Coaches of the Year?

[aftershocks]

For me, Rafael Arutunian, Tammy Gambill, Mark Mitchell & Peter Johannson, and Philip Mills are and have consistently been doing such great work with their skaters.

I also think Kori Ade does a good job with Jason Brown, and Damon Allen and Christy Krall are guiding Joshua Farris quite well.

[Habs]

Ravi Walia, hands down. The work he has done with Kaetlyn Osmond is amazing.

[screech]

I agree, Ravi was my first thought.

My second thought was Brian Orser with how wonderful Javier has become. But hands down Ravi. I wish I could find some of his old skating videos on youtube, but I haven't had luck. I remember enjoying him when he was competing.

[TheIronLady]

Wasn't Ravi one of the most awful technical specialists? For that reason he might not win any contests. Also shouldn't Kaetlyn land a clean free program before we go crediting him for something?

[misskarne]

I think Alexei Mishin is actually doing a rather good job handling a difficult situation.

His three skaters haven't had the greatest season between them; all are struggling with some kind of injury/illness/mystery; but he's never berated them publicly, never shown anything but support for them. He'll get them through it. I thought his handling of Tuktamysheva's growth was very sensitive and well done; I could understand if Gachinski has been frustrating him but he has never lost faith. And of course he and Plushenko have worked together so long now (twenty years soon!). And the results are there; Tuktamysheva is now producing some fine skates (her long program at Euros was magnificent!), and even Gachinski is starting claw back some form - his Nationals skates weren't great, but they were miles better than his GPs.

[victoriaheidi]

I'll second Krall; doesn't she have Zawadzki and Wang, too?

[Lacey]

Should this be broken down by country?

[aftershocks]

I suppose most fans will be the most familiar with the coaches who coach in their respective countries and with the top coaches from other countries who they have some knowledge of from watching skating events throughout the years.

The Professional Skaters Association in the United States has an awards program for coaches and choreographers, but I'm not exactly sure how it works, i.e., whether honors are bestowed every year.

http://www.skatepsa.com/Hall-Of-Fame-P.htm

The Professional Skaters Association (PSA) was organized in 1938. The PSA is the official figure skating coach’s education, training and accreditation program for the U.S. Figure Skating and the Ice Skating Institute. We are the largest and most recognized of all figure skating coach’s organizations in the world.

[midori]

Marina Zueva, for so many reasons.

[aftershocks]

^^ At the least, she should get an award for managing to keep the top two ice dance teams in the World in her rink, plus giving them some cool choreo this season to help them maintain their top positions.

[Vash01]

I think Alexei Mishin is actually doing a rather good job handling a difficult situation.

His three skaters haven't had the greatest season between them; all are struggling with some kind of injury/illness/mystery; but he's never berated them publicly, never shown anything but support for them. He'll get them through it. I thought his handling of Tuktamysheva's growth was very sensitive and well done; I could understand if Gachinski has been frustrating him but he has never lost faith. And of course he and Plushenko have worked together so long now (twenty years soon!). And the results are there; Tuktamysheva is now producing some fine skates (her long program at Euros was magnificent!), and even Gachinski is starting claw back some form - his Nationals skates weren't great, but they were miles better than his GPs.

Great observations. Mishin often does not get credit on this board for what he does well.