By Jim Parker

I know, I know. Everyone and his or her mother are either making, or writing about New Year's Resolutions! Well, just to be different, I am going to do the opposite. I am going to look back. I guess this has to do with the old adage that goes something like, 'Those who don't learn from their mistakes, are doomed to repeat them'. Is this you? As you look back at this past training year, have you gradually improved? Or, do you feel stuck in the same rut? If you believe your skating is better, ask or analyze why. If you are the 'in the rut' athlete, ask the same question and do the same analysis. What I am suggesting is that is wrong and detrimental to our progress if we just merrily go along in our training life without looking back and questioning our successes and failures.

The ability to objectively step back and unemotionally look at what we have achieved or failed to achieve is another important 'tool' in your 'tool belt' of skills.  An even better tool is the ability to LEARN from this analysis and put that learning to practical use in your skating!  Let's take an example.  Here you are sitting in early January and you are looking at a video of you competing at say, Sectionals.   You came in fourth.  Pretty darn good!  Still, you felt you could have skated better.  Ask yourself, "Did I make an intentional effort to learn from this performance?"  Did you go over the program with your coach or fellow skaters?  Did you 'freeze frame' the video at different points to see what could have been changed or improved?  Did you take notes?  Did you do your program shortly after and try to improve it?  Or, did you just write it off?  It is pretty tempting to do just that, especially if you aren't satisfied with how things went.  Maybe it was the program.  Possibly the ice was bad.  I was in a bad mood.  I was nervous.  I couldn't hear the music.  I'll blame my coach and finally,  "Oh well, there is always next time."   It is also tempting to rest on one's success and not learn from that experience.  WRONG!!  Analyze, analyze, analyze!  Be a 'technician' of your sport!  Just like exams at school, you need to study.  Ask yourself questions such as, "What was I feeling?  Was I as fit as I could be?  Was I prepped mentally?  How was my alignment, the expressions on my face, the flow of my arms?  If you can become your own 'post game analyst', the 'Don Cherry' in 'Coaches Corner', you will improve! 

Never just walk away from your success and failures without learning from them. And make no mistake; it is very hard to do. There is emotion involved for sure. But, if you try very hard and do it every time you compete and train, the ultimate result is a more prepared you. Come on. Fill out that tool belt!

A special thank you to all who contributed to the Children’s Wish Foundation through their generous donations.  Based on an average $2.00 donation for each gift wrapped, we raised $100 for this very worthy cause and look forward to doing even more for next Christmas!

It bears repeating –

We’ve had great response to our

 SKATE EXCHANGE page, so send us an email to post information about skates and blades that you would like to try to sell on our skate exchange page. Here’s how it works:

SKATE EXCHANGE

At Dress Wright On Ice we deal in new skates only.  But we frequently get requests from people asking about used skates.  We decided to create a BUY and SELL page on our website www.dresswright.com so that people can post skates that they would like to sell, or place requests for skates they need.  To have your request posted, email us at info@dresswright.com with the pertinent information (brand, quality, size, colour) including an email or phone contact number.  The sale of the skates is strictly between the two private parties.  Dress Wright On Ice Inc. has no responsibility for the skates beyond creating a page to post opportunities for those with skates to buy and sell.  Postings will remain on the page for a period of 3 months, unless we are advised that the skates have been sold. 

There are lots of exciting events over the next month to keep track of, including the Canadian Championships from London, Ontario.  If you’re not able to attend in person, the following is a schedule of when the different events will be broadcast!

TV Schedule as at Jan. 4, 2005. Subject to change. Please consult www.tsn.ca and www.ctv.ca for the latest schedules.

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