My Intermediate MIF Testing

 Earlier today, I tested my Intermediate (or Pre-Silver) moves in the field test, the 5th test out of 8. I tested at Toyota Sports Center, located in El Segundo. Like almost all of my pervious tests, this test session was pretty early in the morning, starting at 7 to be exact. I was part of the first five to test, so I had to be there pretty early. 

After my practice ice before, I took a short break and tried to mentally prepare myself. Honestly, this is probably the most nervous I have been for any ice skating "performance," and I am unsure why. Also, this is the first test that I am testing with a different coach, so I also had to learn her procedure's and the way she prepares her students for testing. 

Then, I had to get ready for my 5 minute test warmup, where I would run short sections of my different moves, and just get another sense of the ice. As it was such a short amount of time, I couldn't really focus on one particular thing for a while, as I just had to move, move, and move some more! At this point, I was very, very nervous and pretty much shaking uncontrollably, which has never happened to me before. I should also mention that I have been working on this test for a little over a year now, so I should be pretty prepared to test. However, with me competing a lot more, and building higher technical elements, I have not had a ton of time to "focusly" run each move. 

I was the last in my warmup group to test, so I headed back in the warm for a little bit and just walked around, keeping me moving and warm. Then, it was my turn to test.

The test I am testing has 5 moves, backward double-3-turns, spiral sequence, brackets, twizzles, and a chasse pattern. The first move, double 3-turns, went ok, they were pretty eh. I feel that my pattern was pretty good, and my turn quality was ok, but I was still shaking hard, and my coach later said that they were slower than in practice. 

The second moves, the spiral pattern, was also not as good as it usually is during practice, but it was still acceptable to me. My spirals were above the hip level, so they looked pretty nice, but I wobbled hard during one of the transitions.