I passed my bronze freestyle test, yay!
To be honest I had mixed feelings after I’d tested, because while I hit all my elements, I knew I didn’t skate as well as I wanted to. The last time when I failed my bronze test, I had skated closer to my potential so I felt really good about that test, even though overall I do think the second attempt was a stronger skate. But because I felt like I didn’t skate as close to my abilities, I was disappointed with it.
The elements themselves weren’t my source of disappointment — I managed those without getting asked to reskate anything. It’s more the flow and transitions that really faltered — I wasn’t especially nervous (or so I thought), but I could hear myself scraping something terrible and I had little flow throughout. I had done this program so many times in practice (not the same, I know!) and steps that never bothered me were suddenly stiff and jerky. I did feel additional pressure because I’d failed the first time, so that must have gotten to me at the last minute.
A lot about the test went by in a blur, but I know that I landed my jumps fine. My coach and I worked on presenting the landings better, so that even if I wasn’t going to suddenly get amazing height and speed, hitting a strong landing pose and holding the edge would improve the overall impression, and I think that helped a lot. I managed a nice solid backspin, which was such a relief, and while the sit spin wasn’t as low as I usually get in practice, it was better than the first test. I was bummed about not feeling like I *performed* the program, though — it just was.
In any case, the judges’ comments:
Passing average: 2.5
Passing total: 5.0
Judge 1
Technical merit: 2.5
Presentation: 2.5.
Total: 5.0
(Literally had no comments. Blank page, just the scores.)
Judge 2
Technical merit: 2.5
Presentation: 2.5. Put more power into your program. Push harder – more flow
Total: 5.0
Judge 3
Technical merit: 2.5. Work on having a little more speed into your jumps
Presentation: 2.5. Some nice tango connecting moves.
It’s too bad I couldn’t have passed feeling awesome about what I put out there, but at the end of the day I’m relieved to have it over. Working on the test took some time away from my new program, and at this point I don’t want to spend any more time on the test when I have new things to be working on. I’ll take the pass!
Sarah on Ice 
Whoo hoo! Congrats, Sarah! I *knew* you’d pass! It’s funny how test day adds a bunch of nerves to some elements/transitions that are normally easy for us, isn’t it? Either way, you should go celebrate this milestone. What is next for you? Will you be testing MIF later this year or just work on improving existing elements? Congrats again – I’m so excited for you! 🙂
I know, darn those nerves! I know I’m never going to do as well on a test or competition as I do in practice, but you can still hope, right? As for what’s next, I have a competition coming up (gulp, too soon!) at bronze level, and that’s been taking most of my practice energies. After that I think I’ll probably turn to Silver MIF, although I don’t have plans to test them anytime soon. It would be nice to compete at bronze at sectionals or nationals next year, when hopefully I’ll be strong enough to be competitive! (Right now I know I’m not competitive and the program is too new to be comfortable with yet.)
Congrats on passing, sorry you didn’t feel great about your elements.
What’s weird is I failed my first bronze test where I thought I did well (except loop, which was just okay) and I passed my second test (at a totally different club with different judges) where I thought I skated pretty miserably.
Thanks Jessica. I hear you – I wouldn’t take back the pass, of course, but it’s always kind of weird when you feel differently than the results either way.
Yay! Congratulations! I think I felt kind of “meh” about my bronze FS test skate too. But now I can hardly remember… Congratulations, again! I’m so glad you passed. Did you get video?
Thanks! I didn’t get video of the test. My coach wasn’t at the session and the coach who was putting me on the ice had a skater right before me so I didn’t want to interrupt to ask (and plus, I was too busy being nervous!). I do hope to get more video of my programs going forward, though it’s hard because I don’t like asking people to take video for me.