Blown Away

Jessica and her synchronized skating team took part in the Capitol Critique last Sunday. Each team has a set number of minutes on the ice and the judges watch them skate and will later provide feedback to the coaches on what went well and what went not so well.  Each team usually has time to do their routine twice, sometimes more. Jess's team had 8 minutes so they did their routine twice. You can also redo specific parts of the routine if you wish. This helps coaches figure out where they need to tweak things to get the best results for actual competitions. The teams aren't ranked or compared by the judges in this event but can get a preview of your competition which is helpful

 

For their first performance of the year, I think the Open Juvenile (OJ) team did exceptionally well.
*Sorry, but the video below will be set to private until the 2013-2014 competition season is over.*

 

 

 

 

I wish the adult team could take part in this but we JUST finished choreo on our routine last Saturday.  We don't have our dresses ready either. 

 

The critique was held in the Kettler Capitals Iceplex in Arlington, VA just outside of DC. We drove in the night before and visited Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum on F Street. That place was pretty fun and we took a lot of photographs with the presidents and celebrities.  Here are some of my favorites:

 

We also went to Shake Shack for the first time and got some milk shakes after the museum. I really want to go back and try their burgers. We were so full from lunch so we only had room for shakes. We let the girls have their own room at the hotel that night so they were happy about that. We were right across the hall of course.

 

Next trip and first competition for the OJ team is near Cape Cod, MA next month. They are taking a bus up so I'm not sure yet if we are going to go and watch. I would really like to but that seven hour drive sounds grueling!