Freestyle 1!

Things have gotten pretty exciting around here for Ava. This week we changed her coach. Andrei and I had been talking about doing it for awhile since we weren't really happy with a few of the things her old coach was doing. So we decided on a new coach that I had been watching for awhile on the ice. After speaking with her, we found out she actually co-coaches with another woman. These two have a pretty good size team of mostly freestyle level skaters. Their coaching style is much more hands on than her old coach was, and they organize alot of fun events for their "team" of girls. Tammie has been at the rink for many years and can introduce Ava to most of the girls there, which will give Ava a chance to socialize more at the rink. At this point this is a top priority for me, so that she enjoys going to the rink not just to skate but to meet up with friends and have fun too!

Yesterday Ava had her first lesson with the new coach. When I pointed her out on the ice Ava was very excited because she had recognized her. Immediately Tammie introduced her to pretty much everyone on the ice that she knew and all the girls came over to shake her hand or give her a hug and welcome her to their team. Ava was all smiles. Once her lesson was over, Tammie came over to discuss what she thought of Ava's skating. Right off the bat she said she needed to correct her forward crossovers (which is what I had suspected for awhile) but other than that she said she was fantastic. One of the things I wanted her to do was make sure she was actually in the correct level she should be, since her last coach told us to skip Delta and move her right to Freestyle 1. When I asked Tammie if she thought that was accurate, she said absolutely! She said Ava is doing half-flips already and doesn't really know it yet. Lol! Since these coaches don't hava their girls compete in ISI, Ava will now have to register for USFS and compete in her first competition in April. In the meantime, her coach wanted her to try out for the spring show.  Some of you may recall she skated to Baby Love last year with a bunch of other girls.  Apparently though if you want to skate solo or up to a quartet without having to be in a LTS class, you need to try out.   So even though the list of skaters trying out was already scheduled and on the board,  her coach called me today and was able to get her scheduled into the first round of try-outs tomorrow afternoon.  This means she has to skate to one of her two programs, since we have had zero time to learn anything new.  She has to be in full dress, hair, etc.  Her coach is one of the 4 deciding who will be in the show and in what parts.  I am hoping they will put her in a duet or trio so that she can quickly make some new friends, but regardless we are just very excited that she gets this opportunity.  She doesn't even know yet.  I will tell her after Girl Scouts today.   We are SO proud of Ava. She has come so far just in the last 6 months. You go girl!