I don't know that it was leaving Eteri that did it. She mentioned in an interview after joining Buianova's group that she had a significant back injury that was bad enough to impede her training. I think the injuries are catching up to her. I don't know exactly what she did to her back, but I badly injured mine over a decade ago and to this day, it still hurts when I skate. I think even if she'd stayed with Eteri, she'd be having similar issues.
Not sure.
During interviews everyone was soo read to hear from her how Eteri treated her poorly, but actually she said she left only because of how stressful the competition was on that group, but she blamed more herself for not telling the truth to the coaches and continuing working to catch up with the other girls.
I don't buy the whole "it's because of the back problems" because she is still doing the layback spin (and it's no longer a required spin, you can change it with something else). My guess is lack of training / not spending enough time fixing the jumps because:
1) All the girls from that group are struggling right now.
2) She wasted the entire month of June not training, because Buyanova wasn't sure about getting her.
3) I'm not sure who is supposed to be the technician on that group. Maria Sotskova has always been struggling with UR since she is with Buyanova, and Radionova also got carrots since she changed coach,...
The performance at SA reminded me of her outing at Junior Worlds 2017.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41v6oLKD0uA
She was coming from an injury so she didn't have enough time to prepare for the event, she looked less confident on everything and that also brought underrotations (which was something surprising and unexpected cause with Eteri she rarely got calls).
I don't believe in curses but people need to understand that Eteri is probably the group where you train maybe more than any other groups in Russia, as pretty much all their skaters said when they compare their work there with other coaches, so when you leave, it can be really hard to adjust your training.
Plushenko... Tarakanova‘s coach.... I was and am still a bit sceptical about his coaching but so far he‘s been doing better with Nastya than Buyanova has with any of her skater this season. Of course that‘s not the ultimate proof that he‘s superior or anything, we have to wait and see it‘s way too early to predict anything. But so far he‘s doing pretty well. Let‘s see how it will continue to look like in the future.
I think the recovery was maybe more impressive with Sakhanovich, because when she left Rukavicin she couldn't even a jump a 3-3 anymore, she was thinking about quitting the sport, while with Plushenko they were never able to really brought her at the level she was with Eteri but, at least they restored all the jumps and the spins.
Tarakanova is doing great now but she was also great a year ago, i do like the approach they are taking with her though.
But if you look at the programs for all the skaters from that group, he's reusing some of the Mishin tricks focusing on the jumps watering down the choreography and transitions, which it actually could work for Polina.
I just hope she doesn't quit the sport (unless she has to), which is usually what skaters tend to do when things don't go well with Buyanova.