Hello, everyone!)

Surely I remember my rash promise that next time I would say ‘hello’ to you it would be the time I disclose my new programs. But I so want to tell you about my summer camp first!

 

This is the third year we have had our summer camp in the same place, the town of Luleo. ‘We’ are the best skaters from our Academy of Figure Skating. Luleo is situated in the Northern part of Sweden. This year we spent here by far less time than usual, a little more than two weeks. The thing is, when a camp lasts for three weeks or even for a month, toward the end athletes get too tired and prone to injuries, because the daily regimen at a camp is very intense in terms of practices. And even though we had a four days’ training cycle, the load was very heavy. But we had no other choice, because the new season is near at hand, and, by the way, test skates held by the Federation are scheduled early this year. Most skaters were shaping up for the test skates in particular.

Mornings used to begin identically for everyone, namely with breakfast. Then came an ice practice, ballet classes, lunch, rest, second ice practice and finally gym. As for me, I couldn’t take ballet classes every day, because sometimes they coincided with ice practices. This was because our team’s choreographer hadn’t come to Sweden with us, and I worked with Olga Glinka, the choreographer of Eugeni Rukavitsin’s team. I liked her classes very much; they differ from my previous experience. Of course, at first it wasn’t easy to memorize all the combinations of movements, but I adjusted soon and could do all of them just about faultlessly.  

It was awfully cold at the ice rink. I especially sympathize with the coaches who just stood there almost motionlessly. We were luckier. But our limbs sometimes got frozen, too, so we had to skate wearing three jackets and two pairs of gloves. But imagine how nice it was to stir out after a practice and thaw out in the sun)))) And the day before a day-off we could give ourselves a warm in a sauna bath)         

      

On our day-offs we used to go to town for shopping. Luleo is really a tiny town, but it just teems with shops) The most amazing thing was that it was the sale time!) I bought some wearables on my first day-off.

But my happiest day-off was when my mother came to me! She bravely drove 15 hours without an overnight stop. Though she stayed only for three days, she liked the place immensely. She even attended the biggest event of our stay in Luleo, our dear gym coach Andrey Borisovich’s birthday! This day is usually the most gleeful, as the celebration starts with each team’s greetings and continues with funny contests. My team’s name was The Impish Girls. Our performance started with a short poem written by yours truly, and then we danced. The great thing is that my team’s line-up remains almost unchanged from year to year, that’s why we’ve become the most popular team. There was also a men’s volleyball tournament in which two teams participated. The first one consisted of three single and three pair skaters. It’s line-up also doesn’t change, they only invent a new name each year. This time the team’s name was The Gigantic Snoots))) The opposing team was made up of coaches and doctors. It was extremely interesting to watch the games. I noticed that the coaches got very upset every time their team lost. They were chasing the ball frantically, while the boys played calmly and steadily, and as far as I remember never lost at all)

     

It’s a pity there wasn’t any gala this year, I don’t know why. Maybe it was because the camp lasted a short time. Well, so much for that. On the whole, everything was good and interesting. As for me, I enjoyed my practices, that’s for sure) Summing up, I can say that 70% of my practices were really efficient, in spite of the fatigue that had built up by the time we left Luleo. I have already learned my programs well and, thanks to the gym exercises, don’t even get tired when I skate them in full.      

Well, that’s the end of my brief account. Hope you’ve found it interesting to read. And it will be even more interesting for me to write my next blog entry, from which you will learn all about my new programs)

Cross my heart!) 

"The Impish Girls": Masha Kovaleva, Zhenya Gerasimova, Nikol Gosviyani, Polina Agafonova, Alisa Mikonsaari, Masha Artemieva, Ksusha Rybkina и Alena Leonova.