| May 1, 2006 I have been skating at least once a week these days. A program is under works right now, it's Romanza~Fiesta Flamenco. I have always loved the fierceness of this piece. Now I feel ready to skate to it. Today was the first time piecing the program together. Hopefully I won't get too sick of it very quickly. I have until this fall ~ Halloween Classic to get things consistent. Angelo is working hard as usual for next season. He will unveil his new program this fall as well. Other new news ~ we have a brand new member of the clique. His name is Richard Quon. He is at the same level as me ~ Silver. I am currently working with him on revamping a new style. We have started on choreographing a new program, he is skating to A Night On Bald Mountain. Richard will also debut his new program at the Halloween Classic. April 16, 2006 I almost forgot to update my journal. I checked my mail, and I did not realize that a few adult skaters checks on my journal entries. I have been skating every sunday with my friends. I do at least 2 hours of skating per week. Of course not hard core skating. I play around with choreography alot and jump a few times. Mostly loops and flips. I kinda lost timing on the damn lutz, sometimes. I wish the season would begin, so I can get started on competing. I hate all this waiting around during the summer. Thank you for your concerns. I will try to update my journal more often. March 27, 2006 Unfortunately I had to pull out of the Latin Skating Celebration Exhibition due to re-injuring myself. When I thought I would be able to push a little more, I was wrong. So I have to step back and rest, then start focusing on passing my Silver MIF test on May or June. Thank you all for sending me your well wishes. March 6, 2006 Today was my first day back on the ice. I went to my nearest rink at Chelsea Piers. I decided to skate at the public session. I feel that if I would skate on a freestyle I should have have a program and a purpose. Anyways, I slowly stroked around and regained my usual speed and positions. It did hurt a couple of times to strech out and do crossovers. After 35 minutes I took off my skates and rested, then I went back on for 20 minutes. I only did a single loop and a single flip and felt that would be good enough. Plus there were a bunch of kids that just arrived, about 35 of them, so it was a good time to leave. I also decided to hire a coach. He is Lu Chen's coach's son, Bing Liu. I have heard good things about him. He is talented on the ice as well. Now I have learned the American & Russian way of training, it is time for me to see the Chinese way. February 18, 2006 I have been getting a lot of well wishes and questions regarding my withdrawal from NYI, Sectionals, and Adult Nationals. I would just like to thank you for all your thoughtfullness and kindess. I decided not to dwell on the reason why I had to scratch. I will not even go into details. Cliff notes version - I pulled something + I had to have surgery . I have been itching to go back on the ice so much these past few weeks. Especially having these Olympic competition on TV is not helping me to settle my adrenaline. I am even considering on competing at the Morris Open competition in April, but I know that will set me back on my recovery and my preparation for my Silver tests I have to take. February 4, 2006 Since my season is over, might as well relfect on this season. After US Adult Nationals in Kansas went very well, I decided to lay low off from skating and focus on getting settled here in New York. My first competition of the season was Halloween Classic. I have learned how to control my adrenaline during practices and competition. Even though I am guzzling a can or two of red bull :-D I never felt so powerful on the ice during the practice, warmup and my competition skate. I had control on every element. I was not going to let the ice control me. I then was scheduled to take my Silver tests. I thought it would be easy and a piece of cake. (Tiramisu preferable) I only practiced 3 days prior to the test day. I came in at the rink feeling sluggish and just unfocussed and just wanted to get it over with. At the end I lacked one vote for me to pass. After a suden injury after Christmas time, I began experiencing pain and discomfort on the ice. I then consulted with my family doctor and was told to be off the ice for 3 months. I did not listen and just kept on skating, since I had New Year's Invitational around the corner. I won the bronze last year and this time I wanted gold. I knew that an axel would seal the door at the silver level, so I started working on it quite frequently than usual. One day I took a hard & nasty fall, and thats how I was set back for New Year's Invitational, Sectionals, and US Adult Nationals. I plan to get better and take my Silver tests again before the Fall. At this moment I plan to skate at the Halloween Classic at PA again, then maybe New York Winter Classic, New Year's Invitational, Eastern Sectionals, and US Adult Nationals in Chicago. January 27, 2006 I will be withdrawing from US Adult Nationals as well. January 1, 2006 I will be withdrawing my application to the New Year's Invitational due to medical reasons. December 24, 2005 I am already looking forward to Adult Nationals in Texas. This time I know that I will be pushed to my limit during training and working a new program. I knew that there will be a time where a clean program will not be enough. Last year at Adult Nationals at the silver level, I saw everybody skated clean and it was just down to presentation. I know I can push myself to a superb program with choreography. I just have been complacent. Now that the age limit has been lowered, there are new talent that are coming up the woodwork. I do like the pressure of having new competitors. It pushes me to get better and find new skills within myself. December 22, 2005 Since I failed my Silver MIF test and I am not able to take it right away in time for Adult Nationals, I will be competing in the Bronze Men FS event at Dallas Texas. I am quite disappointed that I am not able to skate at the Silver level, but at least I still can compete. December 19, 2005 Oh, boy! I missed the passing mark by 2 points with 2 judges. I thankfully passed with one judge. Well here the run down of elements. 1. Eight step mohawk sequence- I passed with 2 judges. I was running out of space each sequence, I had too much speed. 2. Forward & Backward Cross Strokes - I passed with 2 judges. I could not get into the groove of the ice on the backwards strokes. 3. Three turns in the field. My achilles heel. Suprisingly I passed with 2 and of course failed by 1. 4. Forward Right and Left foot spirals - I knew I was not doing a good job on these other moves, so I knew that I had to gain points back with these spirals. So I gained speed leading to the spirals and executed them above the average. 5. Forward and Backward Edge Pulls. This I remember working on very hard in the past with my ice dance coach. So it all paid off and passed with all 3 judges. So at the end my scores all ranged 16.0, 16.1, and 16.2. Now I am scrambling to find another test date before January 17. Thank you Brian for waking up early in the morning with me to escort me to the damn rink, and I thank my father for driving me up to NJ. I guess what do I expect from today? From the moment I woke up, I was cursing the fact that I had to test. I had a bad warmup, slip sliding all over the place, and what do I expect from skating only twice this week, and nothing before that. Well what can I do, dust myself and try again!!! I have posted a detailed score and elements sheet on skatingforums.com Here is the link to the thread. December 11, 2005 I went to NJ for my birthday and skated at my birthrink Warinanco Ice Skating Center, in Roselle NJ. I had a blast skating and catching up with my friends. Then I went off with my parents and cousin Charisma to eat. December 10, 2005 Aaahhhh!!! A few more hours I will be 26!!! Thank God I do not look it. I have not started on my MIF and Free test preparations. I will start tomorrow December 6, 2005 In a few days I will be taking my Silver MIF and Free. I have not started to work on it :-D I will by the end of the week. I am happy that I started out well in the beginning of the season and I hope that it will stay like that until Adult Nationals. On the 11th of this month I will be turning 26, aaahhhh!!!! Crazy!!! November 30, 2005 I got the dvd of the halloween classic - silver men's freeskate. I reviewed my performance over and over and I was pleased on how I skated. It could have been better skated technically and artistically. I congratulate my competitors for a job well done. November 22, 2005 I will be doing the New Year's Invitational - Adult Open competition again next year. I have not decided if I should skate up to Gold or stay in Silver for that competition. November 17, 2005 I decided to postpone my Silver MIF test until next month. I will take the Silver Free test as well. November 12, 2005 I will not be competing at the New Year's Invitational since that competition is starting to divide age groups. I might not have any competitors in my class. If there is I will do a last minute entry. November 11, 2005 Now after my hectic October month, I am taking off skating for a week. I will resume next week. I have my Silver MIF test to take at the end of the month, so I can compete at AN at the Silver level. My reflections on my performance from last week, hhmm, I would have liked to try out a different kind of music. Something that is completely out of my range. I have always skated to soft pieces. The Bolt was a choice that I was steering towards to, but who knows, I might resurect it at Nationals. November 7, 2005 I was so pleased and happy with my performance yesterday at Aston PA. I was completely relaxed the whole day and was in a zone. I had a good 10 minute warmup-practice an hour and a half before my event. I nailed everything I have planned on warmup and felt very good during my performance. I became aggresive attempting all my elements except at the end of the program where I was winded and backed out on doing my second Lutz, and I just did a Loop instead. I thought I lost because of it. Suprise, Suprise, I won :-) 4 of the 5 judges voted all 1st place marks :-D The medal was very unique and pretty, I did not have a medal ceremony event unfortunately. My competitors just grabbed and left their medal discreetly after the results. Pertaining to the day of competition, as usual I was not in tip top shape. I was not running any program during practices and my left ankle was bothering me the whole time I would go into a spin or the Lutz jump. I am glad that I pulled myself together for the event. I thank you for my friends who supported me; Angelo who drived to PA and help me on the ice, Dong and Rowan who came and supported me. November 2, 2005 5:47 I did not feel well enough to go to practice today. I know even though I cannot afford to miss a day of skating, especially I still do not have a program. Once again Angelo and I made a mistake on going to the Pallisades Mall Ice Rink (November 1-Tuesday night club session). These damn foolish morons do not know the right of way during freestyles. They are endangering themselves and other skaters by chatting in the middle of the ice. So I had a yelling match with these bitches and it ruined my energy to skate. Not that it was a good session to begin with. The stupid ass skating school had to fuck up the ice. Now we all had to push 5 times harder to get on the other side of the uneven ice surface. (It was bumpy and not leveled) I will not waste my $13 trying to weave around foolish kids and foolish adult skaters who dominate the music and are more concerned on which music to listen to than skating themselves!!! November 1, 2005 I have selected my final choices for my competition this weekend. I will make my decision this Friday October 31, 2005 I decided to go to Lasker rink at the last minute instead of Sky Rink b/c it was less expensive ($4.50). Well you get what you pay for!!! The ice was bumpy, the sun was shining too bright, and the ice was unmade. I forced myself to do a few jumping passes, and not spin. That is the last time I am skating at an outdoor rink!!! Here are some pictures that I took: Lasker Ice Tim - Lasker Ice 1 Tim - Lasker Ice 2 October 30, 2005 I skated today and felt so numb. I managed to runthrough some few jumps, but I could not spin. My left ankle was pulsating when I start putting my weight on it to spin. October 28, 2005 This damn cold/fever still won't go away. I want to go back on the ice so bad, but my body is so numb. October 25, 2005 It has been raining alot lately. And after being exposed so much these days, my cold has gone worse. Now I have a fever :-( Hopefully I will be able to go back on the ice this weekend. October 24, 2005 I just got back from Skate America - Atlantic City, NJ. It was a tiring but fun weekend. I have learned alot as usual. Now I battling with a cold from being exposed to cold. I am trying to decide on what music to use. Should I use a new piece, or re-use an old one? I don't know. I will see by the end of this week. October 18, 2005 I have chosen my final music pieces down to Nutcracker or Dark Eyes. Practice will be difficult, I will be going away this weekend to skate america and I will have at least 1 week and a half to get things in order. Pressure? :-D I like it!!! October 17, 2005 I will be entering the Halloween Classic at Aston, PA - Silver Men's event. October 16, 2005 I have not been skating lately due to the trips and I have been having problems with my strained left ankle/foot. Today was my first day back on the ice. I am happy that it went well. The pain was so intense that I was having trouble walking. Today I got through all my jumps thanks God. Now this week I am off to Atlantic City to watch Skate America and learn more lessons. October 4, 2005 I cannot wait until this weekend for Campbells Classic. It will be one of the two pre-Olympic events I will be watching live this season. September 26, 2005 I skated at a public session at sky rink in the afternoon. I was battling with the voices in my head. I found myself thinking too much dring my practice. It took me almost over an hour to runthrough all my jumps. I ran out of energy so fast too, that I could not even muster a stupid Lutz/Loop/Loop combination. Or even attempt any spin. September 24, 2005 I have produced several 2 minute 10 second programs for Halloween Classic. Firebird,Tosca, Romeo & Juliet, and a different variation of Swan Lake Now all I got to do is narrow it down until the final two weeks of competition. September 13, 2005 Skated today on hard ice. I had my usual cramps because of it. It only took me 15 minutes to get my feet under me, thank god. Jumps went fine today, more progress on getting back my back shoot the duck hydro. I am sure I will incorporate it in my programs by next year. I opted not to do spins today. Something told me that I would slip off my edge if I try a death drop or a flying camel. September 10, 2005 Practice went well tonight. I am trying to get my hydroblading back this season. September 6, 2005 I am still very torned on which program I should decide on. I have been listening to various of pieces. Such us: Taj Majal, Rachmaninoff, Nutcracker, and The Bolt. Sheeshh, so many good pieces but not many times to perform them. August 23, 2005 Practice was not a piece of cake tonight. The ice was not properly resurfaced. The zamboni driver just layed water on top of the surface and did ot use the blade. I had to push twice as hard to stroke around the entire surface. I know in European countries it is much worse. Well what can I say, US skaters are spoiled. August 21, 2005 Practice was so tiring this morning. I could not feel my edges properly. After one hour of the session, I decided to play around with some music-program. It forced me to do my jumps and spins. But then it drained me for the rest of the session. Luckily the session was cheap and empty. August 19, 2005 Angelo and I were the only one on the ice the whole entire session. So I took advantage for at least 45 minutes just my practicing moves, edges, flow and speed. I did not feel jumping or spinning. August 16, 2005 I was so thrilled to skate with Sarah Hughes on the ice, that I forgot about my own skating. I observed her and tried to learn from her. By the time I got to my skating when she left, I was all frozen up. I could not do anything. I had to rewarm myself up. August 15, 2005 I have been skating consistently every Tuesdays, Thursdays, and even Sundays these past few weeks. But just I suspected, I got burnt out and I am starting to get sick. My new program that I was playing around, The Bolt, I easily got tired of. So I decided to put that on hold. I will simply practice my jumps and spins on a consistent basis. So far so good. August 9, 2005 I began working on my new program, The Bolt. I wanted to see how things felt and get some feedback from my friends. I realized that it has a completely different mood than my usual softer balletic programs. The last time I had a masculine program was 1997 - The Battle of Gettysburg. After running through bits and pieces of it, my friends have insisted that I keep the program. And so I will. I like the challenge of this piece. When I run a new program, I usually put 110% on the presentation side. I feel that it is the hardest part during skating a program. Evoking the mood of the piece while trying to do the technical elements is extremely difficult. So I try to get that out of the way. I had a good success on attempting all jumps and spins on the cresendo of the piece today. I was suprised that I have hit all my jumping passes. August 1, 2005 I just started another job two days ago. So far so good. It's a very fun group of people. But connecting it with my night job, it is very difficult. One thing I miss from the past is my off ice jumping exercises. When I lived in Elizabeth- NJ, we had a huge dining room that did not have any furniture. So when I started to skate, I would practice my skating routines there. But after spending enormous time in there I decided to be daring and try difficult double jumps and combinations. It all started at the night of the Ladies LP back in 1995. I was so hyped up from the competition and my parents were not home, I decided to jump around. At first I tried a single salchow, a single salchow/single loop, single salchow into a back scratch, then tried the double. I landed it!!! "Oh, that easy?", I said to myself. So then I preceded to do a double loop, double flip, double lutz, then a double toe loop. I was so proud of myself for nailing them very easily. I tried a double axel, but I did not have any luck with it and I just ended up falling. I would practice everyday trying that jump. I would wake up do my singles, then my doubles for half an hour, then go to school. In between my classes I would go to the bathroom and did my jumps without warmup. Gyrm class is where I would practice the double axel fullout. Yes, my classmates were wondering why I would jump the whole 45 minutes of class. Even when we were playing a game, whether it was basketball or volleyball, I would still jump. Of course I would fall on my 2 axel attempts and even fallout early. I was frustrated but I was having fun attempting them. One December night of 1995 I landed my double axel after deciding to not warmup on it. The technique was a Tara Lipinski one. But I was amazed on how easy I pulled it off. I tried it again and landed it. Now I was feeling frisky, so I tried a triple salchow and again landed the damn jump. I tried double axel/ triple toe loop combination and nailed it. I was so extatic!!! I would practice my jumps constantly. ?My Dad bought a video camera for me so I can see myself. I started to improve on things consistently after I nitpick my take off and etc. On competitions I would intimidate so many competitors when they see me attempting these triples and double axels on the floor. One even withdrew. I could not believe the kid. He was from North Carolina and his parents got so mad at him when he would not tell the reason why he wants to go home. Luckily his coach had several more students. He gradually got his confidence back and competed at Regionals and now he is a Senior level skater and has been doing well in the National level. Anyways I never got to land my triple loop, flip, and lutz consistently. Even the triple axel. I was getting 3 revolutions one time and just not pulling in enough for the other half rotation. I was not falling though or stepping out. Nowadays I can only manage a 1axel/2 toe loop combination, and a delay axel. I am so pissed off myself for not practicing like I used to. It was a good source of exercise too. Now I do not have the space to do it. This past year I would occasionally attempt all doubles but I ended up leaning and catching myself on time before I splat on the floor. Even when I would get myself psyched up my body would just bail out and cause me to fall short of rotation. Soon, hopefully again, I would be able to do a double axel again. July 27, 2005 11:50 pm - I skated again tonight for only 1 hour. I can't believe that I was on the ice twice in one week. And it's only July!!! I usually take the ice at least 2 to 4 times a month. I am so tired already. I think I will try something different for Brewster. I know, what a surprise! I am saving my Swan programs for Nationals. In the beginning of the session I had the same problem on the ice with my damn boots. When I would stroke forward, it would have its own mind and start to jiggle underneath me. I tried retying another time, and it still did not help. I keet putting off on buying cotton laces. I have been skating with nylons since I got these new skates last summer. I skated last night for 2 hours. I helped Angelo and Natalia with their new programs. Filling in the gaps of their choreography. I also helped this lovely girl from Qatar with her Moves in the Field - Bronze Moves & Free test. I'm sure you passed, and I wish you best with your training. Hope to see you in Dallas next year. Email me & keep me up to date :-) As for my own skating, I felt great on the ice. At first my boot was giving me problems in the beginning. It was not in sync with my blades and feet. I felt like I was on rentals or somebody else's skates. July 25, 2005 The Moran Championships did not have any entries on the Silver or Gold Men. So my next competition is the Brewster Open on September. July 22, 2005 I skated yesterday and on Tuesday this week. It's a miracle that I skated 2 days in a week at this time. I figured its ok since I am not that far away from August. I had to force myself to jump a few jumping passes; even axel attempts. But still, no spins. At this time I am leaning on bringing back an old program again, The Swan. I have been playing with it on ice quite frequently. July 14, 2005 With my new work schedule I have not been able to skate as much. The last time I was on the ice was June 13. I had my usual cramps, but I was still able to maintain speed and flow. After 45 minutes of stroking around the ice and playing with programs, I did a few loops, flips, and lutzes. I hesitated to do spins, becuase I felt too darn lazy. I managed to do a couple of dry run throughs of programs (with jumps) I would like to perform to. I ended up doing Cinderella a few times. I helped out Angelo towards the end. Refining his current program's choreography. It is coming together very nicely. We are extremely pleased by the results we are accomplishing at this early stage of the season. I have been Angelo's confidant on the ice for the past few years. I have learned how his mind and body works on the ice, especially during practices and competitions. I love playing the role of coach. It hones and challenges my knowledge on skating. I would love to take on more students in the future. For me it is just not telling my skater to do this and do that, I really involve myself on understanding my skaters on the ice. After having so many coaches, I learned alot of good lessons. We are also convincing our friend Remo to compete in the Bronze category for National in Texas. He will simply sweep and get the title easily. He has the best sit spin, spread eagles, and good flow. June 13, 2005 I skated today and felt good on the ice. I only did a few jumps, salchows and loops. Ran through my gold level -Spartacus program just for fun. Angelo is still working hard on his new program for next year. To be honest, I really don't understand his placement at all. With all the stiff skating, walking around on the ice, falls and poor spinning ahead of him, I thought that Angelo's placement was questionable. Heck at the exhibition in NJ, someone saw the competition and said there was a whole group that thought he should have placed 2nd. Oh well, Angelo is working hard so there won't be any question next year. I am going to start working hard late summer so that I can try to win Silver 1 without question as well. Nationals was weird because there weres some Gold competitors who claimed that adult skating is all fun and not caring about placements but then I saw them viciously trash other skaters in their group. Mainly the guy that won... This really opened up my eyes to what some of the competitors' really persona. Those skaters' will smile in your face and with daggers ready to plunge into your back. Heck, even on the podium during my medal ceremony I heard nasty comments about me. I am lucky to have skater friends like Angelo and the rest of my clique who is not out there to get me. We just go to Nationals soley to be competitive. June 2, 2005 I have decided to compete at the Moran Memorial Championships at the Silver level. I will be using Swan Lake again. Same variation like the one I skated to at Nationals, but extended. May 28, 2005 I received an email asking what do I do besides skating. Well I would like to keep my personal life intact at the moment. But basically all I do on my free time is watch skating. I download & watch old to recent skating clips and analyze them. I would also listen to new pieces of music I could skate to in the future. I also have two jobs at the moment that I try to keep up with. Brian is doing great, he is loving it. It is what he wanted since he was a youngin'. The cat is also doing wonderful. He is very active and playful than usual. Angelo is preparing his new program and new contents in the meantime. I won't say what in details, because he'll get pissed at me. But he is doing well and will be fully prepared next season. My skating? nada really. It is off season for me right now. I rarely skate nowadays, maybe 3 times a month. I would also do exhibitions here and there. I won't skate that intensly until summer or fall. I will also test my silver moves and free around September. May 20, 2005 Skating Off season is so hard for me as always. I do not skate that much, I might get on the ice maybe 3 to 4 times a month. I just do not have the drive. Espeically knowing that I would not test my Silver Moves and Free until September 2005. Nowadays I just been cofusing on other thing. I have been studying the code of points. I watch a lot of performances from the past to present. (Not like I do not do that everyday) I compare the scores and performance itself. There has not been a day that passed by since Kansas, that I have been heavily thinking of Dallas Adult Nationals 2006. I am very excited and anxious. I want to win it so bad, I can just taste it. I know the competition will be very fierce and intense. I know I can win it and deliver a clean skate. May 15, 2005 The travel to the exhibition was a nightmare. Traffic was so bad. When we got to the rink the warmup was already underway. Thank God that there was an intermission so we could get on the ice. We were on the ice for 3 minutes then had to get off. Well, since things were so last minute, I didn't know how tight my jeans were. For the whole remainder of the time I could not do anything. I did not jump or spin. I have not jumped since Nationals, so I was interested on how things will go. Well it was now my turn. I skated to Tainted Love from Soft Cell. Of course I did not like the song. I could not find a decent piece of music that would suite me. So I went with that. I did a Lutz, messed up my entrance to my camel so I did a scratch spin, Loop, then I botched my flip (I was too close to the damn wall), then did more shaking. I did not know when the music will end so I kept improvising. Angelo did good with his interpretation of Sweet Dreams from the Eurythmics. He did a good 2sal and good spins. Of course same goes for him not knowing when the music will end. May 14, 2005 9:38am I got back on the ice yesterday for the first time after Nationals. We were lucky that we got free dead ice. :-) I didn't do any jumps or hard spins. Just mostly stroked around and improvised to a lot of music. I still do not know what to do for my exhibition this afternoon. I have to make the cut soon. May 11, 2005 For this Saturday's exhibition I will be skating to Desperado by the Eagles. I don't know how I will do this weekend becuase I am still with this damn flu. The first time I will getback on the ice is Friday. rrrr. oh well. We'll see May 9, 2005 Angelo and I have been invited to do some exhibitions for this Saturday and the next coming weekends. Exciting! :-) Of course I have not picked the music yet. Plus I have not been on the ice since Nationals. April 22, 2005 I have decided to compete in these events; NY Winter Classic, Morris Open, and the US Adult Nationals in 2006. I simply want to save up for Dallas, Texas. My goal for the rest of the year is to pass my Silver and Gold moves and Silver Free. I will work hard to put together a fierce Silver program for the 2006 AdultNationals. Of course I will do things in moderation, so I don't tire myself out. After winning Nationals this year it has given me motivation to win again next year at the Silver I level. I will also do a couple of exhibitions around my area. I will put some doubles in these exhibitions so I won't lose them completely. April 18, 2005 Oh boy where do I start.... This was my first Adult Nationals and it was awesome. My practices were not looking great at all from the very start. I never did a full runthrough of the program since it was still 2 days old and I was still figuring things out. Angelo of course was furious with me during these practices. I had my own head on doing things and I was doing it opposite than what he requests. Angelo did very well on his program. He Landed two doubles and had solid spins, and a much better interpritation of the program. I was very nervous for him as usual. I can feel his stress, anxiety and fear. This time under extreme pressure, he managed it well. The results weren't all great and what we had expected. But that is another story. His goal was to have a clean program, and he did. We could not have prepared any better. Congrats on the good skate :-) Everything will be better next year. I am very proud of you for handling things better than last year. Every competition you are managing things on the next level. As for my own skating, I was so scared, terrified, and anxious from the morning of competition. I had a pretty good warmup. I did my run through of my jumps and spins and footwork and I left the ice 10 minutes early. I did not want to tire myself out. I am learning how to pace myself with these competitions. Especially from Easterns, where I over did my warmup before my event. At my 5 minute warmup, I did just fine. I landed all my jump passes and left the ice a minute early. My legs were so numb that it was just too tough to know how was I going to do. Even with all the shows and competitions I have done in the past, the the jello legs still would not go away. I closed my eyes for at least 3 seconds while I was stroking forward. (I was thinking a little bit how it would be tragic if I ran into the wall) Then I took my position very slowly. Off the bat I started with a Lutz/Loop/Loop, then into a flip/loop, (normally I had the footowork right after, but at the last second I did my combination spin right away, since I was having trouble with it at the end of the program) camel/attitude spin, straightline footwork sequence into a salchow/toe loop, then into my final jump pass a lutz. My head, arms, and legs were in a different place at that time, it caused me to turn the damn jump in half. Damn it I thought. I couldn't afford anymore mistakes, so I did a forward scratch than my planned back scratch. I thought I had jeopardized my chances for gold. I did not know how I was going to be judged. I was so upset with that damn final lutz. I thought I would have the silver. After 15 minutes, they have posted the results on the tv monitor and saw that I had swept all 1st place votes from all 7 judges. I was so extatic. I quikcly ran to the score sheet and saw in detail how I was judged. I was pretty pleased with my technical and presentation scores. I was the only one to have some 3's in my group. (It would have been sweeter if I landed that friekin lutz, but oh well, next time) I cannot wait until Nationals next year at Dallas Texas. I will be competing in Silver I category. And I want to win it as well. I will start to work hard on that goal when I get back on the ice after 1 week of break. Thank you all the people I met at the rink and said kind words. Thank you Laura Fawcett for the lovely picture (third picture from the top) at the USFSA website. It was nice chatting with you, hope to see you at the next Adult Nationals. April 13, 2005 I leave for Kansas today :-) April 12, 2005 I am all moved in NYC. I am so happy. As of skating, I have decided my music, it will be to Swan Lake. I am putting the pieces together every practice. Practice was so horrible. The ice was so hard and bumpy. The staff are nothing but assholes and bitches! (Palisade Mall Ice rink). It was our only alternative for practice. So after all the frustrations with the ice and staff, I did my runthrough and just did not work out well as I planned. The ice was so rough that just to stroke around the rink, it is like running on a uphill treadmill. April 8, 2005 Yey, first part of the move is done. We rented a big ass Budget truck and hired movers to get all the boxes and furniture in. Now tomorrow for the bigger obstacle. Parking in NYC and getting everything 5 floors up. We hired movers too, thank god. I was about to go skating at Mt. Vernon for the last time. Just when I was about to exit the door, the tv from the couch started to fall. So I rushed to catch that big ass thing and my right toe got smashed by the edge of the tv. It started bleeding and throbbing. So I ended up not going. I wanted to say good bye to Sergey and Craig. I guess I will have to write them letters now. Now the next time I will be on the ice is Sunday with my friends. I still have not found music yet. :-( April 3, 2005 I was back on the ice yesterday. I really took my time on the ice. Gradually I was able to speed up like my old self. I tried a couple of jumps and approached it with 1 mile speed. A few waltz jumps, salchow and loops. Half Flips and Half Lutzes. My body was not too coordinated yesterday. I still have not found music for Nationals. I am feverishly listening to a lot of pieces and still, I can't find something that will suite me for 1 minute and 40 seconds. March 31, 2005 Brian and I will be moving to NYC next weekend. I am so excited. The process of moving is very frustrating and difficult. WIth fees getting thrown at our faces, really just made us more angry with realtors both here in VA and NY. Anyways, I have not been training at all for Nationals. I don't have a program yet :-( I know the date is just around the corner. I have not jumped and spun since Sectionals. rrrr. I'll manage. It will be a very interesting event. March 15, 2005 By the end of the month or early April, I will be back in New York City with my friends and family. I thank God that I am getting the hell out of here. At my work place, it has gotten so much worse. The accusations towards me have gotten serious. It really is so ridiculous how these people come up with these stories. March 4, 2005 I have not been skating for a while since I got back from Easterns. I have been focussing more on work and resting. Well it has not been a pleasant ride lately. I am having a lot of problems with my staff gaining respect. I am thinking of relocating back to New York City, because this whole Virginia & Washington DC 'aint cutting it for me and Brian. It has been good for at least 40% the rest is disaster. And the people I have personally will miss is 2%. The rest can just go to hell and rot in it. My passion to hate these people are growing day by day. I cannot wait until the last day to literally spit on their faces when I leave. Beause they certainly deserve it from the start. Actually its just two fucking bitches I want to kick in the face. February 24, 2005 I have decided to use a new piece of music that will be easy and cater to my style of skating. My new program will be to Out of Africa. I want this Nationals to be very special to me since it is my first and I just envision myself with this particular piece. February 23, 2005 After reviewing the tape of my performance and my competitors, I learned a lot of new lessons. First of all my competitors came in prepared with good technical skills and very nice presentation on their programs. I just cannot believe that I let my guard down, a little too much. I kind of felt a little scared like Peach Classic in Atlanta. I was glad not to give up in the middle of the program though. (I really felt like it especially after my pop in the beginning) I know I am not performing to my potential. After these couple of years switching to the adult ranks, I really tried to put my skating in a different perspective. Not to pressure myself like I did before. My friends have told me to buckle up and start with a new direction, or else I am going to end up in a slump. February 20, 2005 I ...boy, where can I even start. Approaching this event I felt a little too confident. I have placed above with the two skaters I was about to compete against. And I figured that it would be an easy coronation. Well I was wrong. My will to fight was gone. I took the easy situation for granted. I thought I was going to perform the same way as I did at New Year's. I got too close to the wall on my opening jump and I opened up, then I slightly panicked and lost the patern of the program. I went on to do a flip, loop/loop, then a bad entrance to a flying camel left me not to spin. I was so scared approaching my last planned lutz, I felt very tired and scared, I end up doing it, but going into my last back scratch, I caught an edge and ended up not spinning. I felt so bad most of the afternoon. I learned a lot of lessons. I thank you so much my Brian for driving me to the nyc even having a fever. Thanks very much, I love you. I congratulate Angelo for making it to Nationals for the second time. I am very proud of him the way he handles competition nowadays. I knew he knows what to do and he doesn't need a lot of tweaking. Congrats on defending your bronze medal. Now we are back to the rink and try to fo perform our best at Kansas City. February 14, 2005 I am looking forward this weekend in New York City. I get to visit my family and friends again. Even though I hate Sky Rink and their ice, I am confident that I will compete well. I had such a good event at New Year's. One thing I learned about myself is, I do not need a coach anymore at competitions. No offense to my coach Sergey, but I have grown to be so independent on the ice. He did help me out a lot before I stepped onto the ice on warmup. February 8, 2005 Getting back on the ice from a competition is the toughest, in my opinion. My legs are so tight and feels very heavy. Well I am pacing myself back into shape again. Today I practiced without jumps or spins, just did a mini runthrough of my program. I thought I was going to be ok if I started a new program. Nahs, I felt that Samson and Delilah will be good for a gold program not a silver. So I will be using the same program for Easterns, Adios Nonino. I really feel comfortable with this piece of music. It gives me breathing room in each section. I worked on adjusting a lot of things this afternoon, an axel at the beginning and then a couple of different entrances to the jumps. I know I can win even without represting a club and a strong clean performance. I know it will be very difficult, but I have the confidence that I can do it. I really feel that I am getting back into shape little by little. I watched the video from New Year's Invitational, and I am very proud of myself with that perforamance. February 6, 2005 I am very pleased with my performance. I skated clean and sharp. I felt scared and nervous throughout the warmup and when I was skating. But I fought all the way through and got third. My first jumping pass was a Lutz/Loop/Loop and I got too close to the boards but still managed to pull it off, then a Loop, Camel into an attitude spin, Flip/Loop, Flying camel, Ena Baur into a salchow/toe loop, then my final Lutz, and back scratch (which was a lil sloppy) and kinda fell out of my final pose. The ordinals were all over the place. 1.Tim Convington 1 1 3 1 3 2. Tim Fisher 2 2 2 5 2 3. Tim David 4 4 1 2 1 4. Stephen Trzaska 5 3 6 3 4 5. Robert St. John 3 5 4 4 5 6. Tim Mizerak 7 6 5 6 7 7. Michael Cruz 6 7 7 7 6 I am happy with those two first place marks. If I would have attempted the axel I know I would have clinched first place. And representing a club. Congrats to all my competitors. Now time to put on a new program and prepare for Eastern/NY Winter Classic. I would like to thank Brian for his support. Driving me to the rink early in the morning and sits through these cold practices. I love you, thanks again for everything. February 5, 2005 I practiced in Ashburn early this morning. The ice is very springy. I was a little tight during the practice. I felt a cold coming on. My body was a little numb and I had a hard time feeling the ice. I did a few jumps and spins and felt tired and sick at the end. Got home and rested the whole afternoon and now I have a slight fever. I will still compete tomorrow. We'll see how things go. February 4, 2005 Practice this morning was good at the beginning. I was hitting all my jumping passes. I'm feeling very confident for this Sunday. February 2, 2005 I decided to use an old program I had in the past when I was 20. "Adios Nonino" from the soundtrack A Passion for Tango. It's like visiting an old friend. Last time I used it is during Mids when I won. It was then when I landed my doubles :-) Well anyways, I ran through it today with the jumps and without the spins. I usually feel very nervous before the days of competition, but this one I am not too worried. I feel like I have my legs under me. January 31, 2005 I dealt with my demons on the ice little by little. At first I was out of sync, but after I told my self to shut the fuck up, and just push myself, then I started to get back into my mode. January 29, 2005 I have not been skating everyday, due to work. And I am catching a cold. Ugh! Yep, I am catching a cold. I am overworked. Since I took time off to go to Portland now I have to make up my days. Ech! January 26, 2005 I just went skating and practice was bad. I was talking on the ice for 20 minutes and it froze me up when I started to move. My head and my body weren't together on my jumps. Blech, another day then. January 24, 2005 I went skating today at the adult session at my rink. I felt good at the beginning and did not feel any cramps. I placed my music on the loud speaker and tried to listen to my new program. The cut was a little rough. I will fix it if I decide to use Evita. Throughout the session I begin to feel tired and feeling weak. I tried some flying spins and just kept falling out of it. My rythm was just not there tonight. I was struggling on maintaining my energy level. If I did not go to work today, I would have energy the whole entire session. Oh well, I accomplished a couple of things I had on my list. I will be resting tomorrow and skate on Wednesday. January 23, 2005 I have trully decided my music for New Year's Invitational. It won't be Feeling Begins. It will be the music from Evita. ?After I saw Steigler's FD, it gave me the fires to do a spanish theme program again. I am excited once again. I will have to start working hard on it tomorrow. January 21, 2005 I skated this morning and it went ok. I had my feet under me, but I did not attempt anything ambitious. Not yet. I also want to congratulate my skating friend Craig Ratterree for winning the silver medal at the Junior level at US Nationals, and Derrick for performing a good clean skate. January 20, 2005 OMG, I cannot wait for the New Year's Invitational competition. I am due to skate on February 6, Sunday. There will be 8 competitors overall, including me. Well, I got to start skating again. :-D I have not gone to the rink in a while. I just edited my program, I decided to put Bolero on hold and go with The Feeling Begins. Well time to go to and work out at the rink tomorrow. January 18, 2005 I am just so exhausted from my Portland trip. I will write about it soon, after I get some rest. January 10, 2005 I will be skating on the Silver level for Sectionals. January 9, 2005 I will be competing at the Silver level this New Year's Invitational competition. I recently checked my weight, expecting it to be 115 to 120 lbs. still, NOT. Oh my god, I am now 130 lbs. So I still have to get used to my weight. I do not have time for that. To be honest, I have not skated in a week, since my test one week ago. It is fine. It was probably a disaster waiting to happen like Peach. I will be deciding on my music soon. Bolero is there on my list. January 3, 2005 My body has been aching all damn day. I will start skating again on Wednesday to prepare for New Year's Invitational competition and pull out Swan Lake out of the box again for the Bronze level for Sectionals and Nationals. My goal for those competitions are just to have a good time on the ice and put out the best Bronze program out there I can perform. January 2, 2005 Well not that prepared!!! I thought I was. Right off the bat, I did a Todd Eldredge/Johnny Weir fall on the ice and slam on the boards move. I was so embarassed. That threw me off the whole entire test. I am not ashamed to say that I have to retry the silver test. It was just a bad night to begin with. So, I dust myself off and try again. December 29, 2004 I went on the ice today for 15 minutes and felt my edges was very strong. I feel prepared for this Sunday's Silver test. December 21, 2004 1:04 = YEY!!!! I passed my Pre-Bronze and Bronze, Moves and Free. I am so exhausted from everything. My judge was so nice to drive down to my rink from MD. Now time to do the Silver Moves and Free on January 2. 10:15 = I just did a practice runthrough of the test. I feel 70% secure about it. I ran through the program and it went fairly well. My music is to Swan Lake. My judge is running late so I'm heading to the rink by 11:15. December 20, 2004 I have my Pre-Bronze and Bronze test tomorrow. I am so terrified b/c my lack of preparation. I have not been on the ice since last Friday. I was supposed to go skating tonight, but I fell asleep, again!!! So pissed and so scared. Well my last shot is tomorrow morning to practice before my test at 11. By the way, I have not run through my Bronze FS program. :-( December 14, 2004 I am getting back into shape step by step. Thank god. My biggest goal is to pass that Silver Moves and Free on January 2 and competing at the New Year's Invitational in Gold. I will be unveiling a new 2:40 program. I have never done this music piece before. It is familiar but this time I will keep my mouth shut and not jinx myself. December 9, 2004 I skated in the afternoon at an empty public session. I took my time to do all edges and moves. I felt so groggy and unmotivated. I had a brief lesson with Sergie and my head was not together with my skates. So I had to struggle Since I postponed my testing until January I have also declined a couple of Christmas shows this month. I realized that if I would have skated in them shows, it would set me back on preparing for my tests. Because knowing me I would take a week off from skating after the shows. December 4, 2004 I decided to postpone my testing until January. I know it is cutting too close to the Nationals and Eastern deadlines. Oh well. I just feel it is such last minute for me to put together. I also got my insoles taken care off, but now my right one is tighter than my left boot. December 1, 2004 I just got done skating. Finally a day off from work!!! Well as soon as I put my right skates on, I noticed something was wrong. I forgot and lost my padding inside my skates. So it felt like square one again when I first got my boots, "Ronald McDonal boots", damn it to hell I thought. Well I tried the best out of the session working on silver moves. It went well. But when it came in time to do the back cross rolls, I could not go deep enough with my right boot and blade. I tried placing papers and paper towels to make up for it, but it felt slippery inside and I could not feel the ice. Oh hell!!! But I felt confident enough for my Silver test session on December 15. November 24, 2004 The adult field is really growing every year. I see and hear a lot of new up and comers on the scene. I am quite confident that I have my own stuff that will have me stand out from the rest. I am just concentrating on testing and hopefully passing them until the deadline of January 15, 2005. But, btw I have not skated since Sunday, November 20. November 21, 2004 I just got back from work. I arrived back home last night from Nyc. My trip was well worth it. (November 18) Well, the airport at Dulles was a disaster. There was a security glitch that set all 800 plus people back to fall in line for security. So then my flight were delayed for 25 minutes. My parents picked me up from Newark. Ate dinner then saw my old boss Bob at Warinanco Ice Skating Center. Next day (November 19), I skated at my birth rink, Warinanco for 15 minutes. Rushed to Nyc and visited my old job at Stevenson school. I got my haircut after my visit, then walked to the Sports club to shower off excess hair. Went off to met up with Angelo and Remo to Monsey, NY. The damn rink was so freezing. I was not nervous at all to begin with. I looked forward to presenting my program. I was very calm on the warmup, the only expectations I had was putting on a complete program. I was 5th off the list. I skated my program ok, landing all my jumps, but just stepping out from my flying camel. The fly was too much that I couldn't handle the landing. Other than that, I did good. I was pleased that I have completed a program once again. Angelo skated and landed his first jump, but then his laces started to come undone, he then went off to do a single on a planned double jump and into a flying camel where he stepped out. We had a good time skating. November 20 - after watching skating all night, Angelo, Remo, Natalia and I went skating at New Roc City in the morning. We also reunited with Dong after being away for at least a year. I played around with music. I did not feel like practicing. My body was so sore. After skating I rushed back to NJ to see my old boss Donna at Warinanco Ice Skating Center. Skated on the ice for 5 minutes, just b/c it is the best ice I have ever skated on. Then I went home real quick to pack and my parents dropped me off at Newark airport. November 17, 2004 I had my day off today from work so I skated in the afternoon. I took my time warming up. On my runthrough I was a little conservative I did 2 jumps out of my 3 planned, fell off the flying camel, and almost tripped up on my straightline footwork. November 16, 2004 After work, Brian and I went to the rink to do a quick runthrough. I already had a bad feeling about the session, b/c it was 4:00 and it was after school, so I knew it was going to be filled with little kids. It was!!! It was hard to put a jump anywhere, I got through 3 passes of jumps, then I did my program. I had to be conservative, b/c I did not want to run over little kids and give their parents on the stands a heart attack. During my footwork sequence I do a slide on my knee, 5 seconds into it I was deciding to do it or not. The ice was already torn up. I decided to do it, since I didn't do a full out runthrough, might as well finish the sequence. IDIOT, I ended up bruising my knee. Oh well. I will just have to put bandage on it tomorrow before I skate. I watched myself on video, and thought Bolero would be a stretch for me. I was looking for strugles within the choreography, I didn't find any. So I guess this is the program I would really stick with until April 2005 at Nationals in Kansas City. November 15, 2004 I just skated an adult public session. I got to play my music for a little bit. I did not feel right enough to rotate any doubles during the runthrough, I got a mind fart on my flying camel, b/c I thought I was going to run into somebody. Did my footwork tentatively, b/c I didn't want to run people over. Then onto my final backscratch spin, my equilibrium in my head shifted to my right and my low blood sugar problem kicked in at that second, so I had a stupid fall. Oh well. The rest of the session I was useless, I couldn't do anything anymore b/c of it. Sigh* I was looking forward to skating with Shalin Bourne this weekend. Oh well. My goals still is the same. I am still going to perform my Silver competative program, Bolero. I will try to attempt two doubles. I am planning to do the Gold level for New Year's Invitational. I want to erase my Atlanta nightmare on ice. November 12, 2004 I Skated in the afternoon and it went well. Still no doubles, until next week. But my endurance is getting better. After the show I will start testing, so I can compete at Easterns and Nationals in time. November 11, 2004 I am beginning to get used to Bolero. Piece by piece it is coming together. I can't wait to perform it next week. I have watered down the program into two jumping passes, instead of 5, since it is only an exhibition. November 10, 2004 I skated today and felt good. I just ran through the choreography and footwork. Sergey my coach said the program was good, but "where's the jumps & spins." He said, I needed to start doing more jumps and spins, and leave the choreography alone for now. He's right. I am going to start to do that tomorrow night. November 8, 2004 I was going to go skating tonight and start to prepare for the exhibition. I planned to take a nap for an hour and unexpectedly it turned into a long one. I woke up around 9:30. DAMN IT!!! Anyways, I'll try to go on Wednesday instead during the day. The music piece I will be using is my competative program for the season, Bolero. November 6, 2004 12:18 am I am very thrilled to be invited to skate on November 19, at Monsey, New York. I still do not know what I will be skating to, but I will start to train on Monday for it. Thank you my Bri-Bri for making it possible for me to attend. November 5, 2004 10:02 pm I skated today. Everything felt good under me. The sharpness of my blades were just right. I tried to pace myself and not get excited. While I was trying out a new program, I got caught within a rut. It's one of those things that no one can avoid. So I slipped :-) Oh well. Since I was not consistently skating, I did not push myself to do much. I'll skate more on Monday. I found a club I can test with on my birthday in Baltimore, Maryland. And a few more before the due date for Easterns and Nationals. Derrick Delmore was there as well as Craig Ratterree. They were getting ready for Easterns. Both were off on their jumps here and there. But skating with a lot more power. 1:52 am I have been busy at work, and also not chosing to skate after the hectic day. I love my job where I am at now and feel that I love the challenges I have been facing. I will skate tomorrow on my day off late afternoon. October 28, 2004 I had a day off at work, I slept late and went skating from 5:30 -7:00. I did not push myself too hard. Well I had cramps too on the bottom of my foot, so I could not do too much. I really took my time executing all edges from going very slow and then with full speed. I only attempted single loops, flips, and lutzes. At the end I tried improvising to the Matrix. Then I realized that I was in no shape to do so. I got winded easily and when I did a flying camel, when I got out of it, my whole equilibirium shifted to my right side of my head. So I just dropped :-D I did not fall hard or anything. It was weird. |
| My Journal |
