Another Test Day

Saturday was another skating Test Day, and I had three skaters try tests.

Allyson, from Quinte, tried her Dutch Waltz and passed. This is the first test Allyson has tried, and she did really well...I don't even think she was nervous. When I gave her the test paper I was going over the results with her, and noted that she had been given a 'Needs Improvement' on Expression. Now, I was going to explain that she probably didn't have much expression because she was nervous, and it's hard to express yourself to the Dutch Waltz music, etc. But, she explained that the reason she needed to improve was because she didn't smile...she told me that she had a lollipop before coming to the arena, and it made her lips and teeth blue, so she kept her mouth closed! I thought that was cute :)

And Jillian and Britteny, from Tweed, both tried the Baby Blues and passed. I was glad both of these tests passed, I was a little nervous about them after we skated. Jillian was a little stiff, probably because she was nervous, and the Baby Blues should have nice soft knees. And Britteny, she gets really nervous, and this was no exception! We had our normal practice in Tweed on Saturday morning, and then went to test day in Belleville; during practice in Tweed, Britteny had psyched herself out so much, she was in tears. But, I reassured her that it was good to get all the bad stuff out while we were still in Tweed, to leave her mistakes in the Tweed arena and only take the good stuff to the Quinte arena, and that seemed to make her feel better.

So, another successful test day for my skaters (and me!). That will probably be the last of the test days for the season, I have two competitions this weekend and then we'll be into carnival practice!