Good topic of conversation.
I've been thinking about this since I first saw this thread earlier today, and since the debut of Johnny Weir's reality program on t.v. last year I've been wondering how Galina Zmievskaya was with Oksana Baiul? She's hard, I saw that with Johnny, and that's why he went to her per his words. But Oksana didn't have any choice, she even lived with Galina, must've been extremely tough. Yes, Galina made her a champion, but at what price?
I'm not saying Galina's a monster either, she obviously does have a soft spot as well, as evidenced by her making Johnny a special drink every morning.
But I'm just glad that Viktor Petrenko was there as well to take some of the sting off.
***Note: there's this one pro competiton that Oksana did in the Fall of 1994, after she skated in a black sparkly dress with a red rose on it to "The Hours Between Night & Day", and afterwards she's sitting in the K&C with Galina, and Oksana's smiling, then Galina says something to her that obviously was an insult just judging by Oksana's face & body language, but she tried to make the most of it. Interesting.***
Personally, Priscilla Hill is my favorite! :thumbsup: I love her coaching style. I know it would work well for me because I'm already hard enough on myself as is, therefore I don't need somebody pushing me around, I'd fight back and that would be that, lol.
So I think it all depends on the personality of the skater, do they click? Are they looking for a father figure? or a mother figure? or somebody to tell them what to do, when to get up, what time to get them to the rink, motivate them. If that's the case then one needs a no-nonsense coach to give them that kick they need, especially if one is not self-motivated. Whereas somebody like Mao has to be told to "stop skating!" So I think a laid-back coach would work for her. But then who knows, the only way to know is to find out.
Still, I'm not for coach hopping, my favorites are those that have stuck with the same coach since they began to skate. Of course it would help to bring specialists in to work on such & such, but stick with that same coach (aka Brian Boitano & Linda Leaver, Kristi Yamaguchi & Christy Ness, Sarah Hughes & Robin Wagner, Evgeni Plushenko & Alexei Mishin to name a few).
Once again, interesting topic...
