2014 PCAS Free Skate
Today I skated my new "Ashton" free skate program at the 2014 Pacific Coast Adult Sectional Championships, hosted by the All Year Skating club at Center Ice Arena in Ontario, California.
Skate buddy Melissa and I arrived in Ontario last night. This morning we had official practice ice at 9 a.m. As it turned out there were only 3 of us on the session!! Wow. So it was great ice and I got to run my program with music twice! I had a great practice and got to work on some of my problem areas in some depth, which was good since I've only had this program complete for about 3 weeks.
After our practice ice we had most of the day free. The competition started at 3, and then we both had unofficial practice ice at 4:50 p.m. (we were running 7 minutes late by that point). This practice ice was quite the zoo with 25-ish skaters on the ice. I did get some good practice in though, and I felt well-prepared for the free skate.
Melissa's skate was the event right before mine, so somewhat before then I got into my skates, then checked in and watched her group. She did great! Then it was time for my warmup. I was 2nd in starting order (for some reason I am second for each of my skates at PCAS, which I guess is good since I was first for both of them at Mid Winter). Had a good warmup, ran each of my areas of concern at least once. Got off and tried to keep warm while the first skater (Mark) skated.
Then he was done and I stepped on the ice and waited for them to announce me... and waited... and waited... for some reason it was quite some time (I'd guess 2 - 3 minutes, which is an eternity when you are waiting like that!) before they were ready and called my name. Skated out to my starting position, the music started, and off I went...
The footwork around the center went fine, and I believe I managed to place the two 3-turns on the music correctly. Amazingly, then, I came out of the RFI spiral - mohawk and managed to do the waltz-mazurka combo on time! I'm amazed because, while I managed to have it on time at practice ice this morning also, at that time it was because I did the 2nd 3-turn early, which I didn't do this time. So clearly I was really moving!
The moonwalk went fine, into the lunge but I had to exit the lunge before I really held the 2nd arm position, because my trailing leg started coming around on me.. into the mohawk/step-over which were kinda crappy as they have been. Into the spin which was maybe 2 revs tops (oh well, it's a weird entrance and I can't do it well yet), then onward into the FXOs (for some reason I'm only doing one instead of the two JJ wanted me to do) and the 3-turn/lunge, two BXOs into the salchow (usual bleha salchow) and then into the final hockey glide/pivot/final pose. I kinda muffed the pivot. It's a failure of nerve. I practiced it in the warmup and it was fine, I just have trouble making myself move my weight forward and engage the toepick when I'm moving. Oh well.
Took my bows, grabbed my tossies (yay!) and skated off. The skater after me was doing his first competition, apparently. He did pretty well, although he did fall once.
When the results came in, straight 3rd across the board. Oh well! I know I really need to improve my elements and there's still more stuff to add to this program (like a toe loop). I think it's a good foundation though. I'm pleased with my skate.
No skating tomorrow! Sunday I do both my showcase programs, and then the long drive home.
Skate buddy Melissa and I arrived in Ontario last night. This morning we had official practice ice at 9 a.m. As it turned out there were only 3 of us on the session!! Wow. So it was great ice and I got to run my program with music twice! I had a great practice and got to work on some of my problem areas in some depth, which was good since I've only had this program complete for about 3 weeks.
After our practice ice we had most of the day free. The competition started at 3, and then we both had unofficial practice ice at 4:50 p.m. (we were running 7 minutes late by that point). This practice ice was quite the zoo with 25-ish skaters on the ice. I did get some good practice in though, and I felt well-prepared for the free skate.
Melissa's skate was the event right before mine, so somewhat before then I got into my skates, then checked in and watched her group. She did great! Then it was time for my warmup. I was 2nd in starting order (for some reason I am second for each of my skates at PCAS, which I guess is good since I was first for both of them at Mid Winter). Had a good warmup, ran each of my areas of concern at least once. Got off and tried to keep warm while the first skater (Mark) skated.
Then he was done and I stepped on the ice and waited for them to announce me... and waited... and waited... for some reason it was quite some time (I'd guess 2 - 3 minutes, which is an eternity when you are waiting like that!) before they were ready and called my name. Skated out to my starting position, the music started, and off I went...
The footwork around the center went fine, and I believe I managed to place the two 3-turns on the music correctly. Amazingly, then, I came out of the RFI spiral - mohawk and managed to do the waltz-mazurka combo on time! I'm amazed because, while I managed to have it on time at practice ice this morning also, at that time it was because I did the 2nd 3-turn early, which I didn't do this time. So clearly I was really moving!
The moonwalk went fine, into the lunge but I had to exit the lunge before I really held the 2nd arm position, because my trailing leg started coming around on me.. into the mohawk/step-over which were kinda crappy as they have been. Into the spin which was maybe 2 revs tops (oh well, it's a weird entrance and I can't do it well yet), then onward into the FXOs (for some reason I'm only doing one instead of the two JJ wanted me to do) and the 3-turn/lunge, two BXOs into the salchow (usual bleha salchow) and then into the final hockey glide/pivot/final pose. I kinda muffed the pivot. It's a failure of nerve. I practiced it in the warmup and it was fine, I just have trouble making myself move my weight forward and engage the toepick when I'm moving. Oh well.
Took my bows, grabbed my tossies (yay!) and skated off. The skater after me was doing his first competition, apparently. He did pretty well, although he did fall once.
When the results came in, straight 3rd across the board. Oh well! I know I really need to improve my elements and there's still more stuff to add to this program (like a toe loop). I think it's a good foundation though. I'm pleased with my skate.
No skating tomorrow! Sunday I do both my showcase programs, and then the long drive home.
Labels: Competitions
posted by Gordon @ 11:48 PM
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