“We decided that we want to ride further”: Mishina and Gallyamov - about the syndrome of the Games, a month of rest, overcoming oneself and staging

- Not so long ago, one of your coaches Artur Minchuk said that he considers the off-season to be the most interesting period.

Do you agree with this statement, and if so, why?

Anastasia Mishina:

 Probably, yes, since the off-season means new ideas, new programs, new choreography, there is time to try some acrobatic elements, something else.

When the season is just starting, we basically work out and roll out competitive programs.

This is a rather monotonous work aimed at doing everything well and steadily, improving with each new rental.

Alexander Gallyamov:

The off-season is really interesting, first of all, because you can try a lot of new things.

And every time you look forward to it.

- Is it also easier to learn new elements when the season ends?

A.M .: 

Yes, and the point here is not only that by the end of March a good physical shape is being developed and programs are rolled in.

When the season starts, it’s simply dangerous to learn something difficult: you can get seriously injured, so you have to miss competitions, or even the whole year.

- I agree with everything you said, but there is one big “but”: this season is the first after the Olympics.

And I am well aware of the extent to which the Games are able to squeeze out an athlete, and how difficult it can be to force yourself to start training again.

You must have had to bring yourself back to life.

A.G.:

Just for this purpose, our coaches made our vacation longer than usual.

We rested for a whole month and understood that we should not stop, because if we stand still, the rivals, who were lower during the season, can close this gap.

It's obvious, in my opinion.

“I think you are being a little disingenuous now.

You and Nastya are world champions, winners of the Olympic team tournament, owners of personal bronze.

What kind of opponents can we talk about, despite the fact that access to the world arena is blocked for Russian skaters?

Do you care what others will do when you already have everything?

A.M .:

Let me explain: after the Olympics, probably, everyone experiences the decline that you said about, because at it you give all your best.

But when the off-season came, I noticed that our coaches pulled our entire group, as they say, by the ears.

They tried in any way to get us all out of that state when we don’t want anything at all.

- What did it look like in practice?

After all, you don’t have the same coaches who can push an athlete out of the locker room with the words: “Go to work, you lazy brute!”

A.M.:

Yes, this is definitely not our case.

In our group, everything is always built on awareness.

Both Tamara Nikolaevna (Moskvina - RT ) and Artur Leonidovich (Minchuk - RT ) talked a lot with us, very kindly asked if we ourselves want to continue skating further, or if we intend to finish figure skating right now, and for ourselves, Sasha and I are like We decided very quickly that we wanted to go further.

So, there was not the slightest doubt about this?

A.M.: 

No.

We really had a very good rest at the sea, separately from each other, from the coaches, and we completely forgot about figure skating for this month.

A.G.: 

In this regard, the sea generally gives a very good effect.

And in terms of relaxation - swim, lie down in the sun, and in terms of healing the whole body.

We spent the first summer training camp in Sochi, and it was also very cool.

- At one time, Stanislav Zhuk forced his wards to run cross-country skis on the sand, and his skaters still remember what a horror it was in terms of load.

A.G.:

We were more fortunate: in Sochi we ran cross-country runs for 45 minutes, but not on sand.

It was necessary to get in shape very carefully, because a month after the Games we really did not load ourselves in any way.

For the first time in our career such a period happened.

- Did you change your shoes in the off-season?

A.G.:

 We do it every year.

For me it is always a very long and very nervous process.

I usually roll out boots for about three weeks before we start to ride freely.

This time it was surprisingly faster.

Managed to get it done in a week and a half.

- Did the shoe model remain the same?

A.G.:

 Yes.

Adult athletes generally rarely switch from one model to another, since there is usually no time left for experiments.

- I understand that it will sound funny, but when I decided to start riding at a fairly respectable age, the WIFA boots, which are now out of production, sat down like a glove, and it was not possible to roll out made-to-measure Jacksons.

A.G.:

 I started skating in WIFA in the very first year of my career, and in the same way, when I was still in single skating, I had to abandon Jackson.

I rode in these boots for two or three months, got a lot of problems with my feet, and eventually went to the Risport Royal Super.

- In connection with the sanctions, the problem of boots and skates does not become more acute?

A.M.:

 Not yet.

We have some reserve in this regard.

Even if it starts to run out, there are craftsmen who know how to revive old shoes.

You can insert metal plates, in a word, put everything in order.

Therefore, we do not see problems as such at all.

- After you became world champions in Stockholm, I asked whose performances you would like to review.

Then you and Nastya named Nathan Chen and Evgeny Semenenko.

Whose Olympic skates make you want to watch again and again?

A.M.:

Honestly?

Even though the Chinese (Sui Wenjing and Han Cong.

) beat us, their programs are gorgeous.

A.G.:

 As well as music, and the rental of a free program.

Did you feel like they were out of reach?

A.G.:

 When Nastya and I were just starting to skate in juniors, I remember seeing the Chinese and thinking that no one would ever beat this couple.

It's unrealistically simple.

A.M.:

Yes, in fact, in Stockholm we did not particularly expect that we would surpass them.

That victory was a very big surprise.

A.G.:

 We did not come to that championship to beat the Chinese - we did not even consider such an option before the start.

They just wanted to show themselves.

And then everything came together very well.

- At the Olympic Games, there are two situations that are completely impossible to realize immediately.

The first is when you become a champion.

The second is when you were ready to win, but lost.

Which of your performances evoked stronger emotions - joy after winning a team tournament, or disappointment after a personal one?

You didn’t go to Beijing for bronze, after all.

A.M.: 

We believed that we were able to win, we wanted it, but we did not put victory at the forefront.

More precisely, they understood that even with clean skates, everything could turn out differently.

As for the team tournament, it seems to me that no one doubted that our team would be the first there.

A.G.:

 It was really perceived as an inevitable and absolutely natural result.

After all, everyone understood how powerful the composition turned out.

After the short program, Nastya and I were second after the Chinese, and even despite this, there was not a shadow of uncertainty.

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- After the Olympic Games, Moskvina very reasonably explained to me what dictated the choice of music for your free program, and I agreed with her arguments.

But I well remember the flurry of criticism, which, in connection with this, hit you that fall.

Can you answer as frankly as possible what was going on in your head?

A.G.:

 We were aware that there is music that you can listen to at concerts or in headphones, and there is music that you need to go out and win.

- You mean "Time, forward"?

A.G.:

 Yes.

A.M.:

 May I add?

Tamara Nikolaevna then convinced us for a long time that this was a good choice.

Probably a couple of months, if not longer.

My attitude to music changed when we started skating to it at competitions, and I saw that our free program leaves no one indifferent.

Some people really like it, some people absolutely don’t, but they constantly talked about it.

For me, this was a guarantee that the production would be remembered for sure.

And we stopped worrying about it.

- When you won the Russian Grand Prix in Moscow in November, I was shocked by Moskvina's reaction to your performance in the free program.

I don’t even remember when Tamara Nikolaevna looked so happy at the side.

And to be honest, I didn't understand why.

A.M.:

And I understood right away.

After the Olympic season, it was very difficult for us to get in shape and skate cleanly.

We did it in that tournament.

That is, Tamara Nikolaevna saw in our performance exactly what she wanted to see.

For her, it was a victory.

Not only ours, but hers too.

- From that speech of yours, the support in which Sasha rides in the “boat” especially stuck in my memory.

It's insanely scary!

A.G.:

 I don’t know… I was taught to stand well in the “boat” from childhood.

A.M.:

But I don’t know how ... I mean, I can make a “boat”, but it’s bad.

- What does it depend on?

A.G.:

 You need to be able to turn well not only the feet, but also the hips.

- That is, in the choreography you are turned out like a tobacco chicken?

A.G.:

 Well, yes.

It's not just about the eversion of the joints.

It is necessary that both the knees are in the correct position and the pelvis.

According to the impression, the “boat” is an element like a child’s, very simple, but in order for it to look like this, you need to pay a lot of attention to it from childhood.

- How would you react to the idea of ​​meeting with the strongest couples in the country not only within the framework of the national championship and the First Channel Cup, but at each of the stages of the Russian Grand Prix?

A.M.:

 There is no significant difference for us.

Firstly, at every competition we compete primarily with ourselves.

We try to do some things better than at the previous start, fix certain mistakes, try new elements.

When you are focused on this, the presence or absence of rivals does not greatly affect the rental.

Not to mention the fact that our entire group trains on the same ice every day, and there is more than enough competition there.

- Agree.

In general, I think that your couple won first of all from the powerful post-Olympic progress of Alexandra Boikova and Dmitry Kozlovsky.

A.M.: This is definitely true.

- Which of the starts is more serious for you from a sporting point of view - the PDA with its show format, or the championship of St. Petersburg?

A.G.: 

If you look at the applications of the participants for the current tournament, in pair skating this is half of those who participated in the national championship.

Therefore, everything is more than serious.

On the PDA, the competitive atmosphere was greatly discharged by the fact that I had to constantly be distracted by some things.

A.M.:

 There are a lot of various additional shootings, you must be present in boxing and cheer for your team.

A.G.:

 In this regard, it was quite difficult to skate first in the short program and continue to sit on the rink until the end of the competition.

When you root for others for so long and scream in the stands, it becomes a little difficult to get up the next day and tune in to a free program.

In addition, on the first day, we also had the production of the introductory part, which took quite a lot of time.

In a word, any tournament has its difficulties.

- Your coach has always adhered to the principle that in demonstration numbers you need to strive to show something unexpected, new, to reveal yourself differently than in competitions.

Did your couple have such a task this season?

A.M.:

Fans have been waiting for modern music from us for a long time, we took it for one of the demonstration performances.

Our second number is more classic.

I won’t say that there is something supernatural in it: we rather tried to demonstrate the beauty of figure skating, the relationship of people.

There will be another number.

different from the other two.

- The one that you intend to prepare for the show programs tournament?

A.G.: 

Yes.

The idea has already taken shape, right after the championship in St. Petersburg we are going to start staging.

- Do you feel that it becomes more difficult to progress every year?

A.M.: 

Of course.

This is probably true not only in sports, but in any kind of activity.

When you have risen to a certain level, each small step forward is already a great achievement.

The higher, the more difficult.

— Did you manage to take such a small step after the Beijing Games?

A.G.:

 I consider it a very great achievement that we were able to skate our free program.

In the summer, it seemed incredibly difficult for Nastya and me: a different style, and besides, it’s really very difficult to take fast music for a free program.

And our unconditional victory is that we were able to overcome all this, put it together, and at the same time stay alive.