" She is pure sport. What drives the best figure skater from Russia, Aleksandra Trusova? "
Why has Trusova failed to win Gold in key tournaments this season?
Match TV is completing the series of articles on the best skaters from Russia according to the results of the 2019/2020 season. We have already talked about the rebellious nature of Alyona Kostornaya and the superpowers of Anna Shcherbakova, today the time has come to analyse the individual qualities of Aleksandra Trusova.
Sasha Trusova became a rock star long before she became a senior. Figure skating fans remember her with as the tiny warrior who came to conquer Australia at her first Junior Grand Prix. The kind of girl that can be easily imagined both as the menace of the neighbourhood and the saviour of stray dogs, but Sasha was in a black dress with pearl thread, and this was unusual. By the way, the playful girlish image of āBig Spenderā fitted her no worse than the strange Lily from āFifth Elementā, Daenerys from āGame of Thronesā and the tamer of trolls from āCave of the Mountain Kingā, but for some reason was not used anymore.
If you know a skeptic who is convinced that figure skating has nothing to do with real sports, silently show him a few performances by Aleksandra. She is like sport in its distilled form. Using her, itās just right to rewrite the Olympic motto from āfaster, higher, strongerā to āmore stubborn, more content, more difficulty.ā
Letās try to statistically describe all of Sashaās achievements in three sentences :
- Inscribed herself in the history for the first performance of the quadruple Toeloop, Lutz and Flip in competitions
- The first woman ever to compete three clean quadruple jumps in competition.
- She holds the world record in the free program, set at Skate Canada 2019 and equal to 166.62 points - the score for the technique then exceeded 100 points, which is among the highest results even for men.
In her first junior season, Trusova won all the competitions in which she participated. In her second season, Shcherbakova and Kostornaya also joined the fight, and Aleksandra's further progress took place under the conditions of a fierce jumping competition within the group. She took part in this competitive fray, without even actually competing. In the case of Trusova, it will not be false to say that she de facto competed with herself.
The season 2019/2020 commenced with Aleksandra in the rank of the unconditional favourite. Firstly, on the break of it, she became the two-time World Champion among juniors, and secondly, she announced her intention to perform three or more quadruple jumps in her free program. Nobody could interrupt this conquest - Kihira seemed to have learned the quadruple Salchow, but due to an injury she couldnāt jump not only this jump, but she also hardly managed the triple Lutz. Shcherbakova jumped only one quadruple Lutz up to the first stage of the Grand Prix, Tuktamysheva - two triple Axels, and Kostornaya still skated in the Open Test Skates without ultra-si and increased difficulty.
How did it happen that with her breathtaking content and after a swift start, Trusova did not win any of the key tournaments of the season? Summed up: stability. With this huge number of quadruple attempts in a single program there is an equal chance to make a large number of errors, and according to the current rules errors in jumping are expensive for the skater.
It is logical to ask where these errors came from, and several reasons can be mentioned here. Firstly, the structure of Aleksandraās free program changed every start, and the execution of new content each time was a lottery with a low chance of buying the happy ticket. Of course, like a proper warrior she risked trying to insert the just-learned jumps into her already complicated programs. In the case of the quadruple Flip, the risk paid off; in the case of the triple Axel, not.
In fact, we should get used to the idea that falling from quads is normal. Male skaters have been training triple jumps for more than a decade, and only the last couple of Olympic cycles began to demonstrate absolute mastery, and chasing after quadruples is happening right before our eyes. Failures and falls are inevitable for the women catching up.
In addition, there is the problem of growth for skaters from 13 to 19 years or age. A physical change in body parameters always gives a temporary uncoordination. It takes time before the athlete gets used to her new height, the longer leverage, to get the feeling how strong she needs to push off and when to open from the screwed up flight position to get a clean exit.
Sasha has significantly grown in height this season. Journalists working in every competition can see with their own eyes by the example of young skaters how
āother people's childrenā are growing rapidly. In addition to a purely visual impression of having āgained a footā at the European Championships compared to Open Test Skates, there is a fact - for the World Championships, Sasha Trusova was preparing a new costume for her free program, because the blue jumpsuit simply became too tight. But fate decreed that Montreal did not see the new outfit of Daenerys. Just like it never saw the clean five quadruple jumps that were shown in training.
Sometimes it seems that if you connect an energy-transforming installation to the rink where Trusova is skating, the energy crisis on the planet will be resolved. There is one ābutā - a strong emphasis on jumping makes the other components of skating and choreography vulnerable. And in this direction, Aleksandra still has to develop.
Postludum
We all love to talk about the aspiration of athletes to brightness and excellence, implying a complete absence of flaws and only solid advantages. But if we ignore the idea that the skaters must have something to strive for, observing each of them will become even more interesting.
Trusovaās individuality lies in her unbridled desire to jump difficult jumps. She is determined in breaking through the ceiling head first and expanding the boundaries of the possible, and not for writing out monograms using the blades of her skates to weightless contemporary.
Shcherbakovaās individuality lies in her ability to draw the viewer into her story and her exceptional ease in everything she does on ice. She does not have and will not have this powerful take off into jumps - Anna is gaining favour with other qualities.
Kostornaya's specialty is in the balance of skating and jumping, in her particular spirituality of sliding skills, but she still does not have quadruples, and she is unlikely to behave in such a way as to get the universal approval of everyone surrounding her.
In modern upbringing by stimulating personal growth, there is an interesting technique - emphasising priority on the development of virtues, rather than correcting flaws. It is clear that this is only partially applicable to sports, because nobody wants to lose valuable points to the judges. And yet, in the search for perfection, do not forget about individuality, since each of the Trinity of
Trusova,
Shcherbakova and
Kostornaya has plenty of it.
(c) ŠŠ½Š°ŃŃŠ°ŃŠøŃ ŠŠ°Š½ŠøŠ½Š°
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From:
https://matchtv.ru/figure-skating/m...uchshej_figuristki_Rossii_Aleksandry_Trusovoj