“In case of underrotation, the knee ligaments will simply be torn out”: Arutyunyan about five jumps, Trusova’s intention and Malinin’s skating

The call caught Rafael Harutyunyan in Tbilisi, where the coach of the Olympic champion Nathan Chen is spending his vacation.

- Are you ready to talk about figure skating on

vacation

- Certainly.

- Then a purely technical question: now all the fans of your sport are discussing with might and main the intention of Alexandra Trusova to perform a five-turn jump.

In this regard, I recall the words of the well-known specialist in special physical training Leonid Raitsin

(he worked for many years in this capacity with the USSR national team

),

- Let's go step by step: let's say Trusova wants to jump with a five.

The question immediately arises: "Why"?

- Suppose an athlete wants to become the first in the world who will submit to this element.

“Thirsts” is a sufficient argument.

By the way, I agree with Ryan.

I think the quintuple jump is real.

But the following must be taken into account: the danger of this jump is not at all that every skater faces a certain psychological barrier.

She's on the landing.

Five revolutions require a very fast twist - after all, the time an athlete is in the air is clearly limited and the number of revolutions can only determine the speed of rotation.

Do you agree?

— Absolutely.

- So, because of the speed of rotation on landing, if, God forbid, a person flies “at a quarter”, as we say, that is, he does not turn the speed, he can twist his leg so much that the knee ligaments will simply be torn out.

It is certainly possible to learn such a jump.

But this can also be a difficult process.

In order to work on a fishing rod, certain qualities are required.

This should be a tall enough person, at the same time skating well, in order to keep up with the skater and not interfere with him.

The quintuple jump requires a longer and more powerful takeoff to create the correct angle of rotation, plus - a tall specialist can afford to control the rod more freely, keep it further away from him, and this plays a role.

If the one who insures the athlete is too close, he immediately limits the amplitude of the skater.

In addition, a skater who intends to try a quintuple must have very good jumping technique.

This is a prerequisite.

- Many times you had the opportunity to observe Trusova in training, standing at the side.

In your opinion, does she have enough physical qualities to realize her plan?

She jumps quite high and spins fast in the air.

She has very good lutz and sheepskin coat.

Both jumps are realistic enough to add a fifth turn if purposefully done.

But there is a nuance: all the coaches who work with girls know that today an athlete is jumping, but tomorrow she cannot pull herself together.

Girls are special creatures in this regard.

As for the guys, when Nathan Chen was in good condition, I repeatedly saw him attempt a quadruple toe loop, allowing him to add a fifth turn.

Moreover, sometimes Nathan actually went for this jump.

In other words, it is possible and necessary to work on this, but let's return to the question that I asked at the very beginning of the conversation: why?

A five-turn jump doesn't even have an official value.

- I don’t think that the same Trusova, speaking of the quintuple, has any intention of ever including this jump in the program.

But she clearly likes to be the first, it is no coincidence that Alexander was entered into the Guinness Book of Records several times.

- I meant something else.

It is high time to put the quintuple jump in the register of elements.

So that everyone knows what his value is.

Suddenly someone really jumps him in competitions.

And then what?

What will the judges do?

- If we talk about quadruple jumps, which one requires the longest run-up?

— Lutz.

The same sheepskin coat Nathan could jump from just one dash.

On the lutz, he needed two or three runs so that he could reach the place from where it was most convenient to jump.

Compared to your sport, it's like jumping on a springboard.

The run-up increased, a double jump appeared, and the height of the jump immediately increased fundamentally.

The same mechanisms are involved in figure skating.

- Can Ilya Malinin, whom you have been training periodically for several years, become the first performer of the five jump?

- Yes.

Another question is that it will be difficult for me to fully shoulder his preparation.

You can lead an athlete to the jump in the format in which Ilya and I are working now.

But much depends on what path the parents choose with him.

If Ilya continues to work mainly on jumps, as he worked before, he will definitely jump with a five.

Although, in theory, he should jump the quadruple axel even earlier.

After that, doing a five jump will no longer seem so difficult.

But personally, I would really like to develop it in terms of skating.

A few, I would say, ennoble.

Malinin is a very interesting guy.

In every way.

And next to him there must be professional people who know how to show this interestingness.

If the parents deem it necessary to continue working with me, we have specialists in the club who are able to complete this task, to make Ilya's skating exclusive.

- Don't you want to at least try to focus on working with Ilya in the same way as it was during the period of your work with Chen?

- You can try, but then it will be extremely difficult to throw off this coaching burden.

— Perhaps I should ask you this question when you return from vacation?

- I won't be back soon.

I fly from Tbilisi to Istanbul, my wife Vera flies there from America, and my children from Moscow.

Anya and Andrei are both historians, so they will take me around the city, show me everything, tell me about everything.

For three days we will live in a hotel overlooking the Golden Horn.

So I will feel like a sultan.