Australian junior figure skating champion Cheltzie Lee has just spent six weeks in Colorado Springs training with renowned figure skating coach Cathy Casey, and reports on what a great experience it all was.
Australian junior figure skating champion Cheltzie Lee has just spent six weeks in Colorado Springs training with renowned figure skating coach Cathy Casey, and reports on what a great experience it all was.
“Just a quick email to let you know I have returned from my training trip in Colorado Springs, Colorado. What an AWESOME experience to share the ice with some of the USA's elite athletes at the World Arena. Skating with the likes of Jeremy Abbott, Ryan Bradley, Rachael Flatt, to name a few, was so inspiring. A very expensive journey but so worth the six weeks.
I trained four 45 minute sessions a day, which is double the time I skate on a daily basis. It took a bit of time to adjust to the altitude, but after that it was FULL steam ahead. The aim of the trip was to get a good grounding on another triple jump. I was determined to leave Colorado with a triple toe loop jump and that I did plus a bit more!
My (Australian) coach Kylie (Fennell) started working with me last year on a 3 toe loop, 3 toe loop combination jump but we had very little skill development time due to my hectic competition schedule. As the toe loop is my strongest jump, Olympic Coach Kathy Casey decided to work more on the 3 toe loop, 3 toe loop combination which I'm very proud to say I will add to my arsenal of jumps this competition season. The task now at hand is to successfully execute it in competition under pressure.
But for now I'm back to the reality of seven hours a week training due to school commitments and distance. The upside to this is that I'm now preparing for Junior Worlds, to be held in Sofia, Bulgaria, next month, starting 25 February. My goal as always is to skate clean programs and achieve a personal best! I'll make sure I keep you posted!