2018-19 Russian Ladies' figure skating

[fabienne1996]

it seems to me like eteri has been investing even more time in alina now because of her issues rather than ditching her like some people believe? staying with alina for an extra day before nationals, putting out that video of her trying the quad, and alina doing extra training with dudakov all show that they're putting in extra work with her. the only student eteri follows on ig is alina, it's pretty clear that they've gotten closer this season. probably because of all the drama.

i know everyone is freaking out because the results haven't been so good but alina's jump technique has gotten better. she twists her body way less to get her jumps around and uses her legs more, there's a huge difference if you watch last seasons competitions vs this season. her spins have gotten better as well. the coaching team seems pretty relaxed, daniil posted stories of them trying out curling in the middle of euros. it seems like the only people who are stressed out are the fans lol.

Eteri doesn't have any other senior lady this season so yes at the moment alina gets a lot of her time. But we have to see what will happen next season when eteri has the 3A as senior ladies

 

[zounger]

I'm very happy with how Alina behaved after her skate, K&C and at the victory ceremony. She becoming a classy lady.

 

[Scott512]

Eteri doesn't have any other senior lady this season so yes at the moment alina gets a lot of her time. But we have to see what will happen next season when eteri has the 3A as senior ladies

Eteri will have four seniors next year that win lots of medals making lots of people happy and drive even more people crazy! Muwahaha! I can't wait. Get your popcorn ready!

Next season will be Eteris revenge on everybody! :dev2: :agree:

 

[Lechat]

After last nights free my choice for the world team would be Sofia, Liza and Nastya G. I do however not expect Nastya to get the last spot but Alina based on her results earlier this seson.

I will say that I dont think Alina is beyond hope or that she is done but that she needs less preassure on her and some time to calmly deal with her recent growth. I can see next seson being better when she can calmly practice for the entire summer and she has less preassure in the shadow of 3A.

Why Alina should be out ? It’s thanks to her that Rusfed has 3 spots this year. Yes her performance was a mess yesterday but it’s not her fault and I’m blaming her coaches for asking her to jump until she couldn’t do it anymore.

 

[Lechat]

Eteri will have four seniors next year that win lots of medals making lots of people happy and drive even more people crazy! Muwahaha! I can't wait. Get your popcorn ready!

Next season will be Eteris revenge on everybody! :dev2: :agree:

Well if she didn’t break them

 

[Lechat]

I'm very happy with how Alina behaved after her skate, K&C and at the victory ceremony. She becoming a classy lady.

It’s because she could feel her fans so suportive and cheering for her.

 

[[email protected]]

The quest for the third spot will be among Liza, Zhenya, and Stasya.

Liza is a clear favorite but only if she shows that she is back to her autumn shape. One competition is necessary then. Russian Cup final is end of February. I think that it is too long to wait. Will there be another competition before then?

Zhenya is number 2. She can wait until Russian Cup final. If Liza does not shine so far (scoring below 200) and Zhenya shows an OKish performance, at least better than France and Rusnats she will be in. I think that with 1 fall combined and no pops she will still score 210+.

Stasya's only hope is that neither Liza nor Zhenya is ready. Even then I would send Tarusina or Gubanova instead of her. But this won't happen. Hence, although not very likely, the European team for worlds is still possible.

In no scenario (provided no health issues) do I see Alina's or Sofia's not going. Alina is OGM, GPF and European silver with the highest score potential if clean. Sofia is European champion with a good top-5 worlds potential and may be even podium in her lucky day.

 

[Lechat]

Rusfed asked Mishin to prepare Liza for worlds. Alina, Sofia and Liza are the three top skaters now.

 

[chopinskate]

Rusfed asked Mishin to prepare Liza for worlds. Alina, Sofia and Liza are the three top skaters now.

In line with reality.

 

[Sugar Coated]

You’re not Alina’s fan so perhaps you don’t know her history. She left her parents to move to Moscow to train with eteri when she was only 12. In comparison to evgenia moving to Canada wth her mother when she was 18, I would say Alina is very strong mentally. Perhaps she is staying with Eteri because she believes in her. After all, she would know more than us. She’s in the environment daily where as we only see from the outside.

You are right that Alina is an incredibly strong individual. We really shouldn't use the term mental "weakness." But that doesn't mean she's not having difficulties with performance anxiety and pressure. Thats a different thing than being able to move across country without one's parents. Some people may excel in being able to perform under pressure but not live apart from family. But they also may be related too. Being away from her family may make it harder to deal and process some of her experiences with pressure and may actually benefit from having a better support system close by. One could argue that it was actually the move away from her home that contributed to making it harder for Zhenya to remain consistent.

The reason I want her to see a sports psychologist is because most coaches aren't equipped to deal with these types of issues. They think that it means the athlete isn't trying hard, when in actuality the harder you try to control it the worse it can get. Its about using different types of mental approaches and skills, not just gritting it and trying harder to not be nervous or not mess up. I'm interested in this field and have been reading the book The Brave Athlete: Calm the F down. Really I hope someone who specializes in this can help to teach her the mental skills and mindset needed to optimize performance. And be there to support her mentally and emotionally because being olympic champion at 15 with all the pressure and drama she has experienced can't be easy.

 

[Osmond4gold]

You are right that Alina is an incredibly strong individual. We really shouldn't use the term mental "weakness." But that doesn't mean she's not having difficulties with performance anxiety and pressure. Thats a different thing than being able to move across country without one's parents. Some people may excel in being able to perform under pressure but not live apart from family. But they also may be related too. Being away from her family may make it harder to deal and process some of her experiences with pressure and may actually benefit from having a better support system close by. One could argue that it was actually the move away from her home that contributed to making it harder for Zhenya to remain consistent.

The reason I want her to see a sports psychologist is because most coaches aren't equipped to deal with these types of issues. They think that it means the athlete isn't trying hard, when in actuality the harder you try to control it the worse it can get. Its about using different types of mental approaches and skills, not just gritting it and trying harder to not be nervous or not mess up. I'm interested in this field and have been reading the book The Brave Athlete: Calm the F down. Really I hope someone who specializes in this can help to teach her the mental skills and mindset needed to optimize performance. And be there to support her mentally and emotionally because being olympic champion at 15 with all the pressure and drama she has experienced can't be easy.

In the past, sports psychologists have worked wonders for others including Liz, Joannie, Kaetlyn and now in the process, Gabby. There is no shame in this and it should be mandatory for an elite athlete's continued growth on the road to excellence.

 

[Seruleane]

https://rsport.ria.ru/20190126/1549948232.html

https://rsport.ria.ru/20190126/1549952789.html

Above are two articles that reflect on Alina's situation. Yagudin reports he had similar issues, and while he claims the sports psychologist did not help, it sounds like the psychologist was able to talk to him and distract him from the high pressure before competitions (so I think his sports psychologist deserves a bit more credit). I think Alina's issues are a combination of the physical (growth, technique issues, overtraining on injury) and mental (immense pressure from everyone). However, this is all speculation, and really, unless we are part of her family, coaching team, or close friends of hers, we are all just speculating. I hope everyone on here expressing their "concerns" have her best interests in mind. I don't know if changing coaches is the best, or if Eteri and co can help her work through her issues. My hope is that Eteri and co can help her work through all this, but I understand where the Eteri critics are coming from. OTOH, a coaching switch would be a big change/disruption, and one that wouldn't necessarily pay off (at least in the next 1-2 seasons) as we have seen from various other coaching switches. I hope whoever is close to Alina, esp her family and coaching team, are supporting her and doing everything they can to prepare her for Worlds, as well as the next season. What I loved most about her last season was her sheer exuberance and joy. Watch her winning Olympic Free skate again. It is definitely one of my favorite Olympic Gold Medal performances, from any skater. I would love to see her skate like that again, and I know she is more than capable of it.

 

[j00mla]

Eteri will have four seniors next year that win lots of medals making lots of people happy and drive even more people crazy! Muwahaha! I can't wait. Get your popcorn ready!

Next season will be Eteris revenge on everybody! :dev2: :agree:

I believe next season will be better than all previous https://www.instagram.com/p/BtGx8AKhG63/

 

[Alexz]

I'm very happy with how Alina behaved after her skate, K&C and at the victory ceremony. She becoming a classy lady.

http://s15.directupload.net/images/user/190126/ht45dg9b.jpg

 

[Scott512]

Well if she didn’t break them

Lol! Ain't gonna happen. The coming 5 years will be even greater for Eteri than the last 5 years were! Any of her amazing 3a would have comfortably won Euros yesterday.

 

[Alexz]

Dream (and most reliable) world's team:
Tuktamysheva, Samodurova, Tarusina

The question is whose dreams are these?

Obviously Tarusina's.

 

[Scott512]

I believe next season will be better than all previous https://www.instagram.com/p/BtGx8AKhG63/

Alina and the 3a will get lots of medals next season causing the disdain for Eteri to increase!

 

[Alexz]

Video of Liza landing 3A in 2010
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdkDLBmBFBU&frags=pl,wn

After this many years, she has the same style of noodling over-expressive arms. It seems it is a Mishin trademark of artistry.

She always looks like she's skating to some middle eastern music and doing stereotypical hand movements

I'm surprised we haven't seen her do a performance to "Walk Like an Egyptian" yet. She seem to love doing the "sand dance don't you know"

Let's not forget how diverse Russia is. Oh well, Russians are indeed very diverse. There are a lot of them and a lot of them are very different. The only only other country which as diverse as Russia is US. Liza is your not typical "European Russian" and not a stereotypical blond-blue-eyes regular Slavic girl. She is a Tatar or Udmurt, iirc. So, yeah, there are probably some Asian/Middle Eastern culture in her. She was born somewhere close to St Petersburg, AFAIK, but that's her genes. That gives her flavor and different style. I'm all in for diversity in styles, cultures and choreography.

 

[Resa]

Let's not forget how diverse Russia is. Oh well, Russians are indeed very diverse. There are a lot of them and a lot of them are very different. The only only other country which as diverse as Russia is US. Liza is your not typical "European Russian" and not a stereotypical blond-blue-eyes regular Slavic girl. She is a Tatar or Udmurt, iirc. So, yeah, there are probably some Asian/Middle Eastern culture in her. She was born somewhere close to St Petersburg, AFAIK, but that's her genes. That gives her flavor and different style. I'm all in for diversity in styles, cultures and choreography.

She was born in Glazov, which is a 27 hour train ride from St Petersburg away, so not that close. And she is not Tatar, but Udmurt, as Glazov is a City in Udmurtia. But even there, most of the residents are ethnic russians.

 

[Alexz]

She was born in Glazov, which is a 27 hour train ride from St Petersburg away, so not that close. And she is not Tatar, but Udmurt, as Glazov is a City in Udmurtia. But even there, most of the residents are ethnic russians.

I thought Glazov is somewhere next to St Petersburg. So she is Udmurt. I was guessing either Tatar or Udmurt. Bottom line is she is not your totally typical Slavic girl per her parents and upbringing. Russian culture is not only Slavic-based and not only European-centric, but Russian culture generally is very diverse and has few parts of a lot Asian/Mid-Eastern influence and flavor too.