Gordon's Sk8er Boi Blog

My adventures as an adult male figure skater in Tucson, Arizona Portland, Oregon Chandler, Arizona.

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Sherwood Invitational 2012 - Showcase Dramatic

I skated my "100 Years" dramatic program at the Sherwood Invitational today.  Here's how it went...

I had practice ice from 12:50 - 1:20.  Well, that's when I was scheduled.  They started 7 minutes late, and then I was 2 minutes late getting on the ice (I underestimated how much time I needed to get my gear on, and I was rushing from the figures competition).  I had a reasonably good practice, everything seemed to be okay.  I was kinda tired though, which was disturbing.  There wasn't an opportunity to play program music.  The session seemed really crowded even though there were only 11 of us... some pretty fast skaters for a "low" practice session!  I ran all the pieces of my program but didn't manage to get a complete runthrough.  I wasn't worried though.

I had a lot of time between the practice ice (off at 1:27) and my skate (5:46).  I was feeling a bit tight later in the afternoon so I did some jumping jacks and stretched a bit to loosen up, which helped a lot.  Finally it was time to get my gear on and check in.  I was sharing a warmup with two other skaters, both kids. 

Came out for the warmup and I ran through spins, waltz jump, and salchow, did some program pieces.  Sonya reminded me to get the spiral in.  The one minute warning was a bit of a surprise -- I think it was only a 4 minute warmup, not 5.  Came off the ice and talked with Sonya... then it was time to go.

Skated out to my position and remembered to "present" a bit as JJ and I had worked on on Wednesday.  I was blessed with lots of cheering and clapping from my "cheering section".  Took my position.... and waited.... there was a bit of a delay before my music started.  Then it did and off I went.  Swizzles, waltz jump (good), slaloms... into the spiral, which was good although I was a little slower on it than Holly would probably have liked :-(.  Into the spin, the RFO3s (good, and I managed to avoid the scooter push like Sonya and I had worked on), lunge, and into the 1-foot spin, which went well I think.  Brushed out, into the FXO-BXO section -- I tried to shorten this per my discussion with Sonya, into the salchow (just okay), and then around into the half flip and final pose. I ended probably 2 seconds late, I think.  Skated over to bow, and skated off.

I'm really pleased.  It went really well, I thought, and Sonya was really pleased -- "that's the best I've ever seen you skate!" is what she said.  Best of all -- I really wasn't nervous.  Just a slight amount (adrenalin) but not really fear like I've had in the past.  I was really pleased about that.

So... another competition in the books.  Lots to work on still.  If all goes well I'll do this program again at Autumn Antics in November.

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