Getting ready for competition day is more than just making sure that you can do all your elements and that you have your program choreography down pat. If you want to get the best scores, you have to shine when you get out there. You need to look like you aren't nervous at all, even if you feel like you could explode at any minute. You need to make the program look like it's easy, like you aren't worried about a thing. You need to smile. But how can you do all that when your palms are sweating and you feel your knees shaking as you step out onto the ice?

One of my students came to me a few months ago as a newbie skater. She could go frontwards and backwards and could do two foot spins, but she hadn't been able to figure out a one foot spin yet. The problem is, before we could get her one foot spin to work, she had to undo some unhelpful muscle memory she'd picked up in her two foot spin and teach her how to center a spin correctly. Then, we started working on the one foot spins.