Any Easy Way Of Finding Out All The Skaters A Coach Is Working With?

I was wondering if there is a quick and easy way of finding out who all a particular coach is working with.

The reason I ask is that I have been sitting on a piece of news that you guys might find interesting. However, there is one crucial piece of the puzzle missing, and I don’t know where to find it.

A few weeks ago, I called into a particular ice rink on the off-chance that I might see one of the international competitive skaters that are based at that rink. As it turned out, neither of them were even in the country – one was on holidays, and the other was doing a competition overseas.

But, what I did see was far more interesting. During the hour or so that I was in the building (I was around the rink 3 or 4 times during that hour, but only for a few minutes each time), there was a training session going on. One skater was on the ice, while another was at the boards, itching to get onto the ice!

I was actually very impressed with the girl that was on the ice. Age-wise, I would estimate that she was 15/16. As you know, I’m no technical expert. But she did look to be spot on with everything she did. Admittedly, she was a bit on the slow side, but the speed should come as she gets more confident.

The thing is, I have no idea who this girl is! I’ve seen photos of quite a few skaters that train at that rink, and from that have been able to work out who the girl that was waiting impatiently by the boards is. But none of the skaters in the photos look like the girl who I actually saw skating.

I suppose I could just contact the other girl through Facebook, and ask her who that was that was on the ice. But I would feel very uncomfortable talking to a girl that young (I reckon that she’s about 12/13).

The interesting thing, though, is the coach that was with them. I recognised the coach straight away. Now, unless the person I’m thinking of has a double that is in the same line of work, this coach is rather famous. And their charges have been rather successful recently. So it would be more than a bit of a coup for these skaters to be working with this coach.

So, is there anywhere I can go to on the internet that has a comprehensive list of all the skaters that a particular coach is working with. If there was, it would be easy to find the girls that I saw, as they would be a different nationality to all the other pupils that I know are on this coach’s books!

I don’t really want to reveal any more details, as I want to make sure that I have got everything right. Especially the identity of the coach (after all, it is possible that it is somebody that just happens to look like another coach).

So, can anybody help?

CaroLiza_fan

CaroLiza_fan said:

... So, is there anywhere I can go to on the internet that has a comprehensive list of all the skaters that a particular coach is working with. If there was, it would be easy to find the girls that I saw, as they would be a different nationality to all the other pupils that I know are on this coach’s books! ...

Click to expand...

Just throwing out a couple of long-shot ideas:


Good luck.

golden411 said:

Just throwing out a couple of long-shot ideas:

Do you think the mystery skater will be competing in any ISU events this season (or already has ISU experience)??
If so, you could try using a search engine to search within isuresults.com for the coach's name -- to see whether you can figure out the skater's name based on the search results.

Also, not to get a comprehensive list, but to reach your ultimate goal of finding the mystery skater's name:
Do you know what country she is from? And do you think she is from the same country as the younger skater whom you did identify?
Then I would try searching for the coach's name (possibly with the younger skater's name) within the country's domain ... with the hope that an article or blog or something in the mystery skater's country has mentioned the coaching relationship.​

Good luck.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply.

Purely from looking at them, the younger girl was definitely a native of the country I was in. The older girl, well, I think she was, but I'm not as sure.

Before you replied, I thought that there were only 2 skaters from this country that were competing internationally (the ones that were overseas when I was visiting!) Both are currently at Junior level, and although they both have ISU Bios, only one is actually on the list of links (So, something else to add to the list of things the ISU have to update on their website!)

But, I decided to follow your advice and do a Google search, and discovered that the younger girl I saw has been competing internationally for a few years now, at Cubs level and now at Basic Novice A level.

I never knew that there were international competitions at these levels!

Unfortunately, I have not been able to find an ISU Bio or anything else for the younger girl on the ISU Results site. But I have been able to find some results through Google. In 2012, she finished dead last in a Cubs competition in France; and last season she:


But, I can't find anything that names a coach. And, even with doing a search for her name and the suspected coach's name, there was nothing.

So, no progress in finding out who the older girl is.


But, just thinking about it, as well as having a page listing ISU Bio links by country, it would be a good idea if the ISU also had a page that listed the ISU Bio links by coaches.

Or, even better, turn the ISU Results site into a proper database, where you can search by any field (name, country, home rink, coach, choreographer, etc.).

Now that would be invaluable for trying to find out info quickly!

CaroLiza_fan

CaroLiza_fan said:

... Or, even better, turn the ISU Results site into a proper database, where you can search by any field (name, country, home rink, coach, choreographer, etc.). ...

Click to expand...

BTW, speaking of skating databases, https://statsonice.com/ might come in handy to you and Mrs. P (and others) for future research and/or data-crunching.

Not saying that it will help you with the question at hand, but I've been meaning to mention it somewhere on GS ever since Anita18 posted the link on FSU about a month ago.

(It's apparently a new site that still is a work in a progress.)

And I guess it's run by former skater Curran Oi! He's a student at MIT.

Thanks for the heads up!

golden411 said:

BTW, speaking of skating databases, https://statsonice.com/ might come in handy to you and Mrs. P (and others) for future research and/or data-crunching.

Not saying that it will help you with the question at hand, but I've been meaning to mention it somewhere on GS ever since Anita18 posted the link on FSU about a month ago.

http://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/ind...for-skaters-skating-comps.93014/#post-4316780​

(It's apparently a new site that still is a work in a progress.)

Click to expand...

What a brilliant website! This is exactly what we have been calling out for for years!

Of course, because it is so new, there are still many things that have still to be added. Like, for example, whenever I clicked into the bio pages for skaters from the country I was interested in, there were only links to results. No details about the skaters themselves had been added yet.

But, for finding out about coaches/choreographers, Stats On Ice is already miles ahead of anywhere else. Like, when you are looking at a skater's profile, all you have to do is click on the name of their coach (or choreographer), and it brings up a list of who else they are working with.

Admittedly, these coaching lists only take account of those skaters who already have full Biographies on Stats On Ice. So, they are not a one-stop-shop just yet. But, once they complete filling in the biographies for all the skaters in the database, this is going to be an invaluable feature.

So, at the moment, ISU Results is probably still the place to go if you want to know about the skaters themselves. But, it is already much easier to find info about coaches/choreographers, and skaters' results on Stats On Ice.

By definition, the governing body of the sport should have the most comprehensive archive of figure skating. But, their website does not allow them to make the most of it. It needed to be overhauled long ago.

Let's be blunt, the ISU Results site is no longer fit for purpose. In these days of search engines, it is no longer adequate to just have a list of links to skaters' biographies for each category, ordered by country. It needs to be made into a proper, searchable database. And that is exactly what Stats On Ice have done.

Personally, I would like the makers of Stats On Ice to go into partnership with the ISU. If they worked together, we could end up with the ultimate skating database.

If the information already on the Stats On Ice and ISU Results websites were pooled, and brought together using the Stats On Ice technology, it would be a lot quicker and cheaper to achieve a comprehensive database than if both sides were trying to do it independently of each other.

But, those are just my thoughts.

As for my query, well I found Stats On Ice VERY useful. Before yesterday, I only knew about 6 female skaters from this country. Stats On Ice were able to come up with 18 female skaters and 3 male skaters!

There are no pictures on Stats On Ice (perhaps that could be an idea for the future). So I put the names into Facebook, and was able to find photos for nearly all of them. But, when you take out the 2 Junior level skaters that I already knew about, they all looked too young to be the girl I saw.

That said, since it is now nearly a month since I saw her, and I don't have any photos to remind me, I am starting to struggle to remember what she looked like!

CaroLiza_fan