Best Skating Day EVER

Skating, like writing, is an emotional creature. We go so far as to entwine our self worth to it. It's not healthy and it can be down right irrational, but it is what it is. And just as in writing, in skating, I have goals. I'll be skating twenty-two years this May and more than anything I want to finish all my United States Figure Skating (USFS) freestyle tests. I have two left: Junior and Senior.

But then I tore my ACL back in 2010 and I honestly thought I there was no way I could possibly, realistically, even imagine of taking the Junior Freestyle test. EVER.

The reason: The test has a double flip in it.

It's not that I'm scared of the jump. I don't have a love-hate relationship (yes, jumps are like people) with it. It's nothing like that. It's just that doing a double flip on a reconstructed knee just plain hurts.

Until recently.

I don't know if I've just gotten stronger from working out at PURmotion, or if it was changing my technique, or if my coach got extra awesome, or God, or what, but I was able to start working on them the past few months--pain free. But even though the pain was gone, I still had to battle the demons surrounding the jump, because it was on the entry to this jump that I tore my ACL. And I'd be lying if I didn't admit to the fact that I sometimes still freak out over it, which means I've been two footing the landing on the double flip--ALOT.

Now that you know the back story, let me describe the best skating day EVER.

I ran my Junior Free Test program this morning for my coach and best friend Danny. I landed every jump, did every spin, even hit the illusion in my footwork. But, I, of course, did a single flip. But it was the first time since I had surgery 2 years 11 months and 3 days ago that I skated a pretty much clean (except for the flip) Junior Free Test Program. I was so happy. After I caught my breath, retied my skates, and stuck my crash pads in my pants, I decided that I wanted to work on the double flip. And look what happened...



The first one I actually landed wasn't as squirrely, but of course that wasn't on camera. And then when the double flip knew it was being filmed it became a little shy. But I coaxed it out of hiding and Danny caught the second one on camera.

Junior Free Test here I come!