2020-21 Russian Ladies' Figure Skating | Page 989 | Golden Skate

2020-21 Russian Ladies' Figure Skating

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I feel conflicted about this coaching changing debacle. I didn't want Medvedeva back at Team Eteri, and I don't want Kostornaia back either.
It feels like too many eggs in the same basket that can only end with a lot of scrambled eggs.

And strangely, this feels like bad news for Trusova too. I fear my prefered olympic team of Shcherbakova, Valieva, Trusova will look very different now.

Well Zhenia can’t go back to Canada so it’s understandable but for Alena, she’s doing anything. Considering her current condition with health problems, plushy or Eteri are not magicians.
 
How so? Do you really think they‘ll leave in the middle of training to debate with Aliona? No. They‘ll use the time before and afterwards. They‘re not stupid enough to have their own athletes‘ training time suffer from this.

And if Aliona joins, she‘ll begin her serious training after Worlds anyway. She has to recover first.
Well they have also better things to do than debate
 
I don't understand this. they are also focusing on Kamila, Maiia and Dasha. Alina still to some extent too. from what i have seen, team Tut has always split their time and given pretty even attention to all their skaters and given each of them the best chances for success. She didn't even favor Zhenya, basically her daughter and who was expected to win Olympic gold. she also had to give the same to Alina. why would they all of a sudden give Anna special attention and focus when they have never done this for any of their other skaters? for any coaching team to do this is a disservice to their other skaters who are all fighting for the same spots.
I think Tutberetzi's policy is to treat every athlete the same, and this is one of the things that helps consistently produce results. There are plenty of good jump coaches who I'm sure are capable of teaching girls quads, but they have other failings that get in the way. Treating everybody the same is one of the reason she has so many strong skaters.
 
IMHO, if they shared your opinion, they would act accordingly. Apparently, they don't.
because it’s business and if Alena has an uncle who can have the power to tip the scales, they don’t really have the choice but to think about it
 
And strangely, this feels like bad news for Trusova too. I fear my prefered olympic team of Shcherbakova, Valieva, Trusova will look very different now.

I don't know i think Valieva right now is almost already selected as Russia's first hope for Olympic Gold, the push is so evident, not just from the coaches but Federation also. (which doesn't mean this will stay, Medvedeva was 1st before the injuries happened going to Pyeongchang)

Shcherbakova could lock one of the spots if she wins Worlds this season as they all expect, then physical condition will determine if she is number one, two or three or out.

Trusova between the three is the one on the verge of losing it, but i think Plushenko will fight hard to make it work, more than any other skater at his academy. She's his pupil, the technical contents are all there, she beated Valieva at one of the Cup of Russia events.

Tuktamysheva, Kostornaya and the others could still make a case if next season they start to win Grand Prix competitions.
 
Alena still holds the world record SP and combined total score. If she regains that form, she's in the mix. Unless they get a solid 3A, Anna and Sasha will have to skate pretty well over both programs to beat that level.
The question wasn't is she competitive with her 3 3A's. Of course she is.

The question was can she even get them back? Those records were achieved with 3 3A's.

And it's important to note that Anna and Sasha weren't even close to clean at the GPF when she got them. Anna fell on her 4F and underrotated her 4Lz and she actually won the FS at the competition where Alena set the total record. Sasha popped her 4S into a 2S and underrotated and fell on her 4T. Also Sasha fell and underrotated her 3A in the SP). (Rika also had a wonky 3A and fell on an underrotated 3T in the SP. Rika also fell on her 4S and underrotated one of her 3As in the FS. And you're crazy if you think an in form Rika can't match Alena's SP record.) Sasha has the WR for the FS, anyway.

So yes, they have to be clean, but Alena was perfect at this competition. At her peak (even with 3 3As), she needed Anna and Sasha (and Rika) to fall. And here they all fell at least once. And Anna STILL one the FS. Anna only didn't fall at one competition - RusNats - and she won that.

And it'll be different if Anna and Sasha (and Rika) do what they're expected to at World's. They'll get PCS jumps there and will solidify their reputations as the ones to beat both nationally AND internationally.

Okay, but let's assume Alena gets her 3A back. (And for the record, I think it's crazy that people expect her to get it back but then also don't expect everyone else to upgrade and improve - the chances are about the same. And the others are healthier. So Alena won't be trying to catch them in their current form - she needs to catch them in the peak for Olympics form. That's not the same thing.)

Even her 3As back won't necessarily save her. It helped last year because:
(1) She was number 1 in Russia - and Anna and Sasha weren't. She won't be number number 1 now or even next year even with her 3As.
(2) She still needed Anna and Sasha to fall.
(3) She had a PCS advantage on them. She won't again. Anna had already almost caught her last year. Anna's the 3x national champion now.

And that's only against Anna and Sasha. There's also Kamila. Kamila has a higher tech content than both of them, as it stands - both can upgrade - and has a solid 3A. Aliona's 3A (if she gets it back) is completely negated by Kamila's. Kamila also has a 3A and to 4Ts that she can land cleanly in the FS. Aliona only had at her peak 2 3As. And yes, Aliona can upgrade but so can Kamila (and the others). Aliona needs to upgrade to even get back her 3As. Kamila already has her 3As and 4Ts (and is working on a 4S).

So I get why people are saying that with her 3As she's compettive. But that's not a given and even with them, she needed them to make mistakes and had a PCS advantage - even at her peak. That's less likely now as her PCS advantage is pretty much gone (and was going even last year before all this) and Anna and Sasha's jumps are better this year than last year. And Kamila doesn't even need any of that. And there are others. Right now, Aliona needs to work to even get to Daria and Liza T's form. Much less try to reach anyone elses.
 
Just to offer some arguments for Aliona getting the 3A back:
  • We have seen a 3A from her this season in practice. It was underrotated but a landed UR 3A is still better than a 2A.
  • Yana has said she's essentially only had 2 months to train since being off ice for Covid.
  • Team Tut has mentioned last season that she was working on a 4S so there'll be some muscle memory there.
  • The muscle memory of having a jump before helps a lot with getting it back if no technique changes are needed. Remember she did get her 3A back in 3 weeks last season when pushed to.
I think her biggest challenge now is the health issues that might prevent her from training at full pelt.
We saw a 3A before she got COVID and then all the complications after that. She's not even back to her pre Rostelecom Cup state which was also not competitive. She needs to work to get back to that state.
A 4S is in the same family of jumps and this was all before she even left for AoP. This was actually well before the season was even in it's full swing last year. Also muscle memory doesn't help as much when you're also compensating for injuries.
She was healthy then.
 
I think Alena would be just fine if she gets the triple axel back. Let’s be realistic here....her scores aren’t that far off from Tutks, even with her not skating her best and Tukt showing her maximum. It is far from over for Alena If she gets healthy and back on track.
While it's far from over. It's incorrect to say that Liza T is skating "her maximum". Remember Liza T also got COVID at the same time as Alena and is also still recovering. She hasn't been able to completely clean up her 3As so that's definitely not her maximum. Also she has a 4T she hasn't been able to add yet also because of COVID. So no, you're not comparing a peak Liza T with Alena. You're comparing two recovering skaters.

And remember Anna and Sasha are ALSO recovering.
 
Well, I think it is her mom who should go and see a psychologist. All Zhilina needs are a caring mom and her comforting arms.

I really feel sorry for Veronika. Her last competition was painful to watch. Such a talented girl deserves the world.
She should challenge Sofia like she did with Kami last year but she was so far away, not even in the top 10.

I hope next season will be better but I agree, her mother has to stop pressuring her. She should realize that there’s something wrong.
 
I don't understand this.
We're talking about the upcoming World's. Why is that SOOOO hard to understand?

Kamila, Daria, Maiia, Evgenia and Alina's season's are ALL OVER.

She IS focusing on Anna right now, as Anna's season isn't done and her most important competition is still coming - World's.

We're not talking about next year when she'll focus on all of them. We're talking about this season when at this point the sole focus IS Anna.
 
While it's far from over. It's incorrect to say that Liza T is skating "her maximum". Remember Liza T also got COVID at the same time as Alena and is also still recovering. She hasn't been able to completely clean up her 3As so that's definitely not her maximum. Also she has a 4T she hasn't been able to add yet also because of COVID. So no, you're not comparing a peak Liza T with Alena. You're comparing two recovering skaters.

And remember Anna and Sasha are ALSO recovering.
Mishin said they are going to increase the difficulty for worlds. Liza may surprise us landing a quad why not
 
Anna goes to worlds in 2 weeks lol, then it will also be the off season for her too. i'm talking about the next 11 months where they will have 4 skaters (5 if Aliona returns) fighting for the same thing. they can't and won't focus solely on Anna in this time period.
Fine. But that's not what the poster was talking about. Contracts and negotiations are going on now hence why they mentioned Anna as being the priority now.

Obviously they'll focus on everyone next year. That's irrelevant to the subject at hand which was making the decision for Alena's transfer - which will obviously be decided BEFORE next season - and therefore the potential impacts (of her negotiations NOW) on Anna's training and their focus.

(Reading comprehension is helpful.)
 
We're talking about the upcoming World's. Why is that SOOOO hard to understand?

Kamila, Daria, Maiia, Evgenia and Alina's season's are ALL OVER.

She IS focusing on Anna right now, as Anna's season isn't done and her most important competition is still coming - World's.

We're not talking about next year when she'll focus on all of them. We're talking about this season when at this point the sole focus IS Anna.
as Fluture and I have already said, Anna goes to worlds in 2 weeks. what are they going to do with an injured and still recovering from covid complications and possible other health issues Aliona in this time period? nothing.
 
While it's far from over. It's incorrect to say that Liza T is skating "her maximum". Remember Liza T also got COVID at the same time as Alena and is also still recovering. She hasn't been able to completely clean up her 3As so that's definitely not her maximum. Also she has a 4T she hasn't been able to add yet also because of COVID. So no, you're not comparing a peak Liza T with Alena. You're comparing two recovering skaters.

And remember Anna and Sasha are ALSO recovering.
Well Rostelecom this year was before Kostornaia or Tuktamysheva got Covid and Tuktamysheva only won by about 4 points.

Additionally the whole Tuktamysheva quad toe conversation- she has attempted it once in 2 seasons, she fell and under-rotated it. And how did they add it - by removing a mostly consistent triple axel and kept in lower scoring jumps. So even if she miraculously adds it and lands it, her scores aren't untouchable for a skater that backloads triple triple combinations and gets good PCS.
 
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as Fluture and I have already said, Anna goes to worlds in 2 weeks. what are they going to do with an injured and still recovering from covid complications and possible other health issues Aliona in this time period? nothing.
We weren't discussing them dealing with Aliona's health issues or training AT ALL.

Merely contract negotiations.
 
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