A skater from Tatarstan trains at CSKA with Buyanova and works on quadruples. But Kazan may lose her?
The first coach herself sent her to Moscow.
Figure skating in fact is developing only in two cities - Moscow and St. Petersburg. In others, preparing a senior skater and counting on her getting into the national team without changing residence permit is almost impossible.
Tatarstan often lost promising skaters: one of the most striking examples of recent times was Kamila Valiyeva. She was born and began to practice figure skating in Kazan, but is now training in Moscow with Eteri Tutberidze. Kamila brought the victory at the Junior World Championships to the credit of, not her native region, but Moscow.
A compromise solution was found at the Ak Bure Sports School. Realizing that it was time to move on for their best pupil Yelizaveta Osokina, the Kazan coach Olga Arbuzova herself sent the skater to the capital, but without losing contact with the region. Now Osokina, training in CSKA with the famous coach Yelena Buyanova, shows good results and trains quadruple jumps.
“ Osokina can present herself if she continues to work at the proper level, ” Tat'yana Tarasova, speaking about the young talent in a conversation with 'BUSINESS Online'. “ Lisa has her own “ trick ”, together with her new coach Buyanova they can achieve success. ”
Only there is a chance that Osokina will achieve this success as part of the Moscow team.
Little Red Dash
Getting used to working with a coach who made Adelina Sotnikova an Olympic Champion, did not immediately succeeded for Yelizaveta. “ She has been with us at CSKA for a year, since last April, ” says Buyanova. “ There arrived a little red dash ”.
Initially, Osokina made serious errors in her skating runs, could not perform her rotations and choreographic elements at the highest level. The experience of the CSKA coach has helped, and now the figure skater's results are much better. At the stages of the Cup of Russia, she won two Silver medals, which guaranteed her a start in the final of the tournament.
“ We have already done a great job, but there is still more work ahead, ” Buyanova continues. “ So far nothing has been achieved, we have only collected what we have, designed it. ”
Yelizaveta also got to the Championship of Russia - the National Championship among juniors. Osokina from Tatarstan is a rare participant in competitions of this level. At the Championship of Russia, dozens of the strongest juniors are from Moscow and St. Petersburg, including the new generation of figure skaters from Eteri Tutberidze. With them, is still difficult to fight for Yelizaveta, but Osokina is not so significantly behind the other skaters. She skated two programs without serious errors, although she pulled a muscle before the start and took tenth place.
However, she is a maximalist and reacted to her results self-critically. “ I could've performed better, more accurately - I didn’t reach my personal record, I didn’t complete the elements, I didn’t have enough resistance, ” says Osokina. “ There were errors both in the short program and in the free. I’ve been diligently preparing myself well for the tournament, I wanted to show myself, but I didn’t give my best to the end, it was insufficient. ”
The new coach does not yet require the maximum from Osokina, but already Yelizaveta is learning elements of ultra-si. “ There have already been attempts at a quad,” says Osokina. “ I've tried the quadruple Toeloop and Salchow. We began with the fishing rod, but then without. The Toeloop turned out better. There are very good attempts, close, but so far I haven’t had clean exits. ”
Nevertheless, the primary task for Buyanova is to work with Osokina on stability. “ I want her to realise her full potential, ” she explains. “ If there was no potential, I wouldn't have taken the girl. Of course, there were mistakes and there is much to strive for, but on the whole I am happy with Yelizaveta’s season. ”
The task for the season, as Yelena says, was not to lose the acquired elements. Concentrated work on new jumps.
“ The girl is sharp, easy to work with. Her eyes burn with energy ".
Osokina has been engaged in figure skating for 10 years. Almost all her life she has been living in Kazan and only in the autumn of last year moved to Moscow. “ Lisa came to our group very young, she was 3.5 years old, ” First traiiner Arbuzova tells about her. “ She stood out for her energy: she was very smart, mobile. Everything was interesting to her, frisky, strong. Eyes burned, jumped, ran. Therefore, her parents decided to send her to sports. But that some talent was immediately visible - this was not the case. "
Now Yelizaveta stands out in jumping. In training, she learns quadruples, and in competitions, she makes complex cascades of triple to triple. According to Arbuzova, her large explosive force helps her in many ways. “ Lisa is a sharp girl, ” the specialist explains. “ She has a good, high jump, she is light. It could be assumed that with a good preparation, she will have results. ”
This is her first full-fledged junior season and Yelizaveta still lacks experience to compete without nerves and perform all the elements to the maximum. But experts confirm that the girl really has a very high potential.
Osokina and Arbuzova are training at the Ak Bure Sports School. The figure skating department in Ak Bure was opened only in 2007 and Yelizaveta is the first major success of the school. The first who got to the All-Russian competitions, the first who achieved the rank of Candidate Master of Sports. And the first one, about whom other experts speak at a serious level.
“ She is from our very first classes, ” recalls Arbuzova. “ When I first came here, Lisa was already in her second year. It can be said we have grown up together. From an early age, I not only train her, but also educate her. Children spend a tremendous amount of time with me. ” Olga admits, it just didn't work out. Difficulties arose, of course, with Osokina. “ I am a creative girl, ” Yelizaveta says of herself. “ I like to learn English, to draw. But now I'm in home school, I don’t go to class. All the emphasis is on figure skating. ” Her idol among the skaters is Alyona Kostornaya. Osokina likes Kostornaya’s high jumps and her vivid choreography.
Each child is different in character and the coach has to find an individual approach, partly fulfilling the role of mother. “ My students are like native children to me, regardless of their results. I take them in at four years and lead them for 10-15 years. During this time, they definitely become like relatives, ” says Arbuzova.
Therefore, Olga continues to communicate with Osokina and helps her even after moving to CSKA. “ We have a very warm, good relationship. Lisa can call me at any time ”, the trainer continues. In Kazan, Yelizaveta only seldom drops by, so communication takes place either by telephone or in Moscow at the CSKA rink. Or at competitions - Arbuzova periodically accompanies her pupil.
Osokina's Kazan trainer handed her over to Moscow herself, for further development
The Arbuzova group has initial training and a department for sports development in older children towards sports ranks. In total, Olga works with 30 children. In addition to Osokina, Arbuzova is now preparing another girl Karima Askarova for Candidate Master of Sports rank. Among the promising students, by the way, is her own son Kirill, who recently won the Ural-Volga region competitions in the category 10 year old boys. Moreover, if her son wants to seriously engage himself in figure skating, moving to Moscow will be inevitable.
This also happened with Osokina. A unique case, in fact - the initiator of the search for a new coach was her first coach Arbuzova. “ I understand that I do not have such conditions, such experience, to lead an athlete of Russian National Team potential ”, Arbuzova explains her position. “ We have an excellent relationship, but sometimes a child needs to be handed over at the proper moment in order for her to develop. Therefore, after consulting with her parents and Lisa, I decided to find her a well-known coach in Moscow. ”
Arbuzova went to Moscow with Osokina for assesment and in the early stages helped her in everything. There were no problems during the assement, Buyanova noted the talent right away and Yelena’s only question was to Osokina’s parents - are they ready to move? “ I only take athletes that I’m sure of ”, says Buyanova. “ I liked Lisa right away, she seemed promising. But then everything depends on her. How can she develop her potential. The prospects are good, now the task is hard work. ”
From time to time, Osokina's Kazan coach Arbuzova participates in CSKA training and often consults with Buyanova, thereby improving her own professional skills. “ I was fortunate to be close to such specialists as Buyanova, choreographer Irina Tagayeva, Marina Selitskaya, ” says Olga. “ I’m learning from them, learning from their experience ”.
“ Everything was fine with me in Kazan, but I needed to develop further ”, Yelizaveta says of her move to Moscow. “ In Kazan, you can achieve a certain level, but everything has a ceiling. ” Yelizaveta did not really want to move, but staying in Kazan was no option. The main problem of figure skating in the Republic of Tatarstan, according to the trainer, is the lack of a specialised center for figure skaters , where it would be possible to train high-level athletes.
“ Being engaged in Ak Bure we are constantly faced with a lack of ice, ” the trainer complains. “ Our ice palace is a sports school laid out for mass sports. Lisa now has two workouts a day in Moscow, at least two hours on ice. In Kazan, the skaters do not have such opportunities, and without training practice it is difficult to count on a good result. ”
There is neither pair skating, nor ice dancing in the Republic, solo skating is developing poorly. All emphasis is placed on the synchronised skating team. Tatarstan is the second club in the country. Only synchronised skating is not an Olympic discipline, even though it is singled out as a separate sport in the International Skating Union.
According to Arbuzova, it is almost impossible to compete with Moscow and St. Petersburg, at least in the early stages, but Perm can be a guide for Tatarstan. The Permsky Kray supported a strong local trainer Valentina Tyukova and created a strong academy around her, where Nikolay Morozov comes to work and Kseniya Stolbova skates.
Tatarstan risked losing Osokina alltogether if no arrangement with Buyanova could be made
The Tatarstan Federation helps its athletes as much as possible - finances, equipment, sends them to competitions. But the lack of strong coaching staff, ice and conditions makes it impossible to train the national figure skaters in Tatarstan. Now all the strong skaters of the Tatarstan team are training outside the Republic.
There are several schools in Kazan, at the children's level the competition is serious. Skating rinks are opening everywhere in other cities and villages of Tatarstan. There is a base for mass sports; for a good result, only centralized training for sports of the highest achievements is lacking.
A solution to the problem was recently proposed by the Minister of Sports of Tatarstan Vladimir Leonov. He prepared a project for the construction of a federal figure skating center. According to the plan, there will be several groups of single and pair skating. Nina Moser volunteered to supervise the center.
Arbuzov supports the idea of the Academy. “ To build an ice rink is half the battle. But if the trainers will work here, oversee, conduct seminars, then there will be no serious need to move to Moscow. ”
And right now, oddly enough, the best option for a Kazan girl to achieve success is to move to Moscow. After all, the story of Osokina is not unique. Tatarstan performs very well in younger age among girls and boys, but there is a large gap from the age of 13-14 years. The reason is obvious - skaters leave the Republic and change their sports registration.
The most striking example is Kamila Valiyeva. A pupil of Kazan coach Kseniya Ivanova has already reached the world level as a representative of the Moscow sports school “Sambo-70”, where Tutberidze works.
Arbuzova prefers not to compare her pupils with both Valiyeva and other girls, emphasizing that each has her own qualities. But she sees the potential of her athlete as very serious. “ Lisa can achieve anything she wants. There is a base ”, - says Olga. “ The main thing is that she works, and that her health does not disappoint. Because sport is a big burden on the body. When her health allows, when the desire remains - we will hear about Lisa at the highest level. ”
Osokina in the concluding season competed for Tatarstan, and Arbuzova was her official coach. But the agreement with Buyanova was only for one year. Under what conditions Yelena will work with Yelizaveta in the following is not yet clear.
To the question of whether Osokina will remain in the Tatarstan team, Olga cannot answer. The key point, of course, is financing. “ Lisa was born and raised in Kazan. So for me she is ours, a Kazan skater ”, says Arbuzova. “ We cannot resolve the rest of the issues, the Federation officials should. I don’t know how to solve them. ”
(c) Рустам Имамов
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From:
https://sport.business-gazeta.ru/article/253846
IMO very interesting and honest article on figure skating in the regions and the dilemma's facing stand out skaters and their trainers and parents. And Tatarstan isn't even a poor region.