2019 Sherwood Invitational

I competed 3 figures at the 2019 Sherwood Invitational, the same 3 figures I did last year (FO8, FI8, and BO8).  Here's the story.

The figures portion of the competition was all early Sunday morning.  We had a total of 8 skaters and 19 starts, with 6 judges split into 2 panels.

Figures practice ice was at 5:40 a.m. (eeep), just 20 minutes.  I actually got to the rink quite early (5:05) as I was taking a Lyft to the rink and was concerned about being late.  Kelli met me there around 5:25 and I got my skates on and got ready.

Practice ice went pretty well.  We spent about 8 minutes on the FO8, about 4 minutes on the FI8, and another 8 minutes or so on the BO8.  The FO8 was more or less okay. I was a bit nervous but got over it.  The FI8 was looking pretty good so we just did the one and moved on to the BO8  BO8 was mostly okay but I was not doing a good job on return to center and Kelli worked with me to get me to implement the things I'd worked on with Danette the last few weeks -- looking into the circle (esp. on LBO) and holding the free foot in front longer, moving free foot back from the knee and not the hip.  I had been worried the last couple of weeks about my flow as I was having trouble getting around the circles on the FO8 in particular, but as I'd hoped, Sherwood's fast, hard ice meant I had great flow and no problems with getting around the circle.  Whew!

After practice ice we had an hour to kill so I ate a banana, then helped with the freestyle practice ice and did some prep work for music for the rest of the day.  Around 6:45 or so I put my skates back on and got myself ready.

I was 5th (last) to skate FO8, then there was a break, then 2nd of 2 to skate the FI8 and BO8.

Around 7:15 or so they called me out for warmup.  Kelli was helping her other student who was skating before me.  As I pushed for my first RFO, I felt an excruciating pain in my R foot.  I tried to disregard it and keep practicing but after a couple of minutes it became clear I had to fix this, so I stepped off the ice,  pulled my boot off and rearranged my sock and the tongue of my boot.  Argh! I'd never had such an experience with these boots, generally they are very comfy.  Got back on the ice and had just a little time to finish warming up the FO8.

Finally they called me over to skate, and I skated to patch 5, picked a spot (I was able to align my short axis with a hockey dot that was a few feet away), marked my center, took a deep breath and pushed off. 

This FO8 was not my best -- in particular I think I was a bit wobbly on the first LFO -- but it was okay.

After that we had about a 15 minute break, then started the second half of the competition.  I came out for warmup on my FI8 and it was pretty good.  My nerves were somewhat all over the place, though.  They called me out to patch 7 and I found an okay spot, marked my center, took several deep breaths and pushed off.

The first RFI was okay; the LFI.. I'm not sure what happened but I found myself on a flat and wound up having a really nasty skid, right in front of the judges (of course).  I managed to recover and get around that circle okay.  The remaining circles were fine.

After that I had to go start warming up my BO8.  The warmup seemed okay although I was having a bit of trouble finding my center.  Finally they called me over to skate, I think it was patch 8 or so.

I've had a hard time figuring out (pardon the pun) what happened here (I'll have to wait for the video).  I think the first RBO was okay, but the LBO didn't come back to center and so the 2nd RBO was a bit wonky and then got out of control so much that I wound up doing a large oval around to the side where the LBO should have been and sort of came back to center in such a fashion that I'd basically switched sides.  From there I did an LBO that was sort of better, and another RBO that was relatively okay; but then I was coming back to center and I think because of the direction I was going, I forgot that I was on my R foot and so I ended the figure there without doing the last LBO.  At this point I was so disgusted with myself that I kind of didn't care, I wanted to just apologize to the judges for wasting their time (I did not actually do this) and run away!

Anyway, I hung around so we could take our usual group photo.  The results were posted, and I got last in each event (5th in FO8, 2nd in FI8 and 2nd in BO8).  I'm not surprised or discouraged, I just have a lot of work to do and in particular I need to find a way to get my nerves under better control.  You'd think after competing these several years it would be better, but figures competition are IMHO worse than testing!  Ugh.  Still, I'm happy I did it and very grateful to coach Kelli for putting me on and dealing with me in these situations (not to mention getting her butt out of bed at crack of dawn on a Sunday!).

Footwork & Toe Loop

My lesson with Holly on the 7:30 a.m. FS at Gilbert.  Nice ice and just 2 skater!

I warmed up with stroking and Bronze MIF  (except power-3s).  Circle-8 was really nice!

Today's lesson:

• footwork -- I went over some of the footwork that Tammy wants in my dramatic program, especially the chaine' turns into the LFO swingroll - change edge - back roll to cross n' hold.  Eeep.  We worked through this a bit and it did actually improve.  I think I need to ask Tammy to put in a push or a crossover or something so I can have a little more speed through this.
• toe loop -- we worked on keeping the gains I've made on bringing the R edge around and then getting me to actually jump from the toepick. Urph.  We did make some progress. It's that scooping sort of motion that I need to get once the feet are together.  Anyway I feel like we made a little progress, so yay!

Choreo!

My choreo session with Tammy on the 7:30 a.m. FS at Chandler.  Ice was pretty beat up.... about 5 skaters.

I warmed up with stroking, did a couple of spins (one was good) and a waltz jump and a toe loop (actually came around but landed 2-footed).  Next I did perimeter XOs and BXOs to BO edges, then on to work on some elements that we had worked on last week (waltz-3s, chaine' turns etc.).

For today, we started with listening to the music and talking through concepts again, then we started working through the opening.  Actual starting position on the ice isn't really firm yet.  What we have now is roughly:

• arms overhead (left)
• arms overhead (right)
• small dip and arms overhead (together) w/2-ft turn
• 2 chaine' turns to the left
• push into LFO swing roll to change of edge (LFI), swing leg back
• stroke, cross and hold feet with arms back to the right side.

That's like 15 or 20s.  eeep.  Some of this stuff will require a lot more work but that's why we're starting early!

Competition Prep

My figures lesson with Danette on the 7:30 a.m. FS at Chandler.  Ice was better than last week.  I warmed up with edges and FO8.  This was my last patch skate before the competition this weekend.

Today's lesson:

• FO8 -- a bunch of time with us.  It's better.  It's really about body control, so I'm not sure why I'm having such issues now.  But, if I dig in and push and STAND UP and get my weight back on my blade it's fine (more or less).  If not... not.
• FI8 -- these were fairly nice.
• BO8 -- OMG.  Lots of issues with these.  My circle size is all over the place, and finding center for me is a crapshoot at this point.  Urgh.  I feel these were so much better last year and I don't know why (other than the obvious, I probably practiced them more).  Flow on the LBO was really bad so we worked on it a bunch.. and you know what, if I actually TURN MY HEAD AND LOOK WHERE I'M GOING as Danette and every other coach has told me to do ad infinitum... it's better.  Lots better. Gotta remember that even when I'm freaking out Sunday a.m.

Patch Perseverance

I was able to skate for 45 minutes at Gilbert's adult skate today for patch practice.  Nice ice and just 3 of us (me, Melissa and a random wall-crawler).

I wanted to work on 'good' ice as I was concerned about issues I was having getting around on my FO8 the last couple of weeks at Chandler.

I warmed up with edges then worked on FO8; still problems.  I went on to work on FI8 (okay) and then BO8 (meh, okay but circles were small and uneven).  Then I went back to FO8 and they were better.  I got around most of the time. 

I'm putting this down to me either not having an appropriate circle size and/or having some body position issues.  Sherwood's ice is fast and hard so I am reasonably confident it will be okay -- in any case it's too late to do anything now!

Choreo - Elements

My choreo session with Tammy on the 7:30 a.m. FS.  Nice ice, 4 skaters and 4 coaches.

I had a half hour to warm up so I did some stroking and slaloms, then worked on toe loop and some spins.

For today's session we started by listening to the new cut of my music that I got yesterday.  It's terrific!  A number of changes but now a much stronger ending and some real variety in the parts of the song that are included.  Yay!

We talked through the "story" of the program and agreed on a rough outline.

From there we worked on looking at what's in the "toolbox" and worked through most of them.  They include:

• waltz-3
• a little pattern of RFI3 - step forward - crossover - LFI swing roll
• swing rolls in general
• half flip
• chaine' turns (from the Years program)
• hockey glide/slalom also like I had in my Years program
• half flip
• the dreaded bunny hop - lunge
• BXO with extension
• spin w/arms on entry
• 5-step mohawk or some variation thereon

All in all there's some stuff to work with -- I had never really thought about it before.  

I still need to find a prop!  Urph.

Competition Prep

My figures lesson with Danette on the 7:30 a.m. FS at Chandler.  4 skaters.  Ice was beat up but not crusty like last week.

I warmed up with edges and FO8.  Didn't scribe circles as we're in competition mode.

Today's lesson:

• FO8 -- urph.  I am only getting around 3/4 of the circle.  Not sure what's going on here, but it's pretty alarming.  Danette thinks there might be an issue with my sharpening (I had them sharpened 7/21 and I've been having issues since).
• BO8 -- issues here as well.  We worked with holding the hockey stick to work on my body position and it's improved although the LBO is still difficult.  But, I'm having issues getting around.
• FI8 -- just a couple minutes on these.  I actually got almost completely around (close enough) on these but not feeling as confident as normal.  Hmph.

All in all I'm pretty concerned.  If it's truly my blades I'm kinda hosed. If it's an ice issue then no worries. Sherwood's ice is pretty hard and fast so that should help.

I'm going to try to take a long lunch Friday and/or Monday (although, school starts Monday) to skate at Gilbert adult session to see if that helps.  Ice for that session is usually pretty good.

Toe Loop & Spins

My lesson with Holly on the 7:30 a.m. FS.  Ice was a bit bumpy. 3 skaters.

I warmed up with stroking, perimeter XOs, 5-step mohawk, BXOs to BO edges, and circle 8.  Urph.

Today's lesson:

• toe loop -- most of our time on these.  Ugh.  When Holly holds my hand I can do them, when not, not.  I fell like 3 times on these, so at least I'm trying!  We did make some progress, I'm doing a better job of bringing it around, but when I do I either don't really jump or I land on 2 feet.  Grr.  Still, it's kind of encouraging.  These have been stinky for forever.
• spins -- just a few minutes on these.  One really good one and the rest ... not.  Once again, I need to not rush.  Urph.

3s & Jumps

My lesson with Holly on the 7:30 a.m. FS at Gilbert.  Okay ice and just 3 skaters.

I warmed up with stroking and some Bronze moves (all of them except power-3s :-) ).

Today's lesson:

• 3s -- we spent a large amount of time just working on RFO3s to get me to hold the entrance edge longer and make them cleaner.  We actually made some progress!  So that's encouraging.
• jumps -- one waltz jump (nice landing, not so great a check); a couple of salchows (one good one) and then some time on toe loop.  Holly held my R hand after the turn to make me wait to let the edge come around before the jump -- this really helped!  I was able to do some really nice and UNCHEATED toe loops this way.  It feels very different!  We'll have to work this some more.

Competition Prep

My figures lesson with Danette on the 7:30 a.m. FS.  4 skaters and 3 coaches.  Unfortunately humidity is up and so the rink was a bit foggy and the ice had a crust on it which made it slow.  Ugh.  Also I had not skated patch since I got my blades sharpened a couple of weeks ago so it was a learning process all around...

I warmed up with edges, then scribed circles and worked on FO8 --  yuck.  Could not make it around with all the crusty ice.

Today's lesson:

• FO8 -- other than my inability to skate a complete circle on this ice (!), I was having some issues on the LFO.   About mid circle (during or after passing my arms) I would get forward on my blade, and be on a flat. Ugh.  It cleared up a bit but not entirely.  RFO was better.  Pushes were okay and were relatively together, so that's good. I do need to remind myself to bring the feet together on the push so that it's better that way.
• FI8 -- not bad!
• BO8 -- about the last half of our time.  We worked the position on the wall briefly, then on the scribed circles.  The good news is that the push is pretty nice and after a little adjustment the positions were fairly good.  The bad news is that I'm still not making it around the circle.

After my lesson I had about 15 minutes to work, so I worked some more on BO8 on the circle and on the wall.

Competition is 2 weeks from Sunday!  Eeep.  Sherwood's ice is hard/fast so I'm not too worried about getting around there.  Next week we'll have to work without a scribe to prep for the real thing.