- In the new season, Belgian Luna Hendrix, who made a splash at the Grand Prix stage in Turin, is on everyone's lips, if we leave aside the successes of Russian figure skaters. Why is your ward Eva-Lotta Kiibus in no hurry to occupy this niche?
- In fact, Eva-Lotta can skate just as well as Hendrix. And she is not the only one. Another Estonian athlete Nina Petrokina at a recent tournament in Warsaw became the second, almost beating Maya Khromykh. It's just that with Kiibus we have had a colossal struggle since May for her ankle, and in general for her legs. This is terribly offensive, because this season we have put on very successful programs, and the costumes turned out to be amazing, and Eva-Lotta has a very powerful attitude towards the result, there are no psychological problems either.
But if the leg cannot stay in the boot for more than one hour, and we do, at best, one workout a day, then one cannot count on a high level of training.
Kiibus is accustomed to gaining the quality of rentals with insane mileage, that is, the number of repetitions, which gives self-confidence, reliability, inner freedom, but now our capabilities in this regard are very limited.
- Does a skater need an insane amount of jumps during training now?
- I simply do not see any other way to develop stability.
I walked this way myself, when I skated, now I lead all my students in the same way.
I think that I am doing the right thing: no one else in Estonia has yet come to the results that my athletes show.
- I mean something else: the more difficult the sport becomes, the more the head and the nervous system are loaded - many experts say this, and not only in figure skating. Not to mention, a large number of multi-turn jumps dramatically increase the likelihood of injury.
- In this regard, we have a somewhat different situation than in Russia.
Estonian skaters do not know quadruple jumps, and triple jumps can be done in any quantity, it is not traumatic.
- And this is said by a person who received a severe hip fracture at the age of 15?
“That injury was more of an accident.
Then the rules instructed girls to perform a cascade with a rittberger, and in this jump, too much load falls on the hip.
Here the hip joint could not stand it - the ilium came off, and I spent two months in bed.
But this did not stop me from quickly recovering.
I can say for sure that, thanks to figure skating, I am now a much healthier person than most women of my age.
I still have a strong muscular corset, good coordination.
- Can you do a double jump on ice?
- Yes.
Although I will not jump triple, for this you still need to be more prepared.
But, if we talk about how to train quadruple jumps in something, you are certainly right.
I myself begin to think about it, looking at men's skating.
Still, my youngest son is growing up, who sooner or later will have to jump quadruples, and I would like to clearly understand how to build training so that Arlet is ready to compete at a high level.
- It turns out that the loads of big-time sports don't scare you?
- This I perceive as just normal.
Great sport is for gladiators, one of which I myself have been for many years.
And I am just for such a sport: if you decide to go there, then go, achieve your goal, try to prove yourself, leave a bright mark, even if your career is not too long.
But for this you need to be very strong, stable, self-confident.
- If athletes you likeable cannot do this, do you sympathize?
- Rather, I understand very well what is happening in a person's soul.
After all, no one comes to the competition in order to fall in front of the audience.
Everyone trains a lot, trying to show their maximum.
Falling is always terribly unpleasant, and it's not a matter of physical pain at all.
As a rule, you don't feel it on the ice.
But this feeling of public humiliation, one's own worthlessness and guilt always kills an athlete very strongly.
Therefore, I have always been a supporter of the fact that my skaters skate cleanly and faultlessly in competitions.
So that absolutely everything they do is performed at a high level.
Lacking difficulty - make a triple jump, not a quad.
But clean and confident.
- The example of Jason Brown immediately comes to mind, gaining very high amounts despite the fact that this figure skater owns quadruple jumps very conditionally.
- If we are talking about Brown, we must understand that it is not about jumping at all.
Only a few people in the world know how to ride the way he does it.
And there is a colossal training work behind this.
For example, I am not at all ready to put someone else on a par with Jason in the ability to skate.
- And if you think about it more substantively?
- Well, look: the majority of unprepared spectators are not at all able to distinguish a quadruple jump from a triple jump.
In the same way, very few people pay attention to any deep ribs or drawn socks.
But the feeling is “Wow!
That was cool! "
familiar to all.
You start asking what exactly was cool, the person finds it difficult to answer.
But he got goosebumps.
The judges in this respect are the same spectators.
If Nathan Chen performs a quadruple jump like in his best skates, this is also "Wow!"
Not in terms of complexity.
And in terms of ease of execution.
When this lightness is there, the skater begins to be perceived as some kind of unearthly creature capable of doing the impossible on the ice.
- How is Kamila Valieva?
- Like Kamila Valieva, like Yuzuru Hanyu.
Figure skating performed by such athletes is no longer perceived as a sport, but as an art.
This is what fascinates the viewer.
Yes, and the judges put eights and nines for such skating, regardless of whether "their" athlete is in front of them, or a stranger.
The second assessment in this regard comes not so much from skill as from the sensations that the skater causes with his skating in those who look at him.
- Your colleague Alexander Vedenin noticed that it is not always clear to him how Kamila does certain things on the ice. Does that feel familiar to you?
- When I look at Valieva, first of all I see that this girl has absolutely phenomenal control over her body. She can slide in an arabesque or twine, and this does not prevent her from freely working with her supporting leg. Even when Camila does not perform very smooth quadruple jumps, she manages to level herself in the air. Like a cat. This is a tremendous natural motor talent plus a tremendous job. As a professional, this is understandable to me.
But when I watch my son make the steps, I catch myself thinking that I really don't understand how he does it.
Benoit Richaud set this path for him, and at first I was not that I could not count the steps, I even began to feel nauseous from the sensations that I unwittingly experienced myself: the body constantly changes plane, bending in one direction, then in another direction, and my legs continue as if nothing had happened to make hooks and hooks.
At the same time, Arlette does not lag one iota behind the music, does not lose rhythm.
- At one time, the figure skaters of Stanislav Zhuk, whom you trained with, during the summer training, worked quite a lot on the sand, strengthening the ankles. Is something similar being practiced in figure skating now?
- We worked on the sand for Zhuk only one summer, and we never actually did it again. Personally, this load did not give me anything. Rather, on the contrary: I had to wake up from her for two months, during which I almost could not skate. The muscles became heavy, clumsy, and a total de-coordination began. Now figure skating requires completely different qualities and, above all, a lot of coordination and speed-strength work. The muscles should be dry and very light. Explosive, but elastic. Therefore, we dance a lot.
Well, the ankles are pumped by the number of jumps, although I still do not know a better activity to strengthen them than rolling "school".
At one time, we worked out all the nuances of sliding for four to five hours a day.
For the ankle, this is the best job possible.
It is calm, devoid of any stress, it captures absolutely all muscles, including the smallest ones, because you constantly control where and how to press the blade on the ice, with what force ...
- I must confess that I am frightened by the statements of some of your colleagues that injuries in figure skating are inevitable.
- Who says that?
I, for one, do not think so at all.
And it would be wrong to think so.
In Estonia, the entire population of the country is one million three hundred thousand people.
And Eva-Lotta, with whom I have been working for 12 years, I have one - there is not a single such athlete standing outside the door.
And my son trains from the first steps on the ice.
Nobody will prepare other athletes for me, so a situation in which I would admit that injuries are normal is unacceptable for me.
In this respect, I cannot afford the slightest risk.
- Well, you yourself said about Eva-Lotte's ankle problems.
- It was not a trauma.
Kiibus has a rather specific foot structure, a very soft ankle joint, so we have to change shoes twice a year, choosing those that hold the foot very rigidly.
So they got the ankle too much.
Now the best forces of Estonian medicine are thrown to restore the leg, the doctors are doing everything possible, but we have not yet succeeded in completely eliminating the problem and working out the required volume.
That's why the results jump so much.
- How crazy are you mom when it comes to your son's performances?
- Rather, I am a very interested mother, and this applies not only to figure skating.
Naturally, I want Arlet to realize himself as a skater, since he really enjoyed skating.
He goes his own way, develops, absorbs everything like a sponge, and I just guide my son, helping where I can help him.
In this regard, Arlet is the lightest of my athletes.
But in general, I want to say that I work a lot with other parents, especially since I take children to my school at a very early age.
I explain what it means to be in sports, how to talk with children, how to evaluate training.
- Should parents evaluate training?
- Of course.
The goals that the child sets for himself come primarily from the family.
As well as ambition.
It is a great illusion that a coach can teach this.
Everything is laid down much earlier.
Perhaps, in Russia, the situation is different, since in your country sport has been raised to the state level with state and very powerful funding.
Our parents pay for everything, so they cannot but take part in the training process.
And it turns out a pyramid, at the head of which is an athlete, and below - parents and a coach.
If I failed to teach dad or mom some sports things, it is primarily my fault.
- In Russia, many think quite differently.
“You don’t need to compare.
Don't you understand that Russian women's skating is a completely separate world, with which no one competes?
All the rest are in too unequal conditions, both at the children's level and at the championship level.
I'm not even going to comment on this.
- And if the age of admission of female athletes to the adult level is raised in women's single skating, will it change something?
- How do I know?
We need to raise and see what happens.
For countries like ours, this, of course, can be a definite plus: our children at the age of four collect cubes on the ice, rather than jumping double jumps.
And athletes mature later.
I am sure my son would not be accepted into any figure skating school in Russia.
But I can say for sure that there is no such “material” as in your country anywhere in the world.
That is why I said that it is simply pointless to compete with a country where sport has been put on a professional level from the very first steps.
Yes, this to some extent kills figure skating as a sport, in other countries people simply stop bringing their children to the skating rinks.
But this is a given that cannot be changed.
- How to keep yourself motivated, realizing that you are competing with an unattainable universe?
- You just need to know what you want from the sport yourself.
There are other things besides medals.
You may not be a world champion, but at the same time be a star in your country.
And this is often much cooler.
The Estonian public simply adores Eva-Lotta.
And I myself think: the main thing is not medals, but to be remembered.
- You, as a figure skater, are still remembered by many fans. Programs, costumes ...
- I am very pleased that this is so.
Just a balm for the soul.
This means that I managed to leave my mark on figure skating.
As it is now, the same Sasha Trusova leaves him, who really broke a window into space for everyone with her quadruple jumps.
And it doesn't matter at all how her career will develop in the future.
- If there was an opportunity to go with the athletes for a one-year internship to any specialist in the world, who would you choose?
- We travel a lot.
Every year we come to Benoit Richaud - for the sake of skating, in order to look different on the ice.
Anyway, I try to seek technical assistance from everyone.
Including Russian specialists.
Were at Alexei Mishin, Sergei Davydov, Lena Vodorezova.
But to go for one year ... Why?
It’s not so difficult to organize it now, including financially, but I don’t want to.
Firstly, all our athletes study very seriously - the same Arlet has a musical and artistic education, four foreign languages, a serious base in all basic subjects.
Secondly, you can be given any knowledge, but you yourself have to digest it, assimilate and rise to a level higher thanks to this.
And it is better if this happens at home, in the family.
This is what subsequently determines the result and creates a personality.