Favorite and least favorite coaches?

Who are some of your favourite and least favourite coaches ? For me it's usually a combination of liking the coach and the skater.

My favs are:
Yuka and Jason
John Nicks
Alexei Mishin
Tatiana Tarasova
Rafael Arutunian

Least Fav:
Tom Zakrajsek
Robin Wagner
Frank Carroll

My favorite coaches:

Tatiana Tarasova
Tamara Moskvina
Brian Orser
Nobuo Sato


My least favorite coaches:

Tom Zakrajsek
Frank Carroll

Two people with Frank Carroll as un-favorites? I hereby choose him as one of my favorites.

My only least favorite is Tom Z, judging by the way he seems to encourage skaters to compete even through serious injuries.

Tarasova, Sato/Dungen, Nobuo Sato, Carroll, Orser, and Moskvina are favorites.

Wow Frank is a least fav...


He was my fav with Michelle. They just had chemistry that was so obvious.

Anyhoo Tom Z is my least favorite for the reasons Olympia mention and his students do not have the skating skills that they should have imo. I don't enjoy watching any of his students.

Fun Thread.

I always liked Richard Callaghan. I know he has some detractors and has a reputation for being strict, but I suppose that's his job. Isn't he the one who oversaw the creation Shizuka's Turandot program?

My least faves are Tarasova and Mishin. I like what Mishin's done with Tuktamysheva, and I think he was a good 6.0 coach, but I just can't stomach the work he's done with Plushenko and the reigning World's men's bronze medalist. I still don't understand why Tarasova and Yagudin were so special: their work is just not my cup of tea.

I do admire the work of Priscilla Hill and Frank Carroll.

Morosov. I like him a lot! I know he has detractors and has said some uncouth things, but I think he's very good.

Favorite
Nobu Sato, Bin Yao (he made pairs skating in his country), Tarasova and Moskvina in there best years, Platov, Krylova-Camerlengo, Volkov, Uta Muller, Dubova (when she had her school), Zhulin, Nechaeva-Tsesnitsenko, Lane-Razgulyevs, Tom Zakraicheck (all his girls made 3+3 and boyes - quads).

List favorite
Kustarova-Alekseeva (but i love S-Zh and M-Kh in this group), Alexei Gorshkov, Morozov.

I wish Nobuo Sato would rub a little circle in my back and then tap the center to send me on my day - like he does for Kozuka before his programs! I've always like Hiroshi Nagakubo quite a bit too, he just seems relaxed, elegant and has coached some of my favorite skaters. Yuka and Jason are my fave on this side of the Pacific.

Tom Z is my least favorite also - his skaters rarely feel complete to me. Robin Wagner bugged me back in the day too - though not sure what she's up to these days.

I love Nobuo Sato's way of teaching because it screams, " the basics are everything!!1!" They really are. Without a solid foundation a skater can't be considered a good skater no matter how balletic or athletic he or she is.

My least favorite is Tom Z for all the already mentioned reasons. Robin Wagner always bugged me too. She was so touchy with her students (Sasha always seemed uncomfortable with it to me) and seemed to try to bring as much attention as she could to herself in the kiss and cry. Maybe I'm being a bit harsh, she could be a great coach. I'm not too sure where she's at these days either, though.

Favorite:
Tarasova
Mishin
Moskvina

Least:
Frank Carroll definitely

Favorites: Mr. Sato, Don Laws, Yuka & Jason
Least Favorites: Mishin, Morosov, Robin Wagner

Coach that scares me: Frank Carroll, not sure why but he does lol he has mean eyes or something...

Mean eyes? Frankie?

http://s4.assets.usoc.org/assets/documents/attached_file/filename/37732/657095.jpg?1297805330

It's a line from a movie with Lucille Ball and Henry (Peter? I don't remember lol). The original Yours, Mine and Ours.

I really don't know what it is, he just seems so... intimidating lol

Well, if you want to know why Frank has laughing eyes in that picture, here it is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2D9DDQxwIk

Favorite : Nobou Sato . All his students have great basics

Least favorite : Joanne Mcleod .

She does not stress the basics enough; her students learn horrible axel technique and always complains that her students are undermarked in the PCS department.

Just curious if anyone has changed their opinion of Mr. Sato after reading "Frozen Teardrop" and Ruh's description of her long term relationship with him,
her description of befriending Yuka who elected to leave her parents coaching and go to Canada and who, I believe, encouraged Lucinda to do the same.
(Hey Mathman, thanks for that link! I have seen that performance many times and every time I hold my breath.....she is simply the best. If i see her at
the Friends of Friends of Figure Skating breakfast I am going to ask her if she ever saw the original mini-series from where that music came from. It was and
is one of the best pieces of TV drama out there. I think Mr. Steinbeck would be very pleased with her performance.)

ivy said:

I wish Nobuo Sato would rub a little circle in my back and then tap the center to send me on my day - like he does for Kozuka before his programs! I've always like Hiroshi Nagakubo quite a bit too, he just seems relaxed, elegant and has coached some of my favorite skaters. Yuka and Jason are my fave on this side of the Pacific.

Tom Z is my least favorite also - his skaters rarely feel complete to me. Robin Wagner bugged me back in the day too - though not sure what she's up to these days.

Click to expand...

agreed and agreed. Priscilla Hill seemed very unprofessional and not really like someone I would want to spend hours a day with from what I saw on Johnny's reality show, but it may have just been an act for that show. Still, it seems that most skaters can't ever make it big with her and always end up moving on.

Robin Wagner always bothered me too. What is she up to nowadays?

CoyoteChris said:

Just curious if anyone has changed their opinion of Mr. Sato after reading "Frozen Teardrop" and Ruh's description of her long term relationship with him,
her description of befriending Yuka who elected to leave her parents coaching and go to Canada and who, I believe, encouraged Lucinda to do the same.

Click to expand...

Darn, I lost my post, here goes again, recalling from memory what I typed...

Yes, my opinion of Mr. Sato has changed after reading said book. But I don't consider him a monster, just as I don't Galina Zmievskaya, however I do look at them twice now.

I just hope he treats Mao with kindness, doesn't abuse her mentally or emotionally, though I did read once that he threw a chair at Yukari Nakano, so he isn't as docile and placid as he appears, lol.

All this makes me curious about the coaching styles of ALL coaches, the real them, which unfortunately I don't think we will see unless another book comes out years/decades later (just like Lucinda Ruh's) or else a documentary like Johnny Weir's. However, Evgeni Plushenko promises a be-all end-all autobiography after the 2014 Sochi Olympics. And if it's anything like his interviews wherein he calls some rivals rotten I know to expect a book in the vein of Lucinda Ruh, meaning totally honest, straight forward, the truth. ^)

Yes, I am not surpised by the chair throwing incident....( "Leg wrap THIS!" ) I hope he has softened a bit at this point. I know next to nothing about the Japanese culture, but it is my belief from my knowlege of the Japanese Army in WWII, that beatings and temper bursts, probably were not uncommon in the Japanese coaching world of the 1980s and maybe into the 1990s. When Lucinda said that "you were forbidden to even speak to your coach"
(paraphrase) I think there even was some truth in that. I doubt that he would use physical abuse on Mao. There is too much at stake for him and Japan to try that. Cameras are everywhere now.
Will we ever know the truth about what its really like behine the scenes? The Japanese code of silence is strong. Staying at event hotels, I could tell you some stories about US Junior World team members that are so dismaying to myself that they leave me depressed. I guess I like to think of skaters in the light of the HBO special, "Reflections on Ice", where, in the old days, you were expected to be a lady on and off the ice.

I originally was going to talk about the Japanese (& Russian) culture as well, but then I looked at my own American culture and realized how much it has in common with Japan, as far as "saving face". In fact I recall a Russian poster saying once (think it was in regards to Alexei Urmanov's bluntness regarding Rachael Flatt's weight on another board) that Americans are looked at as fake, not saying what they really mean. Whereas Russians tell it like it is, no holding back, no matter how much it might hurt others.

I see their point, especially in regards to our politicians, but imho that goes for ALL politicians, not just Americans, which is why I've never trusted one politician in my life, they're all the same deep down inside where it really counts (power corrupts!). Politics knows no culture, gender, race, creed, color, nationality, et al, it doesn't discriminate, it's like one big cancerous entity. Which is why I don't belong to any one party (p.

Back on topic, my point being we can't discriminate based on culture alone, I'm sure for every Mr. Sato there is a Machiko Yamada. Just like here in the US, or Russia, et al. Same goes for skaters, for every Maria Butyrskaya there is a Ekaterian Goordeeva, and so on. And the same goes for posters as well, for every honest poster that gives their real name, et al, there are dozens more that give pseudonyms and are not honest.

It's up to the individual, regardless of culture, creed, gender, age, nationality, etc., to be what they will be, whether it be to coach a certain way, skate a certain way, or express themselves in a certain way.

Now I've really gone off-topic, sheesh! But I hope my point was made - culture has nothing to do with it.

As regards the title/topic of this thread, I would have to pick Priscilla Hill as one my favorite coaches. Why? Because she seems so nice and friendly, judging by Johnny Weir's documentary, and his own words as well. Likewise, I wish Lucinda Ruh would have named the Chinese coach that she called "guru" and whom she said did more for her than all her time spent in Japan. Said coach seemed so wise, nice, and kind. This is the kind of coach I would choose, therefore he too goes at the very top of my list.

Well, beating as a way for discipline and encouraging harder work is not a secret in Asian culture. My palms were hit by my teachers if my grades didn't reach the standards set
by them. So culture certainly has its influence on the way the instructors teach besides their personality and temperament.