2012 Skating Resolutions

[jjane45]

Whee sarahspins that sounds like a very accomplished year so far! Good luck on November tests!! I am working on silver moves too but cannot tell at the moment when will it be presentable. Fortunately we do have more frequent test sessions around here.

[PinkLaces]

1. Consistent loop Yes!  It's back!
2. Consistent flip Yes!
3. Consistent lutz (landed on 1 foot instead of 2 like now). I'm counting this as a yes.  The only time I don't land it is when there are too many kids hanging out in the lutz corner.  Even then I can land it most of the time.
4. 4+ revs consistently on camel (almost there) Every session I have a couple that go 4 or 4+
5. Low sit spin (90 degrees) It is much lower and is close to 90
6. Get all spirals above hip height Outside forward and all the back spirals are a bit over hip height. The forward inside are not there yet.
7. Pass Silver something - be it ISI Freestyle, USFS Moves, or even better USFS FS or even even  better all 3. Silver moves are improved but won't be passable by the end of the year.  Silver ISI is close on most of the elements.
8. Master all 4 back 3 turns. Back outside are getting pretty good flow out of them.  Back insides are okay on one side and iffy on the other.
9. 3+ revs in layback position Had 2 consistently and just this week started getting 4.
10. Lose weight.  I think this is the thing that will help my skating the most.  I lost 21# this year (and gained 7 back).  I noticed a definate improvement in my skating at my lighter weight. Scale is out of battery at my house so not sure on this one. I know I have gained and lost this year but not more than 5# either way.

[sarahspins]

I am working on silver moves too but cannot tell at the moment when will it be presentable. Fortunately we do have more frequent test sessions around here.

I don't actually expect to pass my silver moves the first time out though.. it's more that I need to push myself to try harder and work on them more, which is why I'm going to do it at all    If I do end up passing, great, if not, at least it would be good practice since I didn't do my last tests in a test session.

[jjane45]

If I do end up passing, great, if not, at least it would be good practice since I didn't do my last tests in a test session.

Fight, Sarah, fight! j/k   That's a great mindset going into tests or competitions!

[jamesleo629]

My skating Resolutions 2012 are to be healthy as to enjoy skateboarding more in a whole year and try to learn different expertise in skateboarding.

[JSM]

2012 goals -

Compete adult sectionals and nationals (another comp would be great, but all these competitions require so much traveling and $$) Done!
Learn and pass preliminary dances Done!  Also testing Pre-Bronze in a couple weeks.
Take Novice moves test by summer, pass by end of the year  Done!  Passed on my first try in September, I was SO happy!
Land double loop and double flip Double loop is nowhere close, attempting them is hard and stressful on my knee.  Double flip is close though!  They are either landed and cheated 1/4 turn or fully rotated and on the ice.  I still have a couple weeks!
Land double-double combination (at this point I don't care which one!)  Nope, haven't really even worked on these, sadly.
Learn 2 sit variations Done!  Now to see if I can get credit for them...
Increase flexibility so that I can do the splits again Working on it, I've seen improvement but I can be working harder on this for sure.

Overall I think I've made some good progress this year, and I'm looking forward to 2013!

[sk8lady]

Only had 4 freestyle lessons from my coach since last March when I set these up, so I had limited success this year...

My goals:
1. Pass Ten-Fox--DONE!
2. Land lutz--haven't even worked on this. 
3. Gain height on all jumps--better height on toe loop, salchow, and flip but not on loop!
4. Sit spin at shoot the duck level (more than one revolution and then falling down, which is mostly what I'm doing now!)--it is lower, but I've developed arthritis in my left knee and the shoot-the-duck level is not feasible any more (at least not the getting back up part!).
5. Compete in either Adult Nationals or Colonial's Adult Winter Challenge at Bronze level, freestyle and light entertainment programs--Planning on this for 2013, probably the Adult Winter Challenge this year.
6. Flying camel up to 3 solid revolutions (it's at 1 right now with a lot of arms and legs flinging about in an unsightly manner)--The jump is much higher and the single rev is more solid with arms and legs fairly still
7. Front to back camel--totally forgot about this!
8. Start thinking about testing Silver free--expecting to do after AN in Hyannis in 2014
9. Start Fourteen Step--Working on it!
10. Drag Partner Boy to see dance coach with me and get Free Dance choreographed and started (that's probably a year long goal in itself...)--Totally forgot about this one too--not feasible.

Dance goals all met, will have to come up with more manageable goals for freestyle next year (such as, "Have lessons more than 5 months a year!") 

[Live2Sk8]

How I did: (2012, First time posting skating resolutions)

1.  Participate in 3 competitions.   Overachieved, managed 5 competitions!
2.  Perform my freeskate and artistic light 3 times each, either in competitions or exhibitions.  4 times each.  Last in freeskate 3 of 4 times but I skated my best so that's ok.
3.  Find music for and learn an artistic dramatic program.  Perform 2 times, in competition or exhibition.  Also achieved, and competed 2 times, 1 recital.
4.  Get sit spin lower. It's beyond pathetic despite trying really hard for a couple of years.  Fail.  Injured most of the year so stopped working on sit spin mid year.  May not be able to work on it again for a long time. 
5.  Put together a Bronze FS program in hopes of testing in 2013.  This requires accomplishment of #4.  Fail.  See injury.  Ruined dreams of going to AN next year.
6.  Work on Silver moves.  Goal to test in 2014 but with current level of accomplishment, this might be 'The Impossible Dream' just like #5.  Also fail.  Can't work on spiral pattern or power pulls because of injury.  3-turn patterns have slight improvement.  Good improvement on back cross strokes.  No improvement on 8-step mohawk.
7.  Work on speed and power.  Not sure - I feel like I have a bit more speed and power.  I had better ice coverage in my programs as the year went on, so I think that means I improved.

I'm happy with what I was able to accomplish given the injury and not being allowed to do much, limiting jumps and spins, etc.  Will be taking a month off the ice to try to get some healing on injury and will re-assess plans for 2013 after that.

[taka]

Not too bad!

My rink shut for 3 months for renovations over the summer so it took quite a while to get back up to my previous levels afterwards (especially in pattern dance) despite skating a little while it was shut.

1) Sit level 1 pattern dance test and possibly L1 variation too. Level 1 PD passed in October and am testing level 2 PD in a fortnight so might sneak it in 2012 too! L1 variation really suffered when my rink shut then got changed quite a bit thereafter so I will be testing it in 2013.

2) A program - either for free dance or free skating. Nope... We've worked on things like twizzles and blues choctaws to put in a free dance program. Testing twice in 2 months meant delaying working on it until 2013.

3) Consistent loop and flip. Epic fail... I'm enjoying dance so much that my Free skating has been shelved for now. I think I've jumped in maybe one session since August...

4) A centred upright spin and a camel with a couple of revs and some kind of proper backspin too. Mixed - Upright much better, camel no real change and my backspin still twizzles!

I'm happy with that overall!

[AgnesNitt]

I'm still working on 2008 resolutions!

[icedancer]

I didn't make any resolutions for 2012 - I'm pretty sure that last January I was feeling that my skating had pretty much gone to crap and that it might be time to hang up my skates -

SO in June I started going to dance sessions again just to challenge myself a bit - plus it is good time to get good ice with mostly adults who are interested in dance and good time to skate - surprised myself by not being able to do ANY dances anymore - oh no!!

So started just doing forward dances by myself - treating it like a workout.  Full patterns of all of the low dances, working on dance again, trying to do a few dances with partners and realizing that I was scared to skate with anyone - had to get back into it!!

Quit my job in September and strangely enough was making more money in my private practice and so started private lessons again with my old coach - best decision I have made in years - finally feeling like I can skate again!  Lots of things need lots of work - basic skills, postures, foot placement, edges, turns - stroking- wow, this all needed improvement and it is so great to be with a coach again!

Now starting to enjoy the dance sessions and skating with some of the guys at my rink.  doing better with solo dance patterns - still have a lot of work to do to get where I was... may never get there but feel much better.

Also got my Gold Dance Test Judge appointment and I must say that so far I like being a Gold judge as I seem to be getting better judging schedules.  Is that just a coincidence?  Not sure.

Maybe I will make some resolutions over in the 2013 thread...
Hmmm

[PinkLaces]

1. Consistent loop As a single jump, it takes a few tries to get it warmed up and then it's good.  It's always consistent on a combo...usually better.
2. Consistent flip Yes!  I can do a pretty good flip loop combo also.
3. Consistent lutz (landed on 1 foot instead of 2 like now). Wow.  I feel like I've come so far on this one.  Lutzes are consistent as are lutz loop combos.  I am even able to do lutz-falling leaf-flip sequences.
4. 4+ revs consistently on camel (almost there)3+ most spins, but have one a session that goes to 4.  Also started working on back camel. Can get 2 on the back camel and can also do change camel spins.
5. Low sit spin (90 degrees) Not quite there, but so close!  I've had a few that were there.  I'm really quite happy with my progress.
6. Get all spirals above hip height Outside are there.  Inside are just below hip height.  Again very happy with my progress on these.
7. Pass Silver something - be it ISI Freestyle, USFS Moves, or even better USFS FS or even even  better all 3.Not in the cards for this year.  Moves are much improved.  ISI Silver FS is very close except for the dance step patterns.

8. Master all 4 back 3 turns. I can do all the back 3 turns, but they are small.
9. 3+ revs in layback position Yes!  Can't do it all the time, but get 2-4 revs in position most times.
10. Lose weight.  I think this is the thing that will help my skating the most.  I lost 21# this year (and gained 7 back).  I noticed a definate improvement in my skating at my lighter weight. I think I actually gained a few # in the finally tally.  I know I gained and lost all year. Don't know for sure as scale is broke.  I can feel when I gain weight that certain elements are harder.

[Sierra]

Good work everyone!

I'm really hopeful for 2012. I now skate three days a week and I'm progressing so much better than I was with 2 days. Plus I start driving in August so that will help my skating, too.

So, the goals:
-Pass Juvenile moves. Yes.
-Have consistent doubles (semi-consistent acceptable for lutz and toe.) They're not 100% but I land them most of the time so I'm satisfied.
-Land double-double combos. Yes! I've landed ten different double-double combos, as well as a double-double-double.
-Skate my Preliminary program cleanly in competition. Yes.
-Choreograph and compete a Pre-juvenile program. I decided not to compete in the fall, but that's OK. I did choreograph a program.

This year didn't go at all like I thought it would, but I'm finally starting to get back on the right track and back into a better state of mind. Hopefully next year will go smoother.

[alejeather]

Okay, I think it's close enough to the end of 2012 for me to report on my final progress on the goals I made in September for the end of the year.

... I am working on pre-bronze freeskate. ... I think maybe I'd like to perform in some venue before the end of the year, a small, local competition, or an exhibition or an ice show. Or maybe another test?

I passed my pre-bronze FS on December 1st, and then I performed in the spins recital. The recital wasn't exactly what I had in mind when I mentioned performing, but it really was my first time performing in front of an audience, so I'll go with it.

I'd like to put together a program, but here are my new goals for the remaining 4 months of 2012:
1. Get pre-bronze dances ready to test (depending on test dates, may not actually test them this year)
2. A scratch spin I can be proud of
3. Get comfortable with loop jump

1. Dance Coach says cha-cha is ready. The others aren't, but I haven't been working on them too much. Other things took precedence.
2. I will say I'm very proud of the progress I've made on my scratch spin. I'm actually spinning now, more balanced, more centered, more able to recover from a bad entry, often getting my foot crossed. But as it is with all things skating, my measuring stick has moved. I can't push my foot down, they're not as consistent as I'd like, I seem to always top out at about 7 revs, etc. etc. etc. I'm going to declare this goal met, but also carry it on into the new year as it applies to ways I'd like to improve my spin.
3. Loop jump. Yes. Never imagined I'd get them to where they are now. They're even pretty big (but pretty ugly ) and I'm landing the occasional loop-loop.

[treesprite]

I came back to skating about 13 or 14 months ago, expecting that within a year I'd be doing most of what I could do a long time ago. Well, it has been very disappointing. First there was an issue with skates which lasted several months, then there was the disruptions of summertime so I could only skate once a week for 3 months. It kind of makes me feel like I've only had about 8 months of skating instead of 13 or 14, but even if it was really only 8 months, I would have expected to be further ahead.

[Bunny Hop]

1) Pass the Preliminary edges test
2) Pass the lowest level dance test (Dutch Waltz and Canasta Tango)

I'm confident 2) won't be a problem (coach thinks both are passable now), but I can't do 2) without doing 1) first. At the current rate it's probably not going to happen, and I'm resigned to that. If I can't pass the edges test by the time they change the test content mid-year, then I'll have to either set new goals or quit, as testing will no longer be an option.

Well, now that I've decided testing is not on the agenda I'm revising my resolutions. New resolution:

Have Swing Dance and Fiesta Tango to close to passing standard by the end of the year (obviously there will be no actual passing or failing, but it's the standard that's important).

Obviously didn't meet the original resolutions, and I don't actually know how close I am to the revised resolution, as we moved on to learning the dances from the next level up (Fourteen Step, Foxtrot, European Waltz, Silver Samba). To be honest, neither Swing nor Fiesta would likely pass, as the mohawk in the Swing is still not right, and I haven't done Fiesta in so long lord only knows what state that is in!!