Elena Ilinykh & Ruslan Zhiganshin

[tvuckic16]

Except it's not in Canton, it's Novi.

If I had a choice, it would be Linichuk but she seems to have left coaching. But I guess they are doing the three months to see if they like living in suburban Detroit, sharing the ice with a lot of teams of similar level, and potentially having Trump as President (and in the horrifying event that happens, will he kick Ruslan out of the country for being a Muslim?).

Canton, Novi, same thing. Its 18 miles. That's my daily commute to work in Boston.

Also, if Trump is elected I am moving to Canada... Hopefully that nightmare scenario will not actually happen. Not even republicans like him, he is only getting 30% of the republican vote. That means that the majority of republicans ~70% are voting for someone else. I am holding out hope nobody is actually that crazy as to elect him or Cruz.

 

[MK's Winter]

Her comes my long winded 2 cents. I think this move is brilliant for them. I have a lot of love for Kustrova though, for taking them in 2014-15 and leading them to a stellar international debut, that said, I think that camp lacks the ability to build. There is a lot of talk about Igor's teams struggling this year but look who he has, despite their troubles this year, he has done a lot for Chock and Bates. I personally find them a mediocre team but the are World silver medalist. While everyone looks at the greatness of DW and VM, I hope everyone remembers that he was the technician for so many years and the success of DW and VM in Sochi, I consider his success as well as Marina. Elena and Ruslan are real talent and I am excited to see what he will bring out in them. I think it will be great for Ruslan to have a males coach. I love the fact they will be out of Russia and away from the media. I think it will be less stressful for the both of them. And we all know these kids will work like hell, I hope the move is permanent and I can't wait for their 16/17 season!

 

[bramweld]

Her comes my long winded 2 cents. I think this move is brilliant for them. I have a lot of love for Kustrova though, for taking them in 2014-15 and leading them to a stellar international debut, that said, I think that camp lacks the ability to build. There is a lot of talk about Igor's teams struggling this year but look who he has, despite their troubles this year, he has done a lot for Chock and Bates. I personally find them a mediocre team but the are World silver medalist. While everyone looks at the greatness of DW and VM, I hope everyone remembers that he was the technician for so many years and the success of DW and VM in Sochi, I consider his success as well as Marina.

Elena and Ruslan are real talent and I am excited to see what he will bring out in them. I think it will be great for Ruslan to have a males coach. I love the fact they will be out of Russia and away from the media. I think it will be less stressful for the both of them. And we all know these kids will work like hell, I hope the move is permanent and I can't wait for their 16/17 season!

Yes. Muhaha. Yes. 100% Agree. Breaking out into my happy dance. Can I tell you when I read her interview this morning I was a wreck. I was bawling; both out of sadness and joy. Joy first, because this is answers to prayer. They have a real big chance here. But I was saddened to learn of all they had endured through what must have been two very harrowing seasons in Russia. I hope the kids find peace in their new training situation.

 

[Alba]

I wouldn't say that Shpilband has more political clout than K/A. Also, Shpilband could use a boost right now, considering his top US team just got kicked off the top spot on the podium.

I'm not a fan of Shpilband as you all know but if you can say something for sure about the man is that he does have a lot of political power and K&A are nowhere near him when it comes to that. Indeed K&A weakest point is the lack of power they have in their own country, not to mention at international level. Of course, power doesn't last forever and this is true for every coach. I like the work that K&A have done with IZ, on the technical level as well as the freedom about the artistic vision. So I have no complains with them about these aspects but they have been a total disaster when it comes to: psychological preparation, strategy, communication with the judges and their own officials, and PR. These are issues which worries me but in anycase, I suppose they know what's best for them. So whatever they choose to do it's gonna be okay. At least there will be no regrets.

 

[MK's Winter]

I'm not a fan of Shpilband as you all know but if you can say something for sure about the man is that he does have a lot of political power and K&A are nowhere near him when it comes to that. Indeed K&A weakest point is the lack of power they have in their own country, not to mention at international level. Of course, power doesn't last forever and this is true for every coach. I like the work that K&A have done with IZ, on the technical level as well as the freedom about the artistic vision. So I have no complains with them about these aspects but they have been a total disaster when it comes to: psychological preparation, strategy, communication with the judges and their own officials, and PR. These are issues which worries me.

I love that you are still up, lol. I think Ruslena is a team Igor has been waiting for. This is a team with artistic range. Technically they are solid in their skills, I am interested to see how they do with the NA style of training, as I have heard Russia is different in some respects. If they stay permanently they have an opportunity to maybe to the SLC challenger and some local comps which could benefit them as well.

 

[Alba]

I love that you are still up, lol.

I stayed home today because of fever.

I think Ruslena is a team Igor has been waiting for. This is a team with artistic range. Technically they are solid in their skills, I am interested to see how they do with the NA style of training, as I have heard Russia is different in some respects. If they stay permanently they have an opportunity to maybe to the SLC challenger and some local comps which could benefit them as well.

I don't know about the change at this stage. I think it's still to early to tell but it's good they are using this time to do something useful. Two and a half month there will do them very good, instead of stayin and do the usual in Russia.

 

[Tanka]

I have to disagree. From what I see lately in Dance field- great choreo helps the team lift their success to a totally different level. Current top field all have great skills but only Shibs seem to shine through and gain more power throughout the season. Papadakis/Cizeron have their unigue style that brings them up so high. As per other teams- I am not so sure. And knowing Elena- she has such a personality that I would totally hate to see her wear a false smile for a square routine. TES and Levels are very important but for them choreo is same important to be spotted out from the huge crowd of talents and be remebered and get the attention to what they do. They need that attention, they need people talking about them. This does not mean that they should say no to Igor's suggestions, no, but I wish they have a fantastic music and great choreo too. Not boring pretty please.

I think that Elena is totally unable to wear a false smile for a square routine. These guys need some plot, some idea to perform, otherwise they'll invent something to add and adding unplanned sense to a square routine won't do well. Some skates can just skate and smile but these two cannot. And somehow I'm sure Igor is aware of it.

 

[Sorrento]

I think that Elena is totally unable to wear a false smile for a square routine. These guys need some plot, some idea to perform, otherwise they'll invent something to add and adding unplanned sense to a square routine won't do well. Some skates can just skate and smile but these two cannot. And somehow I'm sure Igor is aware of it.

Hope so.

 

[borzaya]

I stayed home today because of fever.

I don't know about the change at this stage. I think it's still to early to tell but it's good they are using this time to do something useful. Two and a half month there will do them very good, instead of stayin and do the usual in Russia.

Get well soon! Great to see you here again! :yes:

 

[alithia]

I think that a move was on the works,and it's a good decision to make this move now. It doesn't have to do with panicking, it has to do with the skaters realising where their problematic areas lie, and even if we totally love them we can understand there were some preparation problems, and Elena admitted it to her interview in a way. Every team, every skater has some areas they can improve, and when you feel you're not progressing you have to take the extra step. And I'm proud of them. Ruslan can use a strong technical male coach,Igor may not be everyone's cup of tea but has my utmost respect as most people know for one simple fact. He stands by his teams, and can react in crisis. He has proven that many times. Plus a change of environment, a more isolated kind of practice attitude, and yes a new country even can help them psychologically too.
Kustarova is a great technical coach, but she doesn't know how to be strategic and how to build and sell her teams, and maybe this is the problem and almost 10 teams have already left the group.And we don't know the situation from the inside anyway. It's another thing to be technical and give a good base,and another thing to build a team and take it to the top. There was a great opportunity for her to evolve with I/Z, but this season it seemed a bit like she wanted to make I/Z 'her' team, like B/S, like adjust them to her style. Now I/Z are a special case, Elena has Shpillband technique, and I appreciate artistic creativity, but I still remember the problems B/S had with Faust in 2012. But this doesn't mean that Kustarova isn't a great coach. It's just the one step you need to take. Political power, well, when your team gets the 4th PCS in the FD, with no mistakes, at nationals, you have no political power left.And it's sad that there were some people, from the inside, as well as 'concerned individuals' that blamed the skaters for everything.

Novi is a good choice, you get the technical stuff, the simple thing that was missing, how to put elements correctly in order to get GOE. The twizzles, first and foremost, they are excellent twizzlers, doing extremely complex twizzles that were put there just because they could do them. And the rest we have to see. Nobody knows, and nobody can judge beforehand.

 

[Marta25]

I think that a move was on the works,and it's a good decision to make this move now. It doesn't have to do with panicking, it has to do with the skaters realising where their problematic areas lie, and even if we totally love them we can understand there were some preparation problems, and Elena admitted it to her interview in a way. Every team, every skater has some areas they can improve, and when you feel you're not progressing you have to take the extra step. And I'm proud of them. Ruslan can use a strong technical male coach,Igor may not be everyone's cup of tea but has my utmost respect as most people know for one simple fact. He stands by his teams, and can react in crisis. He has proven that many times. Plus a change of environment, a more isolated kind of practice attitude, and yes a new country even can help them psychologically too.
Kustarova is a great technical coach, but she doesn't know how to be strategic and how to build and sell her teams, and maybe this is the problem and almost 10 teams have already left the group.And we don't know the situation from the inside anyway. It's another thing to be technical and give a good base,and another thing to build a team and take it to the top. There was a great opportunity for her to evolve with I/Z, but this season it seemed a bit like she wanted to make I/Z 'her' team, like B/S, like adjust them to her style. Now I/Z are a special case, Elena has Shpillband technique, and I appreciate artistic creativity, but I still remember the problems B/S had with Faust in 2012. But this doesn't mean that Kustarova isn't a great coach. It's just the one step you need to take. Political power, well, when your team gets the 4th PCS in the FD, with no mistakes, at nationals, you have no political power left.And it's sad that there were some people, from the inside, as well as 'concerned individuals' that blamed the skaters for everything.

Novi is a good choice, you get the technical stuff, the simple thing that was missing, how to put elements correctly in order to get GOE. The twizzles, first and foremost, they are excellent twizzlers, doing extremely complex twizzles that were put there just because they could do them. And the rest we have to see. Nobody knows, and nobody can judge beforehand.

Nice seeing you again in here!

I`m also super happy about this change and I hope they will switch permanently to Novi. From Elena`s interview it sounds like they realize they need to move on, but I guess we will only know in May/June about their definitive decision. I know that Shpilband`s choreo is something a lot of people have their issues with, but I hope Bourzat will even that out. Besides, it has been a long time since Shpilband had such a talented team as Ruslena in his group, so who knows what will come out of it.

 

[surimi]

I am overjoyed to hear about IZ moving to Shpilband, and hope the coaching change is eventually made permanent. In that event, I can easily see IZ becoming his number 2, if not nr. 1. Hopefully he can help them build programs that are rewarded, help them with GOE, with reputation, with his willingness to adapt, and experience. Hopefully the change of environment will also help them feel more confident/at peace, and that will be seen in how clean their future programs are. The best of luck to IZ! :luv17:

 

[Alba]

Get well soon! Great to see you here again! :yes:

Thank you. It's great to see you too. :luv17:

 

[tvuckic16]

I think that a move was on the works,and it's a good decision to make this move now. It doesn't have to do with panicking, it has to do with the skaters realising where their problematic areas lie, and even if we totally love them we can understand there were some preparation problems, and Elena admitted it to her interview in a way. Every team, every skater has some areas they can improve, and when you feel you're not progressing you have to take the extra step. And I'm proud of them. Ruslan can use a strong technical male coach,Igor may not be everyone's cup of tea but has my utmost respect as most people know for one simple fact. He stands by his teams, and can react in crisis. He has proven that many times. Plus a change of environment, a more isolated kind of practice attitude, and yes a new country even can help them psychologically too.
Kustarova is a great technical coach, but she doesn't know how to be strategic and how to build and sell her teams, and maybe this is the problem and almost 10 teams have already left the group.And we don't know the situation from the inside anyway. It's another thing to be technical and give a good base,and another thing to build a team and take it to the top. There was a great opportunity for her to evolve with I/Z, but this season it seemed a bit like she wanted to make I/Z 'her' team, like B/S, like adjust them to her style. Now I/Z are a special case, Elena has Shpillband technique, and I appreciate artistic creativity, but I still remember the problems B/S had with Faust in 2012. But this doesn't mean that Kustarova isn't a great coach. It's just the one step you need to take. Political power, well, when your team gets the 4th PCS in the FD, with no mistakes, at nationals, you have no political power left.And it's sad that there were some people, from the inside, as well as 'concerned individuals' that blamed the skaters for everything.

Novi is a good choice, you get the technical stuff, the simple thing that was missing, how to put elements correctly in order to get GOE. The twizzles, first and foremost, they are excellent twizzlers, doing extremely complex twizzles that were put there just because they could do them. And the rest we have to see. Nobody knows, and nobody can judge beforehand.

Well, the Shpilband move is not permanent as I understand, at least not yet. I think getting him as a consultant would be great. A coaching change is not a bad idea at all, I just question some of the timing.

I think a coaching change would have been better right after their first season together, rather than now. I favored a move to Michigan then.

But, IZ were not interested in moving, everyone said they didn't want to leave Russia and K/A were then "awesome". I didn't think so, although I do like K/A and they are very good coaches. I thought a move to Shpilband then would have been great.

Now they have to move to Shpilband to "fix" things, instead of just moving there to get a boost. And I just wonder if a permanent move to Shipland now is a lot to handle when you have to rebuild your rankings.

That is why I would prefer for this season to just "consult" with Shpilband, rebuild, and then move to Shpilband later.

I fully support a move to Shpilband, it is just that I would have chosen a different timing. Like I said, I favored a move to Shiplband for last season, when most people were against that idea and felt IZ could do just as well with KA. I wondered if KA may not give them what they need. But, the argument was that KA hadn't done well with other teams because they never had a team as good as IZ and all their previous teams had one problem or another, which is true probably.

So, yes, now, that IZ didn't do well this last season, now everyone is saying "they need a change pronto etc etc", hit the "urgent" button... Well, let's see what happens. I hope it will give them what they need.

 

[bramweld]

If we know anything yet about Lena and Ruslan, it is this; they are loyal to a fault. They sincerely hoped that working with K/A might have brought them the results they needed. It didn't. They were very disappointed. However as the saying goes it is madness to keep on doing the same thing expecting to get a different result if you believe you're capable of more. So what do they do? They graciously inform their team that they need to try another environment and even while they prepare to leave their current coaches still help them.

If we were all to wait on what others call a convenient time to do something, we wouldn't accomplish a thing. This is the right move for them and it will yield good results in time. I hope their sponsors are patient with them, because they have the talent in spades. K/A with all due respect don't know how to manage the majority of their skaters. If you look at the softness in their skating, their soft knees, artistry, one could objectively say their music choices this season were out of step with the current trends in ice dance. The judges were disappointed in their choices, I think if they pulled themselves together under Igor their scores will go WAY UP!! These two are versatile and they need a coach with a vision who knows how to show off the best qualities of his skaters. Igor is genius at that, so why would I as a fan want them to delay that process to a more convenient time? The time is now. Procrastination always makes things worse.

 

[tvuckic16]

If we know anything yet about Lena and Ruslan, it is this; they are loyal to a fault. They sincerely hoped that working with K/A might have brought them the results they needed. It didn't. They were very disappointed. However as the saying goes it is madness to keep on doing the same thing expecting to get a different result if you believe you're capable of more. So what do they do? They graciously inform their team that they need to try another environment and even while they prepare to leave their current coaches still help them.

If we were all to wait on what others call a convenient time to do something, we wouldn't accomplish a thing. This is the right move for them and it will yield good results in time. I hope their sponsors are patient with them, because they have the talent in spades. K/A with all due respect don't know how to manage the majority of their skaters. If you look at the softness in their skating, their soft knees, artistry, one could objectively say their music choices this season were out of step with the current trends in ice dance. The judges were disappointed in their choices, I think if they pulled themselves together under Igor their scores will go WAY UP!! These two are versatile and they need a coach with a vision who knows how to show off the best qualities of his skaters. Igor is genius at that, so why would I as a fan want them to delay that process to a more convenient time? The time is now. Procrastination always makes things worse.

I agree and disagree... it has been my experience that sometimes timing is everything. Really, there is sometimes no difference between the quality of one candidate or job or whatever but the right place and the right time. People build their entire careers around the right time, the right time to apply to a job, a grant, have a baby etc.

Building a sound strategy to make an important move at a certain time is not procrastinating.

That being said, maybe now is the right time. I guess we'll see...

 

[tulosai]

I agree and disagree... it has been my experience that sometimes timing is everything. Really, there is sometimes no difference between the quality of one candidate or job or whatever but the right place and the right time. People build their entire careers around the right time, the right time to apply to a job, a grant, have a baby etc.

Building a sound strategy to make an important move at a certain time is not procrastinating.

That being said, maybe now is the right time. I guess we'll see...

On the other hand if you wait too long for the right time you might just miss it altogether or might have missed other opportunities that might have presented themselves if you had just gone for it to begin with. I think often the idea of 'the right time' is just a comforting myth people tell themselves to feel better, when more often the reality is that if you don't go for it you just miss out.

 

[bramweld]

I agree and disagree... it has been my experience that sometimes timing is everything. Really, there is sometimes no difference between the quality of one candidate or job or whatever but the right place and the right time. People build their entire careers around the right time, the right time to apply to a job, a grant, have a baby etc.

Building a sound strategy to make an important move at a certain time is not procrastinating.

That being said, maybe now is the right time. I guess we'll see...

True. But let's step away and look at it again. If they left last season they would be perceived as flighty. One season isn't enough to form a team, usually it takes three. In their second season, things went sideways and fast. They rightly perceived that things would only get worse from that point. There is a reason why everybody and their grandmother leaves K/A. They have been given a great chance to start something that may have slipped through their fingers if they waited another year. Igor may not be the best ID coach out there, but he's pretty high up there, so for them at this stage in their career, he was absolutely the best option. So as they say, let's see how they use the opportunity.

 

[tulosai]

They rightly perceived that things would only get worse from that point. There is a reason why everybody and their grandmother leaves K/A.

Something I don't wholly understand is how K/A can be so good both at forming junior teams and at taking teams to the very top of the junior ranks, yet somehow without exception their teams completely stagnate as seniors. I really do think it must be them since it would be statistically improbable at this point for it to be the teams, and also at this point after leaving them many of these teams did manage to break out (at least moreso) under someone else's coaching, so I really do wonder what it is. I do think partly they just don't politic enough or have enough political power, but I doubt that's all. It really is a hard question. Since 2004, FIVE of the World Junior champions have been coached by K/A, and ALL of these pairs ended up leaving when they were unable to break through in seniors.

 

[dorispulaski]

tulosai has started a thread for Team Igor!

http://www.goldenskate.com/forum/showthread.php?58652-Team-Igor-Shpilband&p=1380143#post1380143