Motivations of skaters ranked 5-10 in US?

[TGee]

Coaching successfully requires a much different skill set than being an elite competitor. Very few prominent coaches were top competitors in their skating division. Maybe it's because successful skaters have a single view of the right way to approach skating because that method worked for them?

Uhm, not sure about this.

In Canada, we've had a few fairly famous skaters who became high profile coaches. Donald Jackson 1962 World Champion, and Brian Orser come to mind.

Certainly can say that many coaches market themselves as having reached the national level or international level. Likewise, they note the highest level that their skaters have reached...

Experience seems to be highly valued. I've heard folks argue that skaters who have been Olympians or at Worlds, even if they were far from the podium, are much less anxious coaches, mainly because they've seen it all themselves.

So, I can see that for someone in his or her 20s, who has the opportunity to represent their country internationally and loves the sport, hanging in and getting a bit more international seasoning before retiring to full time coaching would be a good long run career investment.

 

[noskates]

I think if you're in the 5-10 ranking there is always hope for a major breakthrough........for example, Mariah Bell. I'm not sure where she was ranked but her progress from last year to this year is remarkable.

I think every skater must want to win, but many of them skate for the love of it. Figure skating is no different from many sports in that only a very small percentage of the participants are going to reach the top.

Interesting question, but I think the answer is going to differ from skater to skater. Some of them, like I imagine Ricky Dornbush, have great talent but somewhere along the way their education takes more of a precedence. As a person matures their goals change. Doesn't mean they don't want to still win, but maybe the effort changes.

 

[drivingmissdaisy]

Uhm, not sure about this.

In Canada, we've had a few fairly famous skaters who became high profile coaches. Donald Jackson 1962 World Champion, and Brian Orser come to mind.

Certainly can say that many coaches market themselves as having reached the national level or international level. Likewise, they note the highest level that their skaters have reached...

Experience seems to be highly valued. I've heard folks argue that skaters who have been Olympians or at Worlds, even if they were far from the podium, are much less anxious coaches, mainly because they've seen it all themselves.

Certainly there are coaches who were successful skaters. Urmanov and Heiss-Jenkins come to mind as well. What I was getting at was that the skaters from 5-10 can't necessarily count on being a successful coach as a career merely because they have the skills to be a successful skating competitor.

 

[ice coverage]

Interesting, I didn't realize that there was a placeholder's list and didn't see the US on the list for the next Challenger on the ISU site. ...

To clarify:

As I said before, I was/am talking about "placeholder slots" on the USFS assignments chart. Not talking about the ISU site.
"Placeholder slots" being my own unofficial terminology. What I mean is:

I'm sure you're familiar with the Skate Canada assignments page, which originally is posted over the summer.

https://skatecanada.ca/national-team/international-assignments/​

The original version typically has a Senior Internationals section with blank spaces (what I would call "placeholder slots) shown under the names of several specific comps (Nebelhorn, Finlandia, etc). The blank spaces eventually are filled in with names of skater entries on updated versions of the chart that are published later.
The comps with empty "placeholder slots" on the Skate Canada chart have been quite a reliable indicator (AFAIK) as to where Skate Canada will be sending skaters (even before it publishes the names of the skater entries).

Same deal for USFS and its assignments chart (I gave the link above). (Does not matter for the purposes of this discussion, but the USFS chart is one big list in chronological order [not broken down into different groups of JGPs, GPs, Internationals, etc.].)
USFS has been known to add a couple of additional comps to the chart over the course of the season.
But in my experience, I don't think it ever has removed a comp with placeholder slots from the chart.
So the fact that this year's USFS chart already lists Warsaw, Tallinn, and Golden Spin (with blank spaces/"placeholder slots" underneath each) is a reasonably reliable indicator that USFS eventually will be publishing skater assignments for those comps.

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... Very few prominent coaches were top competitors in their skating division. ...

But not every skater-turned-coach needs to be a "prominent" coach (working with national/world/Olympic champions/medalists).
Speaking proverbially, "we" can't all be Dubreuil/Lauzon or Orser. And that's fine.
I'm no expert, but I'm guessing/hoping that Doug Razzano (for example) is making a decent income from his "day job" (AFAIK) of coaching skaters in Scottsdale -- many of whom will never qualify for Nationals.

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I don't know much about it, just that at some points I had heard mention of skaters with a good chance of qualifying for the next Olympics receiving funding.

I did a quick search and these are the most relevant links I could find: ...

Thanks for your reply and links, gkelly .

 

[FlattFan]

Coaching successfully requires a much different skill set than being an elite competitor. Very few prominent coaches were top competitors in their skating division. Maybe it's because successful skaters have a single view of the right way to approach skating because that method worked for them?

There are only a handful of really successful coaches. For the thousand of nameless coaches, being top 10 at US Nationals makes you stand out.