Testing - Round #2

I was happily going about my week, all week long, blithely aware that I was testing this weekend but not really all that concerned about it.... and suddenly it hit me today on my way into work: "The test is tomorrow."



Which led me to thinking... "Oh lordy were you focused during that last practice ice??
Were you paying attention?? Did you remember everything Coach Fab told you??"

Actually, I likely was. This past week I've been evenly dividing my time between Test Prep and Competition Program. I chucked all New Skills out the window for now, and just ran the two tests back to back for a half hour, followed by a half hour of Program runs. (Stops and starts, bits and pieces, and total runs.)

I have my Test Outfit ready to go: My Abstract Owl Print wrap skirt, (made from material I found on a remnant table but fell in love with) a matching wrap sweater and black mock neck leotard underneath. Gold owl earrings. I'll hit the early AM Practice Ice in the morning, and then go shopping for Competition Dress Accessories to soothe my nerves before heading out to Rink Far Far Away for the test session.

My last test was in the morning, so I had it overwith pretty quick and then went to brunch. This test isn't until late afternoon, so I can't let myself sit and brood all day. Best to go shop for ridiculous earrings instead.

Tonight I'll get The Pep Talk, which I'm kinda looking forward to, and last minute pointers... but at this point the moves are what they are. And really, I feel pretty good about it. If I don't pass, I'll come close. And no, I will not get my hair done up like I did last time. I'm just going to give it a little curl and spray and tie it back. No need to look like Doris Day.

Honestly, I'm excited. Nervous, but excited. The sun will come up on Sunday and we'll have a whole new challenge to take on: My first competition.

Sitting Pretty

As I expected, Stitch did not pass FS3 on Saturday. I'm more than okay with this, I'm actually relieved. To throw more at him at this point would be disastrous. I spoke with Coach and begged her to "let him own it (the skills) for awhile." I do believe she saw what I was saying, and gave him almost passing marks on his most troubled spots. Enough to encourage, but not enough to pass.

The Back Spin improves, slowly but steadily. He's getting there, and this added time is a blessing and a relief from the pressure he's been feeling.

Nonetheless, he was bummed about not passing. "I knew I would do terrible."

"You did great," I said, very happy about things. "That Dance Step was good, and you just need to get those toe loops off the ice a bit more. You're doing fine!"

"No one passed," said Stitch, as the idea dawned on him that maybe this isn't easy for everyone but him. It's hard for everybody.

"That's okay, too," I shrugged it off. "More time to learn things, get them right and polished. Let's go home to change clothes, I've got a skate sharpening appointment for you today."

Sometimes I think I'm the only person in the rink who isn't in a rush, and who isn't interested in holding the class levels as a ranking system. And even as I was happy Stitch would have more time for instruction in things that he needed to work on, I was anxious lest others judge him for what they might perceive as a failure.



I've given up judging other kids. I just don't care anymore. My view has become focused as a laser on Stitch, and so long as he's doing well in relation to others in his peer group (as in, everyone seems to be on par with each other) I just don't care. But I know others don't think that way, that there are people who may hold this against him in some way. He's just a kid. Be catty at me all you want, I'm used to it, but don't look at my kid.

At any rate, I cut music and costume pieces, I delivered CD's to Coach and we rescheduled the weekly lesson time to morning.

That's right, we're on for Tuesday mornings. After watching two girls collide on two backwards spirals one Wednesday evening, I decided I'd had enough of crowded ice, grumpy monitors, oblivious skaters and irritable coaches. Stitch isn't pleased with the idea of getting up that early, but I told him it's just one day a week and I'd do whatever he needed to help him with the early hour.

I'm seeing a lot of pancake wrapped sausages in my future.

Stitch would walk through fire for one of these.

Things that make you go, Hm.

Saturday, evaluation day. Usually Stitch is anxious and irritable on evaluation days, but today he was cheerful and rambunctious. We got to the rink early since Coach was feeling bad about shorting him ten minutes on the last lesson, and was making it up to him today. This is fine, since ten minutes usually morphs into twenty.

Stitch was running and jumping rope and laughing and playing, I sent him on the ice and he was mock dragging his skates when I told him to stroke around and warm up. Coach took him and they got to work on that dratted change foot spin. Again, if it hangs him up for awhile, this is fine by me so we can solidify everything else under it.

True to form, the "ten minutes" was actually a lot longer, and the Tot classes got treated to the tail end of Stitch's lesson before he darted out for Moves. Coach told me that Wednesday would be both boys, and this made me happy.

I watched for awhile, but then got cold so I started wandering the lobby. I got a table set up to start measuring kids for Winter Show and set to work. I'd done some of this on Wednesday night, too, and it's fun. The parents are all full of questions about rehearsals and how many shows do they have to be in and what kind of costume will it be and so on. I answered as best I could, told them that the costumes are usually just fine and everyone ends up looking cute.

"She's got pink skates, do we need white skate covers?"
"What level is she in?"
"Tots."
"I wouldn't sweat it. Ask the coach to be sure, but don't worry about it right now."
"What do they do in the tot number?"
"Make you weep with cuteness. I'm not kidding."

"This says she will be skating as a Polichenelle, but what does that mean?"
"Cute. Polichenelle means cute in French."
"Does it really?"
"Absolutely."
I don't know if they actually bought it but they did give me a check.

I had some minor brain borkage when one mom was saying that her daughter was in Alpha 1 but she'd promised her she could skate with the Beta kids since she likes that number better. "So why not get to beta first..."
"But I promised her. And I already filled out the form."
Why in heaven's name would you do that? I'll let the coaches worry about that one.

I kept watching the clock, realizing I was missing Stitch's evaluation and he may be mad at me. The other mom I was working with told me to go watch, and so I caught the tail end of the test. Stitch came across with his paper, him and Other Kid, and they seemed happy.

Stitch handed me his paper with a big smile. All 6's and 7's, one 4 on the Change Foot Spin, which I was expecting a lower score on. But a four? I was stunned. Was this some kind of gimme? Was I being punk'd? "This is great, Stitch. I'm really proud of you. All that work is paying off!"
He just smiled and stepped out to warm up.

I promised him a celebratory lunch and went back to the costume table. Stitch took care of his skates while I did more measuring and chatting. I showed the eval form to Coach, and she felt good about it. "The change foot spin is hard. It takes awhile," she said.

Again, I don't care if this snags him. I'm prepared to camp out in FS3 awhile. And it's all hard.

We headed home, tired but elated. At Subway later on, we split a roast beef and talked over the mistakes on his latest school test. He had confused "fair" as in "good looking" and "fair" as in "not stormy." We went over a few other words that need to be read in proper context to be understood.

It made me think about the context of that skating evaluation.

At any rate, I did get shanghied into helping with the Costume Sale next weekend. I'll be at the rink anyway so why the heck not. And if I stay until noon then I can see some of my friends in the L2S levels who I've been missing. Stitch can relax and eat donuts, which seems to be his favorite pastime after lessons. I know that may make some of the Nutrition Fanatics cringe, but I really do make him eat better for the rest of the week.

Honest.

(Edit; This is actually a Polichinelle. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulcinella )

The FS1 Patch Story (as relayed by Dad)

Bear in mind throughout this story that Dad worked an all-nighter at a concert venue prior to doing this. Dad deserves a medal.

Sleepless Dad took Stitch to the rink at 10am as scheduled for the test. Mysteria was nowhere to be found, so Coach took Stitch in with her student for some pointers to wait. "Some pointers" turned into "Free lesson" as Mysteria never arrived.

By this time, I had called Dad, asking for results. Dad said he didn't know, that no one knew where Mysteria was.
"Did you ask the desk?"
"No, I don't know who to ask."
"Any of them! Just ask if Mysteria is there!"
"I don't want to do that."

So I hung up and called the stupid rink, at which point I was informed that Mysteria doesn't usually arrive until Noon on Wednesday. Then I got mad, because it's not fair to pump Stitch up for The Big Test and then keep him waiting interminably.

I called Dad again, and Dad was at this point talking things over with Coach. Coach seemed to think he'd be fine, but she had to leave to attend another comp elsewhere. Okay, we understand this.

But that meant Stitch was on his own. Dad agreed to hang out at the rink until noon, waiting for Mysteria.

Mysteria finally arrives a little after noon, and expresses surprise that they are still there and untested. She says that she ascribed Coach Someone (Dad forgets who) to administer the test. Dad says that at this point he was exhausted to the point of shaking, "so she probably thinks I was having some kind of seizure, but maybe that added to the pity factor."

Mysteria, Dad and Stitch head into the Big Rink, where it's maintenance hour. There's a lift on the ice replacing a lightbulb. Mysteria asks everyone if they're okay doing the test with the lift on the ice. Stitch thinks this is awesome, and I think in any other state of mind Dad would have said no for safety's sake.

Dad tells me that Stitch skated the program the best he's ever seen. "It was amazing," says Dad. "Given his mood the previous day, I was sure he wouldn't pass."

Mysteria awards the title and the patch, and Stitch is suddenly on Cloud 9. Dad tells me he was bouncing all over, and I really only cared that he said "Thank you." He did.

That night we picked up Grandma from the airport and the first thing Stitch showed her was his two foot, one and a half rotation hop. I had to stop him from doing his skating moves in the baggage claim, for fear of him hurting himself on the granite floor. Coach called me later on that night, expressing her pleasure that he finally passed and cancelling the Camp session the following day. This was fine by all of us, as Grandma H (my mom) wanted to go see a movie. Stitch ate cherries out of the jar and drank syrupy Shirley Temples.

So, what did I say to him? Tuesday night, out on the front lawn, I asked him if the test was important to him.
"It is important to me, mom," he sounded a bit bereft.
"If it's important to you, then you need to own it. We can't do it for you. Everyone knows you can do it, you just need to throw yourself into it the way we all know you can."
"I don't know how."
"Try this; when you take your place on the ice, close your eyes and imagine it's competition day. Imagine the audience, with me and your grandparents and Dad and the Photographer. Imagine you're in costume, and the announcer calls your name. When you open your eyes, you're there, and skate just the way you would for the judges. Will you try that?"
"Okay."

Either he did what I told him to do, or he finally understood that this was his problem. Or he was genuinely concerned about me getting nailed with a shovel by Gordon's dad. Whatever.

All this makes plain to me the value of these little competitions for Stitch. I don't think he would have done what he did were it not for the push of a competition behind him. He stood to really lose if he didn't own up to his potential, and when he did, he was absolutely elated.

Tomorrow I have the day off, so I can attend Lessons for the first time in a month. I'll have costumes so we can do Dress Rehearsal. I'm excited, and the countdown is nearing the hours mark.

In Acting Terms, it is Bad Luck to wish an Actor Good Luck. I told Stitch this and he looked at me like I was crazy.
"So, instead of saying 'good luck' we say 'break a leg'."
"Uh huh."
"We don't really want them to break a leg, but..."
"Uh huh."
"Since you're a figure skater, we really really don't want you to break a leg, but you do fall a lot. So we decided the best way to wish a skater good luck was to say, 'bust your butt'."
Stitch laughed.
"So, bust your butt tomorrow at the test, okay?"
"Okay."

Let's hope he busts his butt just as hard on Sunday!

Today's Horoscope: F*CK YEAH!

Not that there wasn't drama surrounding the event, but he got it, and it's done, and I can relax.

At least until Sunday.

Stitch, you're an awesome kid and I'm so proud of you!

Can someone explain what's going on?

Okay, for more than a year now, I've watched kids skate in class levels that made no sense. I didn't say anything at the rink, I kept my ranting reserved for this space, and I kept going. No skin off my teeth.

Stitch passed Gamma and Delta yesterday. According to Dad, he was close to passing FS1, but his backwards edges were not "on the line" and while his spiral was high, it wasn't steady. I get the feeling we're being messed with or something. Mysteria is giving him a second chance to pass FS1 on Friday. Dad days Coach worked with him on the missing elements, which we all know are there, but for some reason decided to not happen on this particular day.

I was mad at Stitch because Dad reported he was sporting a rather sour attitude the entire time. I can understand why; having three skating tests tossed at you by surprise is upsetting. But the way to deal with it is not to get angry. (And had we done this my way to begin with, it wouldn't have been an issue at all.) The fact that Stitch chose this moment to wear his best "Mouthy Boy" attitude was what upset me more than the test situation. I came home and had a chat with him, threatening him with a grounding if it kept up. This means no friend's birthday party and no selling flowers this weekend. "Just do the test, I don't care about the result. Do the test and do your best, don't be mean about it. It's rude."
"I did my best, mom, but she just didn't care."
"She cares. She just thinks you're capable of better, and so do I." 

Dad is using this moment to call Skating a subjective non-sport. "Coach said she would have passed his spiral, but Mysteria said it wasn't good enough. It's so subjective."

Right, but there's a reason why Coaches can't judge their own kids. I understand the rules, and while it sucks when they don't work in your favor, they stand. Because you know and I know that if Coaches could judge their own kids, chaos would erupt.

Dad tells me that there were somewhere around 25 elements that Stitch had to polish up, remember, and ID on his own to perform for some strange woman we hardly ever see. Mysteria's nice enough, she's just so absent as to be a relative stranger to the kids in her own skating school. Stitch probably sees her as "the woman with the clipboard and patches." And again, had we done this my way, the elements would not have stacked up so high and the test process not as arduous.

**taps head** See, I'm figuring this stuff out. Now I have real ammunition.

After all that, Dad says Coach wants me to cut more music for her. Um, okay, but I'm going to start charging for this stuff. She probably didn't get the memo, so no problem this time. I'll let her know when I see her next. Dad hands me a CD and says, "It's either track 32 or 33, I can't remember."

I play track 32, and I can't get through it without falling off my chair in laughter. It's some ridiculous Techno/Russian/Latin/Can-Can mix. I can't make this stuff up. No. I'm not cutting this because I won't let anyone skate to it. Track 33 is a much better Pop Jazz mix. I cut that. If they come back and say they wanted the other track, I'll have a talk with them about music genres.

I want to know if this was a blanket sweep of competing kids, or was it just a few? Because I can think of a dozen kids right off who would have gotten caught in this dragnet. For one kid in particular, it's a safety issue. No one in good conscience can allow this kid to start doing jumps when he falls on mohawks and runs into the boards on back crossovers out of control, but it's happening. I mean it when I say this, I don't give a rat's ass about him being some kind of threat to Stitch. What I worry about is this kid breaking his neck, and putting a stop to it would be the best thing.