- After the rental of Anastasia Mishina and Alexander Gallyamov in Moscow at the Russian Grand Prix stage, you reacted so emotionally that I can’t help but ask: what pleased you to such an extent?
- The fact that the guys performed so well.
Their training schedule was somewhat disrupted due to various circumstances, so I saw certain shortcomings before the start.
Knowing how they know how to get together and perform, I was wondering if Nastya and Sasha would be able to cope with difficulties, or would they appear.
We did.
- Do you want to say that Nastya and Sasha jumped in their free skate above their heads?
“No, why would you say that?
They made a good version of what they were ready for.
Although the main reason for my joy was not even in this.
I liked their emotional state and impact on the public, the plant.
This is much more valuable than just working out technically perfectly.
In the short program, the guys waltzed on a waltz, like Natasha Rostova at her first ball, brilliantly, in my opinion, they conveyed music.
Although some fans, judging by the reviews, still found this program old-school, old-fashioned in the Soviet way.
Everything was criticized - from the selection of music to costumes.
— And how did you react to it?
- No way.
What is the main goal of the competition?
win.
More precisely, not even so: to show the maximum result with the help of a complex of components.
- Not so long ago, I talked with Ilya Averbukh on the topic of modern productions, and, in particular, about the Olympic free Mishina and Gallyamov. He said that, in his opinion, the time when the programs were built on the alternation of fast and slow pieces is gone.
- I will not discuss this topic with Ilya, but I myself have always treated the selection of music based not on my own preferences, but on the character of the athletes for whom this music is intended.
And from their abilities.
In other words, I do not take this or that music because it is considered more fashionable, and which then no one remembers, because every second skated to it.
It is important that music allows skaters to reveal themselves to the maximum and, as a result, achieve success in competitions.
To make the couple stand out from the others.
At the stage where Nastya and Sasha performed, the audience was quite young, if you noticed.
And both programs were received very well.
- On the skaters, of course, the selected images sat down like a glove. If the main goal of the season was to win the World Cup, I would not even ask a question about this. But the season turned out to be purely internal. Didn't want to experiment? Try something completely uncharacteristic, for example.
- I will answer this simply: the goal of any sports competition is the result, not the experiment.
I watched with pleasure and great interest, for example, how Dasha Pavlyuchenko and Denis Khodykin experiment in their programs.
I even wrote them to the choreographer Betina Popova - she expressed her admiration for this.
But here you need to understand: victory is always determined by a whole complex of components, and not just one, even if very outstanding, feature.
Now, no one argues how modern or, on the contrary, outdated were the productions of Elena Valova and Oleg Vasiliev or Natalia Mishkutenok and Artur Dmitriev.
Everyone remembers only that they were champions.
I also note that in the rules of the competition - in the part that is intended for judges, there is no such criterion as "program".
Therefore, we are now talking about a purely subjective assessment.
A successful program is one that is executed without errors.
- Do I understand correctly that experiments can be simply dangerous when it comes to top-level couples?
- No, it's wrong.
Just to experiment, there are demonstrations.
In competition, however, the challenge is different.
You see, climbing the hill is very difficult.
And falling off her is a breeze.
This is not some truth that I made up for myself.
This is how everything in life works.
Take the Apple corporation: are they experimenting a lot there?
Perhaps yes.
Only this does not affect sales: the company beats its competitors with results.
- When you just started working with Alexandra Boikova and Dmitry Kozlovsky as a consultant, helping the main coach of this pair Artur Minchuk, I remember your phrase regarding the Beijing Olympics: “If 80-year-old grandmother Tamara cannot stand at the board, next to the pair there must be a reliable and professional coach.” At the Beijing Games, however, you stood by the boards.
— Together with Minchuk.
And I can say that I am very pleased that Artur has become a full-fledged coach and colleague during our cooperation with him.
How difficult were the Beijing Games for you? Did you feel your age?
- I didn't feel it at all.
For me it was the eleventh Olympics.
One, where I performed myself, ten with my athletes.
Therefore, the experience of how to keep your physical and psychological state in the right framework, there was a lot.
There was even a certain emotional upsurge.
Surrounded by those coaches with whose students my wards competed, I definitely did not feel too old.
- But you counted, in all honesty, probably, on a different result?
- When you go to competitions, there is always a "fork".
- Win or lose?
- But why?
"Fork" between those places that athletes can take.
They can perform perfectly, but not be the first.
The result in our sport is always influenced by factors that do not depend on the quality of the rental.
To overcome these factors, you need to be technically a cut above.
Take the difference in points between the three Olympic medalists and calculate the margin of error.
And you will see that it is so small that the arrangement could develop both in one direction and in the other.
That's all.
That's why I always keep the "fork" in mind.
- I really liked the idea of the free program of Alexandra Boikova and Dmitry Kozlovsky "Anna Karenina", but to be honest, there was not enough dance and, possibly, internal dramaturgy.
- We have already partially worked on the aesthetic side and continue to do this.
The program that you saw at the stage in Sochi was, I would say, primarily technical.
And the guys had a task - to concentrate on the technical side.
Now, in three places, we have made seemingly minor changes, but thanks to them, the program is slowly turning into a performance, where both a reference to a well-known plot and the relationship of the characters to each other are clearly traced.
- I know that both of your pairs are full of intentions to master and insert a quadruple throw into the program. In this regard, the question is: how do you feel about the fairly common opinion that ultra-si in pair skating does not make much sense, since it entails an increased risk of serious injury?
- I can’t tell you yet how quickly these and other athletes will be able to bring this element to the level that can be inserted into the program, but as for the risk, I’ll ask a counter question: could you ever assume in the old days that will our girls start jumping quads en masse?
Agree, 20 years ago such a prospect would not even have occurred to anyone.
Is it traumatic?
Of course.
But life has brought us to this.
I fully admit, by the way, that at some point the International Skating Union will generally want to lower the cost of such elements in order to minimize the potential harm that can be caused to the health of athletes.
I just don't like it when people start talking about the danger of quadruple emissions based on their own negative experience.
Extreme complexity requires a completely different approach, and I think we can’t get away from this - life is now becoming more complicated in all respects.
The only question is whether the athlete is ready for this or not.
And how well, correctly and safely he is taught.
In terms of working out unique elements, now, I think, it has become much easier than before: there are safety lounges, fishing rods, pants on foam rubber, softening contact with ice when a partner lands, to put it mildly, not on her feet.
- At the Grand Prix stage in Kazan, a couple of Yasmin Kadyrov and Vitaly Kolesov were brought to the start by Minchuk. Does this mean that you are planning to quietly move away from active coaching?
- We work with a fairly large team, because now there are such times that one simply cannot do the result alone.
But we send one or another specialist to the competition, taking into account the circumstances.
Financial including.
In other words, one coach goes to accompany the athletes, the other stays at home and works with others.
Minchuk was in Kazan, I will go to Samara for the fifth stage of the Grand Prix with Boikova-Kozlovsky and Kadyrova-Kolesov.
We will also have a junior couple perform there, followed by choreographer Nikolai Moroshkin, who will then stay for the adult part of the competition to help me.
Kolya's mother lives in Samara, so we decided that this was a good reason to visit her.
If we were talking about some other city, I would go alone.
- A new couple is always extra hours of work, an additional expenditure of energy, nerves. Did you have any doubts before you started working with these skaters?
- We took the girl first, the partner appeared later.
And doubts... You know, I reason like this: Artur is 33 years old, I'm 80, if we add up our age and divide it in half, it will turn out a little more than 65. I think it's the best juice for coaching.
Is it a bad couple?
— Excellent!
- Well, that's what we're talking about.
- Nevertheless, one of your St. Petersburg fans wrote to me that shortly before the Olympic Games you expressed a desire to move away from active work. Looks like you've changed your mind?
- I have not yet notarized my desire to stop coaching.
When I do this, then it will be possible to talk about this topic.
And that's not a fact.
Our life changes too often to make far-reaching plans.
It's like with outfits: today it may seem to me that I will never wear red shoes in my life, and tomorrow I will meet a red pair in the store, which I irresistibly want to buy.
Women even at my age are subject to such impulses.
It's not criminal, is it?
Does your attitude to the profession change with age?
- Not.
I always say that I am lucky: I have the opportunity to do my hobby for as long as I want.
And I get paid for it too.
As for age, the coaching profession is quite favorable in this regard: when you work with athletes, you are so deeply immersed in their life that you begin to feel at the same age.
Alexei Mishin once gave me a T-shirt that said: "I'm always 18. The rest is experience."
This is how I live.