not look and just keep going. Salchow was okay though my position seemed a bit off afterward, then into the push-push and the half flip, came around and I was out of music so I skipped the final spin-in-place and just bowed. Went over to center, bowed to judges and audience, collected tossies and left the ice.
Hung out and watched Melissa and the rest skate, went and checked results. Same as the free skate, Melissa first and me second, straight 2s across the board.
All in all I was very happy with my skate, especially considering my toe injury. Holly wasn't happy I skipped the final spin, and she's right, I have 3 seconds of cushion so I could probably have done it. I think this is a good program and if I can do a few things a bit better -- especially, look up and engage judges and audience more, and smile -- I can win with it.
Labels: Competitions
posted by Gordon @ 11:13 PM
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