The mantra about her previous jump technique that ruined her body and had to be changed for me is ridiculous. I think it is just in the minds of those fans who defend her move to Orser and hope that she will "show them all next season". I have not heard any professional opinion on that and I don't believe in it. I don't think that she would have big issues if she stayed with Eteri. On the contrary, with struggling Alina Zhenya could have regained her #1 status this season which now seems like science fiction. And next year we have Rika + 3A. Welcome to win over them even with "new and better technique".
Personally, I don’t find this mantra ridiculous at all. Of course, it’s not Eteri herself who “destroyed” Evgenia’s body, but I just don’t understand how can people not see a big pattern in Eteri students; and I say that as an admirer (not a fan, but still) of Eteri herself. The technique of Eteri is not a technique made for adult women, it’s a technique made for little girls. It’s because the technique used is based mostly on rotation speed, and it’s extremely obvious. It’s made for juniors because they are thin, petite, little, light, and so, their rotation speed is fast. It allows them to rotate their jumps, especially their quads etc. That’s why I don’t believe Trusova and especially Shcherbakova are going to keep their quads all their life. This technique is made for little girls. Then puberty will come, butt, breast will come as well, the center of gravity will be changed and it will be much much more difficult for them to do what they are doing – quads, but also others jumps like some triples since their technique was based on rotation speed. It's basic physics.
I love Evgenia, but frankly, she had a terrible technique (and even if there are improvements, it’s not the best in the world right now either). Tutberidze never bothered to fix the technique of Medvedeva because it worked. But you have to be blind not to see her skating deteriorated the more she got older, and it has nothing to do with her stress fracture (even if her fracture didn’t help of course). At the end of 2016-2017, she was using her upper body even more than before to do basic crossovers, and her jumps were even more muscled than before (which is actually a miracle since she was one of the skater with the most muscled jumps I’ve ever seen to begin with).
And we see that now with Zagitova. Look at her technique right now. She underrotates much more than before. But more than underrotations, look at the skating skills (which weren’t the best to begin with, but still). Her skating is not as effortless as before (it's not effortless at all to be honest), and I know why because I saw the
exact same thing over the years. The exact same pattern. Before it was Medvedeva. Before it was Lipnitskaya. With each (female junior) skater it’s the exact same. Lather, rinse, repeat. The only one who has a chance for me to pass post-puberty is Kostornaya, but her technique is not based on Eteri model, so she is an exception.
At the end of the day, as Fluture said, it’s Zhenya herself who mentioned she could not continue under Eteri, and I think (since she is – you know – the main character in this story) she knows more than all of us here. Maybe staying with Eteri would have worked for her, but I severely doubt it, since I noticed the signs since 2017, way before her stress and spine fracture. Morever, you say “with struggling Alina, Zhenya could have regained her #1 status this season”, except you
never, ever, make decisions about your competitors. When you make decisions (especially drastic decisions), it's about you. Not about Zagiova & cie : 1) Zhenya had no chance to know that Alina will struggle this season, she doesn't see the future and 2) It’s not her problem and it’s completely irrelevant. Zhenya herself said she could not train under Eteri anymore. It has nothing to do with Alina, it’s about Zhenya and Zhenya only.
Morever, you say “regained her #1 status” but for how long ? Eteri’s technique is
not made for women. It would have failed her. Maybe she could have stayed another year under Eteri, yes, why not, and bring some medals. But Evgenia said herself she wants to compete for a long long time, and we all saw all long Eteri students with the magical Eteri technique stayed competitive.
So yes, I welcome this “new and better technique”. Because it IS better. Because it will allow her to continue if she really wants to. Yes, she is struggling, but as I said before, it's not her technique, it was nerves (and even if it was her technique, she is experiencing something new. I think it's understandable).
Furthermore, she can also learn new jumps (I heard she intends to learn the quad salchow and the triple axel – I’m not really optimistic for the axel, but for the salchow, since it’s one of her best jumps, she has clearly the potential). She is a fighter so why do people think she is going to watch her competitors learn new jumps while doing nothing herself ?
I know people don’t believe in her right now. But I do believe in her, and I want her to believe in herself (and when it's the case, she can delivers fantastic performances). I know people say her choice to go to Brian was bad, because “look, Alina can score 80 points, or look at the trio of Juniors that finished on the podium at Nationals and they are all under Eteri!”. At the end of the day, what I’m saying don’t have much worth. However, I feel she did the right choice and she will have lots of things to show us in the future. I’ve been in figure skating for a long time and while I don’t have a crystal ball, I think I’m right on this one. I hope so.
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