Skating Fridays

Post-Competition Season Thoughts

Now that this competitive season is behind me, I thought it would be valuable for me to do a quick look back and share some reflections. This collection of random thoughts is not related to my skating goals, which I will recap in the coming weeks.

1. I’ve made significant progress this season. From my first competition of the season (October 2021) to now, I’ve set two new personal best IJS scores. Prior to COVID (which is when I competed last), I was scoring in the 24-25 point range. This season, I’ve been scoring in the 27-29 point range. I’m still determined to finally break the 30 point barrier! If I take a deeper look back, I scored 18.10 in my first ever competition at Adult Gold. I’ve made an 11 point increase since then! Several skaters at Adult Nationals commented to me that they’ve enjoyed watching me improve season after season. It’s cool that others are noticing my progress.
2. My spins have improved dramatically. I used to have one trusty spin – my sit spin. After dedicating more of my practice time to spins, I’ve added a few more variations and spin positions to my repertoire. In fact, I earned a level 3 change foot combination spin this season! Never in a million years would I have ever imagined that I could achieve this.
3. I’ve found a successful phrase to help me get into the right mindset for the axels in the program. The last time I successfully landed two clean axels (“clean” meaning that they were called axels on my protocol and did not get a downgrade of any kind. This EXCLUDES any negative grades of execution.) was in 2018 during the championship qualifying event at Adult Sectionals. Four years is a long time. The phrase I used to tell myself still left room for self-doubt, which often happened. I would be timid and hope that I could land these jumps. Obviously, that tactic did not work. At the New Years Invitational, Adult Sectionals and Adult Nationals, I switched up the phrase to something more assertive. And it worked! The only time it didn’t work was during the championship qualifying found (go figure – the one time I wanted it to work!). However, I’ll take it. I’ve landed 5 clean ones in competition this year, so it’s a huge win!
4. I’m learning to feel the music and perform better. Many of my friends and competitors came up to me after my free skate at Adult Nationals to tell me that they could feel the joy I was exuding on the ice. I’ve been working on my facial expressions and executing cleaner lines in my positions, and it sounds like it is working. I used to be scared and lacked confidence. This season, I tried putting myself out there and attempted to connect with the judges and audience. I’m happy to say that it’s getting there!

In summary, I’ve had a great season. I’m continuing to make improvements and am not planning on stopping anytime soon. I hope to build on this momentum and keep progressing in all areas of my skating.

I don’t plan on competing until either September or maybe October, so I still have some time to rest and work on other things before I start training hard again.

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