Kiira Korpi interview - Positive and abusive coaching

[Magill]

Did I say "empty" about the discussion? It was about the interview. Many words about her idea that some coaching is right and some coaching is wrong. What coaching is wrong she made it clear the last time when she expressed "concerns about Anna Scherbakova". And what coaching is right she said now. Why waste so much space with empty words when what you mean is just "I like Brian and I don't like Eteri"? Aha, I know why. At least last year she was writing her thesis to get a B.A. and she thought that she created "a theory of right and wrong coaching in figure skating". Good for her. But she knows nothing. I could understand if this was done by some real athlete who went through real ups and downs with various coaches and coach techniques. Mao, Yuna, Yulia, Zhenya, Caro - you name them. But Kiira Korpi?

And one more thing. There is a saying about hypocrits in Russian. It's something around to eat the fish and at the same time not be involved in the killing. Exactly my family situation this Friday when I cooked the live crab. My wife almost cried when she saw the creature still moving. But in the end she ate it and said that it was very tasty. This is the reality. There exist high performance sports in this reality. They are not about "purpose justifies the means" - there are certain limits there. If you take doping and caught you will be banned - that's the most important one. There are general laws as well. You cannot sexually abuse neither minors nor adults in principle - that's the crime. If something like that happens it is the issue much broader than coaching in figure skating. I have never heard that sexual encounters will improve the performance on ice that's why certain coaches in certain countries revert to this "remedy". It is a crime that has nothing to do with figure skating per se. The same is true about physical abuse. Kids have to be protected in the society. There is no need in specific actions in the specific situation of figure skating.

But outside doping and breaking the laws high level sports are about achievements and money. This is so obvious to me that Kiira is just a hypocrite on her personal mission that I find it ludicrous to bring further examples. I will do though, not to those who are on the mission as well - they won't listen to me no matter what I say. To others.

Bringing up some imaginary "morale grounds" and trying to instill them in competitive sports is 100% hypocrisy. There is little morale in principle when one has to pick 1 Olympic champion out of thousands contenders. In such a situation within the accepted norms and rules anything that brings the result is good. Otherwise, just ban the sports. Ban boxing - they hit each other's faces with 1000 pound hits. Of course, ban MMA - they kick people in the head. Ban football and hockey. Ban, ban, ban.....

And yet another thing. Kiira was an average athlete. She would be in the second hundred in the Russian field if she was Russian. If she found some injustice in Finnish approaches - she should be specific about that. If she believes that the US system is full of abuse - fine, limit yourself to that - you live there. But her target is clearly seen behind the lines. Eteri. There is the realm of big time hate around Tutberidze. Having a former small-time skater from Finland joining the choir for me is.... I thought of "disgusting" but no, not disgusting. It would be if they were comparable. No, they are not. It's cheap - trying to make the name critising the great. It's similar to bringing the Russian champion in sky jumps who would start to give interviews on sky jump coaching in Poland, Germany, Finland, and Japan. All the sky jumping world would laugh out loud. But here some people are not laughing. They support Kiira in her "crusade". Isn't it obvious, why?

Just a couple of points in response:

As to the crab eating situation - millions and millions of people respond to this dilemma by refusing this hypocrisy and going vegetarian. More so each year. I truly believe this is the direction our societies evolve in. So, no, eating crabs in spite of their suffering is not the only solution available in our reality.

As for the ski jump coaching example - did you know that the Polish golden age in ski jumping started with Adam Malysz, Polish legendary ski jumper, starting to work with a sports psychologist? Before that he had been just an average inconsistent jumper. THAT was a real game changer, Malysz and subsequent Polish ski jumpers became one of the most successful teams in the world in this sport for many seasons to come. So the conclusion is, do not undervalue psychology and psychologists

Names - I think it is better that she does not use names. Still, as we can see, it does not shield her against being accused of having a personal agenda against Eteri.

Now - both Eteri and Plushenko claimed they do not "raise their hands" or - in the case of Plushy - allow his coaches to "raise their hands" against their athletes. I do believe them. Still, I find it more than alarming that they find it necessary to actually claim it in public. Like, when you enroll your kid to a school, you do not expect them to promise not to use corporal punishment because this is something more than obvious. These claims just tell me it is not an uncommon or unaccepted practice in the Russian FS coaching world as they know it. Plushy even said he needed to explain it to coaches that the absence of physical abuse and yelling at kids was a pre-condition of their employment at his school - and subsequently dismiss some of them for failing to understand.

Emotional abuse is usually much less obvious than physical abuse. In the world where you need to have absence of physical abuse explained to coaches and have them dismissed for failing to understand, or you find your abstaining from using physical abuse being something you want to advesrtise as your strength - well, how can you even imagine this world being free of emotional abuse? I do not talk about any rink in particular, just in general.

Eteri's public behaviour towards her students or former students was in some cases openly emotionally abusive, no question about that. Does she understand it? Are her fans ready to admit it while she is their darling champion-producing coach? That is a totally different question. Are her coaching methods abusive per se? I do not know. Still certain bits of information coming from insiders or former insiders of her camp seem to be disturbing to me.

 

[divan]

There is no need in specific actions in the specific situation of figure skating.

Ha-ha-ha. May I wonder how well are you familiar with a reality of the figure skating practices across the world? Are you a figure skating fan who only sees figure skating through the lens of cameras, or maybe you have a child skating and exposed to what's happening in reality on the ice rinks? Just wondering.

This is so obvious to me that Kiira is just a hypocrite

Hey, can you stop personal attacks? I understand that you're Russian, but I believe you can convey your opinion without insulting other people.

But her target is clearly seen behind the lines. Eteri.

Let me remind you that it was me, who started this conversation, and Kiira was my guest. I can assure that Eteri's name wasn't mentioned at any point in our conversations prior to this interview. Your belief that "it's all about Eteri" is simply untrue. The names I keep in mind when I talk about this you don't even know. The problem is systemic, and it's not about Russia, not about Eteri and not about Scherbakova at all.
So please stop insulting Kiira and spreading your false conspiration theory. Thank you.

 

[susieq]

I believe the Ukrainian federation itself is quite abusive.

Federation vs Dzytsiuk-Pavlov | Skate Ukraine

skateukraine.org

 

[gsk8]

Hey all!

Just a reminder that opinions, healthy debates, etc. are welcome. Insults towards other posters are not.

Think before you post. Thanks!

 

[[email protected]]

So please stop insulting Kiira and spreading your false conspiration theory. Thank you.

Do not tell me what to say and I won't tell you where to go. That's the main thing that I would like to tell you.

As for your other points, if this was the first interview of this person I would not go as far as directing her critique to Eteri. But before she did not try to hide behing generalizations. After the negative response that could have been overwhelming to her she was not on air for quite a while. And yes, now she just says "some coaches". Lesson was learned. But we still remember.

I don't have to know about coaching practices around the globe. I just strongly oppose the situation. The situation when some people try to attach importance to concerns about the health of Russian figure skaters based on the words of a former second-rate skater who never trained in Russia. Concerns during the times when Russia has the best field of skaters with a very big margin.

And yes, facts are not insults. I named the greats, the first rate skaters. Kiira is surely not one of those. She is a second-rate skater. It's a fact - it's not an insult. She is doing her B.A. thesis on this topic - it's a fact which she herself admitted. B.A. - even not a Ph.D. I would buy her overall concern about health of skaters if it were just her free opinion. No - it's a part of her professional life. She is building her career on those "concerns".

As for me personally, I was a figure skater long time ago. A third-rate figure skater. And no less than 5 kids of my friends in Moscow are figure skaters at different levels. And yes, I know that they understand 3 things. 1) It's very difficult to get into Eteri's school 2) It's a very tough environment there with a lot of sacrifices 3) But it's the best school if you cannot live without figure skating and you strive for success and medals.

Then the choice is yours. None of the kids of my friends are with Eteri. One of the girls had the opportunity to join but they together with parents decided not to. That's the life. And I am sure Russian figure skating can figure out what is best for us without concerns coming from Kiira.

 

[divan]

if this was the first interview of this person I would not go as far as directing her critique to Eteri.

This is not a thread about Eteri, nor about Russia, nor about other interviews, nor about your personal judgements of someone's level. Please discuss them in other threads.

Russian figure skating can figure out what is best for us

Can it do it in another thread? Thank you.