Skating Fridays

2019 Skating Goals Review

It’s that time of year again for my self-review on how I progressed on my skating goals. Let’s get to it!

  1. Continue to improve my skating skills and presentation. I wanted to focus on skating on deeper edges, and making every movement have a purpose. I wanted to fully extend my legs, stretch my arms and learn to “feel” the music so I get lost in it. I wanted to tell a story on ice. Well, I know that this will ALWAYS be a work in progress, so I am never going to fully check this one off. However, I believe that this is improving in the slightest bit.
  2. Land a fully clean double salchow. Check! I landed a clean one on April 23!
  3. Add 1 or 2 new spins to my program. Check! I debuted a brand new spin combination for my local competition. Surprisingly, it earned the most points on my protocol sheet! I’m trying to learn additional features on other spins and would love to add them to my repertoire.
  4. Begin to learn a few more double jumps. Yes – I am in the midst of learning a double toe loop right now. It’s a struggle, but I am doing my best.
  5. Continue my mental training. Honestly, I feel like I went backwards a bit this year. I thought I was on the right track, but I had huge mental blocks at Adult Sectionals this year when I got dizzy and lost myself in the program. Sadly, it happened again at my local competition when I fell and forgot my program. It’s been a learning experience.

Overall, I am proud of the progress that I made this year. I hope to continue to build on some of the momentum I’ve gained this year into 2020 and beyond. Next week, I will be back with my 2020 skating goals.

4 Comments

  1. December 20, 2019 / 11:48 pm

    Eva, what I like about this list is that you cover so many different aspects of skating, both physical and mental. Bravo for accomplishing so many of your goals–you are inspiring!

    • evabakes
      Author
      December 21, 2019 / 12:43 pm

      I think the mental part is the hardest since I am just starting to learn how it all works. I wish coaches would train us on the mental aspect at the beginning stages of learning the sport!

  2. December 22, 2019 / 3:13 pm

    It’s amazing how much the mental part is and yet how little time coaches ever spend on it. I hope you will be able to lose yourself in the music while skating in 2020, when that can happen it feels great. And it doesn’t require the development of any technical skill. Though I suppose it does require you to be comfortable enough with your skating to not be consciously attending to it too much.

    • evabakes
      Author
      December 22, 2019 / 3:17 pm

      Yes – this is definitely going to be a learning process! I hope one day I get to lose myself in the music and just perform. Not worry about the elements, audience or judges – but to just be free out there!

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