Ted Barton interviews Eteri Tutberidze

I haven't looked yet, but what's up with 'different views.' Is it the same full, complete interview?? :confused:

Oh okay, thanks I see now that you mean someone has posted an 'equal time' video discussing their problem with Eteri Tutberidze. :lol: :watch:
 
layman said:
Another view:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcQZWDjAogE
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The speaker on this video is so ugly and unattractive that i am quite sure she would be inclined to find all sorts invented problems with beautiful and successful "non-American" woman, who does not do things the way the speaker does them. Instead of worrying about Eteri and her girls, the woman in the video would spend time better on getting a hair cut, contact lenses instead of glasses, and making her self presentable to potential partners.. :D Nobody probably would touch her with a 10-ft pole, so she with all free time on her hands is worrying about "foreign people's lives". But it is a free country, we can all say what we think.. :p
 
skateboy said:
Apologies if this has already been posted. I think it's quite interesting. Among other things, Eteri becomes quite emotional near the end of the interview, saying that the Olympics were difficult for her because her mother was dying at the time. Ted is just great, as usual:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLqjDQDSS0c
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Hmmm, right off the bat, kind Barton offers Eteri overdone praise. While Eteri certainly deserves due respect and accolades for her accomplishments, I beg to differ that she's necessarily influenced skating in a major positive direction.

She's certainly and laudably positioned herself and her federation at the top in the ladies discipline. However, there have been some notable problems for athletes she's tutored, including Adian Pitkeev and Yulia Lipnitskaya. Her training methods appear to work incredibly well for immediate short term gain for some athletes. Developing beneficial and effective technique for long term career success is much more problematic for the athletes she's trained, to date.

Eteri should be proud of how far she's come, and I applaud her aggressive determination. Her success is admirable, but some of her controlling and intimidation tactics are not. There's certainly nothing wrong with finding effective shortcuts, and camouflaging young athletes' weaknesses with bells and whistles. But I wouldn't say that necessarily makes her a great coach.

There are many more actually great Russian coaches who have managed to excel and contribute to the sport in much more meaningful ways, many of whom go unheralded.

And now I will finish looking at the Eteri interview. I haven't checked out the dissenting view yet. :p
 
My gosh, I can't even get through the first question without groaning. Barton asks about Eteri's supposedly brilliant thinking that 'why can't young girls do quads.' And Eteri responds how she feels young girls can do quads better than boys.

Okay, two things come to mind: One, it's not unusual for young ladies to advance in certain skills sooner than boys. However, it usually takes both genders awhile to mature and refine their expressive and aesthetic skills, despite some precocious artistic abilities possessed by a very small percentage of young athletes.

Two: young girls' immature bodies surely can rotate faster, so give Eteri a medal for figuring that out! :rolleyes::drama: What happens to them when they get older?? Right now, that's a huge question yet to be fully answered in terms of the long term results of allowing these young prepubescent girls to perform quads. Okay, Eteri says she tries to be cautious about injuries. Good for her. Still, the long term physical effects are unknown. And btw, was Eteri cautious about Adian Pitkeev being injured? I personally wish that all skaters would be more concentratedly trained in mastering blade skills rather than this current favored emphasis on hammering very young, still-growing bodies for the wow factor and short term rewards.

We've already seen what can tend to happen to many young teeny-boppers with 3/3s who've won medals and effusive praise, and then become burnt out physically and emotionally when their bodies begin to mature. An entire book can be written with all of the examples, including Oksana Baiul, who chiefly possessed artistic precociousness with inadequate technical abilities, and emotional character flaws (as a result of early personal travails). Add to the list, Radionova, Sotnikova, and even Med and Zag! Of course, the full trajectories for Medvedeva and Zagitova have yet to be written, but both are struggling right now with growth spurts complicating their limited and limiting technical training learned in their early youth.

This is not only about Russian teeny-boppers: I include Caroline Zhang and Mirai Nagasu. Of course Nagasu prevailed with fierce determination to come back and achieve notable, if not blazing success. This, after her over-hyped junior brilliance hit an iceberg and her subsequent floundering precipitated attempts by suddenly dismissive adults to place her on the scrap heap.
 
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WildRose said:
Who is this woman and what are her qualifications to comment?
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it's the same "type of people" i experience while being involved with several charities and rescue protective causes. you can tell the difference between "genuine concern" and "using a cause to solve other and/or personal issues". There is a difference between people who genuinely concern about use of animal fur in clothing, and self-serving hags who resent the "rich b..tches" who can afford fur. There is a difference between those who are genuinely concerned about same sex issues and see the biggest problem in Arab countries where gays are killed, and those who want to promote themselves or hate Russia and worry about "not being able for gays to kiss openly on the streets". There are too many people who take valid issues and use them to compensate for whatever they need to compensate.

This speaker in the given video, if she was truly concerned about "young bodies abused by recent athletic demands", difficult jumps in figure skating, would have phrased the whole issue differently. Her issue would have been addressed along with Eteri, to all coaches who are training early teen skaters, to Liu's coach and Liu's 3A's at the age of 13, to Hamada and Kihira's 3A and quad practices, to Orser who now has Kurakova and practicing 4-3-3.....

The speaker's issues are selective, subjective and do not come from the right place.
 
^^ :D:lol: Indeed, it is excruciatingly slow-going for me to get through the interview. I have to stop every few seconds to gnash my teeth and reorder my thoughts. :drama: Oh ah, but maybe you are speaking of the 'dissenting view' video. :rofl:

Come on. I find Barton overly pandering to Eteri's success. Give her due props, but stop with the overdone praise, please. Is she that needy? I think the biggest hallmark of some of Eteri's skaters' success has been their mental determination and consistency, bolstered by fast rotations. But her methods have not garnered success over a long haul, so let's see what happens going forward.

Part of Eteri's prestige stems from the hype and politics that exist in the sport. And phooey re Eteri supposedly working to cater to her skaters' individual personalities in their program and music selections. I wouldn't give Eteri any huge marks for such an approach in the cases of Medvedeva and Zagitova. :blah:

With Lipnitskaya, Eteri happened to hit upon a successful theme/concept with Schindler's List (which is iconic music that began to be used often post popular viewing of Paul Wylie's exquisite pro exhibition interpretation). The program worked brilliantly for Lipnitskaya for a number of pop-cultural, historical, emotional reasons. Eteri is nothing if not a master at co-opting pop culture 'wow factor' strategies.
 
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Tinami Amori said:
The speaker on this video is so ugly and unattractive that i am quite sure she would be inclined to find all sorts invented problems with beautiful and successful "non-American" woman, who does not do things the way the speaker does them. Instead of worrying about Eteri and her girls, the woman in the video would spend time better on getting a hair cut, contact lenses instead of glasses, and making her self presentable to potential partners.. :D Nobody probably would touch her with a 10-ft pole, so she with all free time on her hands is worrying about "foreign people's lives". But it is a free country, we can all say what we think.. :p
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Be nice, Tinami. We're not all born a great beauty like you. :)
 
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The speaker's issues are selective, subjective and do not come from the right place.[/QUOTE]
Well, I guess it takes one to know one, doesn't it? Two wrongs don't make a right.
 
Tinami Amori said:
the woman in the video would spend time better on getting a hair cut, contact lenses instead of glasses, and making her self presentable to potential partners.. :D Nobody probably would touch her with a 10-ft pole, so she with all free time on her hands is worrying about "foreign people's lives".
Click to expand...

I think you're being a bit harsh here,dear. I absolutely agree with you there is no excuse for that hair! We haven't seen such fried,flat,yellow bleached blond hair since Linda Evans in Dynasty. And I do find it hard to believe that's considered acceptable,even in Russia. However you do have to admit her skin has nice elasticity,and I admire the classy jewelry.

-BB
 
Brenda_Bottems said:
I think you're being a bit harsh here,dear. I absolutely agree with you there is no excuse for that hair! We haven't seen such fried,flat,yellow bleached blond hair since Linda Evans in Dynasty. And I do find it hard to believe that's considered acceptable,even in Russia. However you do have to admit her skin has nice elasticity,and I admire the classy jewelry.

-BB
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I think that Ms. Tutberidze asked her hair stylist for a cross between this sexy city look and Lance Bass circa *NSYNC's heyday. I can't blame her: The only reason my FSU user name is Aerobicidal is because xSJPfanBOIx was taken, and the Lance Bass scrapbook I compiled throughout middle- and high school served me well on many lonely nights at sea.
 
Japanfan said:
Be nice, Tinami. We're not born a great beauty like you. :)
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Being born not of great beauty, i examine carefully my the true motivations when speaking negatively of those who are.

Brenda_Bottems said:
However you do have to admit her skin has nice elasticity,and I admire the classy jewelry.-BB
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When genetic engineering and DNA configuration are soon to be allowed and practicing, i will vote for any form of elasticity to be primarily applied to the brain structure, and the embedment of the last 5 commandments, one of which is "You must not be envious of your neighbour's goods".
 
:lol: I think Tinami was referencing the 'dissenting view' video commenter, while BB is referencing Eteri. :COP:

Now that I've watched the full vid interview with Eteri, it's good to see that at least Barton brings up a carefully crafted question about how these young skaters will change in the future, and how Eteri approaches that inevitability. Unsurprisingly, Eteri is focused on "day-by-day, step-by-step doing what we can now, and not having any regrets." That definitely seems to be a short-term gain approach.

Barton is understandably if a bit overly impressed by Eteri, and I suppose a lot of that has to do with the very talented current young juniors who are coming up. I haven't seen a lot of them, but I do like what I've seen of Kostornaia. And I sort of like Eteri's analogy of enjoying flowers in nature, and feeling as if she's planting seeds and nurturing flowers to grow with her young skaters. That's the :violin: tearjerking ploy. But apparently she's somewhat sincere, in a strategic p.r. fashion. It's nice that Eteri has been inspired by Brian Boitano's skating. He was a wonderful technician who improved aesthetically as he matured. It was Sandra Bezic who had a hand in developing Brian's 'storytelling' aesthetic.

Violins and sentimentality aside, let's face it that Eteri is also tough and strategic. She's had to be obviously in order to succeed, so that's a compliment. Also, I do feel for Eteri having to experience the difficult loss of her mother during the Olympics. Maybe that accounts for perhaps some of Eteri's apparent distraction in sheperding her two young rivals to Olympic medals. Eteri did not seem to take any joy in the competition and its outcome. She does generally maintain a poker face. But she also revealed some not easy to decipher expressions in the Olympics kiss 'n cry, which may have been because she knew Medvedeva was upset. Eteri seemed unprepared for how to deal with Med's despair.

Some questions Barton didn't ask are: "Which skater did Eteri actually prefer to win the OGM?" and "What is Eteri's philosophy in dealing with the penultimate Olympic endgame and aftermath? Or does she have any strategy considerations for managing and effectively coping with several young rivals competing for only one OGM?"
 
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Wyliefan said:
Oh geesh, THAT again. Someone should tell her to just plant a darned garden already.
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:rofl: :lol: With Eteri's 'planting seeds and helping flowers to grow' analogy to coaching young skaters, I guess she thinks she's already built a greenhouse! Boy, she seems pretty greedy demanding that Med bring her additional flowers as punishment for daring to escape before more training rivalry/ competitive miseries ensued.
 
I'm having really hard time following this conversation..... Oi.

Anyhoo, back the interview. I had no idea Eteri spoke such great English. So nice to hear her speak. Hearing her first hand speak about skating has humanized her to me; I no longer see a woman with this perpetual stern look like someone's about to get a spanking.

I wouldn't be surprised if she agreed to do the interview as long as she wasn't asked directly about Alina/Evgenia. Either that or Ted was being too PC (aka chicken) to go there. I was fine with Ted being PC and polite to her but I found the ongoing hiney-kissing a bit OTT and could have done without it.
 
There's this out there as well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyB-zSmzr-E
Wow, I really haven't followed Eteri's methods that closely, although I have seen the effects over the past 8 years or so. Jeez, the 'mind games' Eteri employs upon these impressionable youngsters! And Eteri had the temerity to suggest she feels like their mother during her interview with Barton, who was actually trying to ask her a question about her real daughter. Anyway, I guess if it works, why not build a successful career in figure skating upon the nubile bodies and eager minds of young pre-teens and teenagers. There's always a new young crop to sow and plow through. Eteri's likely innocent in her own mind because she's convinced that what she's doing is right. And the skating community acquiesces, admires and rewards. So the ISU and the skating community are fully complicit.

After checking out the 8-minute 'dissenting view' video, I'm not sure why everyone is making fun of the skating fan who posted the video. She is passionate enough about skating and bold enough to get in front of a camera and state her views. Contrary to assessments in this thread, the fan is not being nasty to Eteri. She simply articulates that she doesn't like Eteri's training methods. Here's a very brief sample of some of the comments made by the fan:

"Eteri has devised a technique based on rotation speed and tiny bodies; Eteri makes skaters compete injured; Eteri doesn't care about teaching them effective technique; her technique places a lot of stress on her skaters' bodies, and in particular on their backs. Yes, Eteri does bring the medals and she's very popular, but at the end of the day, who wants to peak at 15? Her skaters surely want a longer career without broken bodies. The legends of the sport generally have longer careers, like Michelle Kwan, Carolina Kostner, and Irina Slutskaya. People who we've seen grow and improve over the years. Why [as a sport] are we pushing these young juniors?"

IMO, the fan's comments demonstrate concern for the direction of the sport and for Eteri's charges, not scorn. The scorn is reserved for Eteri's training methods. People may not like the fan's voice, looks, hair, or her delivery, but I don't think she's off-base about the concerns she is raising.
 
Rock2 said:
I was fine with Ted being PC and polite to her but I found the ongoing hiney-kissing a bit OTT and could have done without it.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I thought it was a bit much too. Interesting interview, but I mean c’mon, it’s not like Ted has never met a top coach before. LOL, and Brian Boitano is her favorite skater? ROFLOL what an obvious dig at Orser!! Too funny - I’ll bet Brian would think it was hilarious.
 
Tutberidze worked and toured in the US, and her daughter's father is American. (I don't remember if they married.) She was in Oklahoma City during the domestic terrorist attack and has spoken about it.
 
WildRose said:
Yeah, I thought it was a bit much too. Interesting interview, but I mean c’mon, it’s not like Ted has never met a top coach before. LOL, and Brian Boitano is her favorite skater? ROFLOL what an obvious dig at Orser!! Too funny - I’ll bet Brian would think it was hilarious.
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Maybe the reason for being overly polite even for his standards is this, in Ted's own words: "Thank you for taking the time to speak to me, because to be honest, you scare me."
 
^^ And who has condemned Eteri for creating the situation? It started around 1994 with the over-rewarding of precociously artistic Oksana Baiul. I've mentioned the names of U.S. skaters too. What Eteri is doing is capitalizing upon and furthering an unfortunate trend to over-reward young prepubescent female skaters. The sad thing is that Eteri pretends to be concerned about her skaters' health and well-being, when she's shown herself to be more concerned about them jumping themselves into oblivion for their short term glory and her long term benefit. Eteri's coaching success is being widely praised, so obviously as I said earlier, the skating community is fully complicit.

kwanfan1818 said:
Tutberidze worked and toured in the US,
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Yes, I think many people already know Eteri spent some years in the U.S. during the time of the Oklahoma bombing, which was in part the impetus for that 'bomb' of an OTT 'ringing phone ending' fp given to Med who did the best pantomime job she could with the dreck! :yikes:

During her time in the U.S., I believe Eteri learned what she could about the practice of 'packaging' skaters, and whatever else she could utilize to create an advantage for herself when she returned to Russia to build a school. Kudos to her and her ambitious drive. As I said earlier, Eteri is a master at co-opting Western pop culture themes for wow factor impact. Combine that ability with Russian tradition, a knack for camouflaging skaters' weaknesses with bells & whistles, and a no-holds-barred demanding short-term gain jump technique, and I guess we've got a winner. I wonder for how long? Certainly, there's plenty of young acolytes to take the place of Eteri's present crew.

And btw sure, I'm interested in seeing how Trusova, and especially Kostornaia will fare. But I believe there is too much over-rewarding of young skaters out-the-wazoo, particularly when their jump technique and artistic maturity actually leave something to be desired. It's sad that so many of these young ladies' careers are a dime a dozen, and tend to become quickly snuffed out. Again, we shall see what transpires. The sport and our culture as a whole are often titillated and transfixed by the 'Lolita effect.'
 
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