Tessa Progress

10/19/2026

Tessa’s axels are off to a strong start! We just need to keep drilling them and the exercises we have been doing, and she will get it! We also need to keep working on her backspin and backwards sit spins to help her. I know she doesn’t like working on her next skating skill test (most kids don’t) so we are just working on it in bits and pieces, but she does know all of the patterns already!

10/5/2026

Tessa’s edges are getting so much better, and her program was so strong this weekend! She does a great job learning things precisely! I was also very proud of Tessa that if we ran her program this past weekend, and something didn’t go well, she just kept going and didn’t let it effect the rest of her program. Sometimes Tessa doesn’t like to practice her program or do things a lot, but when we’ve talked about how her brain understands things right away, but sometimes it takes her body longer to get things, so that’s why we practice, she seems to like that. Her axels on the pole harness were on fire this weekend too! They have great technique!

9/20/2026

Tessa’s new skates and blades have her skating so fast! Her edges are amazing, and she can do a lot more with her edges in these blades! I can tell she works very hard on the practice list I gave her, and all of her edges are much more consistent. I have to modify a few things in her program so that she is on smaller patterns so she can end with her music on time. We worked on this a little bit yesterday, and it helped a lot. Her jumps are all very consistent, and her one foot spin is very centered! She is more than determined than ever to get her axel! Her axels went much better on the pole harness since now her top toepick is bigger, she is able to jump higher on her axel because she can vault off the top toepick now. It makes axels a lot easier for her too!

8/20/26

What a great week for Tessa! She can do her ballet spin now on the correct part of her toepick, her backspins have a straighter position on them, her salchow jumps are very big, and she has a great take-off for her toe loop so it is very correct now too! We adjusted everything in her program so that is an Aspire 2 program. Her jumps already look strong, and she has a backspin in the program now. We will see if her sit spin will be ready for October. It is a better position, and we are working on it becoming lower. She had a few axels on the pole harness this week that were really nice too!

8/16/26

Tessa’s focus and determination on the ice is very amazing. Her axel jump is so close~ she can for sure rotate it by herself on the pole harness on the ice. We just have to keep on working on exercises to help her launch the jump by rolling off her toe pick better. She has done a great job learning loop turns and pirouttes, which will help her axel spin better in the air. Her backspin position is much straighter now, and she has great expression and creativity when she “interprets” to music on the ice! Her flip jumps have also been jumping higher!

8/2/26

Tessa got her sit spins lower, and she was holding them better this week! She did a great job learning some new edge patterns this week, and she is learning a new jump series so she can warm-up all of her jumps quickly. Her waltz jumps are much higher in the new skates, and she can do her toe loop with speed now!

7/24/26

Tessa did really well in her new skates this week, and she knows all of the patterns on her Preliminary Skating Skills test now, and I like that she took initiative this week on doing whole test run throughs. She is holding her backspin longer, and we are working to refine her flip jump technique. It is rotating much better already with the new skates, and her general edges and flow on the ice was already better with the new skates. Tessa’s also been working really hard on her axel technique on the floor, and they are much more consistent, and a lot stronger than before. I really have enjoyed Tessa’s focus and hard work on the ice and on the floor!

6/27/26

Tessa did a great job working on a new program layout, and she is very tenacious about her sit spin! She also handled the tight skates very well~ we still got a lot down, and she was good about telling me when they hurt too much.

6/19/26

Congrats to Tessa on her great skate at Skate Bloomington! She was so fast, and she had great jumps! Tessa learned her flip jump this week, and she has been practicing it a lot! We have started her Preliminary Skating Skills test, and we are working on edge exercises to help her gain deeper edges. Tessa did a great job this week learning her toe loop and learning some new salchow jump exercises. We are working on axel jump take-off exercises on the ice, and we are focusing on her crossing her ankles more in the air on her axels on the floor. Tessa also worked really hard on her sit spin, backspins and camel spins this week, and she learned how to do spread eagles in both directions this week too!

5/30/26

Congrats to Tessa on passing her Pre-Preliminary Skating Skills test! It would be great if she could have the second test passed by the end of summer!

Tessa did a great job at Braemar Competition~ All of her elements were very correct, and she was definitely the youngest one in Aspire 1. She had great composure during practice ice and during the event. It was great to see how eager she was to get on the ice for her event, and she skated so fast!! She is ready for more content in her program! I am also developing the program so she can use it for the next year to fit her at any other Aspire levels, at Excel Pre-Pre and also at the Championship Pre-Pre level. This character and music fits her so well, and the costume is so perfect, it’ll be great to make this program last for at least a year!

3/11/26

Tessa had really great sit spins this morning! They will help her star spin get better, and it’s important to know a backwards sit spin to help with leg strength for landing the axel (backwards sit is on the right leg, and you land your axel on the right leg).

1/25/26

Tessa did a great job in Aspire class getting her right arm and shoulder to help her spin faster on her axel, and she was even able to do it on her waltz jump-backspin on the ice!

Here elements for her next program are becoming stronger~ she will be a strong Aspire 1 by summer!