Jason Dungjen: how he works with his athletes

[Violet Bliss]

Jason Dungjen talks about Jeremy Abbott, Alissa Czisny, Adam Rippon, Valentina Marchei, and Berton/Hotarek.

http://www.artonice.it/?q=en/node/11316

 

[macy]

cool article, thanks for sharing. its interesting to see how different coaches work. i like his and yuka's strategy. if i were to ever go back to competitive skating, i would go to them.

 

[Olympia]

What a nice article. He seems like such a calm person, and Yuka also. I imagine they must be very supportive of their students.

 

[skateluvr]

And each other. Such a lovely pair...they seemed so in tune when they skated pairs. The love was obvious, like Meno/Sand or G&G. And sadly Jaime/David for a long time. Pairs that are couples bring that extra thing to their skating, like they are sharing a secret.

I always wondered why Jason and Kyoko Ina split as a pair. I think they were 4th in World (or was it Olympics?) and then they split when it seemed there was a future. Someone correct me if I have it all wrong.

 

[Tonichelle]

Ina broke up that team. From the reports I read (articles etc) she basically left him a message saying, "I'm done."

It's an unfortunate pattern with US pairs, it seems.

 

[jcoates]

Both Kyoko and Jason made out just fine. Kyoko had a fine second career with John Zimmerman including another top five Olympic finish (including the easily the best combined SP and LP by a US pair since 1984), three more US titles, numerous GP medals, a world bronze medal, fine pro career and most importantly learned to come out of her shell. Jason met the love of his life, also had a fine pro career, and reinvented himself as a premiere coach in the US. Not too shabby as far a pair breakups go.

ETA: along with Meno and Sand (the result of another very messy break up) these are probably the best examples of US pair team splits I can think of in the last two decades.

 

[CoyoteChris]

Thanks for posting that article....I think highly of J and Y and think they are the best coaches for Alissa. I also believe being a coach is a very hard job in that you have to deal with the skaters as individuals and their relationship to you and to the other skaters and their sport. After reading "Frozen Teardrop" I wonder what would have happened if Lucinda Ruh had THEM for coaches.....

 

[heyang]

I thought I read that Jason wanted to turn pro while Kyoko wanted to continue competing. I do recall reading that Jason was surprised by her decision; so, it seems that she didn't discuss it with him before looking for a new partner. Jason met and fell in love with Yuka before his split with Kyoko. Perhaps Jason wanted to be based in Detroit while Kyoko wanted to stay in the NYC area. I'm sure several different factors came into play.

Artur Dmitriev also had success with different partners. I think it's hard to think of successful teams that quickly rebounded from splits with other partners because it can take a while to find the right connection with a new partner.