Plyushchenko: Trusova has radically changed, all the pros see it
Two-time Olympic Champion and coach Yevgeniy Plyushchenko told Anatoliy Samokhvalov how Aleksandra Trusova "gnaws the ice", why he offered peace to Eteri Tutberidze and when Alina Zagitova was going to go to him.
Trusova has changed ra-di-cal-ly
- The chairperson of the coaching council of the Russian Figure Skating Federation, Yelena Anatolyevna Tchaikovskaya, praised Aleksandra Trusova very much after winning the Russian Cup stage: she said that your figure skater improved in plasticity, in musicality, began to skate differently and looks different. How do you like these compliments?
-- Yelena Anatolyevna is the greatest coach. And I am pleased when she says such words to Sasha. This means that the work is really going on. I read the comments of many coaches, 99 percent of them said the same thing as Yelena Anatolyevna. I am pleased with this, I think, Sasha too, and our entire team. It turns out that we are on the right track. It is impossible to immediately change an athlete in six months, but we have already made some adjustments. Sasha is really a hard worker, a great athlete, and we would like to see more of such purposeful people who are ready to gnaw the ice and plow every day.
- If we imagine that Sasha's new look is like a construction project, then who, to a greater extent, figured out her sliding skill?
-- At first, when Seryozha Rozanov worked with Trusova, the sliding was on him. I was partly involved in some things, in the work on the steps. Dmitriy Mikhailov has done a tremendous job, finishing it. I believe that everyone made their own contribution, but if Sasha herserlf didn't understand this problem, for example, which there was before (nothing would have happened). Now I don't think we have this problem. Now she skates with dignity, does her steps series with dignity, does all the rockers, counters and everything else - loops, twizzles. She performs everything perfectly. I just want to say that when girls skate with triple jumps, and someone else with the a triple Axel, these are completely different loads. Or with three quads - this is also a completely different setting and mood. Sasha is ready to work - that's what is most important. And she shows by this (labour) that she has already changed. Both in choreography and gliding. We know the weaknesses, but we will improve them.
- How radically has she changed?
-- She really changed ra-di-cal-ly. Whatever the gloating people may tell - (they say) she has not changed or has become worse - this is complete nonsense. Figure skating professionals see everything. It is impossible to deceive them.
- Has there been a turning point in Trusova's changes with respect to the staging of her programs?
-- No, they immediately began to change when we started with the training process. Immediately we "sat down" on the sliding skills, because it was impossible to jump, because no one returns from holidays and will immediately start jumping. We "sat down" on banal stroking, steps - sweeps, dashes. We started sliding, sliding and more sliding. Sasha skated out lots of programs.
- Was it difficult to convey to her exactly what you want to convey to her?
-- Sasha perceives everything normally and adequately. Everything is good. The main thing is that she wants to. There are athletes who do not want to do this and cannot be forced, but she wants to.
- She herself wanted to become this very 'feminine', because she was always focussed on her five quads?
-- Yes, what does the quadruple have to do with it, she wants to be plastic, sweet, which she, in general, is. That cliché was assigned to her when she was still very young and small. Then she was focussed on quadruple jumps. Look at her current short program - this is a sweet, gentle girl. They (the skaters) are all different. Take Kamila Valiyeva, she is still 14 years old, just a child. Let's see how she will continue to skate. Taking Usachyova, she is also a child. Let's see how she will skate at the age of 16-17. Will they skate in the same way - the big question. Will they be able to skate like that - I don't know. They are all cute, cool, and Sasha Trusova is a sweet, kind, gentle girl. And she tries to skate like that (feminine). And all these "five quads and that's it" - a cliché. She will do these five quads, but she also improved in her sliding. She is completely different now, and not the one that was a year ago or two. No matter how hard our enemies try to say that Sasha has not changed and she has remained the same wooden one, I will answer that this is complete nonsense. Complete and utter. All professionals see this.
- And who are these enemies?
-- Well, what's the difference, enemies and foes. Those who know will understand.
- Mostly praise.
-- Praise, but there are those who do not praise.
- At the stage of the Russian Cup in Moscow, Trusova received 75.77 points for the short program, the competitors had 80 and 85 points. Were you upset that Saturday night?
-- I, of course, was upset, because a girl of 14 years should not be given, if we take the old rating system, 6.0. We now have 10.0. It is impossible to give a 14-year-old child such high marks. Yuzuru Hanyu doesn't get tens. But he skates better in different ways.
- He gets tens.
-- Not at all (starts).
- And Kamila not at all. Is it about age?
-- Sure. There wasn't this powerful skating. Carolina Costner didn't get tens.
- Carolina Costner at the same age was called angular.
- I'm talking about adult skating and (at the same time) I take a 14-year-old girl as an example. A child cannot get a top ten a priori. Can not. Yes, it was very beautiful, great skating, but it still doesn’t warrant a ten. What will she strive for next? Nothing. This time. You can't give out a top ten at the age of 14, this is complete nonsense.
- It's a cliché. She is a child genius.
-- Who?
- Valiyeva.
-- Who can argue and say that she is bad? Of course, she is brilliant, but I explain again: she does not skate to receive tens. From a professional point of view, you can find fault with many things.
- Ten, probably, it would be if she together received 90 points, and she has gotten 85.
-- But she was given tens, this cannot be done, and the judges agree with this. How impossible to judge one (athlete) and close your eyes to the edges, to this errors, and to another, on the contrary, ignore them.
- To whom did they turn a blind eye?
-- Closed, they closed their eyes.
- And Sasha was not forgiven?
-- Sasha was not forgiven. If we take Usachyova, for example, she hasn't a Lutz, but a Flutz. But for some reason she was given a clean outer edge on this jump, although there is actually an inner one and was given a bonus of 3 from the judges. I want everything to be fair to everyone. Sasha dashed off to second place (in the short program), but not to third. Sasha dashed off just not to a 10-point lead (from the leading Valiyeva). Everyone has already agreed with this. +6 points could have been given, but not 10. I understand that an airbag was created for the arbitrary program, but it failed.
- Was the airbag made by the judges?
-- Sure.
- That is, the judges are supportive of Eteri Tutberidze's group?
-- Very much, I would even say. But we will change this.
- And why then, do the judges treat you like that?
-- I do not want to go into details yet, everything is still ahead, we have a long life. Let's dwell on this for now.
- Is it still a question of the experience of the coaching group?
-- What does the experience and the coaching group have to do with it? I don't even want to go into this story, I know what the matter is, and everyone understands this perfectly. But I think everyone heard me.
Zagitova was going to leave for me a year ago
- I wonder how you feel, standing next to the same Eteri at the side at the competition?
-- Generally, it's okay, I treat the training staff with great, to be honest, respect. Because they are very good specialists, especially Sergey Dudakov is a super coach. Eteri Tutberidze is a great coach. Very good choreographer, (Daniil) Gleikhengauz. These are good people with a lot of experience.
- Why did you single out Dudakov?
-- They are very good specialists, and I have no negative feelings towards them. I respect them, they are great, this is a very strong collective. They have all the conditions that the state gives them, in quantity of ice, everything is cool. I did not quarrel with anyone, I did not entice athletes from anyone. Athletes come on their own, and they (Tutberidze's) must understand this and not broadcast: "Here, Plyushchenko lured, took away." What is being done by the director ("Sambo-70" Renat Layshev), sent in misdirected messenges (in the spirit). The athletes came on their own, this must be understood once and for all. And just figure it out in yourself why this is happening. Maybe athletes will leave me too. If this happens, I will say, "They are gone."
- Eteri's staff made it clear that it was about poaching, when the correspondence between Alina Zagitova and Yana Rudkovskaya was leaked.
-- As for Alina, Yana really communicates with her for a long time and they correspond. Alina was really going to leave for me a year ago, and no one lured her away. It really is this way.
- Did she turn to you and say that she decided to go?
-- I tell you how it is, about how it happened, why do you need to know?
- This is the most interesting. This answer to whether she was lured away or not.
-- Yana wrote to her during that time, because we had a show running. It didn't say "come train with us".
- Well, that's understandable.
-- We are the owners of our shows, while she is not in sports, we decided to make an offer.
- Why?
-- This season she will not skate.
- In this, it is clear that, most likely, it will not happen.
-- And we have a show running not only in Russia, but also abroad. Next year we are planning to show our "Swan Lake" in Japan. Our Japanese partners, like us, would like to see Alina's "White Swan" there, they wanted to invite her to skate with us, test new ice (we have a Canadian water purification system - mirror smooth ice), Western choreographers will help in staging shows for Asia. Alina really wanted this role. Yana discussed this with her a year ago, and therefore she was invited. When an athlete does not skate, but leads a show on television, she is not in sports, she has various other options open. She's not a serf. She has no agents, no one. She even, in my opinion, does not even know about it. We offered her to cooperate. Where is the poaching here? The bottom line is the proposal to skate in a show, in Japan, not even in Russia (since she skates with Tanya Navka in Moscow), but in no case is there any enticement here. There is an offer to cooperate. We have Yuliya Lipnitskaya, Adelina Sotnikova, Lena Radionova, and Kseniya Stolbova skating in shows, no one asked their coaches for permission.
- She's a member of another team.
-- Well, what's wrong with that?
- To be completely honest, you need to go to the headquarters first. Let's say Tatyana Navka invited her to the show, but she called Tutberidze first.
-- Yes, I don't care who invited her. Eteri is not her manager (of Zagitova). Here I have a manager, and everyone knows through whom to communicate. Either they call me directly, or they communicate through the manager. Or they call directly, and I send them to the agent. Alina Zagitova has no manager.
- The position is clear.
-- Well, that's all. Why should I call the coach? I'm not inviting her to Japan to compete in Japan Open.
- And that in general everyone clung to this word "luring", after all, they are always lured?
-- Once again I say that with me no one lures anyone. Alyona Kostornaya came by herself, two years ago Sasha Trusova's dad came, we talked, but then I could not decide everything, because I had only a small rink. Sasha Trusova came herself and said: "Yes, I want to skate with you." I just want the sofa people (critics) to understand once and for all, but so far it is very difficult for them to understand. Because there (in "Sambo-70") they broadcast that they were lured away: how poor and unfortunate we are, the girls were taken away from us, but they did not tell us anything. You must already be a little more courageous, more confident in yourself and understand that they have left you. Gone. And they are not pots of flowers to steal at night. Living people. Each with her own character, her own history and her own soul!
- There is no way out of this matter without contracts, but contracts cannot be drawn ...
-- Why?
- Because they are minor children.
-- Well, (to sign contracts) with the parents. Everything is possible.
- They put this question to the federation, but there also ...
-- … yes there would be a desire. It can be done.
- If time passes and Sasha Trusova comes to you with the words: "Yevgeniy Viktorovich, excuse me, I'm going to Mishin's"?
-- Look, this is the athlete's decision. I will, of course, be offended. It would hurt me. I will be very sad to lose such an athlete. Because she is a really strong athlete. But this is her decision. How can I keep her? By the ear? Lock her in her room? It's impossible. You have to be realistic. And not rest on a cloud, we are so great and they did not leave us, but were lured away. Get down to the ground already. You have to walk on the ground. On the ground.
- When you meet at competitions, do you say hello?
-- I met after the competition and offered peace.
- Who?
-- The 'headquarters'. My wife and I had a meeting (with the headquarters), and I told it was not necessary, it seems to me, to create any quarrels. I also explained that you need to take it for granted, that athletes leave you, and no one lured them away and certainly did not steal!
- Who were you talking to from the 'headquarters'?
-- Three people that are the 'headquarters'.
- Dudakov, Gleikhengauz, Tutberidze?
-- Right.
- What did you answer?
-- We did not find peace there, so I told my wife, who is not only my wife and co-owner of my schools, if someone still perceives Yana so narrowly and shortsightedly, but also a person who helps athletes in everything: in sponsors, in ice, and now builds the best conditions for them to practice. I told, because they didn't want to make up, 'let's go'. Unfortunately, you, journalists, were not allowed into the zone (communication with athletes), and we had only a short meeting. I do not want to quarrel with anyone. But I do not want those people, who were deceived and mislead into thinking this, it never was and cannot be.
- You are "Angels" in the shape of a pony, as Alexey Yagudin pointed out in his Instagram video.
-- I answered him everything. That's why he needs it? What does he have to do with this? There is this struggle between two schools in competitions, as it once was between Mishin and Tarasova. I understand everything, so what does Yagudin have to do with it? Nobody makes parodies, and he is a plug in every barrel. Why? Not enough attention coming his way? Who is stopping you from buying houses in France, instead of building skating rinks in Russia, not to make parodies, and training groups of athletes every day from six in the morning until late in the evening? Everyone has his own path. After such a humiliating attitude towards my school and the athletes of my academy, I would not want Alexey to comment on their performances anywhere. There is a bias here. It will be necessary to show this video on Channel One. How can you belittle some athletes and coaches and exalt others? He needs to take an example from his coach, from the great Tat'yana Anatolyevna Tarasova, who only has everything to the point and to the spirit. No hype and no politics. So I think, really even "Ice Age" does not help him anymore, and even his brightest 'feminine images' on Instagram do not cause former interest ...
- You said that Yagudin is not remembered, but Yagudin vs Plyushchenko is a brand that will always be remembered. Yes, and "Winter" is remembered.
-- Probably only this "Winter".
- "The Man in the Iron Mask"?
-- Almost 20 years have passed since. May be. But I'm not sure (what they remember).
- Averbukh wrote "Bravo!" Under that post, Tutberidze "liked". This is a normal "trash-talk", as in MMA, boxing?
-- I am not interested in what they think about me, since I do not think about them at all and never touch them! Yana sometimes shows me what they post, they are bored, and I have a gigantic responsibility, two construction sites, more than 100 athletes, a son was born, Sanya (the eldest son) needs attention ... To be honest, they are definitely not up to them now. They always get in the way, this time the director of the headquarters, the other time, periodically popping up like the devil from the snuffbox, Yagudin, who has recently been looking extremely strange.
- Or maybe you shouldn't put up for the sake of popularizing the sport?
-- I took a step forward, so as not to make any attacks on each other, I told them that no one is attacking you, but I will defend myself. I will defend myself toughly, a lot of information is not in favour of the headquarters, a lot of parents are ready to voice the facts.
- What topic?
-- I (for now) tell you this, throw it in, but there is a lot of information, it's not for nothing that half of Khrustalniy is training with me. It's not just the same Laishev, the director who is a civil servant in government work ... Don't touch, I didn't touch him, but this official calls me a "bum", "thief" and so on. I understand he has the image of a jester who does not understand anything about figure skating, but at least sometimes you think about what you are talking about. According to my information, he is already pretty fed up with all his tales and they are preparing a suitcase for him, which is a pity, for he is a cheerful man. In the morning I read his stories (they relay me), and the whole team laughs. This charge of positive. He's a figure skating meme ... Memchik ... And such people are needed ... He is all to blame for everything, he is an important boss, puffing out his cheeks in every interview and a pious believer that he is the main expert in figure skating, who even can not stand in figure skates.
- When will the popularity of figure skating be such that Maksim Galkin will start uploading videos, and not Alexey Yagudin, and parody Plyushchenko and Tutberidze?
-- There were a lot in KVN, among the stand-ups in the Comedy Club. I'll ask my friends to be parodied.
- And, peace is not needed, it's fun.
-- I am against dirt. I don't like this story. We work, we puff ourselves on the sly and do not touch anyone first. The tournament is over, I haven't given a single interview. Laishev - couldn't resist and started 'broadcasting'.
- No, Renat Alekseyevich is a normal person, he's just far from figure skating.
-- Let Renat Alekseyevich be engaged in other matters, we have mutual acquaintances, they generally say about him that he is already ... cuckoo and all, and I say: don't touch him, without him it will be boring, let him amuse us ...
- Rozanov. In May, you told me that Trusova and Rozanov are one and the same project. "Trusova came with Rozanov."
-- Trusova came by herself. Then Sasha asked me: "Take Sergey Alexandrovich, please, I want to continue learning with him." To which I replied: "Sergey Alexandrovich is a very good specialist, I will take him with pleasure." So that there is no gossip, I will say that Sasha came first and alone. Sergey Aleksandrovich was “in favour” and (came) with pleasure. And we started working as one team. As of today, they don't really collaborate together. Seryozha leads Kostornaya and other athletes, Sasha has other coaches.
- How did this happen?
-- It happens, no one has anything against it. If it's convenient, comfortable, this way, then please. Seryozha has no problems and Sasha has no problems.
- The coach came to Sasha, Sasha wanted to work with him, and he is a specialist who has proved his level of skill.
-- Seryozha staged her two programs - short and free. Very good programs. But there is something ...
- What?
-- The vector has changed. It happens
- … because Alyona has arrived.
-- What does this have to do with it? Rozanov leads Kostornaya and other athletes, of whom we have enough. Sasha is led by Dima Mikhailov, Sergey Alekseyev and me. Ilinykh works with Kostornaya and also with other athletes. We are taking more (specialists) for Sasha. In professional sports, it happens that somewhere something did not fit, it did not work out.
- In our interview with you after Kostornaya's transition, I asked how Alyona and Sasha would tear Rozanov apart. You said to me I was talking nonsense.
-- A little more time has passed, everything fell into place.
- Conflict?
-- There are no conflicts.
- Can't you make Rozanov work with both Kostornaya and Trusova?
-- What's the difference to you? The main thing is that both one and the other have results.
- I just want Sasha to become stonger and stronger still, to be squeezed to the maximum. Rozanov staged her programs, he must somehow control them.
-- He controlled them up to a certain point. We have changed a lot since. Many specialists work with her.
- How is Alyona doing?
-- Everything is fine, recovering, skating though her programs. The only thing is, she broke a boot in training and is now breaking in new ones. Preparing for the fourth stage (Russian Cup).
- If in relation to Sasha it was clear it was necessary to change, then Kostornaya is a ready European Champion, a skater with practically no drawbacks.
-- Kostornaya needs to work even harder.
- Doesn't work much?
-- No, but to keep your lead, you need to plow even more. It's easier to catch up than to hold back. She knows about it, so we are working. She has very good programs. Both short and free, directed by Shae-Lynn Bourne. Everything is fine with both Kostornaya and Trusova, everything is going according to plan.
- Already on her first approach to the press after going to you, Alyona spoke very frankly about the nuances of the transfer, about the motives, that there were no questions left. Do you like her insolence?
-- Yes. Sure. Firstly, she's boiling. That's why she was so, maybe, harsh. The only thing is to thank the coaches who did a great job.
... I want to thank her first coach Zhgun for Alyona, who perfectly prepared her, gave her a base, Yelena Anatolyevna Tchaikovskaya, in whose school she skated.
- But experts from Tutberidze brought her to these awards. Why not thank them?
-- I say that we must thank everyone. And then the journalists write like its only her, but there are still other coaches who also did a gigantic and very good job before Tutberidze, like Volkov with Trusova. You keep forgetting that these girls were not at Eteri's "from scratch", they came with all the triples.
- Do you remember how your coaches in Volgograd once did this work with you?
-- And I always say that I had coaches Tatyana Nikolayevna Skala, Mikhail Khrisanfovich Makoveyev. I am insanely grateful to them. In no case should they be written off.
- An increase in the complexity of Alyona's elements is expected in the near future?
-- Let us first go through the first start. Now is a very difficult time, there are no competitions, postponed, cancelled, a pandemic, arrived late, a new coach, a new team, a new base ... This is a new stress for the girls. On the contrary, they need to be supported, but here they are spreading rot, spreading rot, and spreading more rot.
- Have you contacted Rika Kihira on social media?
-- I advise and make friends with many athletes - world stars of figure skating. I don't comment on more, I don't know why you focus on Rika, I wouldn't look in this direction.
(c) Анатолий Самохвало
----
Двукратный олимпийский чемпион тренер Евгений Плющенко рассказал Анатолию Самохвалову, как "грызет лед" Александра Трусова, зачем он предлагал мир Этери... РИА Новости Спорт, 16.10.2020
rsport.ria.ru
