Mikhail Kolyada | Page 67 | Golden Skate

Mikhail Kolyada

I have a feeling that if Eteri hadn't managed to push him forward Adian-style, she would have simply run out of patience and moved on long before he'd even moved to seniors. She seems to want quicker results and is already losing patience with 14 y.o. Ilya Skirda. And I suppose if she can have Trusova and Shcherbakova, why bother with slow developers? She'd rather spend her time on 15 year olds who win an Olympic Gold, 16 year old World Champions and 12-13 year olds doing quads. Eteri is only a brilliant coach for a narrow category of students, nurturing every talent is just not her strength.

The first thing I thought when I read Eteri's interview was: thank God, Mika is not with this Cruella! Yes Mika was lucky to have Valentina as his first coach but it was down to his (and his parents) wisdom & loyalty to stay with her. Not only she is caring but also very good at her job and gave Mika one of the best jump technique in the world - what else anyone could wish for?


That's why I called them conspiracy theories ;) But a surprising number of people believe them. And the interpretation seems to be that this power sort of emerged out of nowhere this season, so Misha's slow rise doesn't count. Honesly, I would love for Valentina to have that kind of power right now so that they would stop messing with Stasya, move her to seniors and get her the GP assignment.

Yeah, I was amused by those 'theories' too! People just can't believe that the success can be achieved through talent & hard work. Especially funny is the 'hard evidence' for these claims: a few interviews on the fed's website with Mika, Stasya & Valentina, a 'suspicious' rise in PCS which actually was quite moderate, even the trip to USA before Boston... :laugh:


For reasons that are not entirely clear to me, Stasya has an active hatedom which appeared before she had even taken part in her first JGP event and anyone had heard of her. She always seems to be getting in someone's way and taking someone's rightful place. There have even been a bunch of posts on this forum about her utter lack of talent. And on FSU. Not to mention Russian forums. So the only explanation this hate club can come up with for her successes is Valentina pulling strings and they tend not to keep this opinion to themselves. And even in Misha's case that's the only way some people can explain his PCS.
It could be that the competition in ladies field is so much more intense than in men's -nothing to do with Stasya personally?
 
The first thing I thought when I read Eteri's interview was: thank God, Mika is not with this Cruella! Yes Mika was lucky to have Valentina as his first coach but it was down to his (and his parents) wisdom & loyalty to stay with her. Not only she is caring but also very good at her job and gave Mika one of the best jump technique in the world - what else anyone could wish for?
Mishin made his contribution to that technique, actually. So I find it a bit baffling when people insist that he should go to Mishin for jump lessons. Of course this doesn't mean his jump technique is completely due to Mishin since he isn't actually a student of his, just got some part-time training from him. Stasya has nice huge jumps too, esp. toe jumps, and I haven't heard about Mishin consulting her (can't swear it didn't happen, though).

Yeah, I was amused by those 'theories' too! People just can't believe that the success can be achieved through talent & hard work. Especially funny is the 'hard evidence' for these claims: a few interviews on the fed's website with Mika, Stasya & Valentina, a 'suspicious' rise in PCS which actually was quite moderate, even the trip to USA before Boston... :laugh:

It could be that the competition in ladies field is so much more intense than in men's -nothing to do with Stasya personally?
No, it seems to be focused on her in particular. I can't think of another skater at Stasya's level against whom there has been such a wave of negativity. People have said it's because she got send to Junior Worlds instead of Gubanova, but it had started way before that, that was just one more trigger for attacks. Of those at the top, Sotskova also suffers from the "always getting in someone's way" syndrome and it's usually attributed to Buianova. Maybe they blame Valetnina by analogy.
 
I didn't mean that he has a lot of questions his coach has to answer, but I've impressed from the interview of Eteri, where she stated that a good student of her should do what she said, without questioning. Since most of her students are about 12-17 it is understandible, but if we take Mika, he is 22 and he is graduated universaty as a figure skating coach, and he did some sort of scientific work to get his diploma. So he is Valentina's young colleague, and he must have some ideas about the training proccess, which from one hand make him understand better what Valentina wants from him, from other hand he can discuss it with her, and maybe suggest something. But I think overall he trusts her like nobody else.
I think when comparing Valentina and Eteri we have to take into account that they work under very different conditions. Valentina has a smaller group with more personal attention paid to each student - I think Eteri has by far the biggest group of anyone in Russia. There is more than one training group, and other coaches do a lot of the work, she only deals personally with some of the students, so she is not "wasting her time" on anyone other than the top performers. That's not the usual system for Russian coaches, they take on only so many students as they can work with themselves. As far as I know, even the 9-10 people who Stasya said share the ice are a combined group of her and another coach, Yulia Kulibanova, who trains Artem Lezheev and Igor Efimchuk (that's why Misha and Lezheev are so often seen together at/travelling to Russian competitions). The only three of Valentina's current students who anyone has heard of are Misha, Stasya and Pavel Vyugov. Of course in these conditions Valentina would be more open to input and discussions and explaining things several times over to the more dense :biggrin: But it's harder to get a lot of champions if you have barely anyone to make them out of.
 
I think when comparing Valentina and Eteri we have to take into account that they work under very different conditions. Valentina has a smaller group with more personal attention paid to each student - I think Eteri has by far the biggest group of anyone in Russia. There is more than one training group, and other coaches do a lot of the work, she only deals personally with some of the students, so she is not "wasting her time" on anyone other than the top performers. That's not the usual system for Russian coaches, they take on only so many students as they can work with themselves. As far as I know, even the 9-10 people who Stasya said share the ice are a combined group of her and another coach, Yulia Kulibanova, who trains Artem Lezheev and Igor Efimchuk (that's why Misha and Lezheev are so often seen together at/travelling to Russian competitions). The only three of Valentina's current students who anyone has heard of are Misha, Stasya and Pavel Vyugov. Of course in these conditions Valentina would be more open to input and discussions and explaining things several times over to the more dense :biggrin: But it's harder to get a lot of champions if you have barely anyone to make them out of.

Yes, a production line =volume but not necessarily quality. And to think about it even Eteri with her factory hasn't produced that many champions - on each success - Yulia, Evgenia, Polina T, Alina - there are dozens others who didn't get to the top. So if Valentina has 2 top students out of lets say 5 of all her current studens, then her 'success rate' is probably higher than Eteri's ;)

To change the subject, Worlds Standings have been finally updated and Mika's moved to the 7th position with only 3 'veterans' and 3 'quadsters' in front of him. Thanks WTT!
 
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To change the subject, Worlds Standings have been finally updated and Mika's moved to the 7th position with only 3 'veterans' and 3 'quadsters' in front of him. Thanks WTT!
But WTT doesn't actually give WS points. Misha's total of 2613 didn't change.
 
oops, I thought so too but the standings were updated and Mika moved up from the 9th thats how I got that idea :scratch2:

That was because they scrapped the 2014/2015 points and added in the 2017/2018 season (plus 2015/2016 season points are now at 70%), which lead to some place shuffling from the previous World Standings. The only thing WTT scores counted for were Season's Best scores.
 
That was because they scrapped the 2014/2015 points and added in the 2017/2018 season (plus 2015/2016 season points are now at 70%), which lead to some place shuffling from the previous World Standings. The only thing WTT scores counted for were Season's Best scores.

Thanks for the explanation!
 
A mad idea probably but seeing that all the Russian skaters are busy with the new programs right now - maybe Mika's trip to Europe is not a holiday?! ;)
 
A mad idea probably but seeing that all the Russian skaters are busy with the new programs right now - maybe Mika's trip to Europe is not a holiday?! ;)

Is there in Hungary a world-famous choreographer, which I don't know? Or Mika supposes to take music from Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies or Brahms' Hungarian Dances or smth like that, and he is getting to know the culture there?
 
Is there in Hungary a world-famous choreographer, which I don't know? Or Mika supposes to take music from Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies or Brahms' Hungarian Dances or smth like that, and he is getting to know the culture there?

Budapest could be a red herring you know :)
 
Dear friends,

During our last meeting with Mikhail we discussed a lot of things, including fans’ point of view. So Misha suggested making a Costume Design Competition for his new programs.
The problem is that his programs before the season are a mystery covered in darkness! :)

Anyway, let’s imagine some costumes for Misha’s programs. Since we don’t know what exactly his choice is, we’re looking forward to seeing your art suitable for different type of programs. These are, for example, a lyrical program, rock-program, jazz, epic/portraying a character, national, humorous etc.

Of course, the main prize is the realization of the costume. But you have to understand that this competition is made mainly for fans and their creative enthusiasm! The judges are represented by Mikhail’s VK group admins, who will choose the best costume designer. The winner will be awarded a photo or a small flag with Mikhail’s signature (according to your choice). The 2nd and the 3rd places will also get a photo signed by Misha!

The deadline for the competition is July, 31.

You can send your art to
1) VK album: https://vk.com/album-24618099_244781356
2) tag it in Instagram: #costumeforMisha
3) Gmail: [email protected]

The competition will be held in 2 rounds. We’ll show the finalists’ works to Misha!

Maybe it will be interesting for you ;) Also we will publish new interview with Misha very soon
 
Dear friends,

During our last meeting with Mikhail we discussed a lot of things, including fans’ point of view. So Misha suggested making a Costume Design Competition for his new programs.
The problem is that his programs before the season are a mystery covered in darkness! :)

Anyway, let’s imagine some costumes for Misha’s programs. Since we don’t know what exactly his choice is, we’re looking forward to seeing your art suitable for different type of programs. These are, for example, a lyrical program, rock-program, jazz, epic/portraying a character, national, humorous etc.

Of course, the main prize is the realization of the costume. But you have to understand that this competition is made mainly for fans and their creative enthusiasm! The judges are represented by Mikhail’s VK group admins, who will choose the best costume designer. The winner will be awarded a photo or a small flag with Mikhail’s signature (according to your choice). The 2nd and the 3rd places will also get a photo signed by Misha!

The deadline for the competition is July, 31.

You can send your art to
1) VK album: https://vk.com/album-24618099_244781356
2) tag it in Instagram: #costumeforMisha
3) Gmail: [email protected]

The competition will be held in 2 rounds. We’ll show the finalists’ works to Misha!

Maybe it will be interesting for you ;) Also we will publish new interview with Misha very soon

Many thanks for posting! I wish we had just a little more to go on...

Looking forward to a new interview :clap:
 
Mika got Rostelecom and China with Yuzuru and Nathan in Russia and Jin & Javi in China!!!
It means an earlier start of the season for Mika but allows a god bit of a break between GPs and GPF (IF!) and Russian Nats :yay:
 
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