April 11, 2010
So I’ve decided today that I would write a post-season evaluation.
So here it goes:
Before this season, I hadn’t really done much to make myself stand out. Sure, I was 4th at Nationals at Junior in 2009 and won the Gardena Spring Trophy, but beyond that, nothing. Coming into this season I had high hopes, but no real expectations. I wanted to keep improving and hopefully make Nationals as a Senior Man. Let’s break down my actual accomplishments for this season:
Junior Grand Prix Budapest – 2nd
Junior Grand Prix Dresden – 4th
Junior Grand Prix Final – 5th
US National Championships – 7th
World Junior Championships – 5th
I competed at four different international competitions in one season. Most people doubted if I would get more than one JGP assignment. Instead, I made it to both the JGP Final and Junior Worlds and came back with a pair of 5th place finishes. I’m pretty darn proud of myself. Also, at Nationals, I was the highest of the first year seniors and the highest skater behind the six Olympic contenders.
Now, since we have gotten most of the positive things out of the way, I’m sure people are wondering what happened to me in my long and Junior Worlds. To be completely honest, I’m kind of sick of talking about it. It’s interesting how going in people expect nothing out of you and then in an instant things completely change. Nobody, including myself, expected me to win the short program. Sure, I expected to skate well, but I didn’t expect to win. Then, when I didn’t finish with a medal it was sort of a shock. But honestly, my goal was top 6 and I was 5th. I did better than the goal I set for myself. That in itself is an accomplishment. I’ve gone through a lot of stuff since that long program. I was an emotional wreck for quite some time to be honest. In many ways, I hold myself personally responsible for not being able to get the US Men 2 spots in each JGP next year. That is something that I’m still dealing with because I know if I were one of those guys hoping for a JGP and realizing that I probably wouldn’t get one, I’d be mad at me too. But that is the time that I have to look back to the beginning of the season and tell myself that I better be proud of what I have done. Look at the things I’ve accomplished! I’m ranked 33rd in the world with only one season of international experience. How about that!
This is the time where we move forward. After all these weeks I’m beginning to come to terms with my Jr. Worlds experience and can finally start to look to the future. We’ve already selected music for my short program and have started the choreography. It’s definitely a different feel that what I’ve used in the past and I’m really excited to debut the program at Skate Detroit. I don’t really have any ideas for the long program so you can feel free to use the “Contact” tab and give me suggestions. I’m open to anything to be honest. For anybody who is worried about my jumping content, my triple axel has moved into the consistent category. I’m planning on having it in the short program and two in the long as well. I’ve also begun work on quad toes which is kind of cool actually. I’m not afraid to work on them at all. We’ve also worked on a plethora of triple-triple combinations. The ones I’ve landed in the past two weeks include triple sal-triple loop, triple flip-triple toe, and triple lutz-triple toe. And actually, during warm up time for our ice show I landed an awesome triple lutz-triple toe-triple loop combo. It was pretty darn good if I may say so myself!
Finally, I just want to thank everyone for all of their support. I have an awesome support team behind me, including but not limited to: coaches Lindsay O’Donoghue and Maria Moscato, choreographer Jodie Tasich, sports psychologist Jen Hogan, physical therapist Betsy Jones, costume designers Luanne Williams and Stephanie Miller, everybody at St. Clair Shores FSC for believing in me, my mini-sponsor/cheerleader who shall remain anonymous but knows who they are and my amazing family. I want to thank US Figure Skating for giving me these amazing opportunities to travel the world and represent them and I hope to be doing business with you very soonJ. I also want to thank all of my fans, especially my Hungarian fans for rooting me on all season, you guys are the best! And a special thanks to FSO for allowing me to let you all have a little glimpse into what goes on in my head and share the wonderful moments of this past season.
Here’s to a successful 2010-2011 season!
Grant
