He worked with Nikita for years when he was a teenager, and wasn't strict - said in interviews that you needed to be tough with Elena, but Nikita needed more reassurance and to be treated gently and the result was Nikita walking out twice and trashing him in the press. I doubt a 25 year old is going to be any more receptive to whatever approach Zhulin takes.
2016-17 State of Russian Ice Dance
- Thread starter gmyers
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He needs to be taught the hard way if it is true. Vika made a huge mistake. What she did to Ruslan was wrong but she can start over. She's young and very talented, she should look out for a new partner. They can't keep getting new coaches and beig thrown out all the time.
How weird is it though ? Bobrova/Soloviev and Step/Bukin seems really calm and collected, no drama, and Elena and Nikita seem to be constantly in trouble.
That's a bit of a mess.
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- Apr 18, 2014
Well, yeah. But he did seem to be able to control Nikita, to a point. Also, Zhulin got Kostomarov to stop beating Navka, so if S/K are having one of their lovers spats, he might be more willing to nip it in the bud
The problem is they are all totally unsuccessful in big picture of Russian ice dance.
I am going to say this for the 154269th time : I REALLY think that Step/Bukin are the most talented. But when Marie-France knows how to hide flaws or take them away and show qualities, S/B's people don't. When I first watch them in Euros' 2015 I thought that they were going to fight with the big dogs soon. And then no, their choreo brought them down. That tango was a GREAT idea, but they almost looked juniors, and kept looking at the judges instead of each others, portraying a real tango...
They also have incredible lines. And could use their upper body MORE. Their bodies are actually perfect for Ice Dancing I think.
But they don't dig deep enough with their edges (And they could) and they have sometimes ugly lifts (UNECESSARY come on), and I don't get why. They need coaches that can make them shine instead of pointing out their flaws.
(PS to the coaches : when a team is amazing with twizzles, the rest should follow. Tssss)
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Incompetent coaching of stable teams and good coaches of unstable teams or bad unstable coaching of unstable incompetent teams are the only combos that exist now! There is no good stable coaching of good stable teams. This is what is needed! It's why Russia has no world medals since Sochi. No gpf medals since Sochi. Why ice dance is dead. S/b and b/s need good coaching but also skating lessons with focus on edges. S/k may move to Zhulin but that's only better than Tchaikovskaya not actually a good coach that can win them Olympics as should be expected for a Russian team.
When a team is excellent with gliding, the rest should follow.
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This. Matthew Blackmer said that as someone who switched from pairs to dance relatively late in his career, twizzles were the easiest for him. The hard part is edges and footwork.
I think it depends of the person. Apparently Nikita is talented and the man can´t do twizzles to save his life, Andrew Poje and Scott M. have problem with twizzles too. And well, we all saw to C/B and H/D at worlds. Why they lost the bronze medal? Twizzles.
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- Dec 22, 2010
All of these teams can probably do endless perfect twizzles in a row in training, it is the nerves and stress of competition that makes them mess them up.
When I look at them, I don't see enough "gliding", "sweeping" edges. They almost try to make it too "full" of steps, which someone like D/W did very well. But it's not everyone's style or main quality. When they move, I feel like they don't go until the end of it, I want more.
I remember that Tessa said in an interview that they were going to start with the basics with Marie France and Patrice: just stroking and things like that. And if I remember correctly, both P/C and especially H/D mentionned doing a lot of work or simple steps to maximize it, getting the correct edges. Apparently Roman and (especially) Patrice are strict on the technical.
If a team like V/M starts from the bottom, you can do it too...
Well Tessa is exactly right and it would be great for her to become a coach and coach S/b.
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And also, everyone generally gets a level 4 on the twizzles. It's much harder to get a level 4 on all the step sequences.
Same can be said about steps, and basically each element, including jumps.
That is the point, do it in competition. And they are not the only ones nervous at the competitions.
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- Jul 26, 2003
Kostomorov was beating Zhulin's wife while he was coaching them? Was this when they were with Linichuk before Zhulin coached them for that one season right before Navka gave birth to Zhulin's baby? Were Navka and Zhulin romantically involved at the time of N/K's first partnership?
Elena Ilinykh mentioned seeing Kostomorov hitting Navka when she trained with Zhulin in the early years. It seemed incredulous to her at the time. I/K are not together, in part because EI was not taking that. People can read into that what they choose to.
Wouldn't read too much into it. Obviously they have already begun working on next season's material and were probably quite exhausted.
Why were c/b and w/p so good? And the Chinese and Japanese teams too? No excuses for this embarrassing display.
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