Who will be the next generation of legendary coaches?

lulu · Mar 18, 2004

Most of the what I consider to be the legendary coaches: Moskvina, Moskvin, Carroll, Callahan, Mishin, Tarasova etc are (to put it bluntly

) getting up in age, and they are going to retire someday. Who will the mantle be passed to and become the next generation of legendary coaches?

Bin Yao is certainly the epitome of the Chinese Pair Machine and has done so much to get China on the map. This is especially amazing considering how far behind China was as recently as the 1980s, when they just begun to skate on the World Stage.

I'm not sure about his previous record or how long he has been coaching, but Victor K(not going to try to spell his las name

) is doing a lot for Russian skating right now. I know he coaches Ilia Klimikin and I believe he also coaches Elena Sokolova, as well as other skaters. I can certainly see him continueing the be a dominating force in trying the keep active Russian figure skating.

Who else?

Interestingly, there seems to be a lot of former elite skaters coaching and choreographing today. Although historically, very successful elite skaters tend not to become extremely successful coaches. (Not saying it would never happen). Take for example Irina Rodina, the most successful skater (in terms of medals) of all time; and absolute legend in pairs skating. Her most successful foray into coaching were the 1995 one time World Champions. I'm sure many people would be deleriously pleased to coach a World Champion team, but when you compare her coaching record to her skating record...

who do you think will be the next generation of coaching greats?
Sorry so rambling :rolleye:

soogar · Mar 18, 2004

I think Sasha Zhulin is making his mark as a coach. I've heard Kurt gush on and on about how great a choreographer he is. Robin Wagner is starting to make her mark having coached Sarah and now with Sasha. What about Jeff DiGregorio? He coached Tara before Callahan and I think he coached some junior skaters now as well (maybe Meissner but not sure).

Matt · Mar 18, 2004

I definitely would submit Nikolai Morozov as a legendary coach of the future. He's already ubiquitous as a choreographer nowadays and I know he has some skaters that he is coaching outright (Kevin VDP). He was an elite skater, too; he used to be an ice dancer for Belarus with Tatiana Navka

Ladskater · Mar 18, 2004

Shae-lynn Bourne will be an outstanding ice dance coach.

dorispulaski · Mar 18, 2004

If Robin Wagner puts Sasha on the podium, based on that and her success with Sarah, I think we would have to add her to the list.

curious · Mar 18, 2004

lulu said:
Most of the what I consider to be the legendary coaches: Moskvina, Moskvin, Carroll, Callahan, Mishin, Tarasova etc are (to put it bluntly ) getting up in age, and they are going to retire someday. Who will the mantle be passed to and become the next generation of legendary coaches?

Bin Yao is certainly the epitome of the Chinese Pair Machine and has done so much to get China on the map. This is especially amazing considering how far behind China was as recently as the 1980s, when they just begun to skate on the World Stage.

I'm not sure about his previous record or how long he has been coaching, but Victor K(not going to try to spell his las name ) is doing a lot for Russian skating right now. I know he coaches Ilia Klimikin and I believe he also coaches Elena Sokolova, as well as other skaters. I can certainly see him continueing the be a dominating force in trying the keep active Russian figure skating.

Who else?

I

Interestingly, there seems to be a lot of former elite skaters coaching and choreographing today. Although historically, very successful elite skaters tend not to become extremely successful coaches. (Not saying it would never happen). Take for example Irina Rodina, the most successful skater (in terms of medals) of all time; and absolute legend in pairs skating. Her most successful foray into coaching were the 1995 one time World Champions. I'm sure many people would be deleriously pleased to coach a World Champion team, but when you compare her coaching record to her skating record...

who do you think will be the next generation of coaching greats?
Sorry so rambling

Ilia Klimkin new coach is Victor Kudriatzev. He also trains Sokolova.

lulu · Mar 18, 2004

Thanks for the last name!

lulu · Mar 18, 2004

With regard to Zhulin-maybe this is just me, but I think he would make an absolutely excellent professional choreographer. His greatest criticism, especially with regard to N&K is that he does not have enough difficulty. He has also produced some great exhibition numbers for Browning, Galindo and more.
Although he did choreograph a very good short program for Ina & Zimmerman.
Not that he's a bad coach, but it seems that he would be best as professional/exhibition choregrapher.

Jill · Mar 19, 2004

I'll bet we see Alexei Yagudin become a major player in the coaching world. Also, Peter Tchernishev(can't spell his name).

berthes ghost · Mar 19, 2004

I can't think of any Zhulin programs that have really wowed me, but that LP he did for Tim in 99 to Malequena, ugh. Granted, it is Tim we're talking about, but still, I'm still smarting over how bad that LP was.

Also, count me as one of those who didn't buy the pink panther routine this season. Yuck.

berthes ghost · Mar 19, 2004

Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think Calaghan is anywhere near as old as Carroll and Nicks. He sure looks like he's got another decade or two of coaching left in him.

Peter Opelgard has kinda fallen off the map since the stieglers and Angela dumped him. Maybe he'll make a reserection. At least I hope so just for the eye-candy aspect. :laugh:

Midori's old coach seems to be going strong, but the Sato's do look a little older. Didn't they compete in the 60s?

Wasn't Robin Cousins co-coaching Bobeck with Krista Fassi? Maybe he'll continue to coach.

What about Irina and Maria's coaches? Neither of these women look of retirement age.

Dee4707 · Mar 19, 2004

I think Alexei, assisting Tatiana T. will eventually move into that field. His injury will keep him on the ice for how many more years? He has to make a living some way. He has worked with Brian J. and Andre G. so who knows where it might take him?

Dee

Ptichka · Mar 19, 2004

I think it's important to differentiate between "coach" and "choreographer". Morozov the the latter; he has done nothing as of yet to show he is a "coach".

Zhulin -- I am not sure. I like Navka & Kostomarov, but they have had technique from before, especially Navka who has trained with the legendary Dubova. Zhulin is now coaching several skaters, but I haven't seen any extraordinary results yet.

I am also interested in Platov's coaching. He now only has C&S, but it's certainly interesting what he can do.

I certainly agree on Bin Yao. He reminds me of the legendary Russian Zhuk.

Victor Kudtyavtsev is a very interesting case. Indeed, he and his wife Marina now coach Klimkin, Sokolova, Volchkova, and Soldatova (all three ladies tried other coaches but went back to him). However, both Kulik and Butyrskaya only reached their peak when they left him for other coaches. So I think the jury is still out.

I am also very optimistic about Robin Wagner and Zhanna Gromova. They have each given a true gem to the figure skating world (Sarah and Irina respectively). It remains to be seen if they can reproduce the success with other skaters.

I also have to mention Muriel Boucher-Zazoui. I am not sure how much she has had to do with the success of Anissina and Peizerat (I get the feeling that not too much). She now has two very talented teams -- Dubreuil & Lauzon and Delobel & Schoenfelder, in addition to a whole bunch of French teams and a Japanese team.

Oh, and speaking of ice dance there is Gorshkov -- he coaches Denkova & Stavijski and Domnina & Shabalin, as well as an Israeli team. I think he has a lot of potential.

Also there is Shpilband. I have great respect for him creating his own school. He is now doing a great job with Belbin & Agosto. Wing & Lowe also seem to be doing a good job with him.

soogar · Mar 19, 2004

I also read in one of the skating magazines that Mark Mitchell and a partner (don't remember the guy's name) are training a lot of top juniors and are quite successful.

icenut84 · Mar 20, 2004

berthes ghost said:
Wasn't Robin Cousins co-coaching Bobeck with Krista Fassi? Maybe he'll continue to coach.

I don't know about coaching he's doing at the moment, but I read a while back that Robin plans to open a new rink/training centre in Brighton, England (his home town), and that he plans to run it with Jayne Torvill! Could be very interesting in a few years time, once it's up and running.

Another coach to mention - Oleg Vassiliev (84 Olympic pairs champ) - he's currently the coach of Totmianina & Marinin. I don't know who else he coaches/coached though, but T&M are a pretty high level team.

Jaana · Mar 20, 2004

Ptichka said:
Victor Kudtyavtsev is a very interesting case. Indeed, he and his wife Marina now coach Klimkin, Sokolova, Volchkova, and Soldatova (all three ladies tried other coaches but went back to him). However, both Kulik and Butyrskaya only reached their peak when they left him for other coaches. So I think the jury is still out.

Viktor Kudriatshev has been a coach for a long time. I believe one of his pupils won World Championships in middle seventies. I think it was Sergei Volkov (or V. Kovalev).

It is true that Ilia Kulik won the Olympics as he was coached by Tarasova, but I personally have always thought that as well he could have won it with Viktor K. (if they had moved to USA). While coached by Viktor K. Ilia won e.g. World Junior championship, European championship and got a silver medal at Worlds.

Didn´t Maria B win European Championship while coached by Viktor K?

Alexei Urmanov has been coaching for some years already. He has young students, and that is something I appreciate very much. How he succeeds with these skaters will be seen in future.

Generally speaking I appreciate coaches who work with young skaters and bring them into European, World or Olympic winners than coaches who seem just to concentrate on doing some "final polish" for somebody else´s work and are getting all the credit, LOL. This final polish the skaters might have gotten from their previous coach as well, in my opinion...

Marjaana

Awesome · Mar 20, 2004

soogar said:
I think Sasha Zhulin is making his mark as a coach. I've heard Kurt gush on and on about how great a choreographer he is. Robin Wagner is starting to make her mark having coached Sarah and now with Sasha. What about Jeff DiGregorio? He coached Tara before Callahan and I think he coached some junior skaters now as well (maybe Meissner but not sure).

Jeff DeGregorio also coached Sara Wheat, but she is no longer with him. He is the coach for Christine Zukowski and Colin Pennington. Just for the record, Pam Gregory is Kimmie Meissner's coach. She has been named developmental coach of the year several times and is working with a lot of up and comers now. She works with Kimmie, Christine(with Digregorio), Shaun Rogers, just to name a few.

Evdokia · Mar 20, 2004

Jaana said:
Viktor Kudriatshev has been a coach for a long time. I believe one of his pupils won World Championships in middle seventies. I think it was Sergei Volkov (or V. Kovalev).

AFAIK it was Sergej Volkov. - He was the first Soviet Union World Champion in a single skating dicipline back in 1975.

Didn´t Maria B win European Championship while coached by Viktor K?

No, she won her first European Championships in 1998, which was actually the first year she had been coached by Tchaijkowskaja. But I think Maria B won twice bronze at Europeans with Kudriavzev.

lulu · Mar 20, 2004

icenut84 said:
I I don't know who else he coaches/coached though, but T&M are a pretty high level team.

He also briefly coached Viktoria Volchkova for a while. She seemed to be doing well with him, but apparently there were issues of homesickness,so she is back in Russia now.

Rachael · Mar 20, 2004

Awesome said:
Jeff DeGregorio also coached Sara Wheat, but she is no longer with him. He is the coach for Christine Zukowski and Colin Pennington. Just for the record, Pam Gregory is Kimmie Meissner's coach. She has been named developmental coach of the year several times and is working with a lot of up and comers now. She works with Kimmie, Christine(with Digregorio), Shaun Rogers, just to name a few.

Since when is Colin coached by Jeff Dregorio? The last time I checked, he was coached by Carol Heiss Jenkins.

Who will be the next generation of legendary coaches?

lulu

soogar

Matt

Ladskater

~ Figure Skating Is My Passion ~

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl

curious

lulu

lulu

Jill

berthes ghost

berthes ghost

Dee4707

Ice Is Slippery - Alexie Yagudin

Ptichka

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soogar

icenut84

Jaana

Awesome

Evdokia

lulu

Rachael

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