- Joined
- Jul 28, 2003
http://ptichkafs.livejournal.com/41295.html#cutid1
Throughout this year, she would bury herself in her work. She’d tear herself in two between home and rink, periodically making it to competitions. She consulted and choreographed; people continued to come from the world over to Moscow for her help.
We met up at the CSKA rink right after Tarasova came back to Moscow from the European championships in Helsinki.
I believe we performed to the best of our current abilities. Everyone showed their utmost, not counting the boys, or Sergei Voronov to be exact.
What do you think happened to him?
Sergei is without a double a talented skater, and his coach is very talented as well, but what I got to see in Helsinki makes me think Sergei is simply not working hard enough. He doesn’t do enough run-throughs. No elite skater is still on one run-through per week. Everyone skates their programs all the time, the short in the morning and the free at night.
Only the athlete and his coach can decide on the best way to train. I saw Lesha Urmanov and his students at the Novogorsk clinic, and I liked what I saw. Voronov, though, was just not ready for this season. In Helsinki, he didn’t do any elements at the practices that the judges attended, or at warm-ups. It looked horrific. It wasn’t clear whether his nerves just gave up, or he needed the stress of the competition to star jumping.
Sergei is not yet ready for the monotonous power work. His muscles aren’t toned, you can see that well; also, his weight is, I think, wrong. His leg always bothers him, but that won’t change. Voronov isn’t ready for the stress. All that is just a matter of work. It’s big work that for whatever reason wasn’t done. Sergei, I’ll repeat, is a very gifted lad. He isn’t though, a true athlete. And it’s the athletes that win.
Seeing how we started with the sad news, I’ll allow myself another question – what really happened with Maxim Shabalin in Helsinki?
For a very long time, I had no information about his and Oksana Domnina. It was all a secret. In fact, Maxim’s leg was in a poor shape following the two surgeries, and he want to Germany for rehabilitation at the end of last season. That was a good move, and I was involved directly in it, helping plan the trip.
Last fall, I planned to go to US to see how Domnina and Shabalin prepared to the season, but I wasn’t allowed to go. Natalya Linichuk, the guys’ coach since they left Alexei Gorshkov, said, “Give me some time, and it will all be OK”. Well, Linichuk is a competent coach. If she took the step of withdrawing the team from competition, she must have had her reasons.
None the less, you did not support this?
I was against such decision.
Why?
I guess I am a maximalist. I always believed that the athlete should not withdraw from competition after the decision to compete is taken. Maxim took the ice in Helsinki, he practiced, and everyone saw him skate. One of the practices wasn’t very successful, but the other one was completely normal. The kids did everything they had to do in the program. They had no plans to withdraw. However, after their fall in the compulsory dance, their coach insisted they quit.
They have to save themselves. They have to do it with healthy nerves, and without outside help. It turns out Domnina and Shabalin can only compete when they have “their” judge on the panel. It is a support, for what it’s worth. There was no Russian ice dance judge in Helsinki.
This, by the way, makes the victory of Yana Khokhlova and Sergei Novitski that much more significant. I am very happy for them, as well as for their coaches Sasha Svinin and Ira Zhuk. I managed to raise a team that can be relied on. What’s more, Khokhlova and Novitski were for many years designated to the number two spot, but they managed to break through anyway. They did without “their” judge and without mistakes.
Athletes’ strength is precisely in approaching any competition not counting on anyone else. They shouldn’t need anyone else on the ice. They shouldn’t hold on to anyone, not on to the coach, and most certainly no on to the judge.
Could it be that Shabalin’s withdrawal was indeed dictated by strong pains in the leg?
Why was it that nobody worried last year, when Shabalin was allowed to train nine days after the surgery? What were the ones who let him onto the ice thinking? Indeed, all that is happening now is in an inevitable progression. You know - the knee that was operated on twice will hurt into old age. Different substances will collect there. One either has to learn to work with it and work through the pain, or give up the sport.
How do you judge the perspectives of our pair skaters at the upcoming Worlds?
I like both our teams a lot. Objectively, they aren’t yet ready to lead. They are, though, improving, and that make me happy.
FROM ARAKAWA TO ASADAI know you always diligently follow the work of young coaches. Personally, I was happy to see the success of your student Evgeny Platov and his British ice dancing team of Sinead and John Kerr. In all the previous seasons, Platov exhibited some long buried pain that his team was being marked lower than he’d like to see. Can you explain why it took him so long?
It wasn’t really long. If you think about it, Zhenya himself has only recently quit skating. He left amateurs in 1998, but skated for some time with Maya Usova as a professional. He then spent three years as my assistant, and only started working on his own. Coaching requires not only knowledge, but also patience.
Was that your thinking when you started coaching?
My situation was very different. I started working with athletes at 19, and didn’t even think about how much time it would take to get results. Platov, though, is a two-time Olympic champion. He started coaching after much sports glory. So he wanted the same in his coaching, and the wait appeared long. Even a year ago, I told Evgeny’s mom, “Don’t worry. Zhenya will make it”.
Why were you so certain?
I saw Platov’s progress. I like to sweat the details. He taught his students how to skate, how to love figure skating, and how to understand it. It’s a true coaching art. More importantly, he Zhenya learned many things he didn’t know before along with his athletes. By the way, besides the Brits, he also has a good Russian junior team. As does Sasha Zhulin, by the way. There is also Lena Kustarova, who does great work with her athletes. Then there are Urmanov, Svinin, and Zhuk. They are that very generation I’ve been awaiting all those years. Just a little more and I’ll be able to quietly step aside.
We’ve already discussed this at the Turin Games. You said that you had to quit working with Shizuka Arakawa because you felt your coaching patience, requisite for the elite sport, seep out of you. You’re now working with another Japanese skater, Mao Asada. How serious is it?
I don’t work as much with Mao as I did with Shizuka, but that’s because of some family matters. My loved ones are sick. That’s why I can’t spent much time in Japan. Mao spent the summer with me in Moscow. She went to Canada to do this season’s short with Lori Nichols, and I can say that this program is a great choreographic achievement.
I choreographed the free program. It was my suggestion to include two triple axels. Asada did her first run-throughs with me. We decided to leave those jumps in after I saw that Mao could do both axels without hurting the other elements.
My assistant Zhanna Folle is now working permanently with Asada in Japan. We talk daily, so I am well informed. I try to come as often as I can and to accompany Asada to all her competitions.
Does the Japanese federation control and interfere with you work?
As far as I know, Asada herself made the decision to switch coaches. She decided this with her mom and her manager. When they approached me, I said I required a competent translator and a Japanese general conditioning coach. Both requests were satisfied.
How many programs did you do this summer?
Zhanna and I did two programs for Evan Lysacek; he came to Russia himself, and he was, by the way, sent here by his coach Frank Caroll. We also did two programs for Kevin Reynolds, who came with his coach and my friend Joann McLeod. As I work a lot with Lena Vorodezova at CSKA, I actively helped create programs for all of her students – Artem Borodulin, Adelina Sotnikova, and Denis Ten. I also did a tango for Asada’s exhibition.
Are you no longer criticized for working with foreigners on the Russian ice?
I think this point of view has outlived itself. Specialists from the world over work with anyone who is willing to pay. We’re not an aggressive country, right? Vodorezov’s Ten competes for Kazakhstan, for example. Our countries have a shared past, and I hope we have a bright future.
By the way, what happened in Helsinki with Vodorezova’s former student, Georgian single skater Elene Gedevanishvili, who was said to have the most potential as recently as two years ago?
She was “killed” as an athlete by the troubles between Russian and Georgia. We’ve got to cooperated, and fight. Russia and Japan are a great example.
Why? If she is that talented and can do it all, what is she to do with those skills and abilities? I, for example, was quite upset that Asada wasn’t allowed to skate at the Turin Games just because she was only 14.
Is it interesting to choreograph for a 12-year old child?
Very much so. Adelina is happy to try anything I suggest. That’s how Stanislav Zhuk’s Vorodezova and Alexander Fadeev were. They could do more than others, and they became the test subjects. If Lena or Sasha can do an element, then you can try teaching it to others.
You’ve worked with Channel One ice project for three years. Will you continue in the upcoming season?
So far, we’re planning eight shows. Honestly, I am round to host this program. I believe it is among the best things on our TV. It’s not empty entertaining. It’s an educational and very creative program, which happens very rarely. I am therefore honored to have the joy of participating in it.
I really like how the show’s producer Alexander Faifman does his work. You can ask him anything. He knows everything. His learning, which is deep and genuine, affects everyone. It affects Ilya Averbukh, Sasha Zhulin, and all the other skaters. Contact with the artists who come from a very different background gives them a lot.
It is all very serious for both sides. People come in not knowing how to skate at all. They learn, overcoming great obstacles. The program has the highest rating, and is watched by the whole county. We receive thousands of thank you letters. Following our military program, veterans came into our studio and awarded us military medals. Haven’t they deserved to be honored? Didn’t Muslim Magomaev, to whom we dedicated a theme, also deserve it? Hasn’t it all help develop the athletes and choreographers? Don’t we teach our audience how to understand art?
Do you think it’s possible to combine the best this program provided with the elite sport?
Zhulin did it! This season, he’s working with the French ice dancing team Natalie Pechalat/ Fabien Bourzat, and I think their free program turned out interesting and unique.
It does, though, irk me that Zhulin spends more energy in the show than he does in the sport. Do you really think it’s normal?
I’ll ask you a question – can one live on the salary the coaches collect in Russia? Not on the money they pay me, embarrassing as it is to speak about it today! I am, of course, highly grateful to the Russian Skating Federation leadership for allowing me to work with the team. Just as I am very grateful to NTV+ and to Anna Dmitrieva in particular for letting me comment on competitions and have a voice at the time when I just got back from US to Russia, and nobody needed me. It was very important to me. Even now, if they wake me up in the middle of the night as ask for help, I’ll do all I can.
2009
Tatiana Tarasova: “JUST A BIT MORE, AND I CAN STEP ASIDE”
In her presence, I feel awkward complaining even when I really wanted to – everyone sometimes has problems that appear unsolvable. Tarasova herself rarely lets on that she could have problems herself. This past year, she appeared regularly on the TV screen, always beautiful, self confident, and full of energy. It was like she weren’t the one with a string of bad luck, whose car was stolen and house robbed. Yet when I touched on this, Tatiana suddenly said, “That’s doesn’t really matter. It’s nothing compared to the illnesses of the loved ones.”Throughout this year, she would bury herself in her work. She’d tear herself in two between home and rink, periodically making it to competitions. She consulted and choreographed; people continued to come from the world over to Moscow for her help.
We met up at the CSKA rink right after Tarasova came back to Moscow from the European championships in Helsinki.
SAVE THYSELF
Tatiana Anatolievna, were you satisfied by what you’ve seen?I believe we performed to the best of our current abilities. Everyone showed their utmost, not counting the boys, or Sergei Voronov to be exact.
What do you think happened to him?
Sergei is without a double a talented skater, and his coach is very talented as well, but what I got to see in Helsinki makes me think Sergei is simply not working hard enough. He doesn’t do enough run-throughs. No elite skater is still on one run-through per week. Everyone skates their programs all the time, the short in the morning and the free at night.
Only the athlete and his coach can decide on the best way to train. I saw Lesha Urmanov and his students at the Novogorsk clinic, and I liked what I saw. Voronov, though, was just not ready for this season. In Helsinki, he didn’t do any elements at the practices that the judges attended, or at warm-ups. It looked horrific. It wasn’t clear whether his nerves just gave up, or he needed the stress of the competition to star jumping.
Sergei is not yet ready for the monotonous power work. His muscles aren’t toned, you can see that well; also, his weight is, I think, wrong. His leg always bothers him, but that won’t change. Voronov isn’t ready for the stress. All that is just a matter of work. It’s big work that for whatever reason wasn’t done. Sergei, I’ll repeat, is a very gifted lad. He isn’t though, a true athlete. And it’s the athletes that win.
Seeing how we started with the sad news, I’ll allow myself another question – what really happened with Maxim Shabalin in Helsinki?
For a very long time, I had no information about his and Oksana Domnina. It was all a secret. In fact, Maxim’s leg was in a poor shape following the two surgeries, and he want to Germany for rehabilitation at the end of last season. That was a good move, and I was involved directly in it, helping plan the trip.
Last fall, I planned to go to US to see how Domnina and Shabalin prepared to the season, but I wasn’t allowed to go. Natalya Linichuk, the guys’ coach since they left Alexei Gorshkov, said, “Give me some time, and it will all be OK”. Well, Linichuk is a competent coach. If she took the step of withdrawing the team from competition, she must have had her reasons.
None the less, you did not support this?
I was against such decision.
Why?
I guess I am a maximalist. I always believed that the athlete should not withdraw from competition after the decision to compete is taken. Maxim took the ice in Helsinki, he practiced, and everyone saw him skate. One of the practices wasn’t very successful, but the other one was completely normal. The kids did everything they had to do in the program. They had no plans to withdraw. However, after their fall in the compulsory dance, their coach insisted they quit.
They have to save themselves. They have to do it with healthy nerves, and without outside help. It turns out Domnina and Shabalin can only compete when they have “their” judge on the panel. It is a support, for what it’s worth. There was no Russian ice dance judge in Helsinki.
This, by the way, makes the victory of Yana Khokhlova and Sergei Novitski that much more significant. I am very happy for them, as well as for their coaches Sasha Svinin and Ira Zhuk. I managed to raise a team that can be relied on. What’s more, Khokhlova and Novitski were for many years designated to the number two spot, but they managed to break through anyway. They did without “their” judge and without mistakes.
Athletes’ strength is precisely in approaching any competition not counting on anyone else. They shouldn’t need anyone else on the ice. They shouldn’t hold on to anyone, not on to the coach, and most certainly no on to the judge.
Could it be that Shabalin’s withdrawal was indeed dictated by strong pains in the leg?
Why was it that nobody worried last year, when Shabalin was allowed to train nine days after the surgery? What were the ones who let him onto the ice thinking? Indeed, all that is happening now is in an inevitable progression. You know - the knee that was operated on twice will hurt into old age. Different substances will collect there. One either has to learn to work with it and work through the pain, or give up the sport.
How do you judge the perspectives of our pair skaters at the upcoming Worlds?
I like both our teams a lot. Objectively, they aren’t yet ready to lead. They are, though, improving, and that make me happy.
FROM ARAKAWA TO ASADA
It wasn’t really long. If you think about it, Zhenya himself has only recently quit skating. He left amateurs in 1998, but skated for some time with Maya Usova as a professional. He then spent three years as my assistant, and only started working on his own. Coaching requires not only knowledge, but also patience.
Was that your thinking when you started coaching?
My situation was very different. I started working with athletes at 19, and didn’t even think about how much time it would take to get results. Platov, though, is a two-time Olympic champion. He started coaching after much sports glory. So he wanted the same in his coaching, and the wait appeared long. Even a year ago, I told Evgeny’s mom, “Don’t worry. Zhenya will make it”.
Why were you so certain?
I saw Platov’s progress. I like to sweat the details. He taught his students how to skate, how to love figure skating, and how to understand it. It’s a true coaching art. More importantly, he Zhenya learned many things he didn’t know before along with his athletes. By the way, besides the Brits, he also has a good Russian junior team. As does Sasha Zhulin, by the way. There is also Lena Kustarova, who does great work with her athletes. Then there are Urmanov, Svinin, and Zhuk. They are that very generation I’ve been awaiting all those years. Just a little more and I’ll be able to quietly step aside.
We’ve already discussed this at the Turin Games. You said that you had to quit working with Shizuka Arakawa because you felt your coaching patience, requisite for the elite sport, seep out of you. You’re now working with another Japanese skater, Mao Asada. How serious is it?
I don’t work as much with Mao as I did with Shizuka, but that’s because of some family matters. My loved ones are sick. That’s why I can’t spent much time in Japan. Mao spent the summer with me in Moscow. She went to Canada to do this season’s short with Lori Nichols, and I can say that this program is a great choreographic achievement.
I choreographed the free program. It was my suggestion to include two triple axels. Asada did her first run-throughs with me. We decided to leave those jumps in after I saw that Mao could do both axels without hurting the other elements.
My assistant Zhanna Folle is now working permanently with Asada in Japan. We talk daily, so I am well informed. I try to come as often as I can and to accompany Asada to all her competitions.
Does the Japanese federation control and interfere with you work?
As far as I know, Asada herself made the decision to switch coaches. She decided this with her mom and her manager. When they approached me, I said I required a competent translator and a Japanese general conditioning coach. Both requests were satisfied.
How many programs did you do this summer?
Zhanna and I did two programs for Evan Lysacek; he came to Russia himself, and he was, by the way, sent here by his coach Frank Caroll. We also did two programs for Kevin Reynolds, who came with his coach and my friend Joann McLeod. As I work a lot with Lena Vorodezova at CSKA, I actively helped create programs for all of her students – Artem Borodulin, Adelina Sotnikova, and Denis Ten. I also did a tango for Asada’s exhibition.
Are you no longer criticized for working with foreigners on the Russian ice?
I think this point of view has outlived itself. Specialists from the world over work with anyone who is willing to pay. We’re not an aggressive country, right? Vodorezov’s Ten competes for Kazakhstan, for example. Our countries have a shared past, and I hope we have a bright future.
By the way, what happened in Helsinki with Vodorezova’s former student, Georgian single skater Elene Gedevanishvili, who was said to have the most potential as recently as two years ago?
She was “killed” as an athlete by the troubles between Russian and Georgia. We’ve got to cooperated, and fight. Russia and Japan are a great example.
SHOW IS A SERIOUS BUSINESS
After the 12-year-old Sotnikova became Russia’s champion in December, I heard that such little kids shouldn’t compete with adults, that it’s too early.Why? If she is that talented and can do it all, what is she to do with those skills and abilities? I, for example, was quite upset that Asada wasn’t allowed to skate at the Turin Games just because she was only 14.
Is it interesting to choreograph for a 12-year old child?
Very much so. Adelina is happy to try anything I suggest. That’s how Stanislav Zhuk’s Vorodezova and Alexander Fadeev were. They could do more than others, and they became the test subjects. If Lena or Sasha can do an element, then you can try teaching it to others.
You’ve worked with Channel One ice project for three years. Will you continue in the upcoming season?
So far, we’re planning eight shows. Honestly, I am round to host this program. I believe it is among the best things on our TV. It’s not empty entertaining. It’s an educational and very creative program, which happens very rarely. I am therefore honored to have the joy of participating in it.
I really like how the show’s producer Alexander Faifman does his work. You can ask him anything. He knows everything. His learning, which is deep and genuine, affects everyone. It affects Ilya Averbukh, Sasha Zhulin, and all the other skaters. Contact with the artists who come from a very different background gives them a lot.
It is all very serious for both sides. People come in not knowing how to skate at all. They learn, overcoming great obstacles. The program has the highest rating, and is watched by the whole county. We receive thousands of thank you letters. Following our military program, veterans came into our studio and awarded us military medals. Haven’t they deserved to be honored? Didn’t Muslim Magomaev, to whom we dedicated a theme, also deserve it? Hasn’t it all help develop the athletes and choreographers? Don’t we teach our audience how to understand art?
Do you think it’s possible to combine the best this program provided with the elite sport?
Zhulin did it! This season, he’s working with the French ice dancing team Natalie Pechalat/ Fabien Bourzat, and I think their free program turned out interesting and unique.
It does, though, irk me that Zhulin spends more energy in the show than he does in the sport. Do you really think it’s normal?
I’ll ask you a question – can one live on the salary the coaches collect in Russia? Not on the money they pay me, embarrassing as it is to speak about it today! I am, of course, highly grateful to the Russian Skating Federation leadership for allowing me to work with the team. Just as I am very grateful to NTV+ and to Anna Dmitrieva in particular for letting me comment on competitions and have a voice at the time when I just got back from US to Russia, and nobody needed me. It was very important to me. Even now, if they wake me up in the middle of the night as ask for help, I’ll do all I can.
2009
. I remember seeing her at Cup of Russia as a commentator, she cheered on all the young Russian skaters, clapping for every one of them, seems to be very genuine. I can tell that she loves what she's doing and has deep passion in skating. 
