Caught on Video

So on Monday I had a terrible session. Like some kind of bad joke, my stellar session on Friday was followed up by a stinker. I was annoyed, but I tried to take Gary Beacom's advice to focus on what was positive about the session and put it behind me. I thought hard and came up with one positive: that I went.
After a day off, I went back today with a good attitude, and managed to do a quick off-ice warmup this time (I like to do 20 minutes, but on Monday I didn't have time for any). I didn't land my Axel out of the gate, but I was feeling good and eventually worked up the courage to just go for it, in spite of how strange it feels. I even managed to do an OK Axel for the camera, so now you know it's not a Unicorn or a Dragon or Snuffalupagus!

Get on the Axel Train

Something amazing happened on Friday night, my Axel suddenly clicked for some reason! I have been consistently managing a couple of under rotated, wobbly Axels from a T-position most sessions for a couple of years now. But progress has been slow putting it onto the circle to get some flow on the landing. The tiny bit of extra speed usually freaks me out and I end up popping the jump and doing a two-footed little dance while leaning forward ridiculously to complete the rotation on the ice.

A year ago, I started getting occasional lessons on the jump harness. It was a real life-changing experience! Finally, I could hurl myself into the air without fear. I started landing really fabulous Axels on the harness. I learned what it felt like to land one, on one foot, and rotated. I also picked up a lot more technique over the last year, not necessarily because of the harness, but the harness did let me experiment on techniques without fear.  Unfortunately, having great Axels on the harness did not immediately translate into results off the harness, because I still get spooked. I have seen people take a lot of bad falls, and even had a couple myself. Some people call it “being chicken”, but I prefer to think of it as a “strong survival instinct”.

Me and my coaches seem to have two different approaches to tackling my Axel:

1) Look for technical fixes

2) Try to fix my brain

Approach 1 usually degenerates into nitpicking over some irritating detail. I have literally had sessions where my Axel got worse the longer I tried to fix it. On the other hand, it’s important to fix technical mistakes and I have definitely improved on that.

Approach 2 is decidedly challenging, but often my best Axels happen when I shut my brain off and just go for it. As for getting over the fear, the harness has helped somewhat, and I wear a lot of padding. But that only helps so much.

The reality is that at some point you have to step out of your comfort zone and do something that scares you. My coach has told me so many times that it has to “feel weird” because what I am comfortable with is wrong. My excuse was always that it felt like something is wrong with the jump, but often when I look at videos, it’s not that bad, I just freak out because it feels weird.

Over the last couple weeks I made a few discoveries:

• Don’t rush the takeoff
• Jump up as high as possible 
• Make a tight air position
• Stand up straight on landing

I know, right? Sounds obvious right? I’ve only been told all these things a zillion times but there are so many things to remember in a manoeuvre that takes like half a second, it’s hard to consistently add more things. Anyway, the last couple weeks I had been doing “ok” and feeling confident but still only managing a handful of decent attempts in a session, but nothing that I would call a breakthrough.

On Friday night I went to the rink after work, and the first two T-position Axels went well. But it’s impossible to land them with any flow, because there’s no momentum, so I usually end up hopping around trying to get my balance. So I decided to do one on the circle, from a back edge, with a tiny bit of speed. To be honest, I have landed them  this way only a handful of times, and really well only once.

Well, I landed the first one. It was not perfect. It did not have an easy, flowing exit edge. It was pre-rotated on the take off and cheated on the landing.   But it was on foot, with some speed, and I was shocked! I let out a yelp of surprise and triumph. I waved my arms in the air. I bragged to my friends. I took a photo of the landing edge.

When you’re 33, and you learned the Axel as an adult, you are allowed to make a big deal about it.

Well I decided to do another one, and I landed that one too. Woo hoo! I could hardly believe it. I have probably never landed two in a row like that before. 

I got a friend to take video, to see if I could capture the moment. But I had lost all my mojo. I was so excited to get it on video, I started rushing and falling into old habits. So I put my camera away.

Then I started landing them again, with my camera safely out of sight. Some of them were bad and scratchy. Some of them were very under rotated. Sometimes I was leaning forward so badly on the landing that it was awkward to finish off. Sometimes I fell. But I stopped freaking out and popping them. I stopped doing a two foot dance. 

I did so many Axels on that session, I lost count. Again and again, I just kept popping them off. I even decided they were fun. I wanted to enjoy that feeling as long as possible. Not only was it such a great feeling to actually execute the jump, I wanted to cement some muscle memory of how to do it correctly. I thought they were going to have to kick me off, but then I rolled my ankle when I started getting tired, and I decided I’d had enough.

How did I do it? Somehow I managed to convince myself to stay in the backspin position in spite of every instinct telling me it was a bad idea. And because I kept landing it, maybe my brain was starting to connect the dots - that holding the position = easy landing, and not a big scary painful tumble. 

So how will I do tomorrow? Usually for me, I take one step forward and one step back. And I will be stressed out that maybe I can’t repeat my success from Friday. And then usually if I don’t repeat my successes I get sulky. But I think I need to look at this differently. I have come really far with my skating and I know consistency is difficult for me. Maybe I will land more Axels, maybe I won’t. But now I have an experience that I will never forget.  At least for that one hour, I had a consistent Axel. And OMG it was so much fun!

Sessions like that are rare, but they make it all worth while. All the early mornings, late nights, sore muscles, toe pick belly flops, bruised knees, cut fingers, running through the fog in the dark to catch the bus, getting changed in bathroom stalls, blowing off friends at the pub, tedious drills, suffering through session after session of crappy skating, hours of off-ice jumps, and on and on. We persevere through it all because the exhilaration of achieving new heights is such a great feeling.

CCSpB

Combo spin fail

My underrotated 1A

I managed to pull this off in front of the camera last Friday.
It's short by a quarter turn and has an assortment of problems, but a one-foot landing is a real victory for me. My coach says that we can fix all the other stuff after I get a consistent one-foot landing.

Just for kicks: full test record

08-03-1991  PART 1: FIGURES - PREL (Extinct)                   PASS
08-03-1991  PART 2: TURNS IN ISOLATION - PREL (Extinct) PASS
14-05-1994  PART 1: FIGURES - 1ST (Extinct)                      PASS
14-05-1994  PART 2: TURNS IN ISOLATION - 1ST (Extinct)    PASS
04-12-1993  PART 1: ELEMENTS - PREL FS                        PASS
04-12-1993  PART 2: PROGRAM - PREL FS                        PASS
28-11-1992  DUTCH WALTZ - PREL DANCE                         PASS
04-12-1993  CANASTA TANGO - PREL DANCE                    PASS
04-12-1993  BABY BLUES - PREL DANCE                          PASS
01-11-1996  SKATING SKILLS CLASS 7                               PASS EQUIVALENCY
09-12-2010  PRELIMINARY SKATING SKILLS                      PASS
18-03-2011  JUNIOR BRONZE SKATING SKILLS                 PASS
16-12-2011  SENIOR BRONZE SKATING SKILLS                PASS
28-02-2013  JUNIOR SILVER SKATING SKILLS                   PASS

What's wrong with my Axel

I'm reaching my arms too high, and I'm not bringing my foot through.
Gosh, that's what my coach has been saying all along, it's almost like she's been watching!!!!!

A great post about Axels

If you haven't read it, here is a link to one of Xanboni's Axel articles.
It helps on those days when I'm just not feeling it.
http://xan-boni.blogspot.ca/2010/10/dont-think-about-elephants.html

Haiku

she dreams of Axels
glide, crunch, foot through, butterflies
fearless in harness

Eventful week

• A handful of Axels
• Couple double Sals
• Couple double loops
• One solid program runthrough
• One new spiral sequence 
• One synchro practice
• One bruised and skinned knee
• One sprained wrist
• One sore back
• Tomorrow I turn 32!

I'm back!

I didn't post for a while. Not for any particular reason, I'm still skating. Just laziness I guess. What has happened in the last year?

• I passed my Sr. Bronze Skills test!
• I choreographed a new interpretive program and performed it in competition twice
• I competed in and won two competitions in Freeskate!
• I learned some new moves - all 8 loops and an assortment of rockers and counters
• I started doing off-ice training for jumps, including Axel
• I started on-ice Axel practice and even did a really cheated Axel the other day
• I started pushing myself with new spin variations
• I wore out my skates - the blades are almost done and the boots are really weak
• I made the synchro team

It's been an eventful year with ups and downs. I've experienced the joy of making improvements and skating well. I've had stretches of consistent shitty skating that leaves me wondering what I am doing spending all this time and money on something I suck at. The ice giveth, and the ice taketh away. But overall, I still enjoy skating more often that I loathe it. Every day that I get to skate, I know I am lucky to get to practice my first love, and I keep coming back to the rink.

Fear and Awe

So the other day I was skating at the rink, minding my own business, when Emanuel Sandhu decided to drop by and practice some footwork and jumps. Uh, yikes! He was pretty good about not disrupting us; he mostly stayed at one end of the rink and only did some enormous jump when there was a clear path. I imagine that this is how I looked while trying to stay out of his way:


Looking him up just now, I discovered that we were born in the same month. But, even had I know that at the time, I don't think it would have been good enough to convince him to help me with my bracket turns. I'm dying to know why he was practicing, as far as I can tell he isn't competing anymore. Maybe he is still in the elite training program trying to break back in to the National crowd. Or maybe he just wants to maintain some of the skills that he worked so hard to attain. As far as I can tell his jumps need a lot of work before he could compete nationally again, but he still jumps high and has the carriage and grace of a champion.

In other news, my bracket turns still suck but slightly less now; my back camel is an ugly duckling but I can get in a couple of revolutions; I still jump about one millimeter off the ice; I feel more confidence in sit spins; I feel less confidence in forward camels; and my coach thinks my layback spin has improved a billion percent. She actually said today that my leg position is stunning. This is a great compliment considering that when I first started on layback spins, she immediately went to work on my leg position. Now that part is fine, and it's the whole rest of it. Oh we also had a neat breakthrough with my upright backspin. Coach recommended keeping the skating knee bent when I hook the spin, and gradually straightening it over some revolutions. This made a huge difference, the spin feels faster and I don't feel so wobbly either. Now I need to make sure I practice it again before I forget how to do it!

This week in ice sports

I had another busy week, just the way I like it!

• Saturday: Figure skating practice, including skills lesson. I had a decent skate and my bracket turns might be getting a teensy bit better. They are seriously hard. And I haven't even learned the backward ones yet! Otherwise my test routines have not really improved all that much. Why? Uhm, lack of practice. You bet.
• Saturday: Hockey game! We played a team with a lot of beginners so I tried to focus on taking my time to make a smart decision with the puck instead of panicking and throwing it away.
• Sunday: Another hockey game, usually I don't play 2 days in a row but they moved one of our games that would have overlapped with the Stanley Cup (how nice!). This time we played a much better team and as usual we were short-handed so this game was a little more ugly. One good moment for me was when I got a half-decent backhand shot on goal from the high slot. Another one was when I did a cool stop-and-turn-around move to lose a check and got away a nice pass.
• Monday: More hockey! Usually I figure skate on Mondays but there was no ice this week, and my team is always shorthanded so I played for the 3rd time in a little over 2 days. These 3 games were like a 'Goldilocks Series'. The first opponent was 'too easy'. The second opponent was 'too hard'. But the third opponent on Monday was 'just right'. We lost 1-0 because I screened my own goalie. Oops!
• Tuesday: Personal training. Sweat was rolling down my nose. Also, my husband has a sudden interest in hockey so we went to public skating and looked in on some games to see if there is a beginner's division for men. I wore my hockey skates and tried to do some backspins. On the first one I fell on my butt because I apparently rely on my toepicks waaay too much. After that I tried to balance more on the ball of my foot the whole time, but the best I could manage was to not fall down. On the bright side, I have pretty decent twizzles in my hockey skates, which I attribute to the lack of toepick. Then I tried a forward spin and fell again. Crap! Kurt Browning can do an Axel in hockey skates.
• Thursday: I found a store that was open late today and ran out there after work to pick up a couple of street hockey pucks. I bought the 'Green Biscuit' puck and the 'Proshot' puck. I also grabbed another stick for home use only. I wanted to try them outside on the road but it started pouring rain as soon as I got home (!). I found a piece of cardboard and put it down on the carpet in the spare room and practiced a little stickhandling, probably for 30 or 40 minutes. I definitely need a bigger piece of something slippery to practice on indoors. My forearms are already sore and that was just a couple of hours ago!
  

It's Deja Vu all over again

Well, the Stanley Cup final is all done and it ended in similar fashion to the one in 1994 - a Game 7 loss followed by a riot. Blech! In fact the Canucks came closer in 1994 when the game was a 3-2 nailbiter (including 2 goals from Captain Trevor Linden) instead of a 4-0 groanfest. Other than that observation, I don't feel too much need to comment on it because you can find plenty of that elsewhere on the internet. However for me there were some personal differences between the 1994 loss and the 2011 loss.

• In 1994 I was only 13, this time I am 30 so I was able to handle it a bit better
• Probably for the same reason, while it was exciting, I don't think I got as emotionally drawn into it except in those Game 7's.
  
• This time I live in the area, so I made the most of it by attending one game, watching one game outside in the sunshine downtown, and attending one of the away game viewing 'parties'. I now have 2 towels sporting '2011 Playoffs Final'.
  

In terms of the fans, I thought expectations were higher this time. In 1994 the Canucks were never supposed to make it to the final and while they won the first game they dropped the next three games rather decisively. Their come-from-behind wins in Games 5 and 6 were downright sensational. When they won Game 6 at home it was euphoric. The crowd went absolutely bananas and there were fireworks. One guy jumped the boards and slid across the ice on his knees, arm outstretched. The party went into the streets. In my opinion, it is still the best moment in Canuck history.

When the Canucks won Game 5 at home this year, it was also wonderful, but somehow less exhilarating and I didn't get that same feeling that everyone was going bananas now that they were only 1 win away. Instead there seemed more of a feeling of relief, like why did that take so long? Haven't they won yet? And the sense of dread, that going back to Boston would mean another bad loss (which it did).

The Canucks gave us an incredible season this year and it was both fun and stressful at the same time. Until the end, it seemed as though they could pull out a dramatic game-tying or game-winning goal when they needed it most, and it was wonderfully entertaining.

The fact that they have come so close and lost twice is of course a disappointment for me, but I feel a new motivation now. When it was all said and done and Zdeno Chara was hoisting the Cup instead of Henrik Sedin, I turned to my husband and said, "If the Canucks can't win the Stanley Cup, I am just going to have to win the damn thing myself!"

Go Canucks Go!

Ok so they are not as snazzy as some of the ones I have found on the web, but I made some Stanley Cupcakes today to cheer on my Vancouver Canucks, who are going to Game 7 tomorrow. They are certainly good enough to win it, and when you think of how many players are due to score by now, I hope they can all get their games back at once tomorrow!

Was it really 17 years ago?

This past Tuesday, May 24, the Vancouver Canucks advanced to the Stanley Cup final for the first time in seventeen years, exact to the very day. I remember it like it was only yesterday. The Canucks came only 1 goal short of sending Game 7 of the Final into overtime. After weeks of thrills and excitement, I was devastated when they lost. But, the whole experience sparked a love of hockey I never knew I had, and was one of the catalysts that convinced me to hang up my figure skates and pick up a hockey stick instead.

My family was not a hockey family. My sister and I dabbled in various sports and as a family we liked activities but weren't into pro sports. Contrary to the Molson Canadian commercials, not every Canadian family is glued to Hockey Night in Canada. But as I got older it was probably inevitable. Strangely, the way I remember getting interested in hockey was that one of my eighth-grade teachers loved the Calgary Flames, and my girlfriends and I hated this teacher. It turned out that year that the Vancouver Canucks found themselves down 3 games to 1 in their series against the Flames, and we found ourselves with a new interest in hockey somehow, so we could stick it to this teacher if the Flames lost (we were 13). From that moment on I followed the playoffs with a sudden excitement, discovering just how fast and thrilling a game hockey is. We were amazed as the Canucks pulled out three overtime victories in a row to beat the Flames and then only lose 2 of their next 10 games to win the Western Conference. It was bedlam. The announcer shouting 'Greg Adams! Greg Adams!' as the goal-scorer skated into the glass, arms overhead. Trevor Linden picking up the trophy and the lid falling off behind him. Then the fear of having to face the New York Rangers, yeah the guys from the Big City.



After they Canucks won Game 6 of the Final decisively, this iconic photo was taken. Yep, that's blood on his jersey.



Many of the games I actually listened to on the radio while I was doing my homework (I was a weird kid). I would keep my own little boxscore going on a scrap of paper. As the Canucks continued to surprise with win after win, the players started appearing in corny radio commercials and clever musical montages were put together. I would eagerly search for good photos in the paper hunting especially for good shots of Cliff Ronning and Jyrki Lumme.


It was a different time, before you could watch the archived game on CBC.ca and download pictures from the web immediately after the game. I knew all the names and numbers of all the players, men whom I had never heard of only a few weeks earlier.

As they continued to win there was no way to ignore it and I would have gotten into the excitement at some point or another. A sort of fever took over the province, even other parts of the country. It was the sort of experience that does not come along very often when you are one of those cities that's never had a 'hockey dynasty'. And now 17 years later they are going to the final again! There are a lot of differences this time of course. The Canucks had the best record in the regular season and expectations are much higher. The uniforms are different and not a one player is the same from 1994 since Trevor Linden retired. In fact many of them were just little babies in 1994. But the fever is still powerful, and this time since I live in the city, I'm hoping to get a chance to go watch one of the games with the crowd downtown. Yes, all the games start at 5pm so it might be tricky. But I may never get this chance again, and I'm going to follow the action as much as I can!

It's at times like this, I just can't play enough hockey.

Stars on Ice

My mom and my sister and I went to Stars on Ice last Friday. It was amazing! So many great stars were there and I could not believe they were skating right past me, the real deal. There were so many exciting performances, how to comment on them all?

• Sale and Pelletier showed that they still make a great team on the ice. One of their programs was a bit forgettable but their other one had all their signature tricks. Still like last year's 'Scream' the best though.
• Sasha Cohen, whom I had never seen live before, did a fun number in a sassy outfit and another one with Browning and Pelletier dressed up like old-school clowns. Oh, and when they start that number she climbs out of a little box that the boys had just brought out! They used a bunch of balloons and a kite in that number, it was very creative.
  
• Evan Lysacek was there, and it was also my first time seeing him. They kinda made him the 'star' of the show and I was really admiring his smooth edges and grace. He also let loose a bit in a 50's number complete with poodle skirts and Tessa Virtue as the knockout blonde.
• Virtue and Moir. Can't get enough. They did part of their free dance from this year. She is one lucky girl.
• Kyoko Ina is just as adorable as she was on Battle of the Blades. She and Shawn Sawyer were acting goofy together in the 50's number.
• Shawn Sawyer kept his shirt on this year, but still managed to dazzle me with great personality and feats of weirdness. The joy was so evident on his face, no wonder he skipped Worlds to do this. He is truly a performer.
  
• Joannie Rochette! Still strong, beautiful, and flawless. Ah JoRo, please compete next year!
• I appreciate Jeff Buttle more each time I watch him. I thought he was absolutely stunning.
  
• Kurt Browning is still my favourite skater. What else can I say about him? Love that he is still going strong at 44.
  
• It was a surprise (at least to me) that they actually brought in Miki Ando and Takahiko Kozuka! I am not a big fan of Ando's but she is World Champion and her show program was actually much more artistic than her competition programs. Still had too many of her feature move though, what I call the 'two-foot grimace'. And Kozuka was fabulous, again with all this personality that just doesn't come out in his competition programs.
  

Anyway it was a great show and my throat was sore from the rest of the weekend from all the screaming!

Back on the Ice

Well I haven't done a ton of skating in the last 6 weeks, hence the lapse in blogging.

• Primarily this is due to the closing of the public rinks for spring/summer, and because I experienced an injury to my neck and I wasn't able to jump or spin for a while.
  
• This week I had terrible luck and tweaked my neck again so I had to miss a session and then two other sessions were canceled for an ice show.
  
• That would not have been so bad if they had at least let us know that the sessions were canceled, but it was a surprise to everyone even my coaches.
• I've skated 3 times with the Adult synchro team. Now I see why it was called 'Precision' in the past. It's really hard! But it's so cool to skate with other Adults and they even talk to me.
• My skills have not taken too much of a hit and I think my spins have even gotten better. I've been working on more attack in all of them and I recently started putting more work into a layback spin and a sideways leaning spin. Camel spins are still inconsistent but because they've gotten a little wild as I try to make them faster. OK, my jumps have probably gotten worse, they barely leave the ground. But, I'm doing better at bracket turns and pivots.
• I got to play a couple of playoff games with my hockey team and we even made it to the final! We lost in the final, but whatever. For the spring I am playing in a league that plays on a day that works better for me, but so far it's very disorganized. The first game was ok but in the second game we only had 6 players and nobody arrived to give us jerseys or pucks. Eventually we procured jerseys and a couple of subs but double-shifts are not my favourite way to play hockey. Fortunately the other team was not too skilled and I had a lot of chances to breathe. Had a couple shots on goal too, not bad for a defender.
• I got both sets of skates sharpened and it made a huge difference. Duh!

Here's a video of my new layback spin. My parents watched one of my practices recently and brought their camera! OK so it doesn't look like Alissa Czisny's layback spin, but it sure feels like I am bent back until my body is parallel to the ice. The camera really has a way of shattering my internal perceptions ;)

Thoughts on Worlds

We finally had the 2011 World Championships after it was moved due to the tragedies in Japan.

Here in Canada we were blessed with free, complete coverage of all post-preliminary skates on the CBC streaming video. Unfortunately it was a bit choppy for me and commentated by PJ Kwong but I endured it. I stayed up late a couple of nights getting through it all! As usual there was plenty of intrigue. Here are some of my thoughts.

• Patrick Chan! He skated brilliantly and truly deserved to win here. Not quite as good as his skate at Canadians but so thrilling anyway. Feels like ages since a Canadian won anything, so very exciting.
  

• I wish his competition had been a bit better though. The men's freeskate was a bit of a gong show with Takahashi losing a screw, Oda having a combination disallowed, and generally a disappointing number of wipeouts.
• Brian Joubert's FS outfit is so pretty, I want one for myself. Also I thought the camera was shamelessly zooming in on his package after his skate, but later I realized he had cut his hand and I guess the intention was to get a shot of that. Shows where my brain is I guess! Also Joubert didn't put a combination into his SP and did not do very difficult spins which generally left me disappointed.
• Speaking of the Frenchmen, Florent Amodio skated his 'Once upon a time in Mexico' program right before Joubert's, and I thought Amodio's was really superior. Then Amodio dropped my jaw not with his great FS but with the vocals he apparently chose to keep in the music. I actually think it was kind of a cool move but wish he had chosen better vocals with which to make his statement...I mean, the Black Eyed Peas really deserve this honour? meh.
• I didn't watch Artur Gachinski's programs because I had this impression from GP season that he was some kind of nobody in pink gloves. Looks like I have to go back and watch his bronze-medal performances...oops. In my defence I was trying to get through all those programs at 2am and I had to skip some performances.
  
• Adrian Schultheiss missed the cut for the FS, which I thought was kind of a shame.
• Michael Brezina was 4th. WTF?
• Richard Dornbush actually making me root for an American man. WTF?
• Peter Leibers really fun to watch.
• The other Canadian boys not having great skates. For Joey Russell it was his first trip to worlds so I cut him some slack. But Kevin Reynolds needs to step it up. If I understand correctly we will only get to send 2 men next year?
  
• In pairs, I didn't see all the performances yet but the real winners in my mind were Vol/Trank and their stunning triple twist. It looks like she is going to hit the rafters! Almost as stunning as SavSzol's huge triple flip. The pink bodysuit is a bit much for me but there is no denying that they nailed every single element including those pesky SBS spins they missed at Europeans. The other two Russian couples were a bit lacklustre in my opinion but maybe I'm just distracted by how hungry the girls look, it's just not a look I'm into. Pang and Tong were also a bit off in their FS with jumping errors and just not a lot of wow factor bumping them down to bronze.

• The Canadian pairs skated well but small mistakes were enough to keep them out of contention. In fact they even came close to qualifying 3 teams for next year but it was not to be. Eric and Meaghan were fierce competitors, she accidentally broke his nose early in the SP on a triple twist but they finished their program and even brought in a great score. Serious competitiveness to push through that! Anyone that thinks figure skaters are not tough as nails should watch the video.
• I actually really enjoyed the American team YanCoughlin and they skated very well and placed surprisingly high in 6th place.
• Takahashi/Tran really surprised me by placing so well in the SP, I didn't know they were actually contenders.
• Really like some of the choreo in the other German FS from Prince of Persia even if the outfits are a bit over the top.
• Miki Ando put together two clean programs to win. Yawn. Watching her programs I got the feeling it is like watching her practice, only there happens to be some completely unrelated music playing. Kudos for her for really nailing the technical content though.
• Overall I thought the ladies really brought it in the SP. Lots of those elusive 3/3 combinations that we just did not see on the GP season.
• Amazed at who beat out the Canadian ladies. They did not bring their best performances, but I thought PCS would hold them up. Mae-Bernice Meite and Sarah Hecken, seriously? Ok, in the FS the Canadians really imploded. It's a bit saddening that that is the best our country can produce, when you look at how popular figure skating is in Canada. We have top coaches, top facilities, tons of participants, and a sad lack of 3Lutzes, 3flips, and 3/3 combos in world-class competitions. JoRo, when are you coming back? And the Americans think their ladies were a disappointment, pshaw.
• To Sarah Hecken's credit, she has a 3/3 combo and clearly loves to skate, she brings a real exuberance to the ice.
• Pleased to see a couple of girls with actual boobs skating at this level and even placing well. Elene G is a real sassy one, fun to watch.
• Shocked to see the Russian ladies do so well. Not because they are Russian, but just because of their inconsistent GP seasons. Wow! Leonova and her new hairdo really sold the Witches of Eastwick. I have to say, it's not fair that the guys get to do footwork with attitude, drunken footwork, and Sherlock Holmes while the girls have to look pretty in their footwork/characterization. It's kind of refreshing to see someone do something slightly out of the ordinary (is Stephanie Rosenthal ever going to come back? Sigh)
• Mao Asada smiling! Hate the new SP dress. Love her FS, dress and all. Wonky entrance to the camel spin made me feel better about mine.
• Kanako Murakami changed her SP dress and look which really did not do it for me, shame because she is a sheer delight.
• Kiira Korpi did not skate well, and Carolina Kostner skated forgettably but well enough for bronze. Her SP is good, but I just can't get into her FP and I'm tempted to blame it on that awful dress. Why do the dresses impact my opinion so much?
• The return of Yuna Kim! Ok, she wasn't perfect, but it was really exciting to have her back. It was sad to see her tearing up on the podium, maybe it will inspire her to , um, actually compete next year?
• Voir are back! And they brought a sassy FD with them which was amazing to watch in its entirety. I thought the ice would melt! It was thrilling and should have won over Marlie's snoozefest of a tango. Yeah, I get that it's difficult, but it looks difficult, and I just don't get the feeling that they need a chaperone the way Voir do. They didn't even look pleased afterwards, bah.
• Fabian Bourzat fell on a bracket turn. Stupid bracket turns! On the one hand I feel a bit vindicated for finding them so difficult. If Fabian Bourzat can fall on a bracket turn, they must be hard. On the other hand I thought it was really tacky of him to get so mopey in the KNC and then walk away leaving Nathalie looking like a limp pile of bones.
• Ok I love the Shibs, but since when is it possible to medal in ICE DANCE in your first trip to worlds? Where was this kind of love for Bourne and Kraatz? I absolutely adore their Nat King Cole FD but apparently it's not that difficult....dunno. However I'm very pleased that they took the bronze and not one of those awful Russian couples. At least Bobroviev got rid of Tom Jones!
• Did Cappelinni and Lannotte change their FD music? It was a classy selection and they just seemed to float in the air, it was beautiful. We didn't see them for a while, glad to have them back and skating so nicely.
• Crone and Poirier were fun to watch yet again but they just weren't getting any love from the judges, leaving them in 10th. But Weaver and Poje skated their little butts off to place 5th overall! Their SP is sensational and classy. Their FD feels 'messy' to me with all the musical cuts and I just want to pull her hair back into a bun already but it didn't bother the judges. Ice dance is definitely the strongest discipline in Canada.

Shockingly good public ice

I don't have any freestyle ice until Saturday, but it's spring break this week and there are extra public skate times on at one of the private rinks all week. I dropped in after work today and for only $2 I skated for almost an hour with only about 20-30 other people on the ice. It was pretty roomy! I did do some spinning but 'figure skating' isn't technically allowed so I didn't spend the whole time spinning in case someone complained. What I did do was practice my bracket turns a LOT. I just learned them a little over a week ago. The inside ones are not so bad but the outside ones are pretty tricky. Last Monday I fell pretty hard on a left outside bracket and I am a little spooked on those ones now. The inside ones are actually decent and I worked up the nerve to do them with a little speed. They're almost fun! But not nearly as effortless as 3-turns. Anyway I checked the tracings and some of them really look bracket-shaped. I'm amazed! I never learned these before and figured that it was a distinct possibility that they would just be too hard to learn.

I also practiced back outside pivots because they are also in the Sr. Bronze Skills patterns. The RBO pivot is not too bad probably because of more familiarity with the RBO edge because of jumps. The LBO pivot is much harder but I found that deeper knee bend and patience were very helpful. I have learned some bits and piece of the Sr. Bronze patterns and worked on what I could remember. I should be learning the patterns in full soon especially once I get the hang of the brackets and the pivots.

No skating until Saturday - which is probably good for my knees.