Adult Silver Freeskate Test: Passed

Tags

programs, testing

I’m now a Silver skater! Phew!

Every time I test or compete, in the lead-up to skating I ask myself why I do this and what it brings me when it makes me feel so nervous and stressed out. But then I do the thing, and even if I don’t pass or do well, I usually feel fine the second I finish, even exhilarated. I tell myself consolingly that I don’t have to test or compete at all, that skating for its own sake is plenty rewarding, but then the thought of not testing or competing bums me out. So I continue to do it!

Preparation for this test was a little rushed, because my new coach and I have only been working together two months and the program is very new. But because of the timing of the tests offered, we decided somewhat last-minute that it would be better to test early rather than wait till late January, and we put together a basic program with just the test requirements.

My elements were:

• Solo loop jump
• Solo Lutz
• Solo flip
• Sequence: Waltz-half loop-salchow-toe
• Combo: Salchow-toe loop
• Camel spin
• Spin combo: camel-sit
• Spiral sequence

I don’t have video, sadly. Every time I test I think about asking someone to video me, but at the last minute I get so nervous that it feels like knowing I’m on video would add too much anxiety and I opt not to do it. And then afterward I wish I’d gotten it. Ah, well!

I generally felt prepared going into the test — I actually cut short my last few practices, because I felt like I had everything where they needed to be, and I didn’t want to overthink things. My camel spin has been behaving lately, and I’ve been getting the feel for it, and my jumps felt comfortable. As long as I didn’t blank out or get too nervous, I felt I would be okay.

Of course, nerves are always the big variable. I felt low-level nerves while waiting and my warm-up went fine — a little shaky but calmer by the end of it. It wasn’t until I actually began the program that the extra bit of nerves hit, making me a little jittery. It didn’t derail me in a significant way, but my coach and I agreed that all the jump landings were more skittery than usual. Partly because I didn’t have as much speed as I’m used to, and partly because I think my knees don’t bend when I’m nervous!

The one outright mistake came on the solo camel spin, which didn’t get a good entry (my coach said my entry didn’t get the power it needed in wind-up) and I barely hung on. I think I got a little more than 2 revolutions and was prepared to reskate it. But then I hit my camel-sit spin combo later, so I think that’s why I didn’t get any reskate requests. Everything else was completed, if not as well as I usually do in practice. Gah, nerves! I didn’t use to understand why TV commentators would talk so much about nerves and call skating a mental sport, but now that I skate, IT’S ALL MENTAL.

Judges’ scores and comments (passing average 2.7, passing total 5.4):

1. Technical Merit: 2.7
   Presentation: 2.7
   Total: 5.4
   Pass
   Nice program! Would like to see you hold your spin positions a bit longer. Would also like to see a bit more speed. Well skated. =)
2. Technical Merit: 2.7
   Presentation: 2.7
   Total: 5.4
   Pass
   Camel – work for clear exit – stronger. Loop ok. Lutz – work on entry edge. Keep working on knee bend. Keep working on lower sit pos. Some nice elements in presentation.
3. Technical Merit: 2.7
   Presentation: 2.8
   Total: 5.5
   Pass
   Good. Make sure to hold camel for required revs. Good flow.

So that’s two tests down this year! Which is one test more than I had dared to hope earlier in the year. Just for fun, some stats: It’s been four months since my last test (Gold moves), nearly two years exactly between passing Silver moves and Silver freeskate, and about 3 and a half years between Bronze free and Silver free. I don’t intend to test for a while yet, but I’m thinking Intermediate moves will be ready much sooner (within a year?) than Gold free, which I’m not even going to think about — I’m going to enjoy skating Silver for a while!

Adult Gold moves in the field: Passed

Tags

moves in the field, testing

I took my Gold moves test this weekend, and I was the most uncertain I’ve ever felt going into a test. A few complicators popped up at the last minute, but the main one was my fault for thinking that the test date was the last weekend of the month, and then finding out on Thursday that it was actually in three days!

Apparently the club tests on the fourth Sunday of the month, not the last Sunday; the last time I tested happened to be both the fourth and the last Sunday of the month. The club tests every month so they don’t announce the test dates in advance; they just assume you know the rules, and send out the test date schedule a few days before the day. So all this time I thought I had more time, and then suddenly test day was upon me. On top of that, I’ve been moving places so I hadn’t been skating much lately; I figured I would focus on moving homes first, and then really buckle down and practice the last week leading into the test. HA. HA. Ha… Joke’s on me!

I’ve been working on Gold moves for a while so I wasn’t completely unready. But I hadn’t yet got to that place where I could skate the test clean in one full run-through with no mistakes, even though I was capable of doing each element without mistakes. So my confidence was not there, plus I had that extra bit of panic for not having as much practice time as I thought I would. I seriously thought about scratching the test, supposing that I had about a fifty-fifty chance of passing. But then I figured, well, if I skipped the test altogether, that’s throwing away a chance to pass.

Working on Gold moves in the field

Tags

moves in the field, testing

After I passed my Pre-Bronze tests and was therefore able to work on programs and compete, I haven’t been in much of a hurry to take my tests. I usually defer to my coaches as to when I’m ready, and even when they think I am, I want to wait longer because testing is enough of a hassle (time, expense, emotional anxiety) that I don’t want to risk failing, in which case I have to repeat the whole process all over again.

I talked to my coach about the possibility of moving up to Silver for freeskate next year, but she was fairly hesitant about that idea. She feels that Silver is competitive and crowded, and felt I might be better off competing at Bronze again. I was a little disappointed since I wanted to move up to Silver, and I know that I still could push for it, but it’s not only that I want to skate in the Silver category; I want to be good enough that my coach thinks I am ready for Silver, and as of right now she doesn’t.

So I decided to focus more on the Gold moves in the field, and in contrast to freeskate, my coach does think I’m going to be able to test this year. I’d started working on this test before my surgery, but it took a while to work my way back up to the Silver/Gold moves after I returned. My moves coach has been encouraging me to test this summer, and thinks I’m at passing level on most of the moves and getting close on the weaker ones. Mostly, that’s the backward circle 8, and I feel like once I can consistently get all of the circles around, I will be ready to test. Currently, I’m sometimes able to get all the way around, but many times I’ll fall just a bit short on one or two of the circles. So I’m working on more power on the pushes, and a smoother glide.

Forward and backward double threes are pretty good. I’m at the stage where I can do them consistently, and the struggle comes in doing them with power and smoothness, so that there’s no jerky motion that comes from forcing the turn. My coach wants smooth ice dancey turns, with no lurching or breaking of position. I’ve been working on increasing the speed, too, because I know there’s a big emphasis on power and speed at the Gold level.

Brackets are coming along. As with the double threes, I’m working to make them look effortless and smooth, with no toe scraping or balance checks. More speed would be nice, too.

I think power circles are at passing level, although my coach would like for me to push that top speed, and to look less tentative. Forward crossovers at top speed still scare me, but I’m working on at least not letting it show!

Adult Silver moves in the field: Passed

Tags

moves in the field, testing

I passed my Silver moves! Well, passed by two judges, failed by a third, but that counts as a pass so I’ll take it.

Testing is still super nerve-wracking and I always find it difficult to test/compete with only that puny 5-minute warm-up. I do always try to find a rink to skate at earlier in the day, but based on available ice times that often means it’s 4-5 hours before. I felt very ready going into this session, because I’d been working on the moves for a while and felt like I was practicing at above testing standard (my moves coach thought so too and felt good about me testing). And that’s a good thing, because when the test came around, I skated a lot worse than I’ve been skating in practice, but still managed to hang on — I always feel like for testing and competition, I have to just assume I’ll be at 80% and make sure that 80% would still pass.

Anyway, here are the results:

(Passing average 2.7 on each move. Passing total 16.2.)

Bronze Freestyle Test: Pass

Tags

programs, testing

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!