Preparing for Competition

Winterfest is coming up this week. Gracie is skating her first ever artistic program on Thursday afternoon and her short and long programs on Friday. She's skating at High Beginner level for the first time.

For weeks prior to yesterday she hadn't gotten through any of her programs without falling on nearly every jump and spin. She would run through a program, fall, work a section until it was perfect, run the program, fall...For weeks I've been thinking about whether or how to prep my strong-minded competitive girl for a disastrous competition. I'm still gnawing on that.

But, yesterday Grace practiced for an hour at the Ice Box with energy, focus, and drive. She did fall a couple of times, but she skated aggressively and with an artistry that had been absent for what seemed like months. She looked to be pulling it all together.

There's something about timing, I realize, in all of this. I don't understand the phenomenon very well, but I begin to see the importance of Grace not peaking too soon. When I am watching Grace work with Roxanne leading up to a competition I'm worrying all the time: will this program be choreographed in time? will Grace know the program and be secure in every element (or any element) in time? I worry that she'll be so disappointed if she falls or accounts her performance a failure. How will I help her through? How can I prepare her without undermining her confidence? And then somehow her elements, her speed, her artistry, and her attitude begin to come together and she's skating, as she did yesterday, programs that begin to sing.

I don't know how she'll do this week. But I do have a better sense of what she's capable of doing when preparedness and determination begin to coincide.