"I would like to give the opportunity to Konstantinova to extend the career of a skater"
- Your coaching career began right off the bat - from working with the already adult and mature figure skater Sergei Dobrin. There was no fear that you will not be able to justify the student's hopes, that he may not reckon with your coaching authority at all?
- Not.
And I didn't have time to think about it.
Sergei came in a completely disassembled state, when there were two months left before the 2009 Russian Championship.
Therefore, we just jumped into the work right away.
Both left the training session wet.
I am like a coach, he is like an athlete.
It is clear that Dobrin did not look at me from the bottom up, as little children look at a mentor, especially since I was only four years older.
But he tried to get the maximum information out of me, use all my sports experience, and unquestioningly did everything, which at that time was very valuable to me.
- How long did it take you to adapt to the life that began after the sport?
- There was no adaptation.
Firstly, since childhood, I wanted to be a coach and did not consider any other profession in principle.
- Were there other options?
- They called me to journalism, to television, to some sports projects, but all this was not very interesting to me.
I left sports in 2007.
I took either fifth or sixth place at the Russian championship in Mytishchi, and it was as if they made it clear to me that our country no longer really needs it as an athlete.
Plus the knee, which I completely killed with training.
It is clear that it was possible to continue skating, direct all forces to rehabilitation, but I understood very well that there would no longer be a wall behind me in the form of support from the federation.
Younger girls have appeared, the rates have changed.
Thanks to Ilya Averbukh, who took me to his show.
I traveled with him for two months, finally got enough of performances, and then Viktor Kudryavtsev offered me a job in his group.
So one day I turned from an athlete into a coach.
- Did you injure your knee at the end of your career?
- I first damaged a joint in America when I came to Oleg Vasiliev in Chicago.
It was just then that we managed to heal the injury so that it hardly bothered me.
The most severe exacerbation, after which an operation was required, happened later, when I was skating with Marina Kudryavtseva.
But that is no one's fault.
It was the Olympic season, we really worked very hard.
- I remember your interview, where you referred to the words of Elena Tchaikovskaya that skating through pain is normal.
- Each coach builds his training tactics differently.
Many even forbid students to talk about their injuries.
I adhere to the position that it is better to eradicate the problem in time, to give the athlete the opportunity to take a break.
All these minor injuries that do not heal very often turn into chronicles, and because of this, the skater ends up skating altogether.
- In other words, do you think that not all means are good for achieving the goal?
- I think not.
- Judging by the composition of your current group, are you more comfortable working with boys?
- Well, somehow it turns out that for the third season, mostly boys are watching.
When Stasya (Stanislav Konstantinova. -
RT
)
came to us after the New Year
, the reaction of the guys was interesting: "Take Stasya, let at least one girl in the group be ...".
Although I have quite a lot of girls in the younger groups.
- What was the decisive argument in favor of taking Konstantinova?
- The fact that she is an adult, mature athlete and understands exactly what she wants.
Plus, Stasya is a very interesting person, personality.
And it rides amazingly beautifully.
When a skater is able to skate like this, younger athletes can learn a lot, even by just observing.
And besides, I want to give her the opportunity to extend her skating career.
So that she does not have to bite her elbows, realizing that she has not fully realized herself.
- Looking at the level to which Russian women's skating has now risen, where exactly do you see a niche in which an adult figure skater could realize herself?
- Unfortunately, there are very few of these niches.
Even the likelihood of participating in the Grand Prix is minimized - the vacancies are occupied by younger girls.
“That's why I asked you about it.
- I don’t think now at what level in terms of results we will be able to rise.
First of all, I would like to return Konstantinova to the level of performance of the elements at which she was in her best years.
And then, as they say, time will tell.
If Stasya turns out to be able to fight for getting into the national team at the Russian Championship, this will be a good step for herself.
- Do you admit that after the 2022 Olympics, the age of girls reaching the adult level can be increased?
- It seems that conversations about age have been going on for several years, but, you must agree, our girls have already taught the whole world that there is a colossal struggle in women's skating, which is interesting for everyone to watch.
As well as quadruple jumps.
Let's say they raise their age.
But won't the audience get bored?
On the other hand, I would like to extend the life of the skaters in sports as much as possible.
After all, the same Kamila Valieva and Dasha Usacheva will very soon feel that they are beginning to be squeezed, just as they themselves are now squeezing the same Anya Shcherbakova.
They will also be affected by this fate.
And it turns out such a vicious circle when you don't understand what is right and what is wrong ...
- I know that you are now trying to find an opportunity for Konstantinova to compete. Why not use this time to work on new programs, on elements?
- Will explain.
Stasya has some competitive problem: stress slows her down a little, and she cannot show what she is capable of.
We talked about this with Alexander Volkov, and with Valentina Chebotaryova.
Therefore, I'm just interested in feeling the athlete in relation to starts.
Even if the first pancake comes out lumpy, it is important to do it now, and understand in which key we should work further.
It is very important for me that Konstantinova does not have a huge break between performances, so that the pause does not last from December to September.
"I had to behave very tough"
- In the summer you started working with Alexei Erokhov, who came from Eteri Tutberidze. How smooth was his adaptation in the group?
- Alexey did not skate for almost four months due to quarantine, so it was difficult to start.
But in general, he joined the training process quickly enough.
It was not always possible to restrain emotions, but we also coped with it.
- Do I understand correctly that you do not encourage an athlete to demonstrate emotions?
- Oleg Vasiliev taught me this at one time.
He explained what happens in a person's head when he works on psychosis, what it is fraught with, what kind of injuries can happen.
I remembered that conversation very well.
Therefore, now, even though mostly grown guys skate with me, there is no swearing on the ice, and even more so, psychosis.
- Why did Vasiliev not intervene when a conflict arose in his group, because of which you had to return to Russia?
- Tanya Totmianina and Maxim Marinin skated at Oleg then, and it is clear that they were the priority, as they were preparing to win the Olympics in Turin.
At that time, a lot of professional tournaments were held in America, and Vasiliev and I flew to competitions every two or three weeks - among other things, it was an opportunity for me to earn some money.
So it turned out that I constantly take the coach's attention to myself.
It is interesting that later, when I was already skating in the group of Kudryavtseva with Ivan Bariev (Ivan Rigini. -
RT
), a very similar situation arose: Marina Grigorievna took a junior girl into the group, began to devote quite a lot of time to her, and we are just a beast for a coach looked, despite the fact that she almost immediately began to breed us on different ice.
- Is there a coach in the world for the possibility of an internship with whom you would be willing to pay out of your own pocket?
- Of course.
In general, when I come to some competitions, I try to be close to the leading experts - with Eteri Tutberidze, with Alexei Mishin.
See how they behave, how they communicate with students.
I am absolutely not ashamed to discuss the triple axel with Arthur Gachinsky, who jumped it amazingly skillfully, to learn some things in terms of staging programs from the same Daniel Gleichengauz.
I think this is absolutely normal.
Helps the coach to develop.
- Do you put programs for your athletes yourself?
- Not anymore.
Although at one time Polina Korobeinikova performed at the European Championship with my program.
Like Sofya Biryukova when she won the Universiade.
Now we have reached such a level in our work that we cannot cover everything by ourselves.
Therefore, I attract specialists who help to work with the "tracks", with the rotations, with the staging ...
- Who is more appealing to you from Western specialists - Brian Orser or Rafael Harutyunyan?
- I can't say anything about Orser, I don't know him.
And I grew up with Harutyunyan, even when I was an athlete.
Sasha Abt skated with Rafik then, we spent many years side by side in the national team.
And even then I noted that Harutyunyan is a person who has his own, unlike any other, jumping technique.
- How exactly is this expressed, can you explain?
- Everything is arranged very pointwise.
If the jump is preceded by two dashes, you cannot do three.
In the jump itself, each part of the body takes its place.
Most coaches sort of tweak their technique for a particular skater.
With Rafik, each athlete adapts to a certain technical standard.
And it works.
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- The pinnacle of choreography in figure skating is considered to be the programs staged by Shae-Lynn Bourne. What do you think she does that others don't? And why exactly Bourne was recognized a year ago as the best stage director in the world?
- When a diamond falls into the hands of a specialist, you know ...
- ... not a pork tail?
- Well, you can put it that way.
A lot depends on who the director is working with.
It's one thing to put programs on for everyone, and it's quite another to cooperate with such athletes as Misha Kolyada, Alina Zagitova, Zhenya Medvedeva, Lena Radionova.
If we talk about the style in general, I would say that Shae-Lynn has it Canadian-American.
- Will you decipher?
- This is more free skating than what we are used to.
It is easier to put the program in this style when there is no need to perform quadruple jumps and triple axels.
But to make it comfortable for an athlete to ride, having several quadruple jumps, is an extremely difficult task.
She-Lynn copes with her.
In this regard, each choreographer has his own style.
The same Daniil Gleikhengauz, when he sets up programs, always tries to ensure that everything is done the way he and Eteri Tutberidze see it.
- A distinctive feature of many modern productions is that they are not composed of separate elements, but of blocks. To some extent, this is a forced necessity within the framework of the existing rules, but sometimes there is a feeling of "déjà vu" - the same program set to different music.
- You rightly said that this is primarily a necessity.
The programs that are now being performed for top-level girls are so complex in terms of technology that it is very difficult to do something differently there.
So you have to adhere to certain blocks that follow from program to program.
And already on this backbone everything else is strung.
- Which of the Russian singles are you more interested in at the World Championships - Liza Tuktamysheva, Sasha Trusova or Anna Shcherbakova?
- Each of them is interesting, I do not want to single out anyone.
Although Lisa deserves special attention and special respect.
Between her and those who are performing now, there are probably not one, but two generations of athletes.
- Isn't it more? After Tuktamysheva, when she just appeared on the international arena, Adelina Sotnikova, Zhenya Medvedeva, Lena Radionova, Anna Pogorilaya, Alina Zagitova were and actually left the big ice.
- That is precisely why I really want Lisa to do the maximum in Stockholm that she is now able to show.
I also like Shcherbakova.
I know less about Trusov, but Anya and I went to competitions together many times.
We were together at the Youth Olympic Festival in Sarajevo, where Ilya Yablokov skated with me.
For all her hardness on the ice, Anya is a very benevolent, intelligent and gentle person in her life.
Her parents are the same - it is always pleasant to communicate with them.
- At the time of your performances, the skaters' parents were not so involved in the training process. Or I'm wrong?
- You are wrong.
Until now, sometimes I remember the battery at Yubileiny, near which sat Zoya's mother - Lyosha Yagudin's mother, Zhenya Plushenko's mother and my mother.
And they kept us all very tough.
A little something is wrong, by the scruff of the neck - and to the stadium, for additional classes.
Roughly the same thing happened in Moscow, where Lena Sokolova and Yulia Soldatova skated under the control of their parents.
The only one who never needed parental supervision was perhaps Ilya Kulik.
We came to the skating rink - it was already working, we left the skating rink - it was still working.
Her mother was always next to Ira Slutskaya.
My grandfather followed me in the same way.
I looked into the locker room, pointed to the clock, they say, it's time to go to the warm-up or to the stadium or do homework.
You know, such a shadow of Hamlet's father, which is always behind.
Yablokov has the same grandmother Larisa - she does not overlook a single trifle.
I really respect her.
Although there are so inadequate moms and dads that even coaches are sometimes afraid of them.
- And how to deal with it?
- Well, somehow you are trying to build relationships, conduct preventive conversations.
Now, due to the quarantine, parents are not allowed to go to the rink at all, so we all breathed a sigh of relief in a sense.
- Did you have to expel anyone in the old days?
- Yes.
For too active interference in the training process.
Fortunately, this does not happen in my older group.
But with the younger excesses happened.
I had to behave very hard.
As it turned out, I can do it.