August 4, 2009
Hello everyone!
As this is my first journal entry I feel like I should start at the beginning of the season and discuss everything up until this point in time.
Picking two pieces of music by Tchaikovsky made me a little nervous, however once the programs began taking shape I could really feel the differences between the two pieces. "Romeo and Juliet" was the music that we picked for the long. Once Lindsay put the cuts together, I knew it was the right choice for this season. I really enjoy skating to this music and feel like it gives me a totally different style than I've ever had. Though it is classical, I've never skated to something this dark and passionate before and I feel like it is pushing me to improve my skating and grow as an artist.
The short, however, was a much more difficult choice to make. I had a bunch of different pieces that I wanted to skate to and couldn't make a decision. In the end, I told Lindsay to just find something for me to skate to and I would use it. "Sleeping Beauty" was the music she found and I'm really glad I let her make the decision because it is totally different than the long. It is a light piece and gives a good contrast to that of "Romeo and Juliet". It also means a lot to me to skate to it because it was the music that Lindsay skated to when she competed at Nationals in 1997.
Last season I started using a new choreographer, Jodie Tasich. She was a dancer who skated with Jerod Swallow and now coaches at the Detroit Skating Club. I'm really glad that Lindsay made the decision to add her to our team because I feel like she's been a huge asset to the improvements I've been making. She did a wonderful job with my programs and I still work with her once a week to keep the programs constantly evolving and always fresh. She is a brilliant choreographer and has done a great job with the programs. This is the first season that I've actually received compliments on my artistry!!
I began this competitive season at Skate Detroit last weekend. It was my first competition and a good test for how I was going to do at my JGP. I was really excited to unveil my new programs and show off how hard I had been working. It was also the first time I was going to attempt my triple axel in competition. The short program however, did not go as I had been planning. It wasn't a bad program, but I had been skating much better in practice. I stepped out of my triple lutz- triple toe, popped the triple axel into a single, but finished with a really strong triple flip out of footwork. I finished 3rd in this section of the competition with a score in the mid 50's. This program garnered the most positivity from the skating officials that Lindsay and I talked to, a sure sign of the hard work I had put in.
My long was much more of a success. The only major error I made was touching down and stepping out on my triple axel. I was still really happy with this, as I was able to rotate, receive full credit, and stay on my feet on this new jump. I received a score of 118, my second highest of my career and finished with 174 total. I definitely was happy with this competition and feel like I'm definitely moving in the right direction!
So as we move into August I have shifted my focus towards my JGP in Budapest. Lindsay and I re-cut my long program to the junior length and I spent over two hours with Jodie rechoreographing sections so that every detail is right. I'm really happy that I was assigned to Budapest because it was my first choice and I've been scouring the internet try to find out everything I can about the city. I have three weeks until I leave and I've been work really really hard to make sure I'm 100% ready.
I'll probably be spending every waking hour in the ice rink so hopefully I'll be able to write again before I leave and keep everyone updated on my progress! I'd like to thank all of you for reading my first, and very loooooong, journal entry. I hope you've enjoyed it! Here's to a great season!
Grant
