Back off holiday

Well were home in Poland now, we skated in Britain last week to keep on top of things but today is the first day of training if you get what i mean. Europeans felt a long one this year and the first one with no official closing banquet, which is like there was no end to the competition, a little strange. Helsinki was pretty, not a lot to do though, and food is just a luxury for the rich! I'm sure Worlds in L.A will be a little change from the minus degree's and feet of snow. Britain seemed to have got its own fair share though, in between our busy schedule of seeing my new week old nephew and sorting out our mounds of paper work and visits to Manchester to see one of our choreographers we did actually find time to go sledging! It seems impossible what you can fit into a week, but its also amazing what you can achieve.

We have a few programme changes to make but nothing spectacular, we'll save that for Olympics! Ha ha, the programmes mainly need to be faster, tighter, and clean. Our qualification criteria for the British Olympic Association is very demanding so we must demand a lot from our selves and we truly believe we can do it. The Olympic qualification for ISU just seems confusing more than anything, but everything aside we just need two more good skates this season! I find you just need a little luck on your side and a lot of hard work to benefit from most things in life.

Anyway its good to be back in full training, and will hope to speak to you soon. All our best wishes,

Helsinki!

So, we made our flight from Warsaw! Better start than our last international already. It was an easy 3hr drive down with a short 1hr 30min flight, and quickly escorted to our pleasant Scandic hotel. Everything went very smooth and practice this morning was no different, with a nice clean short. The practice rink was a bit of a shock to most the pairs, I can only describe it as an ice rink in a cave, which incidentally doesn’t really have the head room for pairs. The first lift I only took to my shoulder as I feared for Stacey’s safety. But once we adjusted slightly we got on fine and are really looking forward to tonight’s 22:50 practice. A little late but its not for us to choose.

I love the big events where you can chat to skaters from all over the world mostly in similar situations to you, and watching the big names in skating live. It’s a great learning experience every time and you can’t learn it at your home rink no matter where you might be, you have to actually taste it. I’m sure if you can ask spectators at the rink if they can feel an energy they would agree there is something special at the big events. For now you’ll have to take my word for it but in the future you should try and make the journey.

The last two days we spent in Poland, training on our home ice and taking care of our kitty that we now won’t see for 9 days. While we were there the Guardian gave me a phone to do an article called ‘Whats Rocking Sport’ and its an insight in to athletes musical tastes, so that will be in on Monday if anyone is interested. Finland is similar weather to Poland too so we feel very well adjusted, which is great because there’s nothing worse than arriving to an event and not being comfortable. These small things can affect you but the main thing is to stay focused and just get two good skates out for all your years hard work to pay off. You can blame many things and make excuses but in the end its down to you and if you’ve trained properly you should have no worries.

Anyway, that is all for now. Were going for our dinner to keep up our strength. All our best

British National Championships

Sorry i couldn't update sooner! I wasn't paying £20 for the two day wi-fi cost when I'd only be on for 20mins in that whole time. Anyway, if you didn't know already we retained our fourth senior title in Nottingham this week. We skated a pretty clean short, a few of our levels were 3 instead of 4 but corrected them for the free. It wasn't a personal best for this season but a pretty good attempt, just 2 points off and in general it was stronger than all of our other competitions this season.

Well, another national championships over with and another desired result. It was a well run event, apart from being so close to the European Championships and skating at the start of the week instead of the end everything was fine. Not a huge crowd for the short as it was a Monday but surprisingly not too bad for the long. Lots of controversy as ever at the British mainly with the ice dance, excitement you can't get from any other sport in the world it really does surprise me that skating doesn't bring in the crowds it should.

Stacey had her dress changed slightly in the free and made a big difference aesthetically, its the little things that take all season to finely tune and yet at the final competition where your just getting the hang of things its a totally clean slate and you have to start again. But like we have time to worry about things like that next week its Helsinki for the European Championships and as its our Olympic Qualifying season a personal best is pretty essential. We feel that everything is in place for us now though, we just have to enjoy ourselves. I hate getting too serious for these events as it can stop a true performance, but as long as i can say i tried my best i will be very happy!

With our flight to Helsinki for the European Championships tomorrow we will say a huge thank you to everyone who came to support us at the British Championships and hope you can watch us next week at the European Championships. We'll be in touch,

Stacey and David

Festive Period

So our next set of competitions have jumped up on us faster than Christmas did. It seemed like we just arrived home from Polish Nationals and then I was there sitting in Bydgoszcz airport catching our flight to Liverpool for the holiday period. We had a short time at home, unfortunately a very sad time this Christmas but life throws us these times to help us reflect. We managed to dodge most the flu’s and chest infections that were going round, to be quite honest I think the Polish winter kills all the nasty bugs but your always left with a lingering cold. In Torun the temperature dropped to -22 which was quite a shock to us and meant most of our Christmas money was invested in warmer clothes. Training also got pretty chilly, most our sessions ended with numb hands and feet.

Skating as ever this year went well over the holiday period, playing around with new elements and skating good programmes preparing for Europeans. After last year at European Championships we have a big challenge to improve our placement but we’ve tried our very best to be in a position to try. In the rink where Mariusz and Dorota got their Bronze medal at worlds we will be fighting for top 5. Before Europeans we have the British Championships in Nottingham as a warm up. Any one whose going down on Monday or Tuesday I hope you have a great day and manage to see us skate. Its always a pleasure skating at home in Britain and it seems these days that its such a rare occasion that we can. If you can’t make it down you’ll be able to see our progress on the blog!

Anyway, Happy New Year everyone and hope to see you over the next week! All our very best,

Stacey and David

Champions of the 3 Republics

After drawing last to skate and feeling good about our short we were super tired but attended our 10:30pm practice. Half 10am we had to skate our long. All the Torun pairs were feeling good after short, but i think all very tired after a long few days. But we scored a fantastic 93.17 in the long and all together 144.39, which is a big jump on Tokyo.

So we ended up winning the Polish nationals for a second time but this time we actually got a recognition and a medal, last year we just had to stand next to the podium which was rather embarrassing. I think we received a medal because each separate nation hosted their own champions in each event as well as overall champions of events. On to the gala and we decided to perform the piece we made up in Tokyo last week, although as in the short the sound quality was really bad and could hardly hear our music. Ah well! All in all was another good competition and best of all our 3rd personal best in a row, what more can we ask for when at the start of the season i wondered if we'd make the British! So back to hard work now, so you can enjoy later. All our best, Stacey and David

From One to Another!

We had a great time in Tokyo and loads of fun at the gala even if it did mean missing the only day we had to see the city. In front of a huge packed arena we went out to enjoy and not worry about what scores we should get. The closing banquet was also great with bingo being replaced for a raffle but as always great hi tech prizes, and as ever we didn't win anything but the runner up prize they give away at the end. Although the top 5 competitors did get Klose make up sets, but our real prize was to get another personal best and achieve 4th place at a grand prix.

After all our troubled flight across the flight back was just fantastic, we were upgraded to business class. A remote controlled chair (with massage button) meant we got the best sleep we'd had all week! Good job too because in 3days we would have make the long trip south for the joint Polish, Czech and Slovak nationals in Trinec, Czech Republic. 6:30am the bus rolled up at our door (why is it always early starts?) Stacey and i were cramped up close and personal to our mini bus driver for the next long 10 hours. We stopped for Chinese but otherwise straight there.

Trinec is just over the Polish border and the Hotel Steel where were staying is right in the middle. We had a draw quite soon after arriving which was very professionally done in the local cinema. Not understanding too much of what was going on we drew 4th to skate which was 2nd in the second group and received an alarm clock as welcoming present. Unfortunately neither of the top 2 Czech men are here Tomas Verner and Michal Brezina but we have no time to watch anyway. We sat and enjoyed the entertainment, some nursery school kids who had rehearsed all year singing and dancing for us and waving to their embarrassed parents and to finish we had local ballroom dancers who gave an exhibition. After there was a fantastic carvery, very fine for a national championship.

The rink wasn't as to be desired for but ice is ice and we got to business. 5 pairs on morning practice meant we only just got everything done, chaos. Luckily the warm up groups were split into 2. We scored 51.22 which is yet another personal best, really enjoyed the skate. No pressure and like Mariusz said before we went on 'show our skating has improved'. We did, it was clean, and I haven't got result sheet yet but we must of got most our levels. So leading the short we drew 5th to skate in the long. Unfortunately due to the strange schedule we have practice at 11pm tonight for our free programme at 11am tomorrow... Almost unheard of but they do have a busy schedule! I will let you know how it goes.

4th in NHK GP Tokyo

We stood our ground, 4th in short, 4th in long and 4th overall (it can happen that your fourth in both but drop!). It was a great feeling, being on the top group through the whole event and finishing in 4th behind some great pairs. Practice the day of the short was good but tough skating along side the teams scrapping it out for which shade of medal they want. The day went very quick, before we knew it we were back in the skaters lounge sitting getting a drink and sushi before our event started. All the tv screens on a live feed to exactly whats happening on the ice, behind the scenes at these events is quite amazing.

Our event drew close, we were warming up as the first group took to the ice. As ever we ignored what went on before us, focusing on what we need to do while lacing up our boots. Short wouldn't be televised on Eurosport which is a shame because its good when your friends and family can watch but the arena was packed with a lot of the world still getting a live feed. We stepped on closely followed by two world medalist teams and a well experienced triple axel throwing American team. We were up first! They called our names and we gaze shortly around in to the crowd, it was full. People of all ages sat in anticipation of our short programme, and we skated well. A few minor error's mostly to loose levels (points) on things but ended up with 49.36 which was easily a personal best for us.

Practice for the long went even better still, with a bit of leeway between us and the next down the list and only 5 points off a medal we felt relaxed and happy. All elements were going clean and for a personal best at this event we would need to do our elements good so we get higher points, and nothing looks better than making hard tricks look easy. Stacey almost took the Chinese guys head off on the exit of a lift, but that's the way it seems to go in this group. We stepped off the practice 10minutes before the end but we'd done everything we wanted, no need in hanging around for no reason. Home for a bit of r & r before the final event.

Our free programme was very early compared to the usual set up, again we were first to skate in the second group. We just hoped to skate the programme how we have been, with power until the last position. Our final score was 83.53 and the only poor element was the side by side flip that we threw in last week after Zagreb for safety... Ah well. But it was a personal best and we were very happy. After we skated a very polite Japanese OC worker informed us that because we were in the top 4 we managed to make the gala, which is another accomplishment for us at this event. Anyway still a long way to go from here, which can only mean bigger scores and stronger performances in our next events. Hope to see you there!