"The coach should not stoop to this": Nikolaev about the criticism of judges Plushenko, the courage of Shcherbakova and the problems of Trusova

"It does not fit into my head how Shcherbakova managed to perform like this after an illness."

- I know that you always follow what is happening in the world of women's skating.

What impression did the final tournament of the Russian championship leave on you?

- Of course, the girls skated amazingly, dashingly.

It still does not fit in my head how Anya Shcherbakova managed to perform like this after an illness.

It was evident how hard it was for her the first rental.

I liked her very much.

Just really.

In the short program, it was felt that she was being careful, but the free program was fantastic.

- What about Kamila Valieva?

- In volleyball, there is such a concept as “Common game”.

In this component, Valieva has noticeably improved over the past year.

She became more mature, although the difference between her and Shcherbakova is still great.

- I'm afraid the fans will not agree with you.

According to her second assessment, despite her junior age, Kamila has already come close to Anya.

- And who said that in junior age a person must necessarily skate worse than adults?

Is it written somewhere?

No.

The second mark in figure skating is quite an interesting concept.

It cannot be weighed or measured in any other way.

There is only one point out of five that can be considered relatively objective.

These are Skating Skills.

Relatively speaking, you know how to skate, or you are not very successful in this task.

Shcherbakov's skate is better than Valieva, although Kamila skates very well.

Alexandra Trusova is still riding a little worse than these two athletes.

You can work on sliding for years and not make significant progress.

It's like a swimmer's feeling of water - either it is from nature or not.

- About Shcherbakova a couple of years ago they also said that she skated on straight legs.

- These are different things.

It is not necessary to sit in a low dance stance in order to understand whether a skater is riding a skate or not.

And, mind you, I did not say that he “does not go” at Trusova's.

It's just that in this component she is inferior to both Anna and Camila.

Just like Satoko Miyahara is inferior to Rika Kihira.

- And what to do in this case?

- The same thing that all skaters who do not have perfect glide do.

To put programs on a lot of small movements, masking the disadvantages of sliding.

Add small steps, jumps to the tracks.

Outstanding glide is generally a very rare thing in figure skating.

I still don't see anyone who glides like the late Seryozha Volkov (1975 world champion -

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).

It seems that the person does nothing, but the skate glides so that it seems: remove the boards, and the person will fly further.

“I don’t understand the position that Plushenko now takes”

- In other words, do you not share Evgeni Plushenko's indignation, which he expressed about Trusova's assessments in the short program?

- No.

I still did not understand what Yevgeny was indignant with.

Sasha Trusova skated great in the short program.

But - for myself.

It really got better and cleaner in detail.

Precise positions, completeness of movements.

But in general, she is inferior to both Shcherbakova and Valieva.

I personally cannot agree with the fact that the judges put Sasha in fourth place in the short program.

In terms of skating level, she should have been in the top three.

But resent?

It seems to me that a professional coach should never stoop to this.

After all, you can remember 1998, when Plushenko himself performed at the World Championships in Minneapolis and, with the help of judges with two falls, became the third.

- I didn’t expect you to defend the judiciary.

“I’m not defending him at all.

But I am aware of the fact that sitting on the line is not an easy job, and sometimes you will not wish your enemy to be in such a meat grinder.

And I don't understand, to be honest, the position of the coach, which Plushenko now occupies.

If your ward lost, it means that you yourself did not do something, did not foresee something.

- But you still allow judicial manipulations?

- I wouldn't discuss it at all.

Now I will turn on an entertaining video for you, and you will understand why ... Have you listened to the text?

This is the Trophee Lalique tournament that took place in France 21 years ago.

The now famous trainer Tracy Wilson, who in those years worked as an analyst on Canadian television, asks the referee of the men's team: how did Kurt Browning, who cleanly performed only three triple jumps in his program, and fell from the rest, became the champion?

And the referee replies: "I don't know."

- Good position.

- Since then, nothing has changed in refereeing.

Only the way grades are managed are changing.

When the maximum GOE value (level of performance of the element. -

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) was "+3", and the minimum, respectively, "-3", the judges, figuratively speaking, had a gun in their hands.

Now, when these values ​​have grown to plus or minus five, the referees have a machine gun at their disposal, from which they can at any time “shoot” someone they don’t like.

That is why the gaps have become so great.

- What do you think about the tendency to notice the wrong edges in some skaters and not notice the same mistakes in others?

- What exactly the judges see on their screens depends on how the element is positioned relative to the camera.

Unlike a television picture, a technical operator cannot change the angle.

And you can arrange the jump in such a way that the judges will never understand from which edge the skater performed it.

It seems to me that such a story happened at the Olympic Games in Sochi with the lutz of Adelina Sotnikova.

I later spoke with the technical specialists who serviced this tournament, and they told me: they say, yes, we know that the rib on the lutz at Adeline could be wrong, and most likely it was wrong.

But the camera did not reflect this at all.

Therefore, the judging panel did not have the slightest reason to lower Sotnikova's score.

- I understand correctly that the coach, having arrived at certain competitions, can rearrange the problematic elements in the student's program, taking into account how the technical camera is installed?

- Of course.

I can't know if anyone is using this technique, but if you feel that you are being “hunted”, absolutely everything should be considered, including such things.

Do not give a reason to find fault with yourself.

If Trusova noted the wrong edge on the flip, then there was a reason.

"Valieva made her sheepskin coats at such a height that it is just right to cling to the fifth turn"

- It turns out that the only option that can allow Sasha to remain competitive is to continue to complicate the program with jumps?

- Quite right.

By the way, I did not understand why it was necessary to remove the quadruple toe loop from the second half of the free program.

- Because there was a negative experience of the Moscow stage of the Grand Prix, where Sasha could not cope with the jumps.

- So what?

This does not mean that Trusova is unable to roll out such a program.

Another question is that I consider it a big risk to perform four different jumps at the same rental.

But you still have to jump to the maximum: this girl has no other choice.

I get the impression that Zhenya Plushenko does not really understand this yet and is somewhat blinded by the progress achieved - perhaps from a lack of coaching experience.

He seems to see no flaws in Sasha's skating.

- Doesn't the fact that Trusova performed in Chelyabinsk without a single mistake deserve admiration?

- Let's talk substantively: the skater skated the most ordinary short program in terms of the set of elements.

Net rental in this case is not an achievement, but an athlete's duty.

It was an axiom thirty years ago.

If you think otherwise, you need to end up with the coaching profession.

If Trusova added at least one more quadruple jump to the free program, she could easily become the second.

With two, even the most difficult quads, she actually did not receive any technical advantage over her rivals: Shcherbakova also had two such jumps, and different ones, lutz and flip, which is quite important.

And Valieva made her simpler sheepskin coats absolutely stunning.

At such a height that the fifth turn is just right to cling.

The same goes for the short program.

It will be very difficult for all of the above athletes to compete with Kihira without a triple axel.

- Trusova has already shown that she can do this jump.

As well as Valieva.

- To be able to have an axel and to have an axel are two different things.

Kihira has this jump.

In the same way as it was last season with Alena Kostornaya, due to which she, in fact, won most of the competitions in which she participated.

- By the way, did you manage to watch the Japanese championship, which was held at the same time as the Russian one?

- Selectively.

But Kihira, of course, saw.

- I wanted to ask about something else.

In domestic competitions, the Japanese judge their athletes extremely harshly, finding fault with any flaw.

We have a point of view that the internal result should be as high as possible in order to thus influence the perception of Russian figure skaters by international arbiters.

- It did not always happen that way.

At the very beginning of the 70s, the judging of short programs in domestic competitions was as tough as possible.

Even additional rules were introduced.

For example, if a skater fell while performing an element, he was automatically ordered to be judged not from six points, but from five points.

The idea to maximize the scores of domestic championships was born in America, and only then crawled to some other countries.

Including to Russia.

Why it was necessary is understandable.

- And why?

- Under the old judging system, there was a rule that the referee cannot give the same marks to two different skaters.

Equally, it was impossible to allow large discrepancies in points with other judges - for this, various penalties were provided up to the disqualification of an arbiter.

Therefore, the judges very closely watched how one or another athlete was assessed at various competitions, including national championships.

And, sitting down to judge, people already had in their head a certain template prepared in advance.

- And how to explain the current ruthlessness of the Japanese towards their skaters?

- Apparently, the desire to prepare athletes so that they are ready to compete in the most severe conditions.