I bet this is the real main problem people have with Eteri. She is creating many champions. Not one or two in one olympic cycle, but one, two or three nearly every season. How to name it? Factory. Because that gives the impression it's some mindless line of production. While it is so far from truth, I bet even h-people of Eteri admit that 4A and other skaters there have their own style, strong and weak sides and all. Alyona is different than Sasha, Sasha different from Anna, Anna different from Alina.
At the cost? I would be glad to hear the statistic of other teams, the rate of injuries or other problems to number of skaters and I should say top skaters. Also, people often speak about how long skaters are with her. In fact, in comparison with others it is not some short time, Kim Yuna was with Orser for three years, since 2007 to 2010. And again, it causes no trouble giving him credit for Yuna's seccess during that era. But when it comes to Eteri, no "credit for skater XY's success should belong to her previous coach, not Eteri" and all. I don't think I'm the only one who consider this attitude very biased.
I personally bet that the message is clear: "Eteri, please, be kind and create only one top skater per 4 years like we others do. Creating more could be considered as being evil."
I seriously dislike this implication that people are only jealous of Eteri because she creates champions and dislike her solely because of this. Many of her skaters, past and current, are among my favorites. I don't think everybody who dislikes her or her methods is riddled with jealousy. That just makes no sense. Eteri's skaters in no way challenge any of my home-skaters for spots, medals or anything else, yet I still dislike her as a coach.
And yes, I consider her system a factory. And to my mind, this has nothing to do with the fact that Alina, Anna, Sasha and Alena are different skaters. Eteri is a smart woman, I never denied that, and one of the reasons why her skaters become champions is that her team knows how to effectively play out their strengths and mask their weaknesses. I used factory as a word because that's what it is for me when I look at the cycle that has been repeating itself with Polina - Yulia - Evgenia - Alina - ?. There's one prodigy who stays at the top for one, maximum two seasons and then is replaced by another young girl. While I hope that this changes with the 3A and that they all manage to be on top next and many more seasons to come, so far it has been like this. I sincerely hope they will be the exception.
It isn't only that, though, my main problem lies in the fact that one girl struggles either physically or mentally, Eteri doesn't change or tweak her training system to make it work for this individual. Or maybe I simply have never seen her do it because all skaters left before she had a chance. Maybe she will stick with Alina (and Alina with her) and do it for her. I really hope so. If that’s the case, I’ll gladly admit I was wrong.
However, so far it has been that these skaters left with problems in both mental and physical health, their technique seriously deteriorating. And all of a sudden, it's the stupid girl who left after becoming a champion who's doing worse now only because she left Eteri. To me, this doesn't make sense. I'm not saying that every skater who left Eteri is broken and that's why they did worse (Daria Panenkova for example was fairly young and whatever is going on with her now, no one knows) but I'm saying that there is a recurring pattern and I'm simply annoyed by the fact that so many people only blame the struggles on the girls who left and their new coaches, instead of maybe once looking at what's behind them and what happened there that might have been the original cause to these problems, or at least contributed to them..
I don't have a problem with Eteri creating champions. I have a problem with what happens after these girls become champions and how they're left in the dust for the next prodigy. How they're pushed to keep up with the others if they physically can't instead of adapting this method of "everyone's competing against each other" and letting some who have problems breathe and train at their own accord. Some skaters need this competition because it makes them thrive and work harder. But some prefer to work on their own because they have enough fire in them to challenge themselves to greater levels.
"- Before, I always thought that I needed a strict trainer to give me a jerk if something goes wrong. Here, they do not scold me, but calm me down.
Once at the training, coordination problems started - I was just shaking. Then Ksenia Semyonovna (Ivanova - “Gazeta.Ru”) took me to the coaching room and instead of my work I spent 15 minutes drinking tea, and then came to the ice to another group and worked out normally. So I realized that you do not need a strict trainer." - Tarakanova's interview.
I'm not saying any of these methods is better per se, just that each individual will find that they prefer either the former or the latter. So, if there's someone like Anastasia or Polina in Eteri's camp, I do not think she'll adapt her methods of constantly fuelling competition and comparing the skaters.
Anastasia didn't say "this method is better!", she said "this method is better for ME!"
Polina mentioned as well that the reason why she had to leave Eteri basically was the constant on-going competition there. I'm not saying everything's sunshine at Buyanova either, god knows I dislike her even more than Eteri, but at least she has space there and can focus on her training without having to care about what the others do/don't do. Her new team with their "URs don't matter in our eyes so we shouldn't care about them" certainly doesn’t do her any good in that aspect either, though. It’s not all black and white. Polina for example seems to have gained absolutely nothing by her move to Buyanova. But I still support it. She, for whatever reasons, felt like she couldn’t stay with Eteri. Had she done this, she’d have been unhappy. Staying in an environment where you feel like you absolutely don’t belong anymore can be toxic and unhealthy, especially for young girls. Do I think she might have chosen the wrong coach? Yes. Do I still support her move? Also yes. Because while I might disagree with the choice, she is the skater and only she can know what’s best for her. Same for Zhenya, Anastasia and Darya. But also Alina, Sasha and co. who stay.
Buyanova, in my eyes, is not a good coach either. I blame a lot of Polina’s struggles on her. But not all of them. I think Eteri had a serious part in why Polina is facing the problems she is right now. The same with Zhenya. I don’t think Brian is perfect, I think he and his team have made wrong decisions this season, too. But it’s certainly not only his fault Zhenya is struggling this season. Especially in Zhenya’s case, there are a lot of other reasons from the past playing into this.
At which cost? Well, this is just what I think but I for one, simply do not agree with Eteri's opinion on injuries. Maybe this is purely subjective but if I hear things like:
"In addition, at the Rostelecom Cup final, my knee was very sick. I thought to withdraw because I barely went. But the coaches told me that you need to show character. And I went. I skated with the kneecap, but skated a clean short, and free program. I proved to myself that I can skate cleanly under any circumstances!" - Anastasia Tarakanova's interview. Or Alina saying she simply has to train through the pain and her knee problems will get better... I personally, don't agree with that and yes, in my opinion a mindset like this is related to why many of the girls who leave Eteri do so “broken”, either mentally or physically. To think that you "need to show character" and skate injured is simply wrong. Especially if it's just a national competition. It's not like it was the Olympics or something! To risk one's health and career for a national competition and to "show character" ?
I said very clearly, though, that Eteri's methods help create champions. She gets the girls to the World and Olympic stages and helps fulfil these dreams. I never said all of her skaters' success belongs to their former coaches. That doesn't make sense. A part, yes, for creating the basics but most is her work.
The reason why I'm not fond of her coaching is because I see what happens afterwards. I will gladly let you say that this is purely subjective and not based on facts and I won't object. This is my opinion. You will find injured skaters for every coach. You will also find those who left in bad terms. That's true. But with Eteri, I personally, have witnessed multiple times how her students leave injured either mentally or physically and how she starts to shame them afterwards. To me, this is not what a great coach does, no matter how the teenager hurt her feelings by not telling her beforehand or not giving her flowers. You can disagree on that and it's fine. I never said everyone has to dislike her either. I do. That doesn't mean I dislike all of her skaters or will start to go around and make suggestions that all her skaters should change coach asap. They'll know themselves, I'm just some random user on the internet who dislikes Eteri. I'm not arrogant enough to think I know enough to make claims about what a skater should do. I trust them that they know best themselves and I trust in their decision when they leave - but also when they stay. And in my post to Scott I merely explained why I, personally, do not agree with the statement that all skaters who leave Eteri “all of a sudden get worse”. And why I, personally, do not consider Eteri to be a great coach. I consider her to be a successful one. But to me, there is a difference between those two words. I also acknowledged that this probably won't be the case for everyone.
