quiqie
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Eislauffan interview with Daniil Gleihengauz: http://fsrussia.ru/intervyu/3643-da...tvernoj-i-gotov-nado-li-ego-ostanavlivat.html
Q: Your athletes won three medals at the junior world championships in Sofia (two golds and one silver). Everybody talks about Sasha Trusova, who is only 13 years old, but did two quads in the program, which is not something even many boys can do. How did you achieve this result?
A: A lot depends on the athlete. Sasha has a good jump. She is very well-trained. She is very strong, both physically and mentally.
And we did not just tell her: "Go and jump the quad," and she kept falling on the ice for a while and then did it. Of course not. It took very long time to prepare for that. First we trained all the jumps. Increased the height on triples. Watched the process. Then tried with a fishing rod, in protective trousers, to avoid injuries. We spent almost a year doing that. Someone will say it is too long or too soon. But we did not hurry.
At first, she did several attempts at a practice. We let her jump 1-2 times and watched. If it went well, did a 3-4 days break. When Sasha got used to the routine, and we saw that she was physically and mentally ready, not afraid, then continued to work.
Most importantly, Sasha herself really wanted this. It's the most important. Because the greatest risk of injury is when the athlete is afraid. And you push them, telling them to go and jump. It doesn’t work with a quad. But Sasha herself wanted that and asked: "Can I do one more, and once again, can I go jump a quad." And our task was to control this. Do not let her jump more than necessary.
Q: Can you say that Trusova is a unique athete in this sense, that she has something that others don’t?
A: Of course, not everyone can do this. Just as not every boy can jump a quad. A lot depends on the talent of the athlete, their desire, opportunities. And very much depends on the coaching team. If there is the right technique, the right approach, with warm-ups, stretching, practices, if there is a doctor in the group, and all this works together, then you reduce the risk of injury and bring the athletes to a level when they are close to showing the maximum of their abilities.
Figure skating is developing very quickly. And we were very pleased that the audience was surprised that the girl jumped two quads. But it did not happen all of a sudden. Because we have put a lot of work in making this happen.
Five years ago no one would have believed that Nathan Chen would do six quads in one program. Although there are not many boys who would be able to repeat it. The same is true for girls. Here, of course, I repeat, much depends on the individuality of each athlete and his abilities and opportunities.
Q: Miki Ando was the first lady to land a quad. But it happened 16 years ago. What was the reason for such a break, and why did the athletes not start doing quads right away?
A: I think this was due to the rules change. At some point the emphasis was on choreography, transitions, spins... The technical complexity has diminished accordingly. The skaters who did quads, stopped doing them. Remember, Lysacek won the Olympics in Vancouver without a quad. But this does not mean that he won undeservedly. Just the rules had changed, and according to the rules at that moment, he was better.
Now, when more or less everyone has figured out the spins, choreography, transitions, that is, adapted to these rules, the technical component became relevant once again. Men started doing quads, and not only Salchow and toe loop, but also Lutz, loop, flip, which is now par for the course. Now, if a boy does two quads, then you think that this will not be enough. We must learn new ones.
The same is with girls. First, there were triple-triple combinations, now almost everyone does them. Then jumps with one hand up, with two hands. triple-triple-triple combos. What's next? It is logical that it should be triple Axel, quad... And the girls are already trying and doing these jumps.
If an athlete is ready for this, if they have physical, jumping abilities, should we stop them? And is there any sense in this, if they can? There is no sense in doing it if they can.
For example, in our group there is also Anya Sherbakova, who does quad toe. She has practically recovered from the injury, won the Russian Cup final, jumps all five triple jumps, the triple Lutz-triple loop combo. At the end of the season, we will return to the quad toe loop. Carefully, gradually. Sasha does two quads. It pushes the other girls to try. But the main thing is that all girls want this very much. They push each other, they try to catch up.
As for the boys, Alexei Erokhov does a quad toe loop, a loop, a Salchow, a flip. I hope that he will succeed. He himself wants to show these jump the next season. Accordingly, the boys, who are now 12, 13, 14 years old, see that Alexei does that. That means that they also want to try and they know they can do it too. The very situation in the group helps us a lot in our work. Because the guys themselves really want this.
Q: You have a large and strong group. Is it difficult to deal with so many athletes?
A: On the one hand, it's hard for a coach physically, morally, because it’s tiring. On the other hand, you get great pleasure from it. Because Eteri Georgievna (Tutberidze), Sergey Viktorovich (Dudakov), the three of us, we give all of ourselves to this cause, because we all love it, and every child is special for us. I cannot compare myself with Eteri and Sergei, because I do not have my own children. But all our athletes, they are like children to me. And for now, I do not want to have a child for sure, because I spend so much emotions, nerves, there are so many educational moments with my students. You feel like a dad or even a mom of a big family.
Q: I watched you from the sidelines at this championships, you really look like a kindergarten teacher. Don’t take it the wrong way.
A: But it is true. The teacher, only with skates.
Q: You can tell how the process of development of your students looks like, the dynamics.
A: We need to find a right approach to each athlete. If someone cannot do a quad, then we will not push him, squeeze the athletes dry. If he cannot, then there should be other strengths. Maximize the skating skills, perfect the elements that an athlete can do, improve the performance skills... Every person has his strengths. And our task is to help athletes to discover these strengths in full.
Q: What are the strengths and weaknesses of Sasha Trusova?
A: Sasha is very stubborn. If she wants something, she will do it. She actually needs to be stopped. If you tell her: "Do whatever you want," and Sasha will jump for about five hours. If you tell her: "Let's work on spins", and she will say: "No, I want to jumps a bit more." At the same time, she is very quiet, even-keel, a girl who does everything the coaches tell her. She never questions the authority of coaches, never thinks that a coach may be wrong.
Even at the World championships, before the free program, I saw that she was nervous. And when I was talking to her, trying to calm her down, I asked: "Sasha, what do you like most? Stroking, maybe?" I was kidding. But she got a little shy and said: "Well, I can do that. But most of all I like to jump." And then just before she went out on the ice, I said: "Sasha, if you like to jump the most, then go ahead and jump."
Q: Nice catch. And what are her weaknesses?
A: We need to work on stroking, the second mark. I do not want our athletes to unbalanced. For someone to have good jumps, someone have good spins or skating skills. I want them to do the best they can. Sasha has great spins. She is very disciplined. She's really good with math. She can count well on her feet. She is a smart girl and understands that you cannot leave the points on the table. You can do a quad and then do 2-3 level 2 spins. And then what? Sasha understands all this.
Q: Alena Kostornaya?
A: Alena is a very good girl. And there is a little devil inside this pretty little girl. There is a pretty mean little girl inside. But it's great! I really like such personality, because it makes people alive. You see that a person is happy, upset, worried. She shows his emotions. And when she is skating her programs, you believe what she shows on the ice, because it's all sincere.
Alena came to our group at the end of last season. And in general, by her jumps, we realized that there was a potential for a quad. Alena has a very good jump. On the floor, she jumps higher than all the girls. Maybe even boys. But we did not have enough time during the offseason to choreograph interesting programs, polish them, gain stability, which she lacked before, and confidence. It is impossible to instill self-confidence when the athlete goes for super-difficult jumps at the competitions. This season, we achieved the maximum with Alena. She showed everything that we wanted. After the World championships, barely off the ice, she said: "Once we get back home, we are starting to learn the quad." She wants to try triple Axel as well. So we are going to work on the technical side of her skating.
I can not name any of her weaknesses. She is a very balanced skater. Excellent spins, high-quality jumps, good skating skills. We can work on the basics, because Alena can show even more powerful skating. But she still does not understand how much more effort she needs to put in her skating. It is easy to her. She skates well. But he does not understand yet how much better she can do it. She has to understand this with her body, how much power she needs to put in a step, in a push, to make it look fascinating, edgy and beautiful. All this needs perfecting.
Q: What can you say about Alexey Erokhov?
A: Lesha is a good boy. He is a very well- brought-up, smart guy. He has been training with Eteri for a very long time. When I came to the group, Lesha was already there. He is an example of work ethics, especially among the boys. Boys can sometimes be lazy, unfocused. And Lesha is very responsible. He takes very seriously the training process, the attention of the trainers.
There are people who are very talented, they can get it done from the first try, without much effort. It happens when someone is particularly gifted. Alexei achieved everything he has by hard work. He knows the value of every result. And winning junior world championships means a lot to him.
He worked for that for many years, competing with the guys who were ahead. There was Moris Kvitilashvili, who was then representing Russia, Vlad Tarasenko, Adian Pitkeev, Sergei Voronov. They were all better than Lesha. But he worked, he tried. And now four years have passed, he made a great progress. He achieved great results with jumps. Next he needs to work on stroking, artistry. Although I cannot say that he doesn’t work on that already. Every year he gets better and better. I hope that Lesha has four years before the next Olympics. And if he works in the same spirit, there will be no injuries, he can fight for very high places.
Q: And back to the girls. Do you think their jumps will survive puberty?
A: Much will depend on the athletes themselves. If they continue to monitor themselves, their nutrition, work as they should, they will not lose their shape. It is clear that if a girl grows up to 180 cm high, then it will be difficult for her to jump a quad. But with the average height...
But what you ask is new. So far there are no examples. We will see, with Sasha, others. After all, people said the same about Zhenya Medvedeva, that she would grow up, she would change, she would become worse. And she kept winning competition after competition. Because if a person works, then he or she does not get worse. The main thing is not to let yourself slack and love what you do.
Q: Your athletes won three medals at the junior world championships in Sofia (two golds and one silver). Everybody talks about Sasha Trusova, who is only 13 years old, but did two quads in the program, which is not something even many boys can do. How did you achieve this result?
A: A lot depends on the athlete. Sasha has a good jump. She is very well-trained. She is very strong, both physically and mentally.
And we did not just tell her: "Go and jump the quad," and she kept falling on the ice for a while and then did it. Of course not. It took very long time to prepare for that. First we trained all the jumps. Increased the height on triples. Watched the process. Then tried with a fishing rod, in protective trousers, to avoid injuries. We spent almost a year doing that. Someone will say it is too long or too soon. But we did not hurry.
At first, she did several attempts at a practice. We let her jump 1-2 times and watched. If it went well, did a 3-4 days break. When Sasha got used to the routine, and we saw that she was physically and mentally ready, not afraid, then continued to work.
Most importantly, Sasha herself really wanted this. It's the most important. Because the greatest risk of injury is when the athlete is afraid. And you push them, telling them to go and jump. It doesn’t work with a quad. But Sasha herself wanted that and asked: "Can I do one more, and once again, can I go jump a quad." And our task was to control this. Do not let her jump more than necessary.
Q: Can you say that Trusova is a unique athete in this sense, that she has something that others don’t?
A: Of course, not everyone can do this. Just as not every boy can jump a quad. A lot depends on the talent of the athlete, their desire, opportunities. And very much depends on the coaching team. If there is the right technique, the right approach, with warm-ups, stretching, practices, if there is a doctor in the group, and all this works together, then you reduce the risk of injury and bring the athletes to a level when they are close to showing the maximum of their abilities.
Figure skating is developing very quickly. And we were very pleased that the audience was surprised that the girl jumped two quads. But it did not happen all of a sudden. Because we have put a lot of work in making this happen.
Five years ago no one would have believed that Nathan Chen would do six quads in one program. Although there are not many boys who would be able to repeat it. The same is true for girls. Here, of course, I repeat, much depends on the individuality of each athlete and his abilities and opportunities.
Q: Miki Ando was the first lady to land a quad. But it happened 16 years ago. What was the reason for such a break, and why did the athletes not start doing quads right away?
A: I think this was due to the rules change. At some point the emphasis was on choreography, transitions, spins... The technical complexity has diminished accordingly. The skaters who did quads, stopped doing them. Remember, Lysacek won the Olympics in Vancouver without a quad. But this does not mean that he won undeservedly. Just the rules had changed, and according to the rules at that moment, he was better.
Now, when more or less everyone has figured out the spins, choreography, transitions, that is, adapted to these rules, the technical component became relevant once again. Men started doing quads, and not only Salchow and toe loop, but also Lutz, loop, flip, which is now par for the course. Now, if a boy does two quads, then you think that this will not be enough. We must learn new ones.
The same is with girls. First, there were triple-triple combinations, now almost everyone does them. Then jumps with one hand up, with two hands. triple-triple-triple combos. What's next? It is logical that it should be triple Axel, quad... And the girls are already trying and doing these jumps.
If an athlete is ready for this, if they have physical, jumping abilities, should we stop them? And is there any sense in this, if they can? There is no sense in doing it if they can.
For example, in our group there is also Anya Sherbakova, who does quad toe. She has practically recovered from the injury, won the Russian Cup final, jumps all five triple jumps, the triple Lutz-triple loop combo. At the end of the season, we will return to the quad toe loop. Carefully, gradually. Sasha does two quads. It pushes the other girls to try. But the main thing is that all girls want this very much. They push each other, they try to catch up.
As for the boys, Alexei Erokhov does a quad toe loop, a loop, a Salchow, a flip. I hope that he will succeed. He himself wants to show these jump the next season. Accordingly, the boys, who are now 12, 13, 14 years old, see that Alexei does that. That means that they also want to try and they know they can do it too. The very situation in the group helps us a lot in our work. Because the guys themselves really want this.
Q: You have a large and strong group. Is it difficult to deal with so many athletes?
A: On the one hand, it's hard for a coach physically, morally, because it’s tiring. On the other hand, you get great pleasure from it. Because Eteri Georgievna (Tutberidze), Sergey Viktorovich (Dudakov), the three of us, we give all of ourselves to this cause, because we all love it, and every child is special for us. I cannot compare myself with Eteri and Sergei, because I do not have my own children. But all our athletes, they are like children to me. And for now, I do not want to have a child for sure, because I spend so much emotions, nerves, there are so many educational moments with my students. You feel like a dad or even a mom of a big family.
Q: I watched you from the sidelines at this championships, you really look like a kindergarten teacher. Don’t take it the wrong way.
A: But it is true. The teacher, only with skates.
Q: You can tell how the process of development of your students looks like, the dynamics.
A: We need to find a right approach to each athlete. If someone cannot do a quad, then we will not push him, squeeze the athletes dry. If he cannot, then there should be other strengths. Maximize the skating skills, perfect the elements that an athlete can do, improve the performance skills... Every person has his strengths. And our task is to help athletes to discover these strengths in full.
Q: What are the strengths and weaknesses of Sasha Trusova?
A: Sasha is very stubborn. If she wants something, she will do it. She actually needs to be stopped. If you tell her: "Do whatever you want," and Sasha will jump for about five hours. If you tell her: "Let's work on spins", and she will say: "No, I want to jumps a bit more." At the same time, she is very quiet, even-keel, a girl who does everything the coaches tell her. She never questions the authority of coaches, never thinks that a coach may be wrong.
Even at the World championships, before the free program, I saw that she was nervous. And when I was talking to her, trying to calm her down, I asked: "Sasha, what do you like most? Stroking, maybe?" I was kidding. But she got a little shy and said: "Well, I can do that. But most of all I like to jump." And then just before she went out on the ice, I said: "Sasha, if you like to jump the most, then go ahead and jump."
Q: Nice catch. And what are her weaknesses?
A: We need to work on stroking, the second mark. I do not want our athletes to unbalanced. For someone to have good jumps, someone have good spins or skating skills. I want them to do the best they can. Sasha has great spins. She is very disciplined. She's really good with math. She can count well on her feet. She is a smart girl and understands that you cannot leave the points on the table. You can do a quad and then do 2-3 level 2 spins. And then what? Sasha understands all this.
Q: Alena Kostornaya?
A: Alena is a very good girl. And there is a little devil inside this pretty little girl. There is a pretty mean little girl inside. But it's great! I really like such personality, because it makes people alive. You see that a person is happy, upset, worried. She shows his emotions. And when she is skating her programs, you believe what she shows on the ice, because it's all sincere.
Alena came to our group at the end of last season. And in general, by her jumps, we realized that there was a potential for a quad. Alena has a very good jump. On the floor, she jumps higher than all the girls. Maybe even boys. But we did not have enough time during the offseason to choreograph interesting programs, polish them, gain stability, which she lacked before, and confidence. It is impossible to instill self-confidence when the athlete goes for super-difficult jumps at the competitions. This season, we achieved the maximum with Alena. She showed everything that we wanted. After the World championships, barely off the ice, she said: "Once we get back home, we are starting to learn the quad." She wants to try triple Axel as well. So we are going to work on the technical side of her skating.
I can not name any of her weaknesses. She is a very balanced skater. Excellent spins, high-quality jumps, good skating skills. We can work on the basics, because Alena can show even more powerful skating. But she still does not understand how much more effort she needs to put in her skating. It is easy to her. She skates well. But he does not understand yet how much better she can do it. She has to understand this with her body, how much power she needs to put in a step, in a push, to make it look fascinating, edgy and beautiful. All this needs perfecting.
Q: What can you say about Alexey Erokhov?
A: Lesha is a good boy. He is a very well- brought-up, smart guy. He has been training with Eteri for a very long time. When I came to the group, Lesha was already there. He is an example of work ethics, especially among the boys. Boys can sometimes be lazy, unfocused. And Lesha is very responsible. He takes very seriously the training process, the attention of the trainers.
There are people who are very talented, they can get it done from the first try, without much effort. It happens when someone is particularly gifted. Alexei achieved everything he has by hard work. He knows the value of every result. And winning junior world championships means a lot to him.
He worked for that for many years, competing with the guys who were ahead. There was Moris Kvitilashvili, who was then representing Russia, Vlad Tarasenko, Adian Pitkeev, Sergei Voronov. They were all better than Lesha. But he worked, he tried. And now four years have passed, he made a great progress. He achieved great results with jumps. Next he needs to work on stroking, artistry. Although I cannot say that he doesn’t work on that already. Every year he gets better and better. I hope that Lesha has four years before the next Olympics. And if he works in the same spirit, there will be no injuries, he can fight for very high places.
Q: And back to the girls. Do you think their jumps will survive puberty?
A: Much will depend on the athletes themselves. If they continue to monitor themselves, their nutrition, work as they should, they will not lose their shape. It is clear that if a girl grows up to 180 cm high, then it will be difficult for her to jump a quad. But with the average height...
But what you ask is new. So far there are no examples. We will see, with Sasha, others. After all, people said the same about Zhenya Medvedeva, that she would grow up, she would change, she would become worse. And she kept winning competition after competition. Because if a person works, then he or she does not get worse. The main thing is not to let yourself slack and love what you do.
