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Skating Fridays

An update on the harness and my Gold Freestyle program

Coach B and I had a lesson last week where she put me in the harness again. Of course, with the horrible harness lesson still fresh in my memory, I was hesitant to go into the evil contraption once more. This time, Coach B stood in front of me (last time she stood behind me), and she told me to jump earlier than I normally do.  And what do you know - it worked!  I first attempted a simple waltz jump and successfully landed it. Then I popped a waltz-backspin and that came very easily. Finally, we went straight into the axel, and I am happy to report that was able to land most of them.

I still think that there's an aspect to the harness I don't like. It feels like the harness gets in my way and is preventing me from fully rotating, but that could all be in my head. Regardless, I was thrilled to have had a fairly successful lesson in the harness and hope that the efforts will translate onto the ice. I practiced some axels on the ice (sans harness) in group class last night and landed most of them, albeit incorrectly.

I still need to work on pulling in (pretending like I'm hugging myself) and stopping my rotation earlier. I tend to overrotate and also land flat-footed. Maybe I should just go for the double axel instead since I'm already way overrotated! Just kidding - kind of.

In other news, Coach S finished choreographing my Gold Freestyle program. K and I went through it together and made some tweaks to make it flow better. After it feels comfortable, I will practice it with music to see what other adjustments I need to make. I have a feeling that I'll need to cut out a bunch of steps since my spins usually take up a lot of time and I know I'll be nervous on competition day.

I am also pleased to say that I received my certificate and lapel pin from the US Figure Skating Association (USFSA) in the mail yesterday. The certificate is to commemorate my achievement of passing the Adult Gold Moves in the Field test in April. The President of the USFSA also sent me a letter congratulating me. I believe there's one more thing before all this celebrating is done - my name will be printed in Skating Magazine, and that will be very cool and exciting to see.

Now to figure out when to take the Adult Gold Freestyle program...

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