May 4, 2015

2014…In the Asian Calendar, this year is known as the Year of the Rabbit…but, I’d like to tweak that a little…and being that I am Asian yet I am not (don’t worry we will get to that in the next blog) I am taking it upon myself to name 2014 The Year of Sean Rabbitt…remember 2 T’s please!

Where to begin? Lets begin at the start of 2014. 2014, I am not going to lie, it started out a little rough with a broken shoulder and torn labrum, all just a week before leaving for Nationals. But, it all goes up from there! I promise.

I am guessing you are wondering how I broke my shoulder and tore my labrum? I was doing footwork, caught an edge, and fell…my shoulder dislocated and well that’s that. But, surprisingly through the pain I was able to get my shoulder moving enough to get out at Nationals and put on 2 satisfying performances which also put me into a personal best place of 14th! Better than I excepted given the circumstances, that’s for sure!

Then came off-season, I rested, let the shoulder get better, escaped surgery (it can be put off until I retire) and then started to prepare for the season that I feel has really changed my career!

Summer came quickly. My programs were set and now all I had to do was train them so that I was back into competition shape! The season started off strong and I felt like I was picking up momentum with each competition. Glacier Falls summer classic was one of my strongest competitions of my career, and I scored a new personal best and felt like I was really going in the right direction. Then, came what I had been waiting for, the pivotal moment in my career. August 5, 2014, two days after the completion of Glacier Falls Summer Classic, I got a call from my coach Tammy Gambill. I was being added to US Figure Skating’s International Selection Pool. This was the first step in completing what has been my next major career goal, representing Team USA internationally. Well, baby steps. I was also informed I would be the alternate for three competitions. I know the saying is on cloud 9, but it was more like cloud 1,383,98,234! A week later, I landed my first 3 Axel! I’d say August 2014, Year of the “Sean” Rabbitt was a pretty good month!

The season went on, and I kept getting some great opportunities and my skating was getting stronger and stronger, picking up momentum with each competition. In October, I was invited to be a guest choreographer for the Los Angeles Ice Theater, which was an exciting moment as well. Then soon after came Pacific Coast Sectionals. At Sectionals, I felt well prepared and even through the nerves, I skated strong and garnered a new personal best of 202 points and finished second overall. Then came the 2015 US Championships(AKA Nationals). I keep saying I felt like I just kept picking up momentum, and it is true I felt like every time I stepped on the ice, every experience I had faced this season all was going in my direction! I always feel most nervous for the short program, that’s what sets it all up. I knew if I could just set myself up in a good position and after the SP then the free skate would be a breeze. So, all the training, all the positive experiences I’d faced this year came down to this one 2 minute  50 second short program…and it was everything I had imagined and more! I skated clean, put myself into 11th place, my highest after short yet, and obtained a new personal best. Not only that, but I made it into the second to last warm up and NBC! So then came the free skate. I couldn’t wait to get out there and show America what I was capable of! My free skate was strong, I executed everything to the best of my ability, only making two small errors. In the free skate, I also obtained a new personal best and that put me into 12th overall and a new personal best overall score of 211.

2014 was off to a bad start and then changed to become one of my best career seasons ever. Now, 2015 is off to an even better start! It has been an exciting year.

Since Nationals, I have been in shape training and trying to get stronger and stronger. I decided to schedule a vacation in two of my favorite countries; Korea and Japan! Because, remember I am Asian… We shall talk about that in my next blog!

November 13, 2010

Hello everyone!!! It is Saturday, which is the LAST day of 2011 Pacific Coast Sectional competition!!

Summer Reyna finished yesterday after putting up a great skate in the long, and I can’t wait to hear her thoughts on her first sectionals!!

I just got home from skating my Senior Men Free Skate , and I gotta say – I SKATED!!! I didn’t have a great short program which put me into 5th place… But, I said that I wasn’t going to go down without a fight, and I sure put up the fight tonight. I skated a clean program after a interesting entrance to the ice…the guy before me withdrew mid program so, then, instead of waiting for the scores and me getting to take that time to take to the ice and re-warm up…I didn’t get to do that. He skated off and they said “representing the Glacier Falls Figure Skating Club in Anaheim, here is Sean Rabbitt”! Soooo, I went out cold turkey.

I was really nervous because of this weird turn of events…so nervous that I felt like I might die…but it was a good test of my mind; and so I just did what I had been doing in practice. I skated a clean program with just one step out. Completing 2 triple-triple combos and a total of 7 triples. I got a standing ovation from the crowd, who was obnoxiously loud the entire time I skated…and I LOVED IT!!! It was amazing. When I got the standing ovation I saw my friends in the audience and they threw a giant carrot at me!!! Truly amazing.

So I ended up 4th overall in my Senior Sectional Debut…and I’m very happy about it.

Thanks everyone for reading, and thank you very, very, very much for your continuing support!!!

Next stop North Carolina!!!

— Sean

August 24, 2011

Hi friends,

Its been a while since I have written to you all so I’m taking a moment out of my busyness to say hello and update you on the past few months craziness and events! The month of August has been nutzzzz- yes i used z’s thats how nutzzzzz its been!!! I have been training a lot, coaching and choreographing a lot and JUST STARTED SCHOOL!!! AHHHH CRAZYNESS. I love it!!

In July, I kicked off the season with my first of the summer competitions at Liberty in Aston, PA. I skated a great short program, and well my free skate, had some kinks to be worked out. But in all it was a great learning experience and no matter good or bad competition there is always something to learn.

Then, just two weeks later, I competed at my home club’s competition: Glacier Falls Summer Classic. This was a great competition because after Liberty I had 2 weeks to iron out the kinks and wrinkles and I think the hard work proved itself. I skated a clean short program, and a clean long program. Most of the jumps were good with 2 bobbles which again, i learned something and am currently working to apply it to the next few competitions. Overall i was very happy with how things turned out and I see this season moving in a great direction.

Besides competing, I am a current member of the US Athletic Foundation and they put on an amazing joint show along side the LA Ice Theater called An Evening On Ice. Besides attending I helped out behind the scenes and also wrote the icenetwork article on the show!!

This Thursday I am off to Skate San Francisco to compete and the following week its off to Golden West, in Culver City, CA. BUSY BUSY!!!!

Well friends time to run off to training! Look for my updates on my site and keep watching my twitter feed, or send me an email, I’d love to talk to you all! Talk to you all soon.

Happy skating,
— Sean

April 12, 2011

Hello all!! Its been a while.

The last month has been very crazy, lots of skating, lots of school work, lots of coaching, lots of choreography….but most of all, lots of life! 

On March 11th, 2011 I came home from Japanese class and logged onto the internet to find tweets about the earthquakes in Japan.  I was speechless, words could not describe what I heard and saw.  I have a huge passion for Japan, I think the country, the people, the food, the culture, the language are all great. I just love that place, and to watch what was happening there was just indescribable.

So the days to follow many were facebooking and tweeting what could we do as skaters to help out, and many were saying we should put on a show. So I took the idea to my dad and my club Glacier Falls FSC and thus Skaters Care was born!!

The show was awesome!! We had many Olympic, World, and National skaters, along with World and Olympic Speed skaters.  One of our skaters, Parker Pennington came out to the show a day early with good friend Marissa Diaz and I gave them the Hollywood tour which was a lot of fun!

The show was put together in a short 2 weeks but came together very fast and easily. All together the show has raised over $15,000 for the people of Japan and we are still taking donations.  I must thank EVERYONE involved and who took an interest in the show, it was much bigger than anticipated and I’m so grateful for everything everyone did to help out a country in need.

After that I was able to relax for 4 days and then on my 21st Birthday (April 8th) I flew out to New Jersey where I was asked to be a guest skater along side Wesley Campbell, Joelle Forte, and Melissa Bulanhagui at Tim David’s One Step Closer Figure Skating Benefit for Children with Aids/HIV.  The show also featured up and coming singer K-Drew who put together 3 great songs for the audience. The show was a success!!

Being that it was my 21st birthday weekend, I chose to stay in New Jersey and extra day and meet up with some friends in Manhattan, NY and to explore the concrete jungle! Manhattan is definitely a city of its own. Nothing like little Yorba Linda that I come from.

During all of this I also completed my new Senior Short Program for the 2011/2012 season with choreographer Cindy Stuart! Not gonna tell you guys what I’m skating to, or the genre but let me tell ya, its a great program!!

Next up is finding and completing a Free Skate for the season, working on those jumps, teaching more kids how to skate, and of course having a great time living life!! I’ll send more updates to you all very soon!! Until then, catch ya later!

こんにちは皆さん！！久しぶりね。

３月はとても忙しかったですよ。日本の地震は３月１１日。この日、大学から私を帰りましたのとき、読むでＴｗｉｔｔｅｒ地震を見ました。私は皆に心配にな りました。日本のためにチャラティアイススケートショーを作りたい。そしてＳｋａｔｅｒｓＣａｒｅを作りました。スケータケアはたくさん上手スケータがい ます。皆さんの心は大きいですね。ショーは楽しかった。もう、たくさんお金「＄１５，０００」を作りました！

後、私は別のショー「One Step Closer」に行きました。このショーは、HIVに感染して子供たちのためだった。もう私の誕生日で２１歳になりました。

来月は楽しかったですよ。それは良かったです。

じゃー、まったね！

— Sean

Hi everyone! 

Thanks for checking out my site and coming to read my journal.

Its been almost a month since nationals and a lot has happened. Where to start, where to start???? 

Well, I guess I should start with nationals. This year was filled with learning and challenges through out the season. It being my first year as a senior I had a lot to do to make the big jump from being a junior at nationals to making it as a senior at nationals.  Well that should be easy, I’m a skater, that’s what I do is JUMP! But no… Its not that easy.

About a year ago this time I sat down with my coaching team and we decided on strategy, music, choreography, choreographers, training and everything else.  I think I put it all together this year and followed my goals and plans pretty well, skating great programs at almost every competition.  There was a small change in plans this summer when my head coach Mingzhu Li took up an offer to return to China. Thus, I started with Peter Oppegard. I had already taken from him a few times before so it wasn’t a huge ordeal to make the switch. He was really good about helping me stick to my season plan and goals that I had set.  So that takes us to nationals. I made the big jump, stuck to my plans, and as my first year at senior qualified to compete at my first senior nationals.

Going into nationals I was very well trained; skating great programs and having great endurance.  The morning we traveled to nationals I woke up with a chest cold. But I didn’t care too much about that because we all train occasionally with a cold so its not a big deal.  When we got there we checked into our hotel and met with some friends for dinner.  That night around 1 a.m., I woke up vomiting!!! NOOOOOO!!!!!

The next morning I sent my coaches a text saying I would not be coming to practice due to having the flu. The “medical team” at nationals this year was AWESOME!!! They were really cool and really helpful through out the week. Unfortunately, I had the flu and a fever for most of the week and made many trips to the medical room for check ups.  The bright side is that they all knew me after a few days and I knew all their names!!  It was kind of like coming home. I’d walk in and they’d say “Hi Sean. How are you feeling? Did you have a good practice today?”

In all, nationals was a struggle for me due to being very weak and having the flu, but I learned we don’t just train to be good at competition; we train to be good at competition regardless of what happens and your condition. Since I was very well trained coming into nationals, I was able to rely on my technique and just do what I’d been training. I can also say I learned the true meaning of will power! Even though at one point I had a fever of 103.1 I never withdrew. I fought and fought to skate and practice the best I could given my circumstances.

So now a month later its almost the END of February….where has the time gone?!?!?!

I started school, taking Japanese level 4 and Business 110.  Both are evening classes which works well because I teach two times a week in the morning and four times a week in the afternoon, skate five days a week, and go to the gym for work out four days a week — so night time is the only available slot for school. My friends were looking at my calendar book and said it looked for like a chapter book and not a calendar!!  Soon we will all sit down and start planning out for the next season!! I can’t wait.

Well I’m going to do my best to update you all as often as I can, I enjoy writing to you all, and I love reading and hearing responses from you all!!  Also check out my tweets on Twitter @seanrabbitt!

Soon check for my Bi-Lingual Journals, where I will write in English and….drum roll please…….JAPANESE!

Have a sunny So. Cal day!!

— Sean

June 18, 2010

Hi everyone, hope you’ve all had a great week and are ready to take on the weekend, and thanks for returning to read this second blog entry!  Today I will be writing about the great experience as a choreographer that I had the opportunity to have. 

It started yesterday I was skating, and one of my coaches Karen asked me to come and give some ideas to her and her sister Michelle Kwan for a new exhibition program that Michelle will be performing soon in Korea for Yu-na Kim’s show.  So with my large background in dance I listened to the music and just skated my ideas.  Luckily, the loved them!  So I gave them some ideas and finished my session.

Today I was skating and had a great idea that I showed to Karen and they really liked it so I taught Michelle the steps and into the exhibition program it went.  Then I was exiting the ice from my first session and Michelle called me over and asked me to skate that session and that Karen and her wanted to talk to me.  Karen told me that they were going to give me the opportunity to finish Michelle’s program and that I could be the choreographer and choreograph away…SO THAT I DID!!!

There was still a good minute and a half of time to fill in the program, so you could say I was freely able to choreograph the entire second half.  So I spent time with Michelle doing different skating steps and arm movements and even some dance steps, and we were able to finish it very fast!  Once running through the program a couple times and cleaning up some steps Karen and Michelle looked at each other then me and said “we love it!” That was the icing on the cake!  Not only did a get the opportunity to choreograph for the worlds greatest skater but on top of that she really really really loved it!

So friends, I can now add that to my resume and I am pretty honored to have been able to choreograph for such a wonderful and nice skater.  Its funny, she was like wow Sean thank you so much! And I returned with wow Michelle thank you so much! It was a good laugh, but I want to say it again; Thank you Michelle and Karen Kwan for this opportunity!

Keep watch for this routine at the Yu-na Kim show or on youtube.  The routine is No One by Alicia Keys, give me feed back and tell me what you think!

So that was my awesome experience of the day!  Thanks for reading and great weekend everyone!

Stay tuned for upcoming blog entries in Japanese too.

— Sean

June 16, 2010

Hi everyone, and welcome to my blog!  In this section I will be doing my best to keep everyone up to date with whats happening in my life! Whether its skating, coaching, school, competition, vacation…its all going to be here for you all to read! 

Before we all get started why don’t I give you all a little run down about me and my life.  I am Sean Rabbitt…although I assume you all know that since you have come to this page haha.  I am about to start the 2010/2011 season in skating and just recently took my Senior Freeskate test.  My mom and dad’s names are Helene and my dad is Don. I also have one older brother named Brandon.  My mom is a real estate agent, my dad is a manager for American Airlines, and my brother is an Ice Tech at East West Ice Palace where I train.

This past 2009/2010 season I competed at the 2010 AT&T US Figure Skating Championships as a Junior Man and placed 11th overall.  Coming off of nationals was such a high! When I returned home from Nationals, I couldn’t wait to get back to the ice.

My coach Mingzhu Li and myself, talked about the upcoming season and felt that I was ready to make the step up the Senior.  So with the recent high from Nationals and the goal of competing Senior I have been training very hard to improve my all around skating package (jumps, spins, edges and footwork, and choreography). 

This years programs are also a huge step up from last years too! I really liked my choreography last year and felt I had some strong programs but this year for Senior I really wanted something that not many or no one has done before, something to set myself apart and stand out from everyone else…even though I already kind of do with my red hair.

So we chose some great music, my short program is a Michael Jackson techno medley, and is a lot of fun.  I have a background in dance, competed in Jazz, Tap, Hip Hop, and Modern for 12 years, so myself and my choreographer Alex Chang were able to incorporate a lot of my dance training into my program.  

For the long we were able to get a piece of music from China, called the Offspring of Dragons.  You might be familiar with the music from the 2006 Olympics when the Chinese pair team Zhang and Zhang skated to it in their Free Skate.  Its a great piece of music that is very strong but also has its soft points.  This Free Skate was choreographed by Karen Kwan and myself.  I really enjoy choreographing for myself and others so its great to work with Karen and Alex on my programs because they let me give input and also do some of the work myself.  

I also have a great show program that I choreographed myself and was able to perform at One Step Closer, a benefit show held in New York City’s Central Park, benefiting children born with AIDS/HIV.  This show was held by Tim David, and I was very thankful to be asked to skate in it as a special guest, along with Angela Maxwell, Parker Pennington, Melissa Bulanhagui, and Oksana Baiul.

So with all that said…we are now coming into the competition season with one month left for me to train before my first competition, Liberty Open.  This is one of my favorite competitions, competing there last year for the first time was great! I finished 5th in the final round of Junior Men and it was really a great experience to compete with so many great skaters in one competition. There aren’t many like it! 

Alright friends, looks like we are all up to date on everything that has happened the last six months.  With that said I hope you keep checking back for more updates on stats, competitions, pictures, and blog entries!

Thanks for reading my first blog!

— Sean