http://www.sports.ru/others/figure-skating/1020345278.html
According to Tarasova he started training with her right after Olympics
According to Tarasova he started training with her right after Olympics
Artur Gachinski
- Thread starter karne
- Start date
- Joined
- Feb 13, 2014
Sorry Kovtun, but I will vote for Gachinski! Next Russian national podium will be exciting
http://www.sovsport.md/news/text-item/708917
Short interview. Basically they asked him if he is annoyed that people called him next Plushenko. Arthur said that when he was a little he found it flattering. At 17 however, it started irritating him. He had a inner feeling that told him to start skating differently.
Short interview. Basically they asked him if he is annoyed that people called him next Plushenko. Arthur said that when he was a little he found it flattering. At 17 however, it started irritating him. He had a inner feeling that told him to start skating differently.
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2013
- Country
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Sorry Kovtun, but I will vote for Gachinski! Next Russian national podium will be exciting
If Tarasova can unlock the potential, Kovtun isn't going to know what hit him!
- Joined
- Feb 13, 2014
I think people simply have more love for Gachinski. I don't hate Kovtun, though.
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2013
- Country
-
Because his jumps are ugly as heck?
If you made top-of-his-game Artur and top-of-his-game Maxim do side-by-side quads, there wouldn't even be an argument as to which jump was better.
It's been pretty obvious from the start that Artur was extremely gifted, but that maybe those gifts weren't developed the way they could be. If Tarasova can help him heal so the jumps come back (not that they ever really went away), as well as develop those gifts, Artur will surpass Kovtun very, very easily.
I quite agree to be honest. I do not dislike Kovtun, but the way he jumps makes me wince. This is one of the main reasons why I prefer Gachinski over him.
- Joined
- Dec 21, 2011
I think that's the reason why Tatiana is Artur's coach whereas she always highlights the fact that Buyanova is coaching Kovtun. Kovtun needs technique work more and wants to increase his scores by adding new jumps rather than boosting his PCS. Artur already has the amazing technique. And apparently he is only doing one quad but obviously has new and interesting packaging. So I think that TAT chose Artur over Maxim not because either is more talented but because the two skaters need different things.
This is not entirely true cause Maxim talked about the need to improve choreography.
- Joined
- Dec 21, 2011
Okay, but I still feel that Maxim has made or is making more of an effort on his jumps just by looking at where he has improved most lately
http://www.sports.ru/others/figure-skating/1020418243.html
Tarasova said Arthur had problems with his back and legs so she sent him to a specialist. Also initially he had problems with his endurance during training, but now he's better.
Tarasova said Arthur had problems with his back and legs so she sent him to a specialist. Also initially he had problems with his endurance during training, but now he's better.
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2013
- Country
-
The back and leg problems unfortunately are not new.
But I do hope that he's healed up like he said. He has so much potential, I'd hate for it to be ruined by injuries.Of course, I used dodgy Google Translate, but my favourite quote was this: "A very serious man - his soul wants to skate".
Oh, how I hope this works...
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2013
- Country
-
Mishin did bring in doctors for Artur. Their initial diagnosis was that Artur had developed flat feet, which was what was causing the numbness and pain in his legs. It's possible that the other injuries came later (he had a really bad fall at Skate America), or that the first set of doctors misdiagnosed the problem.
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2014
Tbh I think Kovtun needs to work on the components though.
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2014
Thanks to TAHbKA and FSU: http://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/sho...nski-Hope-my-inner-Pinocchio-is-safely-locked
Vaitsekhovskaya's interview with Gachinski `Hope my inner Pinocchio is safely locked'
"To change everything!" - in December that short phrase summed up the whole Arthur Gachinski of the 20 years. Though only now it starts to make sense. Then, losing the nationals and not making it to the team in Sochi the skater didn't know which he wanted more: to just leave the ice for good or give it another shot.
EV: How long were you pondering on the decision to move back to Moscow?
AG: For the last 2 years. I was not satisfied with the results and the decision to change the city, the coach, the environment, myself, my style, my image - everything! slowly shaped up. I tried to change things before. I was thinking I don't take the practices and myself seriously enough, I was trying to control it all the time, but understood there were no results still. The nationals in December was the last straw.
EV: Did you tell your coach immediately?
AG: To Alexey Nikolaevich?Yes.
EV: How did he react?
AG: I'd rather not answer that
EV: Sure. I just heard he was furious when he learned you had a try out in Moscow without notifying him
AG: Well, you know it anyway... I couldn't make an official announcement on a switch in the middle of the season - I could be disqualified. Guess at the end of the day it wasn't nice to the coach. Just that our ways parted at some point.
EV: Usually there are two sides of the story. I had an impression once Evgeni Pluschenko came back Mishin stopped paying enough attention to his other pupils, which caused some hard feelings, in your case included. Yet Alexey Nikolaevich's version is that you simply were not working hard enough.
AG: I was trying to do my best on every practice. I was not going out, I was not trying to find the easier ways. Perhaps I just grew up. When I was a kid I would just listen to all the coach said and would abide. As I was growing up my points of views on what I do started to change. I stopped seeing the world in black and white and started seeing the shades of grey. I started understanding I'm a man and have to make my own decisions about my life.
That caused some, let's call it, misunderstandings with the coach. The feeling of uneasiness, mental discomfort became stronger. Perhaps that prevented me from progressing as an athlete.
EV: For many years you were called Evgeni Pluschenko's clone. Did you mind?
AG: As a kid I even liked it.
EV: Were you trying to copy him?
AG: How can you not when you see him all the time? It happens whether you want it or not. There is a man in front of you who does everything and does it really well. Of course you want to do the same. When I was 17 it's not that I became sick of that, but I had that gut feeling I want to skate differently. So when I heard I was Pluschenko 2 it quite annoyed me.
EV: Did you ever want to stop and shout `I'm not Pluschenko!'
AG: Indeed
EV: Perhaps subconsciously Mishin wanted you to skate in the same style as Pluschenko - he've been there and done that, repeating is always easier.
AG: I don't think Alexey Nikolaevich was repeating things with me. We worked really well together. I understood him well. Just that in some things we disagreed.
EV: How did you feel about Pluschenko's comeback and skating in Sochi?
AG: I'd rather not talk about it. In general I think if someone wants to compete they should go and compete. If they don't want to - don't make them. I was never for giving the athlete things for his past achievements.
EV: Past achievements in figure skating are in the 2nd mark, among the other things.
AG: I understand that. But disagree. Let's make a table - how many points should be given for which past results. And will be deciding on the winners according to that table. The sport should be fair - what you skate this competition is what you get.
EV: Were you very upset not making it to the Olympics?
AG: I knew before the Nationals the season was done. Yes, it was upsetting. So? There will be another Olympics, perhaps even several.
***
EV: When the talks about your searching for the coach began many names were named. Why Tarasova?
AG: When I came back to St. Petersburg after the nationals I decided to retire. Told my mother I was sick of everything. That I don't see any future in figure skating. I was defeated by the defeats. For a couple of days I lead a completely different life. A normal one.
EV: Which is what?
AG: I went to the movies, was out all night, was playing the computer games till I would fall asleep. And I got tired of that very fast. So I called Tarasova and asked for help. Told her I wanted to change everything - I would go as far as building myself anew.
EV: Where did the rumours you are switching to Vasilive come from?
AG: I was considering it when I first started thinking of switching. I was trying to see who would be able to pull me from that puddle I was in. Vasiliev is a great specialist, I loved his skaters style. And yet, I chose Tarasova.
On January 6th I came to Moscow and we met up. Tatiana Anatolievna set up a short working plan and I started working according to it in TSKA with Alexandr Uspenski and Maksim Zavozin. It was just gliding. No jumps, no spins, just steps. I was learning those anew as a little kid. Brackets, counters, loops, choktaw...
EV: I.e. you never learned those before?
AG: No one put any stress on those before. Nevermind such things as pointing the toe of the free leg. It was new and alien for me. But I understood it was necessary if I want to do anything in figure skating. At the same time I was recovering from the old back injury. Only after Tarasova came back from Sochi to Moscow I started jumping. At the same time we started choreographing the programmes.
In April Tarasova left to the USA and while she was away I was training with Elena Germanovna Buyanova. I was getting ready for the show in Luzhnki in April. Can't say it was a very stressful work - I still can't put too much pressure on my back.
EV: Was the switch from the cut heel you were using in Mishin's group to the normal ones hard?
AG: When I started working on the gliding many steps didn't work for me at all. I was as if made of wood. Because I skated on a low heel for many years I was leaning back too much all the time. I had to keep in mind holding my body and my skating was more constrained. When Tarasova was about to come back my boots became useless - I broke them again, so I just decided to switch to the usual boots and the usual blades.
EV: Were the blades special as well?
AG: The lighter version. Hence I was breaking them all the time -I would change 3-4 pairs a season.
EV: Why bother with the lighter blades at the first place?
AG: It wasn't my choice. Guess so the skating would be easier.
I actually liked skating on the usual blades. The jumps were no problem. Of course till I got used to them I was shaky all the time. But that passed quite fast.
***
EV: The fact you are sharing the ice with Maksim Kovtun adds to a mental discomfort?
AG: I came here to do my job, not to see someone else doing theirs. So yes, I saw how Maksim skates, but the final result depends on how do you skate, not someone else. So no, I'm not bothered with Maksim Kovtun skating on the same ice and I doubt I will in the future.
EV: When Kovtun was getting ready for the Olympic season his coaches and him decided to bet on the elements. 5 quads. What is your plan?
AG: The gliding, the emotions. My goal right now is to adjust as much as I can to the current demands. The programmes became much harder than they used to be. They demand the never ending transitions, interesting jump entries. There is not a single jump without something weird before the take off - sometimes it's a spiral, sometimes a spread eagle, sometimes it's a counter, sometimes a bauer. The hardest thing for my inner Pinocchio that was inside me for years to get used to that. I never performed so many steps in the programme before. Right now we left just one quad in the programme.
EV: I know the skaters love practising the ultra C elements even if they are not added to the programme later. What was the hardest you ever tried?
AG: A 4A. I never landed it really, but I rotated it.
EV: Was it scary?
AG: When the technique is fine and you understand how the jump is done it's not scary. It's not as if I was jumping from the balcony down. There is no difference for me how many rotations do I do - the technique is the same. The entry is the same, the take off is the same. The most important thing is to set your mind on a quad and remember it's one revolution more. That's it.
EV: How much of your style change expectations were met?
AG: Let's start with my skating changing: I became freer and more emotional. I hope my inner Pinocchio is locked for good. We also `bended' my knees, so the skating became `lower', with a bigger amplitude. The rushing is gone. When we started choreographing the programmes the change of skating implied a different choreography.
EV: Do you plan a summer break?
AG: I never had a summer break. I only saw the sea during the summer camp. I never had an experience of going somewhere to the beach and just not doing anything. It is not Alexey Nikolaevich style.
EV: But it's impossible to work without a break!
AG: It's tough. Physically mainly. But I dealt with it somehow. Was convincing myself I only gain and become stronger. Now I will have 2 weeks of break during which I'll have to work on my back, so it will never bother me in the future
EV: And continue preparing to the new season?
AG: Yes. Actually it's the first time in my lift that I understand what does it mean having fun skating. When I first heard it from Uspenski or Zavozin deep down I thought `fun? Are they nuts?' But then I felt so many new things. I started feeling the edges, the balance, the twist of the body, the power with which the foot presses on the blade and the edge becomes deeper. I started feeling the ice and it's feedback. It almost feels the ice and I are having a conversation. It's so unusual... and so awesome!
http://winter.sport-express.ru/figureskating/reviews/44139/
Vaitsekhovskaya's interview with Gachinski `Hope my inner Pinocchio is safely locked'
"To change everything!" - in December that short phrase summed up the whole Arthur Gachinski of the 20 years. Though only now it starts to make sense. Then, losing the nationals and not making it to the team in Sochi the skater didn't know which he wanted more: to just leave the ice for good or give it another shot.
EV: How long were you pondering on the decision to move back to Moscow?
AG: For the last 2 years. I was not satisfied with the results and the decision to change the city, the coach, the environment, myself, my style, my image - everything! slowly shaped up. I tried to change things before. I was thinking I don't take the practices and myself seriously enough, I was trying to control it all the time, but understood there were no results still. The nationals in December was the last straw.
EV: Did you tell your coach immediately?
AG: To Alexey Nikolaevich?Yes.
EV: How did he react?
AG: I'd rather not answer that
EV: Sure. I just heard he was furious when he learned you had a try out in Moscow without notifying him
AG: Well, you know it anyway... I couldn't make an official announcement on a switch in the middle of the season - I could be disqualified. Guess at the end of the day it wasn't nice to the coach. Just that our ways parted at some point.
EV: Usually there are two sides of the story. I had an impression once Evgeni Pluschenko came back Mishin stopped paying enough attention to his other pupils, which caused some hard feelings, in your case included. Yet Alexey Nikolaevich's version is that you simply were not working hard enough.
AG: I was trying to do my best on every practice. I was not going out, I was not trying to find the easier ways. Perhaps I just grew up. When I was a kid I would just listen to all the coach said and would abide. As I was growing up my points of views on what I do started to change. I stopped seeing the world in black and white and started seeing the shades of grey. I started understanding I'm a man and have to make my own decisions about my life.
That caused some, let's call it, misunderstandings with the coach. The feeling of uneasiness, mental discomfort became stronger. Perhaps that prevented me from progressing as an athlete.
EV: For many years you were called Evgeni Pluschenko's clone. Did you mind?
AG: As a kid I even liked it.
EV: Were you trying to copy him?
AG: How can you not when you see him all the time? It happens whether you want it or not. There is a man in front of you who does everything and does it really well. Of course you want to do the same. When I was 17 it's not that I became sick of that, but I had that gut feeling I want to skate differently. So when I heard I was Pluschenko 2 it quite annoyed me.
EV: Did you ever want to stop and shout `I'm not Pluschenko!'
AG: Indeed
EV: Perhaps subconsciously Mishin wanted you to skate in the same style as Pluschenko - he've been there and done that, repeating is always easier.
AG: I don't think Alexey Nikolaevich was repeating things with me. We worked really well together. I understood him well. Just that in some things we disagreed.
EV: How did you feel about Pluschenko's comeback and skating in Sochi?
AG: I'd rather not talk about it. In general I think if someone wants to compete they should go and compete. If they don't want to - don't make them. I was never for giving the athlete things for his past achievements.
EV: Past achievements in figure skating are in the 2nd mark, among the other things.
AG: I understand that. But disagree. Let's make a table - how many points should be given for which past results. And will be deciding on the winners according to that table. The sport should be fair - what you skate this competition is what you get.
EV: Were you very upset not making it to the Olympics?
AG: I knew before the Nationals the season was done. Yes, it was upsetting. So? There will be another Olympics, perhaps even several.
***
EV: When the talks about your searching for the coach began many names were named. Why Tarasova?
AG: When I came back to St. Petersburg after the nationals I decided to retire. Told my mother I was sick of everything. That I don't see any future in figure skating. I was defeated by the defeats. For a couple of days I lead a completely different life. A normal one.
EV: Which is what?
AG: I went to the movies, was out all night, was playing the computer games till I would fall asleep. And I got tired of that very fast. So I called Tarasova and asked for help. Told her I wanted to change everything - I would go as far as building myself anew.
EV: Where did the rumours you are switching to Vasilive come from?
AG: I was considering it when I first started thinking of switching. I was trying to see who would be able to pull me from that puddle I was in. Vasiliev is a great specialist, I loved his skaters style. And yet, I chose Tarasova.
On January 6th I came to Moscow and we met up. Tatiana Anatolievna set up a short working plan and I started working according to it in TSKA with Alexandr Uspenski and Maksim Zavozin. It was just gliding. No jumps, no spins, just steps. I was learning those anew as a little kid. Brackets, counters, loops, choktaw...
EV: I.e. you never learned those before?
AG: No one put any stress on those before. Nevermind such things as pointing the toe of the free leg. It was new and alien for me. But I understood it was necessary if I want to do anything in figure skating. At the same time I was recovering from the old back injury. Only after Tarasova came back from Sochi to Moscow I started jumping. At the same time we started choreographing the programmes.
In April Tarasova left to the USA and while she was away I was training with Elena Germanovna Buyanova. I was getting ready for the show in Luzhnki in April. Can't say it was a very stressful work - I still can't put too much pressure on my back.
EV: Was the switch from the cut heel you were using in Mishin's group to the normal ones hard?
AG: When I started working on the gliding many steps didn't work for me at all. I was as if made of wood. Because I skated on a low heel for many years I was leaning back too much all the time. I had to keep in mind holding my body and my skating was more constrained. When Tarasova was about to come back my boots became useless - I broke them again, so I just decided to switch to the usual boots and the usual blades.
EV: Were the blades special as well?
AG: The lighter version. Hence I was breaking them all the time -I would change 3-4 pairs a season.
EV: Why bother with the lighter blades at the first place?
AG: It wasn't my choice. Guess so the skating would be easier.
I actually liked skating on the usual blades. The jumps were no problem. Of course till I got used to them I was shaky all the time. But that passed quite fast.
***
EV: The fact you are sharing the ice with Maksim Kovtun adds to a mental discomfort?
AG: I came here to do my job, not to see someone else doing theirs. So yes, I saw how Maksim skates, but the final result depends on how do you skate, not someone else. So no, I'm not bothered with Maksim Kovtun skating on the same ice and I doubt I will in the future.
EV: When Kovtun was getting ready for the Olympic season his coaches and him decided to bet on the elements. 5 quads. What is your plan?
AG: The gliding, the emotions. My goal right now is to adjust as much as I can to the current demands. The programmes became much harder than they used to be. They demand the never ending transitions, interesting jump entries. There is not a single jump without something weird before the take off - sometimes it's a spiral, sometimes a spread eagle, sometimes it's a counter, sometimes a bauer. The hardest thing for my inner Pinocchio that was inside me for years to get used to that. I never performed so many steps in the programme before. Right now we left just one quad in the programme.
EV: I know the skaters love practising the ultra C elements even if they are not added to the programme later. What was the hardest you ever tried?
AG: A 4A. I never landed it really, but I rotated it.
EV: Was it scary?
AG: When the technique is fine and you understand how the jump is done it's not scary. It's not as if I was jumping from the balcony down. There is no difference for me how many rotations do I do - the technique is the same. The entry is the same, the take off is the same. The most important thing is to set your mind on a quad and remember it's one revolution more. That's it.
EV: How much of your style change expectations were met?
AG: Let's start with my skating changing: I became freer and more emotional. I hope my inner Pinocchio is locked for good. We also `bended' my knees, so the skating became `lower', with a bigger amplitude. The rushing is gone. When we started choreographing the programmes the change of skating implied a different choreography.
EV: Do you plan a summer break?
AG: I never had a summer break. I only saw the sea during the summer camp. I never had an experience of going somewhere to the beach and just not doing anything. It is not Alexey Nikolaevich style.
EV: But it's impossible to work without a break!
AG: It's tough. Physically mainly. But I dealt with it somehow. Was convincing myself I only gain and become stronger. Now I will have 2 weeks of break during which I'll have to work on my back, so it will never bother me in the future
EV: And continue preparing to the new season?
AG: Yes. Actually it's the first time in my lift that I understand what does it mean having fun skating. When I first heard it from Uspenski or Zavozin deep down I thought `fun? Are they nuts?' But then I felt so many new things. I started feeling the edges, the balance, the twist of the body, the power with which the foot presses on the blade and the edge becomes deeper. I started feeling the ice and it's feedback. It almost feels the ice and I are having a conversation. It's so unusual... and so awesome!
http://winter.sport-express.ru/figureskating/reviews/44139/
- Joined
- Nov 14, 2007
Wow! I've seldom had time to sit in front of my PC these days, but this is the most wonderful news re figure skating in weeks for me!
Best of luck to Artur and TAT! :yay:arty:
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2014
For those who might be in the area: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=819860524690649&set=gm.657240731018378&type=1&theater
Sotnikova, Kovtun, Gachinsky, Bush and Samarin are training in Friuli-Venezia Giulia until 6 of July.
Open training session.
Sotnikova, Kovtun, Gachinsky, Bush and Samarin are training in Friuli-Venezia Giulia until 6 of July.
Open training session.
