\
I am baffled at the criticism here directed at Raf as a coach. For the most part, I only see skaters improving after he started coaching them. He is a respected and popular coach for a reason. Furthermore, I think in terms of female skaters, Raf has more success and experience overall compared to Orser. I think fans usually look to Yuna's success and want skaters to go to Orser, but outside of Yuna, Orser's success lies mostly in his male students. If you look at the careers of Christina Gao and Elizabet Tursynbaeva, they aren't that impressive. On the other hand, Raf' has shown success with female skaters of a wide range of talent and personality: Michelle, Mao, Ashley.
I am glad Eunsoo is going to train abroad! I did not expect that she and Marin will have the same coach. I agree that they will push each other and an interesting rivalry could develop again between two skaters who share the same coach.
I am baffled at the criticism here directed at Raf as a coach. For the most part, I only see skaters improving after he started coaching them. He is a respected and popular coach for a reason. Furthermore, I think in terms of female skaters, Raf has more success and experience overall compared to Orser. I think fans usually look to Yuna's success and want skaters to go to Orser, but outside of Yuna, Orser's success lies mostly in his male students. If you look at the careers of Christina Gao and Elizabet Tursynbaeva, they aren't that impressive. On the other hand, Raf' has shown success with female skaters of a wide range of talent and personality: Michelle, Mao, Ashley.
Raf can be strict and sometimes too honest in interviews, but I also feel that he allows his skaters to be themselves, which is why he was able to work successfully with Adam and Ashley who have very independent mindsets and personalities. I think this will be good for both Eunsoo and Marin, who would probably be given more freedom and control in their skating.
Elizabet Tursynbaeva's SS has visible significant improvement!
Orser coached Gabrielle Daleman to a National Title and 4CC and Worlds medals.
Orser coached Gabrielle Daleman to a National Title and 4CC and Worlds medals. I don't think Michelle and Mao are good examples of Raf's teaching ability as neither of were with him for long nor went to new heights when they were with him.
But other than that, SoCal is a nice place to live, and team Raf does have very fun people. Romain, Mariah, Nathan seemed to have endless fun outside training, barbecue party, beach party, hockey games, shopping trips, you name it.
I would assume Eunsoo is going for Raf. It seems that most everyone who goes to Raf goes with the goal of improving their jumps.
I’m not sure of the exact set up of time with Raf vs. Nadia/Vera - but from the results produced - no one has been able to show much evidence that any of Raf’s skaters have improved significantly in spins, SS since joining Team Raf.
From the most recent results, it also does not seem like Raf is particularly strong in coaching ladies (other than Ashley) nor does he particularly focus on them.
But with Nathan going away to college - this could change ? Raf did recently mention the possibility of traveling to Yale this upcoming season to help Nathan prepare for 6-10 days before competitions. Not sure if this is really going to happen and if it does - would he bring other students with him.
From the most recent results, it also does not seem like Raf is particularly strong in coaching ladies (other than Ashley) nor does he particularly focus on them
While I agree Raf himself is probably not the best coach for ss or other non-jump aspects of skating, him saying program components aren’t important was very likely taken out of context and also very likely it was not what he meant as an ESL or things could’ve been not so accurately translated. With Raf, I don’t think we can always take what’s being reported word for word, partly because of his interview style, partly because of the language thing. Regardless of how anyone feels about the actual result of it, he wouldn’t have sent Nathan to Shae or Lori or Marina if he didn’t believe PCS were important.I follow Nathan closely - and I see the good and bad of Raf as a coach.
SS, transitions, jump quality - these will all be more important with the upcoming rule changes. Nathan has acknowledged this as well - quads alone won’t be enough for success and he wa
Raf has been quoted before saying program components are not terribly important - but he could possibly change his opinion on this
It seems that a skater needs quite a lot of self motivation to succeed with him - it is a crowded group and personal attention may be limited. Adam and Ashley were older when they went to Raf and achieved success with him, and their age and maturity may have helped. Nathan has had to go outside Team Raf to get the help he needs (such as his months with Marina, SS help when he went to Lori, extra trips to Lori for support with choreo), a lot of strength training and cardio outside of the rink (not sure how much of this is supervised by Team Raf, Nathan has his own PT from USOC)
From following Nathan and say compared to somewhere like the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, I wouldn’t say Lakewood is an amazing facility with amazing resources. Nathan has had to regularly drive to other rinks in socal (and the traffic there can be brutal) to get ice time. Lakewood is also a hockey rink so ice time is limited.
Not saying this won’t work for Eunsoo and Marin - and I hope for future success for them - but these are the realities of training with Team Raf.