July Update

I cannot believe it’s been weeks since I’ve had an update on this blog. Sorry to my regular readers, things have been crazy. In these last two weeks I’ve been entranced in planning two very important events and attending a week long conference. Any who, I am happy to be back with exciting news. First and foremost, on July 13th I passed my very first skating moves test (pre-bronze). I’ll write more about the actual test in a different post, I also have video footage of the whole thing!

After I finished my test and got my results at 9:30 I jumped for joy, literally over and over again. I sung my heart out as I rushed to my home rink for a 10:00 private lesson (w/ the same coach that came with me to my test). Due to the fact that my lessons are during Learn to Skate, it could not be rescheduled. As I walked into the rink I saw the skating director and exclaimed that I had passed. To which his response was, congratulations, now what are you doing here? “I am here for my lesson of course!” I ran over to the bench to get my skates and just 7 minutes later I was on the ice. Obsessed you say? I just got back from a one week Christian conference in at Bowling Green State University where I continued practicing daily. I got home at noon and by two o’clock I was at my home rink for an open skate practice session.

On The Ice

I’m bored. I just passed my pre-bronze test. In the lesson following my test, coach T showed me the bronze moves test (one of the elements was a “pass” according to her, on the first try). The other elements I did fine. It was shocking to me how I picked up the test so quickly, considering that my first moves test took me months to learn. I expect I’ll be testing bronze moves very soon, which makes my dream of skating at nationals this year a little more within my reach. All week at BGSU I did the moves test first and then continued on with freestyle. Within 30 minutes of every session I was bored and didn’t know what to do next.

I need a challenge. Doing the same thing over and over just isn’t working for me. I feel like I need to get frustrated with a move or jump. I was really irritated because I couldn’t do a waltz jump for the longest time, I chickened myself out of the toe-loop for a month. Why is it that nothing scares me right now? I used to be scared to practice the cross-behind dance step, now I just do it whether or not I feel comfortable. I was deathly afraid of crossing one foot in front of the other and now it’s become second nature. I talked to my coach about needing a new challenge today, but I was shot down, “Gina, you need to work on improving the skills you know now.” Arghh! I want to learn a backspin, a sit spin, the half-flip, a lutz, back 3’s, twizzles, and more before the end of the summer. How on earth is that supposed to happen if I keep working the same skills over and over. I am on the ice 10 hours a week, do you want me to die of boredom in that time?

More to come soon! Thanks for reading :)