Ok, so I've been skating on and off for my whole life, but now that I'm getting a bit older, I've reached a point where I don't know if I can get any better. I feel like I've reached the maximum of what I can do jumping wise.
I started up skating again about 3 years ago after a significant break and have managed to get back a lot of my old tricks. I do compete at a fairly high level as an Adult, but I'm finding myself getting very nervous about upcoming competitions. I am a perfectionist and put a lot of pressure on myself to do well. I'm finding that this is really getting in the way of my enjoyment of skating.
At my level, if I don't put in harder jumps then I don't have much chance of scoring well and being competitive with the other skaters in my group.
Also, where I live, we have to achieve a minimum technical score to qualify to go to Adult nationals. My goal is to go to nationals this year and hence I've committed myself to compete this season, but I'm just not sure whether I should continue competing after that.
The standard at my rink is pretty high and I'm also on the State Squad, so there is an expectation to attain certain levels of achievement.
After this year, I may consider not competing anymore, but I feel like skating is an all-or-nothing kind of sport, so I don't know what else I could do to have something to work towards?
Argggh! Does anybody else feel like they are stuck in a bit of a rut? I don't want to quit, as I've invested a lot of time and money into this sport and have developed a close relationship with my coach, but I just don't know how long I can keep up with all of this. Feeling lost :'(