"In a crisis, sport goes into the category of luxury": Nikolaev on the impact of the pandemic on figure skating and home training

- How can athletes and coaches spend a period of forced quarantine so that it is not excruciatingly painful for lost time?

- First of all, you need to understand that the break associated with the spread of coronavirus will be long, whether we like it or not. So, you need to treat him extremely carefully. If you look back, then the athletes had long breaks before. Now, of course, figure skating is not the same as it was before - a huge number of complex coordination elements appeared in it.

At the same time, I can’t say that our sport was technically simpler before: when girls just started jumping triple jumps, and men mastered the triple axel, it was for them the same feat as now to perform quadruples. But this is not about that. If an athlete suddenly finds himself in a situation similar to the one that has developed in the world now, he must first answer himself the question of what he wants and what he must do in this regard.

- And if the skater just wants to train, as before, but does not have such an opportunity?

“A person has many different details, so he always has something to work on, no matter what the conditions.” If you don’t know how to work, consult a trainer, a physical training specialist, a doctor, determine which muscle groups you are underdeveloped, balance your muscle corset, and allow your muscles to develop. This is the first and most important thing.

- Do you think that the muscles of many skaters leave much to be desired?

“Don't you think so?” Yes, the skaters have excellent hip muscles. But if you look at the girls, as a rule, they don’t have a real muscle corset. I'm not saying that you need to build muscle, the skater does not need to increase weight by increasing body size. But there are many deep muscles that are almost never worked out well and do not have high speed characteristics. For example, the adductor muscle of the thigh is the so-called “tender” muscle. But it is she who allows the athlete to quickly bring and spread legs.

- There is an opinion that, due to narrow specialization, modern athletes are noticeably inferior in muscle terms to those who have performed before.

- And there is. The same Lena Vodorezova in the years of her performances was physically prepared so that she could play tennis quite professionally. Tell me now athletes who are able to pull themselves at least several times? Skaters usually have one answer to such claims: there is no time. But in fact, this is a reflection of the one-sidedness of coaching, when the result is needed sooner rather sooner. Although, as an explanation, many traditionally complain about insufficient ice.

“But a professional ice skater really needs a lot of ice ...”

- Let me give you a simple life example: you woke up in the morning and wanted to cook yourself breakfast eggs and ham and cheese, as well as freshly squeezed orange juice. They opened the refrigerator and found that there was nothing but a small piece of bread. What will be your actions: refuse breakfast at all or still eat this piece? So it is here.

It is necessary to use what is, but try to manage it as efficiently as possible. And for this, a person must understand the ultimate goal that he is able to realize at the present time. Remember, you somehow sent me a video of a workout in which gymnasts pump abs?

- Oh sure.

- I can say thank you very late: in my group for two years now the skaters have been pumping the press in this way - 20 minutes of continuous and very diverse work, which gives the athlete not only cardio load and load on the abdominal muscles, but also greatly improves speed qualities . Well, yes, there is little joy in what is happening in the world: no training on the floor can replace ice skaters. But why not do acrobatics?

- In the conditions of isolation in the apartment?

- And in the apartment, what, it is impossible to find a place to make a wheel or two somersaults forward-backward, and then get into a balance position? Or jump a tour and try not to fall? It is clear that owning a house gives a person more quarantine opportunities, and a small apartment is the very piece of bread in the refrigerator. Well, either eat it, having received a certain amount of energy, or stretch your legs. There is no excuse for lounging and waiting for someone to solve all the problems for you.

• Valentin Nikolaev

- And how do skaters solve the problem in America?

- Many athletes are now very actively engaged in everything that I am talking about - especially in those places where the quarantine is very strict and people are prohibited from any kind of movement. Choreographers give online lessons, children conduct joint lessons on physical training in the mode of video conferencing - after all, doing hard work alone is quite difficult.

“How severe are the quarantine measures in your place in Richmond?”

- All skating rinks are closed, but you can conduct classes on physical training on the street, which I do. I work with athletes individually so as not to be accused of contributing to group classes during the period of the prohibition of any mass gatherings. In general, I would say that the current situation is primarily a problem for coaches. It is the mentor who must offer the athlete a work plan, scheduled at least a week in advance. All this can be done without any problems.

- And if the coach does nothing of the kind?

- So, he runs the risk of getting an overweight athlete after the quarantine. Although there is no particular danger in this: upon returning to ice, everyone usually returns to their previous jumping condition within a couple of weeks. The main thing is not to rush here: after a long period of inactivity, the beginning of work is always accompanied by muscle pain, which manages to break the habit of usual loads. If, against the background of this condition, one starts to force jumping, these muscles can be seriously injured.

- Does the athlete have no coordination during the downtime?

- I would say that weaning from ice occurs. When the skater works in his usual mode, he does not feel the skates - he only feels the ice. After the break, you begin to feel the boots, screws, blades - anything, just not the ice itself. This loss of contact sensations is the most unpleasant thing that happens to an athlete after a long break. The more developed a person’s muscle memory is, the faster their previous skills are restored. But I must say that there are positive things in a long excommunication from ice.

- For instance?

- If the athlete had serious errors in the jumping technique that interfered with him on the ice, they weaken. And the beginning of work turns into a truly golden time, when it becomes easier for a person to slowly re-learn something new, to lay the right muscle memory.

- The keywords here, as it seems to me, are "slowly." And the International Skating Union has not yet decided what to do with the failed World Cup - whether to postpone it to the fall, for example.

- Well, so what if the championship is postponed? Just in this case, you don’t need to prepare for it, as for the main tournament, that's all.

- And the quotas?

“They're not going anywhere.” What, for example, does the Russian team risk in this case? As practice shows, by the fall, many skaters have time to gain a pretty good shape - the past season, by the way, is very well reflected. If the same girls are ready in the fall to perform not 100%, but 75–80%, will they not be able to win three quotas for the next championship? Will this be a problem for them? Yes, thank you, of course not.

Likewise, it should not be a problem to win two quotas in men's singles when this world championship is not held. I would not have counted on three. Even if Russia’s male quota is one, I don’t see any reason to panic either, this has happened more than once and no one has died from it. Does the calendar break? Take off a series of some other tournaments. In my opinion, the problem is far-fetched. Yes, all this is unpleasant. But in fact, we again return to what we have in the refrigerator.

- To what extent has the situation with coronavirus hit American figure skating as a business?

- Hit hard. Not so long ago, the U.S. Institute of Sports sent a letter to coaches informing them that if people lost their jobs due to the mass closures of the rinks, they can apply for social benefits. It is clear that this is not the money that the trainers earned with lessons, but nonetheless some kind of support. A significant part of the professional trainers with whom I communicate transferred the maximum of possible classes online, write courses on video. I myself also lost money, but not catastrophically.

The main danger here is different: if the forecasts of American economists come true, this will become a much more powerful blow to figure skating simply because people will have nothing to pay for classes. During a crisis, people have a minimal set of expenses. First of all, it is a telephone, a gas station, utilities and a doctor. Everything else automatically goes into the category of "luxury", including figure skating. Which means it can simply be sacrificed.