[JenRoberts]

For me the main thing is thinking of costume and music ideas/ theme of performance early on, so you're not worried about that while working on choreography. If i already know what I want my theme and music to be, it makes it that much easier to start choreographing. 

You don't want to wear yourself out, although you probably want to be practicing at least every other day. Some days being your actual routine, others focusing on specific moves and perfecting them.

I would say once you hit the one month before mark (or maybe even earlier), you should have your ideas ready and start putting everything together, then once you get to two weeks before, you should hopefully have your routine finished and be running through it consistently while you practice and definitely practice in your costume to be sure there are no wardrobe malfunctions.

Hopefully this was what you were looking for!

[JenRoberts]

For my last competition in March, I found a really cheap $8 black bra with rhinestones at a store called Deb, used black booty shorts that I already had, and bought 2 yards of light purple "tu-tu" type material and wrapped it around my body that only cost me $2. Plus I bought some rhinestones for my makeup, so the whole thing was less than $15!! If you want to see pictures of it, I have a few from my competition on my profile. Hopefully this helps!

[JenRoberts]

I have always had this problem as well. I have bad knees and I really notice it during running or riding a bike (I rarely do these). I think this happens because your knees are pressed on the ground which causes them to lock. Sometimes I have to get up from my stretch or bend my knee to reposition. It might help if you only hold it for 5-8 seconds, then release, and do that multiple times, instead of holding for a long period of time