2017 Skating Goals Recap
Goodness – how is it almost 2018? Where did this year go? And wasn’t it just yesterday when I declared my 2017 skating goals?
Anyway, I am back again to recap how I progressed on my 2017 goals. I have a feeling that I didn’t quite reach my goals, but then again, I don’t think that I did a good job goal setting this year. I’ll have to take that into account when I share my 2018 skating goals with you next week.
Here we go!
- Continue to increase PCS (program component scores) in freestyle programs. Admittedly, this was a bad goal that I declared last year. One thing I’ve learned over the course of the year is that I cannot control what the judges do. I can’t control what scores I receive. I can only control myself, which is how I extend my legs, stretch my positions and keep my head up. By properly doing these things, my scores should begin to increase. Also, since the IJS system got slightly revamped for Adult Gold (changing the multiplication “factor” from 1.2 to 1.0 and one category within PCS being eliminated), PCS numbers decreased for everyone this year. I’m going to call this a wash because while I feel like I’ve improved in this area, it wasn’t realistic to aim for a certain score.
- Increase technical scores. Last year, I declared that “I’d like to aim to receive full credit (no underrotation) for my axel jump and land it cleanly in competition. I’d also like to receive either 0 or positive GOEs on all technical elements, including my spins.” I’m pleased to report that I received mostly 0 GOEs on all my spins, and I did not receive the dreaded “dash of doom” on my camel spin. That is a HUGE win in my book. I did not receive full credit for my Axel last year, but I continue to work on that. I’ve made progress here, but again, I needed to reword my goal so it wasn’t results-based.
- Approach 30 points in my freestyle program. Again, not a great goal to declare since it is results-focused and not something I could control. This did not happen, and my mental state was altered because I was too worried about future outcomes.
- Land a correct double salchow. I did not focus on the double salchow last year so this, sadly, did not happen. I am continuing to work on this and hope to make better progress in 2018.
- Add another axel in my program. While I did add a second Axel to my program, I did not land it cleanly in competition. So I can check off the fact that I did add it, but I’d have to cross it off because I didn’t correctly execute it. Call this one a wash as well.
- Continue working on double toe loop and/or double loop. I did not work on these with a coach this year but did practice them on my own. Not a great goal from last year, but oh well.
As you can see, I was too focused on outcomes in 2017, which affected my mental state and therefore affected my overall skating. Rather than trying to stay in the moment, I concentrated too much on what score I wanted to achieve. This put too much pressure on me so my mind wasn’t relaxed.
I know better now and will do a better job goal setting for 2018.
Until next week!
