Anna Shcherbakova: competition in the Tutberidze group pushes everybody for improvement
Russian figure skater Anna Shcherbakova became the winner of the Grand Prix stage in Chinese Chongqing. This allowed her to enter into the Grand Prix finals in her debut senior season. The 15 year old athlete became the first participant in the series final tournament of this season. The skater is known to the general public not only for the highest complexity of programs, but also for her excellent interpretation of images. In an interview with TASS, Shcherbakova talked about how she first tried to do a quad jump, due to which she plans to complicate her technical content, as well as about the competition amongst her compatriots in the group of Eteri Tutberidze.
- First of all, I would like to once again congratulate you on your victory at the stage in China! Now, after almost a day, how do you feel?
AS: Yesterday there was some kind of devastation after my skating run, we can even say I was exhausted. I felt tired, but I was happy with my routine and how it all ended. Now, all the same, I’m already thinking more about what will happen next, how we will work and what to fix.
- Was it fundamentally for you to qualify for the Grand Prix finals in your first senior season?
AS: For me it was important, of course. I wanted to immediately show that I can compete with adults, so I'm very glad it all happened.
- What result in the final will be acceptable for you?
AS: I don’t even know yet who the participants will be and what my technical set will be. I will set the goal to skate out my programs cleanly, and already further - as to what the judges will give it.
- Regarding the transition to skating in the seniors ... It seemed that it was happening to you with amazing ease ...
AS: It only seemed so (laughs). Of course, a lot of work was done to successfully perform in seniors competitions. But I try to go to these starts more confidently than to junior ones.
- Last season you finished with one quadruple Lutz, and this was more than enough for good results. There was also one Lutz at the Open Test Skates, but at the first senior stage of the Grand Prix you jumped two already. At what point and why did you decide to complicate your program?
AS: I knew right away that one Lutz was just a start. Usually I enter the season rather early, I need to skate out a lot of programs, so at first there was one. But I knew that as soon as I stabilised it, I would insert a second one. That year, I already tried somewhere in the middle of the season ...
- As far as I remember, at the Russian Cup stage in Yoshkar-Ola ...
AS: Yes, somehow it happened that my best skating runs were at the Cup of Russia (laughs). But I already knew that I could skate them out. And that I will complicate the program during the season, and as soon as the jump stabilized, we turned on the second.
- Do not consider it insolence, but I just have to ask: the whole world wonders how you even manage to twist and land quadruples. You look so fragile ...
AS: Well, I probably have such a structure (laughs). I work just like everyone else. We have special training in the dry hall. We strengthen our muscles, work on jumps. That is why it is so.
- Many are now interested in the question - how do skaters from the Eteri Tutberidze group get along on the same ice and in the same locker room? After all, you are not only friends, but also rivals, and the stakes have increased since this season.
AS: We get along very well. We have been communicating for a very long time. And vice versa, it somehow pushes us. In training - to learn something new, more complex. And somehow it’s even easier because when you watch others jump, it doesn’t seem so difficult for you anymore. And outside the ice, we calmly communicate, we are friends.
- That is, competition does not affect your communication in any way?
AS: Absolutely. I can even say that in competitions it is much more fun when someone else is there. So when I go alone to the stages, this is somehow even unusual.
- Tell me, how did you start figure skating?
AS: My parents brought me to figure skating when I was three and a half years old, because my older sister was engaged in it. She watched FS on TV, really wanted to skate, and they gave me away with her. I really liked it, and I, probably, about seven years old, skated only for my pleasure, without thinking at all about anything. Competition? Well, I'll go (laughs). But I really liked it all - funny programs, some images to show.
I did pretty well, and my parents, when I was nine, decided that it was time to decide - it would remain like a hobby or try to do it professionally. And then they decided to try to go to the group to Eteri Georgiyevna Tutberidze, she was working in the same rink. With her then skated Yuliya Lipnitskaya, and when we had training after them, we left the locker rooms and peeped at how they train.
It seemed to me then that this was some unattainable level. And when my parents said that we would try to go to her, for some reason I did not even believe in it from the beginning. But they took me into the group. At first it was very difficult, I only jumped doubles, for a very long time I was not given triple jumps. At that moment I was a little stalled - all others of the same age were already jumping them, but I was not. It was a difficult moment, but then somehow abruptly I jumped all at once.
- But it was a triple. Do you remember the moment when the coaches said: "Anya, come on, quadruple?"
AS: Yes I remember. At that training, nothing at all foreshadowed anything like this - ordinary activities. Then Daniil Markovich Gleikhengauz arrived and said: "If we are going to teach a quadruple, what would you like?" Thinking. Then they reasoned and decided that at that moment my best was a triple Toeloop. And he says: "Well, let's try to make it as high as possible."
I go in and do. Eteri Georgiyevna says to do it even higher. I do it even higher. And then she says: "Now screw up as much as possible!" I go in, spin as much as I can, pop out - and this is how I entered the quadruple for the first time, without expecting it myself (laughs). And, as I was later told, I fell only a quarter turn from the quad revolutions. Somewhere from that moment, they realized that it was worth continuing to teach me. But further along, of course, we already worked a lot with the fishing rod and harness and with special protection. I was about 12 years old.
- Jumping in figure skating is not all. Many experts note your artistry and the high level of presentation of your programs. These qualities at such a young age are quite rare. Do you have this natural or did you somehow specifically develop it?
AS: It seems to me more from nature. As a child, I had the Pink Panther program, and I remember how I liked it ... I don’t remember thinking about whether or not I would be able to jump. But I remember how I went out, how I liked my movements. I stood facing the judges, always smiling. I could go in a puff and look at them. I don’t even remember about jumping, for me then the images and programs were more important, I always liked it that way.
- This season you have such complex images in both short and free programs. Tell us how you manage to interpret them so well?
AS: These images were chosen by my coaches for me, I really like them. When they stage the programs, they told me a lot about what my emotions should be, about what I should skate, so that I could get used to the role more. This is very important for me, because I can’t just perform some movements without emotions.
- After the Grand Prix finals, the Russian Championship will be held. Last year you won it. Tell me, what did this victory give you?
AS: Probably additional self-confidence. At that competition, I skated my programs well and performed the quadruple Lutz cleanly.
- This year your goal is to defend the title?
AS: Yes of course. But for myself, so as not to be distracted, I will set the task to skate cleanly. Because if you immediately think about what you want to win, it starts to interfere and distract.
- Yesterday we talked with Daniil Markovich, and he said that it would take a long time to list the improvement options. But, in particular, he noted an increase in the number of quadruples and a triple Axel. Tell me, how are you doing with the learning of new elements?
AS: We are always in the process of learning. When there is an active preparation for the competition, this process slows down, it's hard to keep up with everything. But now the break will be longer, and the emphasis on training new elements will increase. It happens that we train a triple Axel and a quadruple Flip. The Flip turns out, but I understand that if I insert it into my program, I will need to skate with three quadruples. And then the problem will not be in making this jump, but in how to put the whole program together. But we will train, try. I'll need to get more complicated.
- But is this possible this season?
AS: I think yes.
(c) Владислав Жуков
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From:
https://tass.ru/interviews/7098909