Provincial 'C' Championship (11 and under)

Over the past weekend, my daughter competed in the Ontario speed skating 'C' Championships for skaters aged 11 and under. This competition was held at the River Oaks Recreation Centre in Oakville, which meant a little bit of driving for us. For the record, the arena is a very nice facility, with good size dressing rooms, much bigger than our club is accustomed to. I just wished they hadn't put the teams that traveled the farthest  in the change room the farthest from the line-up area. Nothing like adding to the journey! :)

This meet marked her 3rd and last competition of the season. Early in the season, she managed to place 3rd in a meet, winning a bronze medal, while at her last meet, she was fighting the flu and didn't fair so well on the ice.

Coming into the weekend, she was hoping the win a medal. We talked on our long drive up about what to expect this weekend, and to aim for PB's more than medals. I also explained that she would be racing against only girls her age, and that there were 4-5 girls who had posted faster 400m times than her best time, making it a challenge to finish in the top 3.

During her warm-up on the first day, I could tell right away she was going to have a good weekend skating. Her form looked good and she was skating faster than most of the kids on the ice. In her first race, a 400m, she had a good start and skated hard through all 4 laps. She posted a new PB, beating her old time by 5s, but unfortunately finished 2nd, 5 seconds behind the leader. The good news was her time was fast enough to get her into the 'A' finals, but the bad news was that she was the 5th seed. In that race, she didn't have a great start, as she was starting from the far outside lane, and could never catch up to the 4 other girls, essentially finishing 5th. She was also 1s slower than her heat time. She wasn't upset, but I think she realize there that finishing in the top 3 would be difficult.

Coming around the 4th corner

In her second race, a 100m, she finished 2nd in her heat, this time she came up 0.25 seconds short of making the 'A' finals. In the 'B' finals she improved her time a bit, but finished 2nd, leaving her behind in top 5 points. As we went home that evening, she asked if she had a chance of winning a medal. I explained to her that it would be very difficult to win a medal, but if she could make both 'A' finals in her last 2 races, she had a good chance of finishing in the top 5 and receiving a ribbon.

On day 2, her warm-up looked good, but you could tell she was a little more tired than the day before. In her first race of that day, a 200m, she had a good race but finished 3rd in her heat, 0.04 seconds behind the other girl. That time is so small, that I don't believe the time keepers could say definitely which of the 2 skaters finished ahead. When the rankings came out for the 'A' finals, she missed the 5th spot, losing to the girl who edged her out in her heat. Leading up to her 'B' final, I told her that if she finished first, she would have a chance of making the 'A' finals for the last race of the day, and possibly win a ribbon.

Here's the race. She's the skater on the inside part of the track.

If the above video does not work, here is a link to a shared drive where I have uploaded it.
As you can see, she wanted to make the 'A' finals for the last race, which she did.

In the last race, a 500m, the top 6 skaters, based on points, raced in the 'A' finals to give everyone a chance to move up in the ranks. I informed her that if she was going to win a ribbon, she had to do better than 4th, while beating both the currently ranked 4th and 5th place girls. She had a good start and as all the skaters came around the 2nd corner, 2 of the girls fell down, leaving it to a 4 girl race. My daughter stayed in 3rd place the remainder of the way, finishing 1 second from 2nd and 0.3 seconds ahead of 4th. It would come down to where everybody was ranked going into the race to see if she managed enough points to reach 5th place. At this point, I informed her that even if she didn't win a ribbon, she set Personal Best in all the distances she raced over the weekend and that was a very big accomplishment. This made her somewhat happy.

When it came time to the medal ceremony, the moment of truth came out and she finished in 6th place, meaning no ribbon for her. You could see the disappointment on her face, but you could also see the desire to do better. As we drove home that evening, we talked about creating an off-ice training plan for the summer so that next year she could be faster against the girls who are bigger than her and have a better chance of winning a medal/ribbon.

Glad to see she wants to keep getting better.

Last meet of the season

Last weekend marked the last meet that speed skating daughter will compete in for the 2011-2012 season. She has decided that she does not want to participate in the Masters & Regional Championships to be held March 31-April 1 in Kitchener. I would like to attend to see how it works and how she would end up ranking, but I'm not going to push her.

That being said, we did attend the Silver #13 (E) Ability meet in Gloucester this past weekend. As I expected, she moved up a level to compete against "faster" skaters. With the new OSSA track rules in place, all skaters in the Juvenile and below categories skated the 100m track (as oppose to the 111m track). This meant that new distances would be skated. 111m races turned into 100m races, 222m became 200m and 333m became 400m. In the older groups, several kids skated 800m races, along with 500m and 400m. Overall, PB's would be set as nobody had skated many of the distances set up for the meet.

In my daughter's 1st race (200m), she did ok, but ended up finishing 3rd (out of 4). That left her out of the 'A' finals for that distance, and I knew right there that there would be no 2nd medal (the points drop off quickly the farther down the list you finish). In the 'B' finals, she had a good start and was in 2nd place heading into the 3rd corner. Unfortunately the leader fell and took out several of the track markers that ended under speed skating daughter's skate as she did a crossover, causing her to fall. She ended up in last place for that final, only to be moved up 1 spot due to another skater being DQ'd (for skating inside the track). 9th place did not get her a ribbon, leaving her a little sad, especially since her friend finished 7th and received a ribbon.

In her 2nd distance (100m), she finished last in her heat and ended up in the 'C' finals. In that final, she skated faster than her prelim race, but ended finishing 2nd (10th overall). Again no ribbon and very little points. With little points gained throughout her 'finals', she was placed in the 'B' 400m Super final (seeding was based on accumulated points). At this point, the coach came up to her and said that if she wanted a ribbon, she needed to finish top 2 in a distance she had never skated before. She wasn't too optimistic about it, but she had a great start, managed to take the lead early and never looked back, finishing 1st in the 'B' final (7th overall). She received a ribbon, which made her super happy (making the day a success). When I saw her time, it turned out to be the same time as when she skated her best 333m earlier in the season. That meant she skated 67m farther in the same amount of time (I'd say she's getting faster). I then did the conversion and it turned out that in comparison, she would have skated a 333m race in 59 seconds, essentially breaking the "1 minute" barrier that many of the kids strive for at an early age. I'll have to talk to the coach and see if she is required to bring in cupcakes as a celebratory gesture for breaking the 1 minute barrier, which is something the club has implemented.

Speed skating daughter leading the pack in the 400m race

And now there are 2

Last night marked the 1st night that Youngest Son tried speed skating (sorry, no photos yet). He did exceptionally well for his first time and showed some decent speed at first. Other than being a little tired (with sore legs), he said he liked it and wants to go back (at least for the 3 remaining try-it sessions).

He will now be referred to as Speed Skating Son. :)

One proud... moment

Today was our speed skating club's yearly ability meet, that speed skating daughter was registered for. The way that she has been skating since learning how to do her crossovers, my wife and I figured she would skate some PB's. That meant, the whole family HAD to come out to watch her skate. It turned out that both my parents, and my in-laws made the 1 hr trip to watch. Right from the first race where she took the lead at the start and didn't give it up until the race was over, we knew she would do well. In the finals of that distance (222m), she finished 2nd overall. That meant she would receive a 2nd place ribbon, which made her smile from ear-to-ear. At that point, I mentioned to her that if she did well in the next distance (111m), she might have enough overall points to win a medal (top 3 in each group). That motivated her and again she finished 1st in her preliminary heat. In the finals she started strong and only lost in the last 3 m of the race. Another 2nd place ribbon for the distance and a 2nd place medal overall.

The interesting thing about this is that we went to watch this meet last year and speed skating daughter said then that she really wanted to try speed skating. That is some great progress to go from never doing it to finishing 2nd overall (in her age category) in 1 year.

Today was a very proud day for speed skating daughter (and mommy & daddy). Can't wait to see what other meets have in store for her.

Here's a few other pics from the day.

All it takes is time... and practice

I’m not sure if I already mentioned it, but before the snow fell, I built a small rink for my kids in my backyard. By small I mean, 19’ x 40’. With the cold weather now upon us, they have been out on it several times, and all 3 keep asking to go out, even in -25o C weather.

Because of the rink, speed skating daughter learnt to do crossovers using hockey skates, only son has gone from barely walking on the ice, to full on strides and glides and oldest daughter states that she can now do crossovers using her figure skates even though I figured she could already do them (she argues no). So all 3 have become better in a short amount of time. That, in my opinion, makes building a backyard rink a HUGE SUCCESS!

Last night, at speed skating daughter’s first practice since before Christmas, she was able to do crossovers using her speed skates and now realized that she can maintain a good pace on the turns. With over 1 month before the club’s official meet, she has plenty of time to become better at doing crossovers and improve her 333m, 222m, and 111m times. Time will tell.

If only son continues at this pace of improvement, I will sign him up for the try-it-before-registering speed skating sessions, as he mentions he wants to do speed skating like his older sister. That means, I could have 2 kids, and possibly my Dad and myself, registered at the club next season. I hope they give family discounts. :)


 
BTW, that is me, speed skating daughter (bottom), only son (on knees) and speed skating daughter’s friend on the ice, with family dog just off the ice. Oldest daughter was away on a sleep over that night.

Rare opportunity

About a month ago, my daughter's speed skating coach asked me if I'd be interested in attending a day long seminar with a National Team Coach. The catch was that it was on a Friday, just before Christmas. After looking at how much leave I still had left, I quickly said yes to this limited opportunity.

It turns out that my daughter's coach happens to be the sister of Jonathon Cavar and he is planning on being home for the holidays. This allowed the club, along with our coach, the opportunity to secure some ice time and have him put on a full day of on and off ice training, for both our club's coaches, our competitive skaters, and coaches and skaters from neighboring clubs.

It should be lots of fun and informative and should really help me when working with the kids from my daughters club. I'm really looking forward to it.

A star is born

Last night was my children's school Christmas Nutcracker play. My oldest daughter had the lead, while my other 2 children had minor roles. One being a fairy, while the other was a mouse. Even though the 2 youngest had no lines, just actions to perform, they were all excited to be part of the play.

This play marked the first time that the school has done anything for Christmas in many years, and to my surprise, people came out in full force to see the presentation. So many people showed up that they had to pull out extra chairs for them to sit on. That is always a good thing.

The play started right on time, and everything went extremely well. Between each set, while they changed the background, various students sang Christmas songs. Overall, the play, and singing, lasted nearly 1 hour, making it an enjoyable evening for all.

My daughter, who had the most lines in the play, performed exceptionally well, with no mistakes. My other 2 were all smiles when their parts came up. The joy I felt seeing all of them on stage was wonderful, and my oldest daughter seemed to bask in the fact that she was the star of the show.

Maybe this is the beginning of a new path for her.