Mikhail Kolyada

[vorravorra]

Are there a lot of rumors about misha being a difficult student?

Rumours that the content changes were not Valentina's idea, or not all the content changes were Valentina's idea... It was quite characteristic (and stated explicitly) that the decision to skate or not to skate at Nationals was left up to Misha entirely, plus Valentina's comments of essentially shrugging her shoulders and saying "we'll see" at being asked what's up with Misha's state. She has been avoiding interviews and Misha hasn't talked about her while Stasya has done extensively (but that may just be Stasya). There is something not right in that coaching relationship. Valentina is naturally a conservative coach. Of course pressure from the Fed and the like has forced her to change her tactics somewhat, but probably not to the point of becoming the polar opposite of herself.

 

[vorravorra]

Why isnt he going to Mishin? Mishin is in the same city, and a tech coach. He can work with external choreographers as he did in the past.

Misha and Mishin specifically seems unlikely to happen. Ever since Misha turned Mishin down the first time around things haven't been simple there.

 

[rachno2]

Point taken. Their relationship does seem weird this season. But again, why did Valentina go with him to a minor competition in Estonia? RCF was such a crucial competition for Stasya, even if Worlds was out of the cards. Surely she could have used Valentina’s support more, especially if Misha isn’t listening to her?

I’m not trying to place the blame on anyone in particular, just trying to understand the dynamics at play here.

 

[vorravorra]

Point taken. Their relationship does seem weird this season. But again, why did Valentina go with him to a minor competition in Estonia? RCF was such a crucial competition for Stasya, even if Worlds was out of the cards. Surely she could have used Valentina’s support more, especially if Misha isn’t listening to her?

I’m not trying to place the blame on anyone in particular, just trying to understand the dynamics at play here.

We won't be able to understand the dynamics at play without more info. I don't know why she went with him. I am sure she still wants to support him no matter what, all that stuff about him being like a son to her I don't think it just evaporated. And I doubt it would have made much difference to Stasya being Stasya.

 

[coldblueeyes]

The thing is, Misha and I have almost the same age. I feel like it's extremely hard for someone my age to be compliant when it comes to making decisions about myself, and I get the feeling that Valentina don't want to clash with him. Also, after the Olympic season he's had, which Misha tries to make it seem like a growing pain kind of thing, and not a failure, and it wasn't, I wonder how much of those decisions were his and how much were Valentina's, and how their relationship changed after that. Maybe it's something that will settle down again, who knows. He's jumping his jumps, though, I'm happy he didn't pop anything into a single or double, because it happens when he's not ready mentally. I feel like this time it was all his health state, which has been the theme this season.

 

[rachno2]

Yes, no pops in either program I am happy about that.

I agree he just doesn’t seem fully recovered. So many competitions and not enough time to recharge. Correct me if I understood him incorrectly, but did he say his arm hurt a little when he arrived?

 

[coldblueeyes]

I mentioned before, and vorravorra also said, this might be a slump in his conditioning, because you can't train full on all year, and be at 100% in every competition. And there's the recuperation from pretty much everything--I don't like talking about other skaters here, but look at Aliev. Poor guy hasn't found his head after the Olympic season, and I wonder what kind of pressure they had to withstand then.

 

[vorravorra]

Yes, no pops in either program I am happy about that.

I agree he just doesn’t seem fully recovered. So many competitions and not enough time to recharge. Correct me if I understood him incorrectly, but did he say his arm hurt a little when he arrived?

Not arrived here. It hurt when he arrived home from Euros. His problem may be not necessarily a current ailment but general form which is obviously lacking simply because how he had trouble getting enough height/rotation on the quads. And it is lacking due to all the events earlier in the season. I said earlier that I don't think it's possible to fully make up for the first half of the season physically. Whatever foundation had been laid for his stamina between seasons was whittled away in those months and without that foundation there is only so much you can do. Look at Samarin last season.

 

[SnowWhite]

Not sure it's age. Aliev is younger and has been sent to every coach the fans can think of this season, but I don't really see them putting up money for Raf for him either. They are currently all waiting for Samsonov.

What coaches has Dima gone to this season?

 

[vorravorra]

There are some comments from those who watched live both here and at Euros that Misha didn't look nervous at all (unlike in Minsk where you could see the "steam coming out of his ears", to quote Misha himself). So whatever went wrong was not due to nerves. To me, in the second half it frankly looked like he had trouble bothering to continue.

 

[vorravorra]

What coaches has Dima gone to this season?

He hasn't gone anywhere any more than Misha. The fans on the other hand have sent him to Eteri, Orser, Arutyunyan, the usual.

 

[vorravorra]

Not arrived here. It hurt when he arrived home from Euros. His problem may be not necessarily a current ailment but general form which is obviously lacking simply because how he had trouble getting enough height/rotation on the quads. And it is lacking due to all the events earlier in the season. I said earlier that I don't think it's possible to fully make up for the first half of the season physically. Whatever foundation had been laid for his stamina between seasons was whittled away in those months and without that foundation there is only so much you can do. Look at Samarin last season.

So for the record I don't believe in a quad in the second half of the free skate this season and it would be wise to concentrate the difficult elements in the first half like they did at Nationals. I wonder if the 3A Euler combo is actually an attempt to do that, sort of, since it clearly wasn't working with the lutz at the end.

 

[vorravorra]

The thing is, Misha and I have almost the same age. I feel like it's extremely hard for someone my age to be compliant when it comes to making decisions about myself, and I get the feeling that Valentina don't want to clash with him. Also, after the Olympic season he's had, which Misha tries to make it seem like a growing pain kind of thing, and not a failure, and it wasn't, I wonder how much of those decisions were his and how much were Valentina's, and how their relationship changed after that. Maybe it's something that will settle down again, who knows. He's jumping his jumps, though, I'm happy he didn't pop anything into a single or double, because it happens when he's not ready mentally. I feel like this time it was all his health state, which has been the theme this season.

You know, a coach is supposed to be a coach and have the final word even if you are 35. If it isn't so you need to find another coach or change your attitude to training. And a coach who doesn't want to clash with a student so lets them do whatever is not doing their job properly. All this about Raf letting someone else decide Chen's jump content at the Olympics, it was hardly presented as normal from any side. Valentina is not one to give interviews "I wanted Kolyada to skate without the 4S at Euros but he didn't listen to me" so this will never become public but it doesn't mean that nothing like that is going on behind the scenes and there is no tension in the coaching relationship.

 

[vorravorra]

Yes, no pops in either program I am happy about that.

I agree he just doesn’t seem fully recovered. So many competitions and not enough time to recharge. Correct me if I understood him incorrectly, but did he say his arm hurt a little when he arrived?

No pops, but a fall from the axel for the second comp in row after almost three seasons of no falls (except for that one time when he tried to jump is as the last jump instead of a 2A). He either popped them or landed them. It's baffling and I am not sure what to make of it. Ideas?

 

[rachno2]

If he tried a new entry on the axel for the short, it could be giving him a lot of trouble in practice. Did he keep the bracket entries in the free?

I still think falling is better than popping, but if it leads to injuries then that is obviously a problem.

 

[vorravorra]

If he tried a new entry on the axel for the short, it could be giving him a lot of trouble in practice. Did he keep the bracket entries in the free?

I still think falling is better than popping, but if it leads to injuries then that is obviously a problem.

Yes, he did have the bracket entries in the free. But he didn't always use bracket entries in the past, he more often reserved them for the first axel in the FS and had a simple entry into the second. Didn't necessarily help not to pop it. But whichever way he did it it still didn't end in a fall.

 

[vorravorra]

You know, a coach is supposed to be a coach and have the final word even if you are 35. If it isn't so you need to find another coach or change your attitude to training. And a coach who doesn't want to clash with a student so lets them do whatever is not doing their job properly. All this about Raf letting someone else decide Chen's jump content at the Olympics, it was hardly presented as normal from any side. Valentina is not one to give interviews "I wanted Kolyada to skate without the 4S at Euros but he didn't listen to me" so this will never become public but it doesn't mean that nothing like that is going on behind the scenes and there is no tension in the coaching relationship.

And it it is in fact true that Misha wanted to change coaches and didn't get an approval it means that he and Valentina are now essentially stuck together out of necessity and that is not going to have a positive effect on a coaching relationship by definition.

 

[malya]

The good thing is there is practically no competition for his spot in the national team.

The FS was really sad to watch, it's not even about the falls

 

[coldblueeyes]

You know, a coach is supposed to be a coach and have the final word even if you are 35. If it isn't so you need to find another coach or change your attitude to training. And a coach who doesn't want to clash with a student so lets them do whatever is not doing their job properly. All this about Raf letting someone else decide Chen's jump content at the Olympics, it was hardly presented as normal from any side. Valentina is not one to give interviews "I wanted Kolyada to skate without the 4S at Euros but he didn't listen to me" so this will never become public but it doesn't mean that nothing like that is going on behind the scenes and there is no tension in the coaching relationship.

Oh yeah, I forgot to add to my rant, at no point I believe Misha, or even myself, should have the full responsibility in training or life, haha, especially when there's someone around which you look up to and are under the tutelage of. I do believe there is tension between them, but as you said, we'll just never know more on that.

On to the program, perhaps now that he has the flip--I mean, how do we even count that one-- maybe he can move the other quad to the first half. Other than that, I don't know how much moving around he can do.

 

[coldblueeyes]

And it it is in fact true that Misha wanted to change coaches and didn't get an approval it means that he and Valentina are now essentially stuck together out of necessity and that is not going to have a positive effect on a coaching relationship by definition.

But if he was willing to pay his way to change to Lambiel, why wouldn't the Fed approve? That makes no sense to me. And why wouldn't they approve of him moving around inside of Russia either? Who knows, maybe there's someone there who Misha would be willing to go. It seems that after all that's been said in the russian skating community about Misha, I hardly believe the Fed wouldn't approve of a change.