Who do you think should coach Kirk now?

I don't know about Frank Carroll. When his skater does well, he looks all fine and happy, but when his skater does badly, to me he looks like he's withholding. I don't think a coach should tell a skater who's not skated to his/her potential that s/he's better than s/he is, but unless the skater completely disregards what they've done in training -- ex: Bowman -- a little bit of empathy is in order after a bad or relatively bad skate. After all, it is the skaters, not the coaches, who get out on the ice and put it on the line. Every coach wants to coach a winner, but, IMO, it shouldn't be about Carroll's dreams.

I've never seen Tarasova or Moskvina with the same look as Carroll in Kiss 'n Cry, even when they are literally supporting their skaters, and the skaters haven't lived up to their potential in that performance. Nor with Buttle's, Savoie's, or Jahnke's coaches. Or even Kudriatsev. Joanne McLeod knows that three or four different Sandhus might show up, and that it's her decision to stay or leave the roller coaster ride. Wagner didn't withdraw from Cohen after Cohen forgot all the new stuff she'd been taught in her Worlds LP, nor did Mishin rag on Plushenko after his Euros skate. At least not in Kiss 'n Cry.

Hockeyfan, Mishin can be brutal sometimes (IMHO). Sometimes, when Plushy gets bad marks, she just gets up and leaves K&C. After SLC SP, in an interview he said, "To me, Olympics are over". Ouch!

TT is indeed a very different story. She really feels with all her skaters. In fact, you could tell things weren't right between her and Sasha because of how she reacted at GPF after Sasha's LP -- barely comforting her.

Zhanna Gromova also looks very supportive with Irina.

Moskvina, I think, is just very reserved. I think she is very supportive, but she rarely shows her feelings in public. Also among the Russian coaches Zhulin got some flack for being non-supportive with Murvanidze at Dortmund. Well, there is also Lininchuk, who I think doesn't care about anything other than herself.

Come to think of it, may be it's just a man/woman thing. Perhaps it's just easier for women to be "motherly", and for men to be "all business".

IIRC, I believe it was Don Laws sitting with Bebe in the K&C at Nats. I don't recall Ness being there.

Who has Ness coached since Kristy Y?

I think Ness worked with Lucinda Ruh and Lu Chen for a while. Other than that, I don't think she's had any skaters on the Nationals stage since Yamaguchi.

I feel Jenny Kirk should find a coach in east coast close to greater Boston area. Moving away from home is really very hard to her and her sister. She has a great sister who stopped taking college classes for a while just to support Jenny. But it is not fair to let her sister totally ignor her own future.

There are some great coaches at Conneticut, Delaware, and New York. Her sister can also find good universities in these area to take classes.

Frank vs Richard Callaghan. If anything, I think RC is probably more formal with his students than Frank. I don't recall any of his students referring to him as Rich/Richard - he's Mr Callaghan. We all know that MK refers to 'Frank' not Mr Carroll. As someone else mentioned, the extra emotional support from a coach seems to be needed when the student is far from family.

Also, I think the coaches know what their students need. They are competitors. Many of them are beating themselves up when they are sitting in the kiss'n'cry after a bad performance. I know when I'm upset with myself, I don't want to hear platitudes or diatribes - save it for later. I'd also like to think that the 'remote' coach is actually trying to think about how he'll help his student get past the bad performance.

As for Jenny, I think she's done ok with Callaghan. Seems like she probably needed to get away from Boston after her mother's death. However, her problems also seem to be related to pressures. Her performance at World's was supposedly influenced by the death of her maternal aunt. Yet, I don't know why she didn't skate cleaner at Nats and other competitions. Both her SP and LP really showcased her talents this year, but she didn't skate 2 great programs except at Skate America. Does she a have a similar issue to Sasha's - wanting the win so much that concentration or something goes missing during major competitions?

Anyway, I think Jenny should come back east to Boston, CT/NY/NJ. She seems to be an east coast kinda girl.

"If anything, I think RC is probably more formal with his students than Frank. I don't recall any of his students referring to him as Rich/Richard - he's Mr Callaghan. We all know that MK refers to 'Frank' not Mr Carroll."

I'd just like to confirm that this is even more true than you would imagine. At the rink he coaches at, I've caught a glimpse of him working with an entire ballet class full of little girls ages approximately 7 through 10, and they all call him "Frank." I wouldn't be a bit surprised if outside of the class, a few of them even refer to him as "Uncle Frank."

Actually on MKF, there is a poster who is a skater in So. Cal and she has said many times how caring a coach Frank is.

I always got the feeling that Frank was pretty caring about his skaters and was close to them, but he is also professional and expects them to work hard. You could tell how much he cared about Linda Fratianne, and Frank has publically said he loved Chris Bowman, but there is only so much someone can take and Chris nearly gave him a heart attack while they were together (not literally).
I remember Frank talking in an interview months after MK and him broke up and he said he recently saw MK and that they ended up talking about her new dog. He jokingly said that they probably known each other too long.

hockeyfan228 said:

I don't know about Frank Carroll. When his skater does well, he looks all fine and happy, but when his skater does badly, to me he looks like he's withholding. I don't think a coach should tell a skater who's not skated to his/her potential that s/he's better than s/he is, but unless the skater completely disregards what they've done in training -- ex: Bowman -- a little bit of empathy is in order after a bad or relatively bad skate. After all, it is the skaters, not the coaches, who get out on the ice and put it on the line. Every coach wants to coach a winner, but, IMO, it shouldn't be about Carroll's dreams.

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Actually, in a fluff piece, they showed Kwan in the kiss n cry after her 1997 Nationals LP (this was before the scores were announced and this part wasn't shown on tv at the time), and she was breathing hard and looked like she was about to break down and cry. Frank was really consoling her and helping her get through it. He seemed very supporting and empathetic to me.

IDLERACER said:

I'd just like to confirm that this is even more true than you would imagine. At the rink he coaches at, I've caught a glimpse of him working with an entire ballet class full of little girls ages approximately 7 through 10, and they all call him "Frank." I wouldn't be a bit surprised if outside of the class, a few of them even refer to him as "Uncle Frank." [/B]

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I am not sure how important that is. Most of Tarasova's students call her by the honorific name-and-patronimic -- Tatiana Anatolievna, even though many of them actually live with her.

I don't "get" this thread. Maybe this is one of those things they are talking about when they call FS a "woman's sport".

Since when does an athlete need to be coddled by their coach? If a skater can get a parent type realtionship from a coach that is missing at home, that's nice, but it's not a requirement. Jenny has a Dad, she doesn't need another one. What she does need is a coach who will fix her flutz, her lack of speed, her small jumps, her "vague" musicality,etc... All of the hugs in the world can't fix poor technique.

And what is all this nonsense of "I thought I once saw him give her a look for a split second once and I knew that his entire coaching career was all about being a bastard!"? We don't know these people, and I doubt that a K&C nano-moment is indicative of anything profound.