quiqie
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http://www.spb.aif.ru/sport/person/...trener_aleksey_mishin_o_nagruzkah_i_gonorarah
The legendary figure skating coach Alexei Mishin turns 75 on March 8. He dedicated 60 years of his life to the sport and coached many Olympic champions contributing to Russia’s glory.
He celebrates his anniversary at his home rink, where he became Soviet champion in 1969, having placed ahead of the widely recognized leaders of the time. But everything could have turned out differently.
"I was born in 1941, so my childhood was spent in difficult postwar period. My father was in the military, he taught theoretical mechanics, and wanted his children to be on friendly terms with technology. I became interested in electronics, graduated from the LETI (Leningrad Electro-Technical Institute), wanted to become an engineer. My destiny was changed by a pair of ice skates and a flowerbed. My sister once bought me detachable ice skates with her stipend money. And my father once happened to be walking past the City Palace of Pioneers and saw children skating around a large flowerbed. That’s how I got into figure skating. I was 15 at the time."
Q: You are a veteran of the national sport. It is a known fact that in the olden days, there was a very strict discipline in national teams. Is it the same today?
A: The situation in any sport is a reflection of the state of the economy, society situation. The Soviet era was a time of authoritative rulership, and the same model was applied in sports. And how else could it be when athletes’ salary and the whole equipment were paid by the government, and everything depended on a coach? Today, the teacher-student relationship has completely changed. It’s a tandem of independent people, both of whom are equal partners doing their important work.
Frankly, I never supported the tradition of locking up hockey players at the training base, for example, and isolating them from their families. It isn’t right to make the sport function in a camp mode. And it never occurred to me to babysit my pupils, even though I have no tolerance for drinking and smoking. And even my former students abstain from drinking and cigarettes at banquets in my presence.
Q: But your methods of training are also very strict. You train beginners together with the leaders, and it builds competition, pressure...
A: The medal is not going to hang itself on your neck. I am convinced that nothing motivates an athlete more than the progress of his rival. Team is necessary! A leader will always emerge and accumulate all the strengths and rise. And when you work with young athletes, you have to treat them like future Olympic team candidates, champions, not like children! After all, figure skaters train almost like cosmonauts.
By the way, this approach was met with resistance for a long time. Figure skating officials told me: ‘Why do you waste your time working with children? You have Urmanov, the Olympic champion – work with him!’ I have coached Yagudin, Plushenko, and once again heard: ‘Work with the champions, beginners can wait!’ If I listened to them, my career as a coach would end with Urmanov.
Q: You had to fight not only for your coaching methods, but also for the very opportunity to coach. For a long time, in the 80s, you were not allowed to travel abroad. You are not allowed on TV, your books weren’t published...
A: Now I am grateful for those difficult times. If I did not get ‘tempered’ then, I probably would not be so successful now. Although I was not very philosophical at that time. Imagine: my students went to European Championships, World Championships, and I talked to them on the phone...
I had written a book, "Figure skating for everyone." An advance copy was ready! And when I came to "Lenizdat", and asked them when the book was going to be printed, they shrugged: ‘What book? We cut it a long time ago, left only the color inserts on coated paper…’ The situation has changed only after the perestroika. I started travelling abroad with my skaters, absorbing the best from the Western schools. Thus were prepared the masters of figure skating who form the core of St. Petersburg and the Russian skating today.
Q: By the way, the majority of figure skating stars and coaches went abroad in the 90s, including the famous Rodnina, Tarasova. You didn’t. Why?
A: The reasons are complex. When the country fell, figure skating costs skyrocketed. Coaches left, what else could they do? They were either unemployed or could not live in the conditions they deserved. Rodnina moved only temporarily, while Mila and Oleg (the Olympic champions Lyudmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov) left the country forever.
But there are not only practical reasons, there are also personal. For example, I never left, even though I got invitations to many countries, and I'm still getting them. My students have the same attitude.
I would like to point out that very few Russian coaches are training champions abroad. There is a different atmosphere. When a specialist comes to America, he starts giving lessons to pay the rent, to pay for gas, groceries, his children's education. There is no time or energy left for working on the highest level. And it affects the results.
Q: The officials say that today, despite the crisis, large sums of money are invested in the preparation of athletes. Is it true? If we compare it with the money invested in "Zenith" (football club), for example, which is also one of the flagships of St. Petersburg?
A: Skaters and their coaches, unlike hockey and football players, are not spoiled. We are used to training in minimally comfortable conditions. Often we used to pay our own money for the training camps, choreographers and other specialists. I have worked with foreign elite skaters so that my students could train for free. After all, most of our top skaters are from provincial cities, often from single-parent and not very wealthy families.
I remember how the mother of the Olympic champion Alexei Urmanov went with us to Italy as a cook. We could not afford to eat out, and she cooked us wonderful borsch and roasts. So I would say now there is enough funding at a state level. Moreover, in the current situation, it is simply indecent to demand extra funding.
As for the blue-white-blues, if I ever met Alexei Miller, I would ask him to add a small pipe to the large one that feeds "Zenith" to our school of figure skating. But joking aside, if you compare the achievements of our students who won many awards for our country, and those of football players – there is clearly a discrepancy. Sport is our job, and we have to do it well.
Q: It seems that there are very good conditions for that in our city. Nevertheless, in recent years, there were several well-known figure skaters, including Sochi silver medalists Ksenia Stolbova / Fedor Klimov, who moved to Moscow. Is Saint Petersburg’s school losing its ground?
A: These are rare occasions. On the contrary, there are many who come from all over the country to our school at the "Yubileyny" ice rink, and we are grateful to the regions providing us with talents. In addition, all the natural phenomena are 'oscillating' in character. At the time, Arthur Gachinsky moved from Moscow to St. Petersburg, and has achieved considerable success. Today, on the contrary, there is a strong team working with pairs in the capital city, and some skaters have moved there. It's a natural drift. It reminds me of family life, marriages, divorces, it always has been, it always will be.
Q: You dedicated your whole life to figure skating, your wife, Tatiana Nikolaevna, works with you as well. Your sons are also involved in sports. Do you have time for anything else?
A: I try to make time. I love the country and I built my first country house myself. I am also an avid mushroom hunter, fisherman and cook. I love standing at the stove, reading cookbooks, cooking. I’m also a seasoned gardener. There is a certain drive in growing a good crop, putting on the table your own tomatoes and cucumbers. We also have two dogs, Tibetan mastiff, they require serious training. I am happy to have a support of my family. And of course, the greatest pleasure is to hold my grandson, Alexei Mishin Jr., who is twenty months old.
Q: Your skating school “Zvezdny Led” opened in 2014. However, it’s been already two years, and it is still based at the old ice rink. When will the new facility be opened?
A: The idea is almost twenty-five years old. (Former St. Petersburg governor) told me: ‘You are more than a professor; you are an academician of figure skating. I will build you a palace.’ Other governors have said the same. But now, finally, there is some movement, and I hope that the center in Krasnogvardeyskiy district will be working in full force soon. And I really wish to work at my hometown, where more than one generation of champions has grown, where there are many talented young skaters. So for me the greatest gift is to celebrate a new day at my very own “Yubileyny.”
The legendary figure skating coach Alexei Mishin turns 75 on March 8. He dedicated 60 years of his life to the sport and coached many Olympic champions contributing to Russia’s glory.
He celebrates his anniversary at his home rink, where he became Soviet champion in 1969, having placed ahead of the widely recognized leaders of the time. But everything could have turned out differently.
"I was born in 1941, so my childhood was spent in difficult postwar period. My father was in the military, he taught theoretical mechanics, and wanted his children to be on friendly terms with technology. I became interested in electronics, graduated from the LETI (Leningrad Electro-Technical Institute), wanted to become an engineer. My destiny was changed by a pair of ice skates and a flowerbed. My sister once bought me detachable ice skates with her stipend money. And my father once happened to be walking past the City Palace of Pioneers and saw children skating around a large flowerbed. That’s how I got into figure skating. I was 15 at the time."
Q: You are a veteran of the national sport. It is a known fact that in the olden days, there was a very strict discipline in national teams. Is it the same today?
A: The situation in any sport is a reflection of the state of the economy, society situation. The Soviet era was a time of authoritative rulership, and the same model was applied in sports. And how else could it be when athletes’ salary and the whole equipment were paid by the government, and everything depended on a coach? Today, the teacher-student relationship has completely changed. It’s a tandem of independent people, both of whom are equal partners doing their important work.
Frankly, I never supported the tradition of locking up hockey players at the training base, for example, and isolating them from their families. It isn’t right to make the sport function in a camp mode. And it never occurred to me to babysit my pupils, even though I have no tolerance for drinking and smoking. And even my former students abstain from drinking and cigarettes at banquets in my presence.
Q: But your methods of training are also very strict. You train beginners together with the leaders, and it builds competition, pressure...
A: The medal is not going to hang itself on your neck. I am convinced that nothing motivates an athlete more than the progress of his rival. Team is necessary! A leader will always emerge and accumulate all the strengths and rise. And when you work with young athletes, you have to treat them like future Olympic team candidates, champions, not like children! After all, figure skaters train almost like cosmonauts.
By the way, this approach was met with resistance for a long time. Figure skating officials told me: ‘Why do you waste your time working with children? You have Urmanov, the Olympic champion – work with him!’ I have coached Yagudin, Plushenko, and once again heard: ‘Work with the champions, beginners can wait!’ If I listened to them, my career as a coach would end with Urmanov.
Q: You had to fight not only for your coaching methods, but also for the very opportunity to coach. For a long time, in the 80s, you were not allowed to travel abroad. You are not allowed on TV, your books weren’t published...
A: Now I am grateful for those difficult times. If I did not get ‘tempered’ then, I probably would not be so successful now. Although I was not very philosophical at that time. Imagine: my students went to European Championships, World Championships, and I talked to them on the phone...
I had written a book, "Figure skating for everyone." An advance copy was ready! And when I came to "Lenizdat", and asked them when the book was going to be printed, they shrugged: ‘What book? We cut it a long time ago, left only the color inserts on coated paper…’ The situation has changed only after the perestroika. I started travelling abroad with my skaters, absorbing the best from the Western schools. Thus were prepared the masters of figure skating who form the core of St. Petersburg and the Russian skating today.
Q: By the way, the majority of figure skating stars and coaches went abroad in the 90s, including the famous Rodnina, Tarasova. You didn’t. Why?
A: The reasons are complex. When the country fell, figure skating costs skyrocketed. Coaches left, what else could they do? They were either unemployed or could not live in the conditions they deserved. Rodnina moved only temporarily, while Mila and Oleg (the Olympic champions Lyudmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov) left the country forever.
But there are not only practical reasons, there are also personal. For example, I never left, even though I got invitations to many countries, and I'm still getting them. My students have the same attitude.
I would like to point out that very few Russian coaches are training champions abroad. There is a different atmosphere. When a specialist comes to America, he starts giving lessons to pay the rent, to pay for gas, groceries, his children's education. There is no time or energy left for working on the highest level. And it affects the results.
Q: The officials say that today, despite the crisis, large sums of money are invested in the preparation of athletes. Is it true? If we compare it with the money invested in "Zenith" (football club), for example, which is also one of the flagships of St. Petersburg?
A: Skaters and their coaches, unlike hockey and football players, are not spoiled. We are used to training in minimally comfortable conditions. Often we used to pay our own money for the training camps, choreographers and other specialists. I have worked with foreign elite skaters so that my students could train for free. After all, most of our top skaters are from provincial cities, often from single-parent and not very wealthy families.
I remember how the mother of the Olympic champion Alexei Urmanov went with us to Italy as a cook. We could not afford to eat out, and she cooked us wonderful borsch and roasts. So I would say now there is enough funding at a state level. Moreover, in the current situation, it is simply indecent to demand extra funding.
As for the blue-white-blues, if I ever met Alexei Miller, I would ask him to add a small pipe to the large one that feeds "Zenith" to our school of figure skating. But joking aside, if you compare the achievements of our students who won many awards for our country, and those of football players – there is clearly a discrepancy. Sport is our job, and we have to do it well.
Q: It seems that there are very good conditions for that in our city. Nevertheless, in recent years, there were several well-known figure skaters, including Sochi silver medalists Ksenia Stolbova / Fedor Klimov, who moved to Moscow. Is Saint Petersburg’s school losing its ground?
A: These are rare occasions. On the contrary, there are many who come from all over the country to our school at the "Yubileyny" ice rink, and we are grateful to the regions providing us with talents. In addition, all the natural phenomena are 'oscillating' in character. At the time, Arthur Gachinsky moved from Moscow to St. Petersburg, and has achieved considerable success. Today, on the contrary, there is a strong team working with pairs in the capital city, and some skaters have moved there. It's a natural drift. It reminds me of family life, marriages, divorces, it always has been, it always will be.
Q: You dedicated your whole life to figure skating, your wife, Tatiana Nikolaevna, works with you as well. Your sons are also involved in sports. Do you have time for anything else?
A: I try to make time. I love the country and I built my first country house myself. I am also an avid mushroom hunter, fisherman and cook. I love standing at the stove, reading cookbooks, cooking. I’m also a seasoned gardener. There is a certain drive in growing a good crop, putting on the table your own tomatoes and cucumbers. We also have two dogs, Tibetan mastiff, they require serious training. I am happy to have a support of my family. And of course, the greatest pleasure is to hold my grandson, Alexei Mishin Jr., who is twenty months old.
Q: Your skating school “Zvezdny Led” opened in 2014. However, it’s been already two years, and it is still based at the old ice rink. When will the new facility be opened?
A: The idea is almost twenty-five years old. (Former St. Petersburg governor) told me: ‘You are more than a professor; you are an academician of figure skating. I will build you a palace.’ Other governors have said the same. But now, finally, there is some movement, and I hope that the center in Krasnogvardeyskiy district will be working in full force soon. And I really wish to work at my hometown, where more than one generation of champions has grown, where there are many talented young skaters. So for me the greatest gift is to celebrate a new day at my very own “Yubileyny.”
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