Minna’s Progress

8/27/26

Minna had a great week! She improved her backspin a lot on the ice. She got 10 revolutions several times! She also is jumping higher on her salchow jump, and she added in all of her toe loops and toe loop combination jumps to her program, and they are great. She has done a really great job making changes to her program (i.e. more powerful crossovers, adding new connecting steps, holding her gliding positions longer, etc.), and we were able to make them all quickly. Her axel is really improving on the pole harness. It’s becoming quite consistent, and she is starting to notice when she spins off her toe pick when she jumps, and when she misses it.

8/16/2026

Minna has very beautiful movements on the ice, and she has a wonderful sense of music when she interprets to songs on the ice~ her natural skating style is very fluid and graceful! Her axels on the pole harness are clean, and right now she has been landing about 5 per day on the harness that are good, so we will work to increase that number this week. We are working on how she lands her axel so she always lands with her weight on the right spot on her blade. She’s also been handling learning her flip jump technique and lutz jump technique much better. She can land a flip jump on the ice now, and when she gets emotional or sad on the ice sometimes, she has been good about telling me what’s going on so we can talk through it, which I appreciate. (For example, she was sad about her flip jump for awhile because she thought she’d been taught it wrong since she only knew a half-flip jump. But when I explained to her that all kids learn half-flip jump before they learn single flip jump, then she felt better).

8/2/2026

Minna did a great job at the competition! She had great speed in her program, and she had a beautiful spiral! We will keep working on her spins to make them faster! She handled everything at the competition very well, she had a great attitude, and I’m glad she enjoyed herself!

7/24/26

Minna’s done a really nice job re-working the middle and end of her program~ she learns very fast! We still have to refine a few things, but overall, her program is coming along a lot better than I thought it would for her being ill. She did a good job communicating with me when she wasn’t feeling well, and then we just modified this week. She landed her flip jump this week, and she did a really great job working on the technique behind it. She actually did several really great flying sit spins this week (they were better than her regular sit spins actually). Minna’s axel on the floor has much better technique, and she picked up jumping higher on it quickly too this past couple of weeks.

6/19/26

Minna has been doing great this summer! We are getting a lot done when she is at the rink, and she is doing a nice job learning her Preliminary Skating Skills test and working on take-off exercises for her axel jump. Her backspin is more centered, and her loop jumps are consistently clean. Minna loves skating to music~ she really likes doing her program, and she likes adding new choreography into her program. Aspire 1 is a good level for her~ we need to work on her spins more, but it is good motivation to do them in a program. Minna’s also done well learning more technique with her salchow and toe loop jumps. Overall, summer is going really well with her, and sometimes she doesn’t like it when she can’t do new things, but I’m hoping the more she is around other kids who are trying new things, she will learn it’s just part of the process. I’m already seeing a difference since she’s been on the ice more. On Thursday, she fell during her program, but she popped back up and just kept going. After the program, she wanted to talk to me about something new I had added to the program~ she didn’t bring up the fall at all. Earlier in the week she had fallen a couple of times and had gotten upset so I’m glad to see she is enjoying the skating process more. I saw lots of smiles from her this week!

5/30/26

Minna’s Pre-Preliminary test is almost ready to go~ she just needs to keep her spirals consistent, and she is good to go. I know she is unsure of herself, but I am going to have her do the test in the next week or two~ I have to see when she is skating. Minna does a great job making corrections quickly on her test.

Minna does well in faster paced lessons, and her backspins are more centered, and she is making good progress on some of the loop and axel exercises. She is becoming more focused in her lessons too. She does a good job being aware if her loop jump is clean or not. Her axel jump technique is great on the floor. This summer, I need to work on her jump height and explosiveness off the floor so her jumps can be higher. I’m excited for summer for her~ more time on the ice means we can learn a lot more!