Zakrajsek sharing training regimen via social media starting July 1 | Golden Skate

Zakrajsek sharing training regimen via social media starting July 1

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avatar credit: @miyan5605
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Zakrajsek sharing training regimen via social media starting July 1

Per IN (Jun 26), sounds as if Zakrajsek will be offering a good window into how his students train. :)

Excerpts:

Periodization

Coach Tom Zakrajsek has developed an in-depth system of training his athletes to maximize their potential. He plans to share some of his expertise with the skating world via Twitter, Facebook and Instagram starting July 1. He'll be posting daily tips on periodization, his plan of varying training intensity over time and lots of other things too, like videos, pictures, quotes and other fun tidbits.

"This is typically the most intense training month for elite figure skaters," Zakrajsek said. "During 2013, the 'Olympic Push' is in full swing. My athletes will be preparing for the Glacier Falls competition the first week of August, so this time frame will also show a tapered workload." ...

"In a weekly cycle, the work each day is varied and coordinated with what off-ice training is being done by the athlete," Zakrajsek said. "For example: Monday is a hard day. Tuesday is a medium day. Wednesday is a hard day. Thursday is a light day. Friday is a medium day. Saturday is a light/medium day." ...

"I am hoping the fans will get a glimpse into how much work coaches and athletes do to get ready for the season," Zakrajsek said. "While figure skaters are definitely talented, they are also trained, and their success is not accidental or lucky. There is a fair amount of planning that goes into it."

 

chuckm

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I'm not fond of Zakrajsek's training methods. His emphasis on jumps didn't do much for Rachael Flatt, and may have contributed to her chronic injuries. Tom's insistence on Josh Farris competing at 2011 Nationals when Josh was injured caused further injury. I've also noted Tom's reactions when his students don't perform well at a competition: he is not only not supportive, but sometimes even antagonistic.

He's lost many of his top former charges: Flatt, Farris, Abbott, to name a few.

IMO, Brandon Mroz would have been more successful with a different coach. His jumping is getting worse, not better, and he has never developed good presentation under Zakrajsek. I am fearful for Max Aaron because Max won't reach his potential as a skater until he develops presentation skills, and Tom Z is the worst possible coach in that area.
 

Jammers

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Considering that most of his students always seem slow on the ice and lacking skating skills i'm not fond of his training methods either. And he seems to not protect his skaters when he knows they are injured like with Josh and Rachael at Worlds. No wonder he's lost most of his top students in the last few years like Josh and Agnes.
 

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avatar credit: @miyan5605
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For anyone who cares ....
In advance of the official start of his project on Monday, @CoachTomZ has tweeted two Instagram videos today:

US Men's Champion Max Aaron in action with the power twister during reps on 3lz. This device helpshttp://instagram.com/p/bErW_YjYwD/

Italian Men's Champion Paul Bonifacio Parkinson works on his triple axel reps in sets of 10 during… http://instagram.com/p/bEyv7tjY82/
 

karne

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The image engraved in my mind will always be the kiss and cry at US Nationals 2011, with Zakrasjek condescendingly asking "Aren't you glad you did that?" And little sixteen year old Joshua Farris, bawling his eyes out, his hip screaming and his ankle pure agony, still suffering the aftermath of anaphylactic shock, howling "NO!"

I want Max away from Zakrasjek. The jumps will survive. But Max has already had one serious injury in his past and I don't want to see any more caused by a coach who should long ago have lost his credentials.

Max might also do well to take note of the artistic leaps and bounds that Joshua has made since 2011...
 

centerpt1

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Isn't the Z team responsible for Max's back injury, Rachael's back injury, Jeremy's original back injury? All with fractures, right? He sent Rachael to Worlds with a fracture. Didn't Josh skate with an ankle fracture? Don't know about Max, but Rachael and Jeremy never regained the flexibility they once had.
 

karne

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Max's was a combined injury from hockey and figure skating, mixed in with the fact that he kept quiet about pain in his back for a whole year. But the actual fracture occurred when he was lifting weights with his hockey team, so for once, I don't think we can blame Evil Z.


Josh's 2011 US Nationals timeline went like this:

Pre-SP practice: Tears hip muscle.

SP: skates with pain injection.

Day before LP: accidentally ingests dairy. Rushed to hospital in anaphylactic shock. Is at the hospital til 3am.

LP: Denied pain injection for his hip by rink doctors because of interaction with the stuff given him at the hospital. Breaks ankle on second 3A attempt in LP.

And he was just sixteen.

It might also be pertinent to add that when Josh was fourteen, he suffered osteochondritis dissecans in his knees, a condition primarily associated with overwork in teenagers. And he was Z's student then, too.
 

gmyers

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Um he doesn't force all hose skaters to skate! It's voluntary! Is he also responsible for czisny too?
 

chuckm

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The point is Tom Z grooms his skaters to rely on him for advice and guidance. Then he encourages them to ignore pain and injury and compete while injured. When they don't skate well, he is nasty to them. Many of his most talented skaters have left him because they realize he doesn't have their best interest at heart (if he even HAS a heart, that is!).

I hate to see this man in the KnC for very young, talented skaters. Many a career has stagnated because of Tom Z.
 

ForeverFish

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Um he doesn't force all hose skaters to skate! It's voluntary! Is he also responsible for czisny too?

No, but you've got to understand that skaters like Rachael, Josh, and Jeremy had been in the game so long that either quitting (wasting all those years and ditching a team that depends on you) or changing coaches (expensive and complicated for the family -- do they move too? If not, where will the skater live? How will this affect his/her home life?) were not realistic endeavors.

What does Czisny have to do with Tom Z? She was never coached by him, as far as I know.
 

MoonlightSkater

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Isn't the Z team responsible for Max's back injury, Rachael's back injury, Jeremy's original back injury? All with fractures, right? He sent Rachael to Worlds with a fracture. Didn't Josh skate with an ankle fracture? Don't know about Max, but Rachael and Jeremy never regained the flexibility they once had.

I remember, back in 2006, one of the skaters on the Ice Diaries tv series worked with him and also had a fairly severe back injury that inhibited her ability to train.
 

karne

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The point is Tom Z grooms his skaters to rely on him for advice and guidance. Then he encourages them to ignore pain and injury and compete while injured. When they don't skate well, he is nasty to them. Many of his most talented skaters have left him because they realize he doesn't have their best interest at heart (if he even HAS a heart, that is!).

I hate to see this man in the KnC for very young, talented skaters. Many a career has stagnated because of Tom Z.

All this plus: think for just a moment and put yourself in Josh's shoes at that Nationals.

You're sixteen (and only just). It's your first year Senior, and you've had it drilled into you that it's SUPER important to make a good impact the first year. Not to mention, your biggest rival is also making his Senior debut and is skating well. You've been groomed to rely on your coach's advice and guidance. And you're shy, you're not very good at expressing yourself. You know your hip hurts beyond the normal. But your coach says it's ok, you can skate with that, just get a pain injection. Your parents aren't at the competition. You've also been homeschooled your entire life, so your emotional development is not necessarily on the same plane as other sixteen year olds.

What do you do?
 

96skiluvr

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LOL even if I was a skater, like I'd ever take tips from Zakrajsek. He had FOUR of his skaters leave him following the 2010-2011 season (Flatt, Zawadzki, A Gilles, and Farris).
Like another poster said, I'll never forget him saying "aren't you happy you did that?" to Farris, after he had been in the ER until 3 am before the FS due to an anaphylactic shock, after which he fell 3 (or was it 4? I'm blanking here) times in his free skate, broke his ankle, and skated off in tears. Did Tom bother to comfort him over the extreme pain he must have been in? NO. He called it "character building." Good for Josh for leaving right away! Why someone would ever willingly train with Tom Z baffles me when there are better coaches at Broadmoor.
His skaters are also famous for being incredibly slow, rotating very slowly, not having any semblance of artistry (Tom Z flat out stated he doesn't give a flying crap about choreography in an interview), and having terrible skating skills. Like I'll be listening to anything he says. Good for all the skaters who came to their senses and left.
Now can we somehow get Max Aaron to Frank Carroll, John Nicks, or Sato/Dungjen? Hopefully one of them can breath the slightest semblance of artistry into him, and do something about his non-existent skating skills. He only placed 7th at Worlds because everyone else screwed up, and even then he didn't break the top 5. God knows why the USFSA somehow politicked his way to a National title.
 

karne

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God knows why the USFSA somehow politicked his way to a National title.

No. He won the US National title because he was the best male skater there. I don't like Z and I want Max away from him too. But Max won that title square and fair. The Abbott fans can abuse him all they like and call it politicking all they like (which is hypocritical coming from them!), but Max, if anything, was UNDERscored in the SP and scored in line with everyone else in the LP. It's not Max's fault that no-one else strung together a long program like his! It's not Max's fault that Abbott blew it, it's not Max's fault that Miner popped his 3A, it's not Max's fault that Josh fell on his quad.
 

gmyers

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No, but you've got to understand that skaters like Rachael, Josh, and Jeremy had been in the game so long that either quitting (wasting all those years and ditching a team that depends on you) or changing coaches (expensive and complicated for the family -- do they move too? If not, where will the skater live? How will this affect his/her home life?) were not realistic endeavors.

What does Czisny have to do with Tom Z? She was never coached by him, as far as I know.

It is the point that Tom z had nothing to do with czisny! Skaters skate injured all the time and coaches know they are injured and skate.

I didn't say anything about quitting the sport or changing coaches but not skating because you are injured and don't have to! Theyre employees of the skaters.
 

mskater93

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There just seems to be MORE skaters in his stable getting injured severely and relying on his advice to push through it than other coaching teams. I think that is the point. There was also a promising skater who was coming through the ranks the same time as Rachel Flatt (who Tom Z BEGGED to come train with him, she was actually from Tulsa, I believe) who ended up leaving the sport due to a severe injury around the time of Flatt's back injury when she was Novice/Junior level.
 

macy

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There just seems to be MORE skaters in his stable getting injured severely and relying on his advice to push through it than other coaching teams. I think that is the point. There was also a promising skater who was coming through the ranks the same time as Rachel Flatt (who Tom Z BEGGED to come train with him, she was actually from Tulsa, I believe) who ended up leaving the sport due to a severe injury around the time of Flatt's back injury when she was Novice/Junior level.

which skater was that?
 

R.D.

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Wow, he definitely is not highly thought of it seems...still though, I've always been curious as to BTS stuff and might check this out.
 
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