Eteri Tutberidze as a coach

[FSGMT]

Until some years ago, she was almost unknown in the skating world, now she is the coach of some of the best Russian (and world-level) skaters: Lipnitskaya, Medvedeva, Voronov, Pitkeev, Kvitelashvili (Shelepen when she won JGPF medals)... what do you think about her as a coach? It always amazes me how consistent her students are (Kvitelashvili is the only exception right now I think): is she particularly severe with them or does she simply choose to coach the best skaters? What about her coaching "style" (technique, run-throughs etc.): have you ever read anything (interviews, articles) about it? About the technique, to me, she looks a bit the "as long as you land it, it's ok" type of coach...

 

[Kalina]

I am very curious about her as well, I have to say. Here and here are a couple of interviews, translated over at FSU (huge thanks to FSU user quiqie).
Also, in this recent interview with Voronov (here, thanks to TAHbKA) he talks about his relationship with her and her coaching style a bit.

 

[sky_fly20]

Tutberidze isn't new she was in the US before but returned to Russia. What I do know is that Tutberidze weighs her students everyday to check their weight
even Julia has said in interview though maybe a mistranslation from google " a figure skater should not be fat "
she takes technique first in her students jumps, she has two types of skaters those who practice jumps without music or those who practice with music
I think she is very honest who will take any skater who goes to her, but will only focus on the ones with potential
If Mishin retires she could be a powerful influential coach along with Goncharenko and Buyanova ( with Tarasova's help of course ) in Russia

Goncharenko is also another rising coach in Russia, she is known to take emotions for her skaters not just performance
though her students Axels is atrocious take Elena Radionova and poor Samarin who at 15 still does not have a 3A

 

[hanca]

Goncharenko is also another rising coach in Russia, she is known to take emotions for her skaters not just performance
though her students Axels is atrocious take Elena Radionova and poor Samarin who at 15 still does not have a 3A

But then take Proklova's axel - there is nothing wrong with it. So is Goncharenko to blame, or is it that some skaters find axel harder than others... Would Samarin have the axel with someone else, or is it just his 'bad' jump? Lambiel struggled with his triple axel throughout his senior career, despite having no problem with his quads. Would you blame Lambiel's coach for that?

 

[hanca]

Until some years ago, she was almost unknown in the skating world, now she is the coach of some of the best Russian (and world-level) skaters: Lipnitskaya, Medvedeva, Voronov, Pitkeev, Kvitelashvili (Shelepen when she won JGPF medals)... what do you think about her as a coach? It always amazes me how consistent her students are (Kvitelashvili is the only exception right now I think): is she particularly severe with them or does she simply choose to coach the best skaters? What about her coaching "style" (technique, run-throughs etc.): have you ever read anything (interviews, articles) about it? About the technique, to me, she looks a bit the "as long as you land it, it's ok" type of coach...

From the interviews I read, I have a feeling that she is very strict task master, perfectionist and very much concentrates on the correct technique. She didn't simply choose the coach the best students; she had Lipnitskaya, Medvedeva and Shelepen from young age, so that indicates that she can bring them at a very high level herself. The matter with Shelepen makes me think that if she doesn't get what she wants to, she can get pretty mean and not everyone can take it. (for example if you had a bad day and your jumps were not working, it may not be very pleasant to be around her). There were reports on the forum that Shelepen had at some stage such a hard time that she had to change coaches. She is probably a very tough lady, but it seems that she is tough towards herself as much as towards the others, so her skaters respect her a lot (from interview with Voronov, how he speaks about her).

Voronov was considered as a 'lost cause'. She was asked to take him on and she managed to turn him out more consistent than he has ever been. She said in some interview that she had some doubts about taking him on; (his age probably doesn't make him as mouldable as her students that she has from younger age) but she saw a challenge in it. From Voronov interview it seems that he had a pretty tough time at first but he managed to get through it and became strong.

There was one thing in one of the past interview she said that made me a bit worried. She said something like that she learned to find the point how far she can push someone and where all the pushing doesn't make sense any more because the student would just get injured. Polina Shelepen left her injured; she tried to compete in the following season (2012-2013) despite her injury but at the end it was impossible because she wasn't getting the results anyway so she sat out the rest of the season. As far as I know, she is still not fully healed and we are now in 2014! Julia Lipnitskaya had concussion last year after falling on her head during her training and missed GPF and senior nationals. While I am aware that injuries do happen in this sport, I am wondering whether Tutberidze was referring to Polina or Julia when she said that in her interview. I am wondering whether either of those girls were pushed even when they were completely exhausted and made a mistake that resulted in injury.

 

[FSGMT]

From the interviews I read, I have a feeling that she is very strict task master, perfectionist and very much concentrates on the correct technique. She didn't simply choose the coach the best students; she had Lipnitskaya, Medvedeva and Shelepen from young age, so that indicates that she can bring them at a very high level herself. The matter with Shelepen makes me think that if she doesn't get what she wants to, she can get pretty mean and not everyone can take it. (for example if you had a bad day and your jumps were not working, it may not be very pleasant to be around her). There were reports on the forum that Shelepen had at some stage such a hard time that she had to change coaches. She is probably a very tough lady, but it seems that she is tough towards herself as much as towards the others, so her skaters respect her a lot (from interview with Voronov, how he speaks about her).

Voronov was considered as a 'lost cause'. She was asked to take him on and she managed to turn him out more consistent than he has ever been. She said in some interview that she had some doubts about taking him on; (his age probably doesn't make him as mouldable as her students that she has from younger age) but she saw a challenge in it. From Voronov interview it seems that he had a pretty tough time at first but he managed to get through it and became strong.

There was one thing in one of the past interview she said that made me a bit worried. She said something like that she learned to find the point how far she can push someone and where all the pushing doesn't make sense any more because the student would just get injured. Polina Shelepen left her injured; she tried to compete in the following season (2012-2013) despite her injury but at the end it was impossible because she wasn't getting the results anyway so she sat out the rest of the season. As far as I know, she is still not fully healed and we are now in 2014! Julia Lipnitskaya had concussion last year after falling on her head during her training and missed GPF and senior nationals. While I am aware that injuries do happen in this sport, I am wondering whether Tutberidze was referring to Polina or Julia when she said that in her interview. I am wondering whether either of those girls were pushed even when they were completely exhausted and made a mistake that resulted in injury.

About the technique, I don't really think so: Julia's jumps are very consistent, yes, but the technique is not really the best (she received edge calls for both flip and lutz and her 2A has always been horrible, even if it's a bit better now), and the same can be said for Kvitelashvili and Shelepen; I think that the only ones with good technique are Medvedeva and Pikteev...
And, about the injuris, I think that she's very good at dealing with them: accidents happen in training, and Julia was never really affected by injuries (except Junior Nationals last year, where she didn't really skate bad, though); Shelepen began really struggling with injuries when she left Tutberidze, so I think that she knows how to deal with injuried skaters (how much time do they need to recover, which competitions it's better to skip etc.)

 

[hanca]

About the technique, I don't really think so: Julia's jumps are very consistent, yes, but the technique is not really the best (she received edge calls for both flip and lutz and her 2A has always been horrible, even if it's a bit better now), and the same can be said for Kvitelashvili and Shelepen; I think that the only ones with good technique are Medvedeva and Pikteev...
And, about the injuris, I think that she's very good at dealing with them: accidents happen in training, and Julia was never really affected by injuries (except Junior Nationals last year, where she didn't really skate bad, though); Shelepen began really struggling with injuries when she left Tutberidze, so I think that she knows how to deal with injuried skaters (how much time do they need to recover, which competitions it's better to skip etc.)

If her skaters had all such a bad technique, they wouldn't be so consistent. It is very hard to achieve any sort of consistency if your technique sucks.

About Julia never being affected with her injuries - well, last season she missed her first ever GPF, she missed senior nationals, she skated badly at junior nationals and not up to her standard at junior worlds, so I would disagree that Julia has never been affected by her injuries. Also, at the beginning of the last season she had some injuries - if I remember correctly she missed the test skates because she wasn't allowed to skate yet. Shelepen has been struggling with injuries before she left Tutberidze. The news about her being injured came before the news that she changed coaches, so the injury that caused her awful season last year was actually the one that she got while training with Tutberidze and which did not fully healed. Only time will show whether more skaters from her group will have problems with injuries, but when she said in one of her interview that she learned to know how far she can push someone and that if she pushed more, the skater may get injured, it did make me wonder who was the skater on whom she learned that.

 

[tulosai]

Thanks for the interview links! I love her taking about other skaters!

My favorite part, of course:

"But Suzuki is very hard working - behind her every success there is great work. I have tremendous respect for such athletes."

 

[Sara]

Serafima Sakhanovic is training in Moscow at the moment together with Eteri's students Lipnitskaia, Adyan Pitkeev and Evgenia Medvedeva. She used to train in St.Petersburg under Alina Pisarenko. No idea though if she has changed coaches permanently or if she plans to go back to Pisarenko. Eteri has a very promising group under her wings! Evgenia and Serafima still need to wait one more season before becoming age eligible for senior competitions.

 

[nimi]

In the Voronov interview over at absoluteskating.com this was an interesting bit:

What does she do differently compared to your previous coaches?
Maybe it sounds silly but – she does everything differently.

In what sense? Did she change your jump technique?
Here I have to disappoint you. She didn’t change it. Changing something so basic as jump technique is very hard for a 26-year old skater, I’d say – impossible. We redid everything, the whole package. Look at the skaters from countries like Japan or North America – their approach to skating basics is a little bit different than what we have in Russia. For instance, I never did compulsory figures.

Oh, never?
Really never, I didn’t have a chance. North American skaters do, for instance Patrick Chan. But here in Russia, as soon as a boy can stand on his skates – we start immediately with jumps. And you see the result.

What else does your coach pay attention to? Probably also to the choreography?
Not only choreography but we work a lot on skating quality, gliding, edges, the same skating skills and transitions. Besides jumps you also have to relay imagery. It’s extremely hard to unite all those aspects because mens’ figure skating has risen to a new level. Right now mens’ skating is extremely complicated. Your program lasts 4 minutes and you must do quads, triples, have good spins, transitions and good interpretation. It’s a really a hard task.

 

[Sophie-Anna]

Serafima Sakhanovic is training in Moscow at the moment together with Eteri's students Lipnitskaia, Adyan Pitkeev and Evgenia Medvedeva. She used to train in St.Petersburg under Alina Pisarenko. No idea though if she has changed coaches permanently or if she plans to go back to Pisarenko. Eteri has a very promising group under her wings! Evgenia and Serafima still need to wait one more season before becoming age eligible for senior competitions.

Well, I think she is there just for off-season practices. Isn’t she in Novogorsk? Lot of Russian skaters stays in Novogorsk between the seasons.

 

[Sara]

Well, I think she is there just for off-season practices. Isn’t she in Novogorsk? Lot of Russian skaters stays in Novogorsk between the seasons.

Someone asked the two girls if they now train together and they confirmed (another person who seemed a friend of Serafima commented in ig that "this was the right decision"). But yes, maybe they're just training together during the off season, who knows...

 

[Sam-Skwantch]

I almost wrote in the "Coaches Rundown" thread yesterday that Serafima should train with Eteri. Someone asked if anyone in particular should make a coach change and why. I was going to suggest Eteri to fix Serafima's jump landings. I dont lnow what kept me from posting it but i was that close to predicting the future. I think this is a good move even if just for the summer.:yay:

 

[BlackPack]

I don't know much about Eteri but I think she is beautiful and I loved how she held Julia in the K&C when she was upset at her falling during her Sochi SP. Julia had the saddest pout and Eteri consoled her.

 

[Sara]

I almost wrote in the "Coaches Rundown" thread yesterday that Serafima should train with Eteri. Someone asked if anyone in particular should make a coach change and why. I was going to suggest Eteri to fix Serafima's jump landings. I dont lnow what kept me from posting it but i was that close to predicting the future. I think this is a good move even if just for the summer.:yay:

That came to my mind as well, that Eteri could help Sera to fix her technique.

 

[Sophie-Anna]

Just for summer or also for the next season, I think it was a good decision. Evgenia and Serafima are very close in age and if they practice together, they also improve their skills much more. Evgenia has Julia on the same ice, she has got somebody, who is better and Julia can help Evgenia to be better. Is there in Serafima's group somebody better? Somebody who can help her in this way? I'm not sure. But this is definitely a good step.
And if we talk about Eteri...I think she is very good coach and also very nice person. I met her at the Europeans in Budapest this year. She just walked next to me so I've asked her for signature. She gave me her signature and she was very nice to me. She didn't look annoyed that I want her signature or something...

 

[Meoima]

I don't know much about Eteri but I think she is beautiful and I loved how she held Julia in the K&C when she was upset at her falling during her Sochi SP. Julia had the saddest pout and Eteri consoled her.

I can see that Eteri is very protective of Yulia. She is a good coach, with so much talents under her wings at the same time. But I am kinda unsure about the jump techniques, though.

 

[BlackPack]

I can see that Eteri is very protective of Yulia. She is a good coach, with so much talents under her wings at the same time. But I am kinda unsure about the jump techniques, though.

Yes, her 2axel technique drives me insane. It has no elevation and the verticality necessary for axels. This may cause problems as Julia grows into a woman with more weight and curves. It reminded me of Tara Lipinski's 2axels which were a roller-skater's technique.

 

[Sophie-Anna]

Yes, her 2axel technique drives me insane. It has no elevation and the verticality necessary for axels. This may cause problems as Julia grows into a woman with more weight and curves. It reminded me of Tara Lipinski's 2axels which were a roller-skater's technique.

I've read in one article that Julia landed double axel before she moved to Moscow to train with Eteri. So maybe she has got this bad technique on double axel from her previous coach in Ekaterinburg...Maybe not...But I think Medvedeva's 2A is pretty good, much better than Julia's and Adian Pitkeev has very good
technique on his 3A and also good height.

 

[Sam-Skwantch]

Yulia's 2a is improving!!! Look at it just a week or two before skate Canada this year.

(0:50 mark)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1052CQRfdw

Now compare to WC's!!!!

WC 2014 (1:18 mark) smooth as silk!!
http://youtu.be/HEoVqttv6bc

Call me crazy all you want but I love her 2a and think its the best technique for combo's. I've been saying if she gets a quad it will be 2a-4t