Hey everyone!
Sorry I haven’t written in my journal for a couple months, but a lot has been going on. I guess I should start with Nationals.
Well, what can I say, everything didn’t go as I had planned, but I can’t say that I’m upset with how I skated. In Spokane, there were two arenas, the Convention Center for my short program and the Spokane Arena for my long program. During most of my practices that week, I was having problems with my triple lutz, which prior to getting there was one of my stronger jumps. I didn’t think much of my lutz problems because I knew I had done it so many times at home. So, the day of the short program, my official practice went really well, and I felt really good going into the competition, but I don’t know what it was; my rough practices, nerves, or just because the ice is slippery, I fell on the triple lutz and put my hand down on my triple flip. I wasn’t very happy with my performance to say the least, but I had to look on the bright side. With two major errors I was in 7th place and when I look back on it, getting 7th for what I did was great! I also was the only junior skater to get level 4 on all of my spins. We had a day of rest between the short and the long programs and during that one day, I got over my short program blues and was ready to put out a great long. The next day I was to skate my long program on the Spokane Arena and I felt ready. My long program was much better than my short, but still not the program I had wanted. Again, I had trouble on the triple lutz; this time it was the second lutz. I also tripped in my footwork when I got a little over involved in the music. During my program, there was one moment that I don’t think I’ll forget any time soon. I was going into my triple loop and I said to myself, “Adam, you’re at nationals! This is what you’ve trained for all year!”. I realized in that moment, going into a triple loop, how lucky I was to be there and how hard I had worked to get there. In the end, I pulled up to 6th. I knew that I had done everything I could have done all year to be my best at nationals, and I wasn’t my best. It wasn’t a good feeling, but somehow I knew something good would come out of it, weather it be a lesson I would learn or something else, I didn’t know what, but I knew something good would have to happen.
When I had gotten home, I realized that I needed a change if I really wanted to go progress. I knew what I would have to do and I knew it was going to be one of the hardest things I would ever have to do. I decided that I had to change coaches from my long time coach, Yelena. When I told her about this, she was understanding, I truly know she really wants what would be right for my skating. I didn’t know where I was going to go when I left her, but I knew that she had taught me so much that where ever I did end up, that my strong skating skills would help me to go far.
The first thing I wanted to do was get out of the Philadelphia area, so I could have a new beginning. I decided that I would skate around and see what was out there and what I had to choose from. One day, while skating in NJ, I was introduced to Nikolai Morozov by a coach who had seen my skating before and was a friend of my previous coach. I started to skate with Nikolai and his students, Miki and Dice, which was such a great experience! It really inspired me to practice harder, skate bigger, and just strive to be a better skater in general. Before he left for the World Championships in Tokyo, Nikolai agreed to be my primary coach and also promised that a lot of hard work was in my future. I feel like getting to skate with one of the greatest coaches in world right now, as well as two of the greatest singles skaters in the world, is such a great opportunity and honor. I honestly feel like in the period of time I’ve skated with him, that my skating has gotten better and I have been practicing harder. In the end, I think that this was the “good thing” that came out of Spokane.
Thank you to everyone for your support and for reading,
Adam