2024 Skating Goals Review
It’s that time of year again to review what my 2024 skating goals were, and how much progress I’ve made on each of the items. Let’s go!
- Get the Adult Junior Moves (Pre-Gold Skating Skills) test-ready. I am happy to report that I’ve made some significant progress on this test. They are NOT test-ready, but my coach and I are happy with how far I’ve come in 12 months. I made friends with a tire and am now able to do almost correct chocktaws (S-steps). The backward outside loops are getting better and less scary, and my rockers are better-ish. The diagonal rocker/rocker pattern still scares the bejesus out of me, but hopefully things will get less frightening with time. My coach believes that I should be able to test these before the end of 2025. Fingers crossed!
- Add a new spin to my repertoire. So much spin progress this year! I can now do a fully correct flying camel and get more than 2 revolutions (game changer!). I also successfully executed a jump from one foot to the other, and I achieved a correct blade feature element. I doubt any of these new tricks will make it into my program, but I’m still happy that I was able to learn some new things this year.
- Fine tune my mental game. This will always be a work in progress. I entered 5 singles events this year, and I won 3 of them (I came in 2nd in one of them and 10th in the other). I’ve been able to figure out how to get better into my zone and brush away some negative thoughts that enter my head. This year, I’ve mostly been focused on staying confident and knowing that I can do this. For the last 2 competitions, I went into them telling myself that I’d been skating really well, and to use that positive energy into my performances. That seemed to work. I’m hoping that I can continue this progress, because it feels so good to finally not be my own worst enemy when competing!
- Add a new pairs element. We’ve got a mini pairs camel spin now! It might be slow, and it might have all the revolutions required, but it’s progress. We’re also pretty close to a pairs combination spin too. It’s been so helpful to have a (somewhat) regular coach helping us, even though it’s virtual. I am still hoping to get that death spiral element!
- Land a(nother) clean double salchow. OK, not much progress to report here, but it’s not for lack of trying!
All in all, I’ve had a pretty successful 2024. I earned two personal bests in freestyle events this year, and I even got a level 3 combination spin called (with +2 grades of execution). Oh, and I passed my preliminary dances, which was a bonus.
I’m looking forward to seeing what 2025 brings!