Please put yourself in their shoes. If you are the one paying the bills (in the range of $160 -200K), if you have only two more years to get prepared for the Olympics, if winning a Oly gold medal is something you have been working on since you were a kid, if Patrick is your son, what will you do? Plus, if Patrick is in fact spending more time with Kathy, if she is the one that helps Patrick the most, is it fair not to let her be the primary coach?Originally Posted by skateluvr
We don't know everything that led up to the split and there are quite a few players in the drama. Patrick, at the centre of it, just wants to skate as best he could and keep improving by putting in the hours and the work. This has obviously been painful for him and not a light decision or even his decision. He has gone through a relentlessly tough season and is still motivated to continue with a tough road ahead. As a fan, I can only trust him and his parents for their excellent records of decisions that have worked out well for Patrick, and support him with best wishes for continued success.
He's got the costume ready-made as well:The Mission Impossible theme has the same odd-ball 5/4 rhythm as Take Five. In fact, these are the only two songs I know that have that one-two-three-FOUR-five beat. He's got the program ready-made.
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ls...oueyo1_500.jpg
^Exactly!
phaeljones, please accepct a "hearty WELCOME" from me, too!
And, SkateFiguring, thanks a million for welcoming me again.
Now, I am off to Yoyogi! Have a great day, everyone!
Changing coach is always very uncomfortable, especially when it is done toughly as it is with Krall and Patrick ( though officially they parted friendly with best wishes) - she sounds offended and Patrick is clearly hurt..( remembering his moral condition before and in time of WC).
Anyway I do hope he will find a good coach ( not only Kathy) - with all my respect, a champion should have an ice and jump specialist to progress and to loose technique along with a dance teacher.
Wish he will have FUN in Japan and forgets all the pressure and hate remarks. Hope we will see his sweet sparkling personality and trade mark smile very soon !
Welcome to the board, phaeljones!
Mathman--that song is way too fast. Not even the former Israeli ice dancers, Chait/Sakhnovsky could skate that fast!
SF--it's not that Patrick gets ridiculed for his success. Many of us enjoy his skating. It's when uberfans collide that these arguments can get testy. And we're all human; in the end, it's not really the skaters we idolize that we're defending, but our own "ideas."
I love Patrick. But I love Dai, Jeremy, Brian...all 30 of those gentlemen who skated at Worlds taught me something in my own skating. I thank them all for trying, in their own way, to make this sport better than ever.
Oh, are we starting this thread all over again?!
Coach Change Evolutionary Process:
Mar 26, 2012: Chan seemed to have been searching for motivation since he easily defeated his toughest rival Daisuke at 4CC. “Things have been pretty up and down since Four Continents,” Chan said. “It’s that time of the year where we’re all looking forward to the season coming to an end.” Yet he found himself having to dig at the task every day. (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sport...rticle2382439/)
Mar 31, 2012: "I’d kind of lost the motivation to train and do this program and ... I almost wanted to quit,” said Chan (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sport...rticle2403867/)
Apr 3, 2012: Patrick Chan said, “I’m pretty tired of [training in Colorado Springs]. I want to go somewhere, I want to go away.” (http://sports.nationalpost.com/2012/...g-experiences/)
Apr 16, 2012: Skate Canada announced that “Christy Krall and two-time World Champion Patrick Chan have concluded their coaching relationship, following Krall’s indication of her decision to resign from Chan’s coaching team.” (http://sports.nationalpost.com/2012/...r-a-new-coach/)
April 19, 2012: Patrick Chan upbeat after coach change (http://www.montrealgazette.com/sport...2/story.html); Patrick Chan says split with figure skating coach Christy Krall part of evolutionary process (http://www.thestar.com/sports/figure...ionary-process)
Christy Krall saw all the signs that Chan wanted a change, just as Brian Orser witnessed Yuna Kim's motivation problem after the Olympics.
So, what exactly is Chan's motivation problem?
1. Winning failed to bring recognition:
Mar 26, 2012: Kurt Browning said, "Chan's victory at the world championships last year in Moscow—an event that was postponed and then moved following the Japan earthquake and tsunami—went largely unrecognized". (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sport...2381507/print/)
Mar 31, 2012: Chan booed as he wins World Championship in Nice. (http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/010420...mpionship.html)
"I want to bring more attention to the sport and hopefully, with winning another title, people will pay attention a bit more to how hard we skaters train and how difficult it is to become successful," Chan said. "It's a big motivation for myself in order to change figure skating and put it back on the map." But he didn't. He got booed instead.
2. Winning failed to equate self-actualization:
"Every time I walk on to the ice for a competition, my goal is to do a clean program and to perform my heart out. I get goosebumps..." "Yet he has failed to show off two clean programs in any of the four international competitions he has taken part in." "Rather than experiencing goosebumps, Chan has had to get used to suffering a multitude of bumps and bruises." (http://m.torontosun.com/2012/03/26/c...y-in-quad-fest). The scoring system demands skating smart more than clean and values little details more than holistic impacts. And he has been trained to do just that. ''I skated smart this week,'' Chan said at the Worlds, ''I made sure the little details added up and I still ended up on top.'' “I knew I just had to put out a good strong opening". Despite the botched Axel, and finishing behind his music, Chan wasn’t worried as he skated off the ice.''I knew when I got off the ice, I had won," Chan said. ''I felt like I had won anyway.'' (http://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/patr...5159--oly.html) Collecting points here and there was neither challenging nor intrinsically motivating for him. Even worse was the tedious daily training to become a point-getting machine.
Interesting stuff. Thank you.
I'm surprised Chan still wants to train in Colorado Springs. The World arena really has a cut throat, unfriendly vibe for singles skaters-no matter who their coach is. (at least that's the reputation it has had)
Please remember to not claim things as fact if you do not have a reputable source to back it up. This is a guideline of GS that has been in place for a very long time. Posts will be unapproved.
From the profile video interview:
Interviewer: Women love you!
True.
Patrick: Mmmmm....And I love them back.
True.
Patrick: Simple as that.
Not so true. Especially if these women, in his personal and professional lives, don't love each other.
Power struggle is very common among people close to a very successful person.
From what I can see, Patrick is going through an emotionally tough time. But it's his life path. There is no wrong or right but how he reacts to events and what he does with them that matter. If he stays the winner that he is, he will rise from difficult experiences and tests to be a better skater and a more mature person.
I wish him strength and positivity for his continued success.
I hope he finds a solid coaching situation and a motivating environment soon. I don't think it's good for him to be adrift without a real skating coach. He needs a good technical coach to keep his quads and 3A under control, so that he can work on other aspects, like performance/music that he craves to improve on so much. I hope that the loss at WTT is going to motivate him and help him find a clear direction, rather than demoralizing him. He's such a talented skater, the most talented man skater I've ever seen. I feel like if he could find the right coaching/choreography/packaging, he could turn into the kind of champion that not only wins over the judges' but also the audience's hearts.
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