Kwan splits with Williams...

windspirit · Dec 3, 2003

No, not because of Mickey...

From The Seattle Times:

American Michelle Kwan, a five-time world champion, has switched coaches.

Eager to restore triple-triple jumps to her program, Kwan is taking lessons from Rafael Arutunian, a noted jump technician. Kwan previously was coached by Scott Williams.

Here's a longer article about it, but you'll have to subscribe:
http://www.latimes.com/sports/olymp...20503.story?coll=la-headlines-sports-olympics

Btw, Arutunian is Sasha Abt's former coach and choreographer.

lavender · Dec 3, 2003

Here we go.

swannanoa54 · Dec 3, 2003

What does "here we go" mean, lavender? Is that like "here we go, right before Nationals, same thing as the '02 Olys, firing a coach" kind of thing? At least she SWITCHED coaches! :laugh:

Or is it "here we go with all the non-MK fans second-guessing her decision"?

And I think this is great! This could mean she is heading for the Olympics in '06 or maybe not. It's nice to see she wants to "up" her technical. And then again, she may have seen how Sasha is faring under the COP and is planning ahead for when that is ALL the scoring that is used unlike this year.

Good for her!!! Scott was fine for a laid back year, but she knows what she needs to do and I applaud her for it.

lavender · Dec 3, 2003

realistic51 said:
Or is it "here we go with all the non-MK fans second-guessing her decision"?

This is why I said here we go. I think it's good that she switched but I still like Scott. He was just so calm which I liked. I knew she was working with a tech coach and I didn't get why she needed Scott if he wasn't the one helping her with her jumps.
However I think things are geared more to the artistic side now and not the jumps.

Ptichka · Dec 3, 2003

A somewhat surprising choice. I wonder whom she will use as her choreographer.

mike79 · Dec 3, 2003

Ptichka said:
A somewhat surprising choice. I wonder whom she will use as her choreographer.

Hopefully she switches to someone different than Morozov.

This is great news for her. Hopefully she can get those harder 3/3's back and still maintain that laid back style that Scott brought to her skating.

Dee4707 · Dec 3, 2003

Wasn't Rafael Arutunian Sasha Abt's coach for a long time?

Dee

lavender · Dec 3, 2003

Dee4707 said:
Wasn't Rafael Arutunian Sasha Abt's coach for a long time?

Dee

Yes. He's suppose to be a good technical coach. I think it may be a good move but I wish she would have gotten rid of NM first.

curious · Dec 3, 2003

he may be a good technical coach but he didn't make sasha abt a more consistant jumper.

swannanoa54 · Dec 3, 2003

There's a huge difference here. Sasha Abt isn't any more consistent now than he was with Arutunian. Michelle's jumps ARE consistent. She is capable of 3/3s as we all know.

Scott always said that he would just chase MK around the rink. He was such a motiviating force for her to continue last year. Now she does need to "up the ante" so to speak.

Lavender, I kind of thought the second question was the one you were going for. I agree. Everyone will second guess her decision especially if SC wins Nationals this year. It will all come down to "MK should have stuck with Williams" etc. Talk about MK being same-ole same-old. Some posters are same-ole, same-ole in their rhetoric towards MK. :laugh:

And one thing that comes to mind is that MK may have been working with Arutunian long before this announcement was made or released. I don't think it was the same type of decision as the one she made in 2001.

And I don't agree that this year it is all about artistic. MK already has artistic over all the skaters. No one has ever said she should "up her artistic side". You do get more points for completing 3/3s under COP so why not push herself to get the points? Maybe even change her spins? I'm all for this change if it's going to keep her around longer.

diver chick · Dec 3, 2003

Sasha is so plauged by injury and illness that the best coach in the world is never going to make him a more consistent jumper with all those interuptions to his training schedule.

The couple of competitions where Sasha has had a good training run beforehand have shown that he has the capability to be a consistent jumper if only he could have a bit of good fortune and not be injured/sick prior to or during competition

It will be interesting to see how this coaching change affects Michelles skating. She is quite a consistent skater but if Rafael has different technique to what she has learned up to now then she may find it quite difficult to adjust and 'relearn' things a different way.

lavender · Dec 3, 2003

[And one thing that comes to mind is that MK may have been working with Arutunian long before this announcement was made or released. I don't think it was the same type of decision as the one she made in 2001.]

Yes she has. There were talks of it on MKF. Michelle's been working with a technical coach for at least a month or so (that I know of). There was talks of this along with her boot issue. I assume that it was Arutunian all along. I thought why is she with Scott if she has a technical coach.

[And I don't agree that this year it is all about artistic. MK already has artistic over all the skaters. No one has ever said she should "up her artistic side". You do get more points for completing 3/3s under COP so why not push herself to get the points? Maybe even change her spins? I'm all for this change if it's going to keep her around longer. ]

I don' think Michelle has it artistically over Sasha by much this season. At least I don't think the judges see it that way. Michelle needs to add variation to her in-betweens and spins. If she does this then I think she will gain back a bigger edge over all her competitors.

Bynx · Dec 3, 2003

diver chick said:
It will be interesting to see how this coaching change affects Michelles skating. She is quite a consistent skater but if Rafael has different technique to what she has learned up to now then she may find it quite difficult to adjust and 'relearn' things a different way.

Rafael has worked with Michelle before.
When she was working on the lutz/loop. She was landing them quite well in practices at SA & SC 01' and the only reason I think she fell short of landing it in her program at SC was because she hesitated and slowed down going into the combination. I think she abandoned it because with so many hectic things going on it would be another thing to worry about and she simply went back to the toe/toe.

I think this is a great thing. Michelle said last year that she'd need more difficult jumps and jump combinations to stay competitive. Though, I don't think she has much in the way of worries when few are landing them as well as all of the other jumps in a complete well-balanced program. I feel that Michelle already has the artistry and why not bring up the technical to where the artistic is.

This is so great!!!

Bynx · Dec 3, 2003

lavender said:
I don' think Michelle has it artistically over Sasha by much this season. At least I don't think the judges see it that way. Michelle needs to add variation to her in-betweens and spins. If she does this then I think she will gain back a bigger edge over all her competitors.

Well, you have to take into account that you've only see Michelle once this season as to seeing Sasha 3 times so far. Also, Michelle's one performance came when she was in the early process of developing her program, breaking in new boots, and
her jumps weren't all there. Michelle still got 5.9's from atleast two judges I think and lost to Sasha on the technical mark.

I can't express what a great move i think this
is for Michelle.

Also, I'm not totally convinced that Michelle
has split with Scott.

moyesii · Dec 3, 2003

I usually take it as a bad sign when a skater changes coaches so often. However, for Michelle Kwan it seems like she is really taking charge and knows the direction she wants to go and knows what she needs to do. I do find it interesting that the top 2 American ladies are working with Russian coaches now.

eliza88 · Dec 3, 2003

I too am thrilled with this news! Simply hearing her state that she wants to up her technical is fantastic! This gal is not ready AT ALL to leave the competitive arena! Imagining now a technically superior Kwan along with artistic fire and flare, add consistency and peaking at the right time,...sigh, it's an MK fan dream!

eliza88

swannanoa54 · Dec 3, 2003

moyesii said:
I usually take it as a bad sign when a skater changes coaches so often. However, for Michelle Kwan it seems like she is really taking charge and knows the direction she wants to go and knows what she needs to do. I do find it interesting that the top 2 American ladies are working with Russian coaches now.

Gee, moyesii, you make it sound as if Michelle changes coaches as often as she changes her outfits! This is only her 2nd coaching change in her 10 years. Big deal! Better than Nicole or Tonya or anyone else, i.e. AP in just over a few months.

And this time she went to a coach, not coachless. And who's to say Scott isn't there helping out?

I DO believe Michelle is artistically better than Sasha. Subtle differences. But how can we know how the judges will react? Personally I am all in favor of her upping her technical to meet an already outstanding artistic side.

moyesii · Dec 3, 2003

4 different coaching situations in 3 years is a lot of change for any skater. However, I said that MK is the one skater who has shown great stability throughout all the changes. I wasn't criticizing her, but praising her for taking command. Change in itself is not bad. In the context of MK's career, all of her changes have been for the better.

lavender · Dec 3, 2003

realistic51 said:
I DO believe Michelle is artistically better than Sasha. Subtle differences. But how can we know how the judges will react? Personally I am all in favor of her upping her technical to meet an already outstanding artistic side.

ITA but I'm not a judge unfortunately.

Who had 4 different coaching changes? I know it wasn't Michelle.

Bynx · Dec 3, 2003

Got this from MKF poster

I'm really glad Michelle still has the fire and desire to push herself. The coach is really good from the word of the kid's mom. He likes them all.

Not sure if it is a permernent switch. But Michelle said it feels good finally someone yelled at her, she hasn't been yelled for a long time. She needs someone push her.

She has a minor injury at her hip, (I made sure it is new one with my friend) probably caused by falling, but not seriouse enough to prevent her trainning and competing. I know some of our MKFs would worry about her injured herself by trainning with Rafael. (relating to Sasha Abt's injuries). But seems Rafael took the cue from Sasha Abt. He is being very careful with the jump progress with his young student. I think it will be the same with Michelle

I'm guessing MK wanted a kick in the pants to get her going!
All the more now that she to want to get back into serious training again.

Kwan splits with Williams...

windspirit

lavender

swannanoa54

lavender

Ptichka

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curious

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