Ice skating is hard. In fact, when most people take to the ice for the first time, they lose all sense of balance and fall over at least a few times before finally starting to figure out how it works.
And that’s what makes it so impressive when we see talented skaters not only keeping their balance and staying upright on the ice, but also being able to glide gracefully around the rink and make it all look oh so easy!
It’s especially amazing to see a young child dancing around the ice with ease, just like 5-year-old Jessica Chu here.
Jessica was captured on camera performing at the Aliso Viejo Ice Skating Competition. This was her ‘Pre-Alpha’ performance.
A Pre-Alpha routine is basically the entry level test for very young or beginner skaters and involves performing a series of maneuvers like a two-foot glide, one-foot glide, forward swizzles, backward swizzles, and a backward wiggle.
Most adults without any skating experience would have a hard time pulling off those movements, but Jessica strides out onto the ice with a happy smile and a look of confidence in her eyes before building up to the first maneuver.
The rink is silent as she skates out to the center and takes up her position. Then, as she smiles out at the crowd, her song begins to play.
“I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream For Ice Cream” kicks in and Jessica sets off on her routine.
She pulls off the two-foot glide, which has to be executed in accordance with a strict set of rules, perfectly, wearing an adorable little pink dress with a bow at the back. Then, she moves on to the one-foot glides, nailing them on both feet and showing amazing balance and coordination.
She never seems to stop smiling as the performance continues! She nails the forward swizzles before stopping on a dime, hopping around on the ice and pulling off the backward wiggle and swizzles too.
Every single movement Jessica makes is just right. It’s extraordinary to witness such balance and precision from such a young skater, and she clearly has a very bright future on the ice if she decides to carry on skating later in life.
Her routine could have ended with the backward swizzles, but she has a few final flourishes in store!
She skates across the rink one last time, lifting up one of her legs behind her and gliding gracefully over the ice before spinning around in a circle and waving happily to the audience as the song comes to a close.
Unsurprisingly, Jessica won 1st place for her performance!
And we’re super happy that someone took the time to record it and share it online. The clip has been viewed close to 300,000 times since its upload. And Jessica has gone on to appear in many other skating competitions since this one. Check out her talent in the clip below.
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