"You can find a rational grain in every delusional idea". Coach Kirill Davydenko about the team and students
August 17, 2023
St. Petersburg coach Kirill Davydenko came to the junior rentals in Novogorsk together with three students - participants Ivan Ramzenkov and Dmitriy Shelkovnikov and coach Anton Shulepov. Talking about the new programs, Kirill Anatolievich explained why he calls the athletes' programs "live" and why one should not make hasty conclusions after the first shows.
- This year, two of our athletes - Vanya Ramzenkov and Dima Shelkovnikov - are participating in the test skating. Vanya's last season was not easy. At the very beginning, in the fall, he got injured, recovered and at the end of the season he performed. And not just performed, but was selected for the national team. He came second at the Russian Senior Championship "Olympic Hopes" and took third place at the Spartakiada. Moreover, the Spartakiade was Vanya's first serious tournament after the injury. Before that he started at home competitions, but, you must agree, the responsibility is different.
It's a pity, of course, that some time was lost in the season. But no one is immune to injuries. While he was recovering, Vanya continued to do physical training, loaded himself, excluding the injured leg. We built the work so that he recovered as efficiently as possible. This allowed us to finish the season successfully.
Dima, on the contrary, got sick before the rentals. Besides, the guy has grown a lot over the summer. Before the trip to Novogorsk, he couldn't train at full strength for almost three weeks. But I decided that we should go to the rentals, so as not to demotivate the athlete. If you have recovered, it doesn't matter whether you grew up or were sick, you need to get involved, enter the season, show the judges your programs.
This time my former athlete, assistant, coach Anton Shulepov, who set programs for Vanya and Dima, also came to the rentals with me. Anton himself will tell better about the programs, and I will add that we try to make the athletes grow in each new program. A little more "adult" music, images, to reach upwards, so that there was no stagnation, there was development, - says Kirill Davydenko.
-- The music for these programs was selected by Kirill Anatolievich, and I made the programs. But, of course, our whole team helped. Vanya's short program to the song by Genesis "I Can't Dance", where he appears as a man who can't dance - you can see it from the movements at the beginning of the program, but he tries to do it and, in the end, dances. The story is simple enough, but it's how you roll it out that matters.
Free program to music from the movie "Mission", where Ivan has the image of a liberator, defender, a man who gives hope for a better future.
We transformed Dima's new short program from his last year free program "Coldplay - Fly On". The music is beautiful, melodic, calm, and it is exactly what is needed to show the skating, gliding, and skating skills of the skater.
And last season's free skating program to this composition suited Dima very well. I had an interesting idea for his new free skate, and if we manage to play it during the season, it will be cool. I literally put together the music for this free skating piece by piece. It's four compositions: Jo Blankenburg - "Veni Vidi Viki" from the album "Vandals", "Austerlitz" -- Sonata Allegro. The idea is that Dima will try to reveal four different images, from a faceless puppet to a contradictory person, good, evil - different... All this is reflected in the music.
It sounds then inspiring, then aggressive, then gentle, and each musical transition is a move from one element to the next. Like I said, I put this music together piece by piece, calibrating everything by seconds to hit the musical accents. If you roll it up and show it, it's interesting.Anyway, as a director, I like the idea very much.
In general, I am always critical of my programs. It's one thing to propose a program, and another to roll it out on ice. And sometimes in the process of staging and finalizing something turns out to be even more interesting than it was originally conceived. Athletes are all different, and it is interesting for me to see how they present themselves in their images in different programs. How they adapt the program for themselves, open up, add something, - says Anton Shulepov.
- We have a very good team,- Kirill Davydenko continues. - They are mostly my former students - Aleksandrina Degtyareva, Anton Shulepov, our choreographer Igor Koshcheev. We also involve Maria Trenkaeva. She works with the younger group, but she helps a lot with the older ones in working out programs and choreography. Of course, Denis Sergeyevich Lunin, who works closely with Andrei Mozalev, puts programs, deals with sliding....
Young coaches are all smart, motivated, they want to work, they want to achieve results. When you are a little bit undernourished in sports, you still have ambitions, you want to realize yourself further in this activity. I see how the guys want it, and I give them an opportunity, some freedom of action. Naturally, I control them, but I don't bind them, saying, "Do what I say and that's it. On the contrary, I always tell them: "Offer your ideas, even if they are crazy. Because in every delusional idea you can find a rational grain".
By the way, this year we did not invite outside directors. We did the programs by our own efforts. First of all, I think we should give way to young people. And I see that the guys can do well, that it is like a challenge for them, because you work with skaters of the national team of the country, the national team of our city. For example, Alexandrina Degtyareva made a program to Ksyusha Gushchina. Very good. You'll see. Anton Shulepov, as you already know, put programs to Vanya and Dima. And these decisions were not spontaneous. I was looking around, testing, and when I realized that I could trust this case, why not? You see, if I saw that a person had "written himself out", I would say: "Let's pause for a season, try someone from the outside, you'll take a break, the creative impulse will come, and we'll continue". And these guys haven't written themselves out, because they're at the beginning of their journey. Youth coupled with desire and intelligence is a big deal.Throughout the season, our directors will be able to "track" these programs, make changes, improve them. Any program is a living organism. Let's say you have learned a new element and you want to try it out at less important tournaments, so you have to change the program pattern a little bit. Or, for example, you have stabilized something, why not try to insert it into the program? But in this case, of course, you need to change your moves a little bit, something else. And then, athletes grow in skill. Their speed changes: if they started to go faster, it means that they need to add a step somewhere. That's why I say: the program is a living organism, it is constantly changing and needs to be improved. At the beginning of the season viewers can see one scheme of the program, and by the end of the season it will have a new "tuning", although I don't like anglicisms. So you have to understand: what viewers see at the rentals does not give the whole picture, because a lot of work is done "behind the scenes". In training, athletes can show the experts the elements that are not yet inserted in the program, to analyze in detail every nuance. The main task is to show the integrity of the program, to listen to all the comments and recommendations, then to work on the mistakes. And when the program will be rolled, jumped, polished, it will be perceived differently, it will "play".This also applies to the content. Control rolls are the beginning of the season. And it is pointless to jump to conclusions that someone has, say, old content.
Junior skating takes place in August, and the first starts are in October. It is clear that you simplify some things, miss some things. If in the middle of August the athletes will be in perfect shape, what will we get by the national championship?
The main task for the season is the Junior Russian Championship and the Russian Championship. This has always been the case, even when international tournaments were held, because our domestic championships were used to qualify for the European Championships and World Championships. And we had to approach these starts in the best possible shape. And now all the more so," commented coach Kirill Davydenko.
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I already love this program, and I feel like Ivan has taken it a step forward
