Huh? Shizuka switched coaches and went to another country to train maybe 2 months? before the Olympics and won.
Yagudin switched to Tarasova and moved to another country to train and defended his world title and improved leaps and bounds.
It just depends.
I agree with you, bekalc. Thank you.
The Shizuka example is especially relevant, because the coaching change was so close to the Olympics, and the change it produced in her was marvelous. Before she left Tarasova, I remember seeing her skate, live, in a rink show here in the USA. Alexei Yagudin and Sergey Sakhnovsky escorted her to the rink at one point, each holding one of her hands, gallantly. She seemed depressed, and her skate was so bad, so utterly lacking in spirit and technical content, that I was unable to make myself stand up for her. I felt so badly for her. I did not know what to think, except that she was obviously unhappy in her training conditions. She had won Worlds in 2004, but in 2005, had slipped to ninth place. Then she went to Morozov, and won the 2006 Olympics, skating beautifully, as if stress-free.
I very much believe that the coach-skater relationship itself is vital for the success of the skater, and relationships can change over time. While it may seem admirable when a skater stays with the same coach for a long time, that is not always going to work in the skater's best interests, especially when the scoring system keeps changing. Sometimes, a coach does not keep up with the changes fast enough, for example. Coaches and choreographers now have to know how to play the system; they have to do their homework, or they are letting their skaters down. If they do not have time to keep up, then they need to have assistants who can do it for them. The Canadian coaches appeared to be the first to apply themselves to studying the new system pragmatically, and their skaters thus benefitted. The federations of Russia and the U.S. dragged their feet, still using 6.0 in their national championships, when they should already have switched to the new IJS (CoP).
In the end, a skater is on their own. They have to make the best choices they can of where to study, and with whom, if they want to compete with maximum effectiveness internationally. Sometimes their federations let them down or even unintentionally sabotage them. Sometimes their coaches do not have enough time for them; Adam Rippon, for example, says he is much happier now, since he changed coaches, and I think it is no coincidence that he won Jr. Worlds.
In conclusion, I think that it is the singles skater and none other that is on the ice, in the act of competing. The romance of that situation is what enthralls me: one person, alone, facing the challenge. Because of this, I think a singles skater is entitled to make any changes in their training or representation that they think benefits them.
Seriously, what kind of coach talks like this ("I'm not some peon, some little sh** [MM again] consultant who has to spend his life in Poitiers in really tough conditions....")? No, he's the great super-coach, who gets a high-rise in Paris where ice is warm and cozy!
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