New documentary about Evgenia and Alina | Golden Skate

New documentary about Evgenia and Alina

mrrice

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 9, 2014
Please tell me there are subtitles.....There are!!!!!!

I just watched the opening and Evgenia is a goddess...Eteri is beautiful and I don't know how she keeps producing these champions.....:bow:
 

Sam L

Medalist
Joined
Mar 23, 2014
Amazing. I've had a quick look, I'll watch the whole thing later but it is great to see what it takes to pull out the performances we see. Much respect. And I love the team environment. Rivals but friends. They deserve to go Gold and Silver. No doubt.
 

millie

Medalist
Joined
Nov 1, 2004
Please tell me there are subtitles.....There are!!!!!!

I just watched the opening and Evgenia is a goddess...Eteri is beautiful and I don't know how she keeps producing these champions.....:bow:





Did you watch the whole video? It shows how she produces these champions.....oh my! IMO, it showed a lot of tough love and cruelty. A lot of negativity and put down towards the girls. These girls don't know anything but Skating and nothing else matters but Skating. This is what makes them champions. I wonder if these girl's parents know what they go through and the verbal abuse and the tears they shed. I pity them, they deserve to win....if they don't, look out. Oh my
 

GGFan

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 9, 2013
Thank you so much for this. I went in thinking I would watch for a few minutes, but I couldn't stop. Thoughts:

1. This was much better than the normal skating fluff. It was more a slice of their training and lives and showed some very honest moments.

2. Both young ladies are very charming, fierce, and driven.

3. Daniil, call me! :love:

4. In the world of crazy coaches, Eteri would work for me. It's very matter of fact and you know where you stand. The over the top yelling folks (whether when happy or angry) are too much for me. However, this kind of coldness does not work for all students. Hopefully parents do their jobs in matching their children with the right coaches.

5. Moments that made me uncomfortable: 1. Alina doing a lot of looking down and showing some sadness. Perhaps that is just how she is when she's very focused and serious but I didn't love some of the body language. 2. Alina talking about the big difference skating would make to the lives of her parents. I totally get it but living away from your family and taking on that pressure at a young age is rough. 3. Alina's discussion of her broken leg and arm. Just a reminder of how tough this sport is. As a fan I share some complicity in that. 4. When they were both weighing themselves. Again, I get it from the aerodynamic angle. But it's a fine line these athletes have to toe. 5. Evgenia talking about the young generation. A reminder about the turn over in this business and it worries me. I don't want the push for tech in men's and women's skating to rob the sport of longevity. 6. Evgenia getting pissed when she wasn't landing something. The perfectionist part I get but it makes me wonder if she will stick around for the long run. It doesn't seem like she'll handle any deterioration in her jumping very well.

6. Controversial statement: Seeing the miming in practice made it feel even more unnecessary and lazy choreographically. Step up your game team! That's not the only way to convey emotion.
 

anyanka

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 8, 2011
Um, Eteri is SCARY. But she's a champion maker. She's not doing things to be difficult, but she definitely is not one to mess with. You do not fool around on her time.
 

tars

Record Breaker
Joined
Apr 24, 2017
Have you guys noticed, how Eteri talks to Zhenya and Alina in two completely different ways? :think:

Her tone towards Medvedeva is understanding, calm and affectionate, while rather harsh and mocking towards Zagitova.
I wonder, if it's because of her personal preference for a pupil or psychological approach suitable for a specific skater.
 

GGFan

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 9, 2013
Have you guys noticed, how Eteri talks to Zhenya and Alina in two completely different ways? :think:

Her tone towards Medvedeva is understanding, calm and affectionate, while rather harsh and mocking towards Zagitova.
I wonder, if it's because of her personal preference for a pupil or psychological approach suitable for a specific skater.

It sounds like they respond to different things, so Eteri works it differently for both. Evgenia appears to be the perfect student. You tell her something and she does it right away. You don't ever have to be hard on her because she's going to be very hard on herself (if you're yelling she'll join in and yell at herself). Alina seems to be more prone to lose focus and is probably the kind of student who needs wake up calls from time to time.

Having said that Alina's body language bothers me. I worry that she's someone who internalizes some of this. Hopefully that's not the case and she is able to keep it to the ice. I will say that I like that it appears that feedback is consistent and you know what to expect. It doesn't sound like the coaches are ever telling them to do random things or correcting things out of the blue just to be picky. There seems to be rhyme and reason.
 

Anyasnake

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 28, 2016
Loved the documentary. Loved the realness of it. No sugarcoating, these girls are not princesses. They are warriors.

Eteri would be my kind of coach, I prefer the cold type than the yelling, OTT type. Alina and Zhenya work differently and coaches have to adapt.

This is not a fancy center with fancy equipment. You get the rink, gym room (which looks a bit old) that's it, and you do your job otherwise you do it again.

This is one tough world, we already knew that but it's nice to have it accurately portrayed in a documentary. (Can someone sends it to NBC ? :biggrin:)
 

Ophelia

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 6, 2013
Alina is stunning.

Idk if she'll last long with Eteri. Eteri's coaching style doesn't seem to be the best fit for her personality.
 

TunaKeem

Rinkside
Joined
Oct 21, 2017
Just finished watching this. I went into this half-expecting to see some horrible things about Eteri. Just from my time perusing this forum, I've noticed that Eteri seems to have a bad reputation as a very tough (some would say abusive) coach.

I'm seeing that she has a very no BS type of coaching style and has high expectations of those that she coaches. Evgenia seems to be extremely dedicated on her own and has high expectations for herself so she requires less from Eteri but Alina seems to be someone who requires more hands-on and more tough criticism. I know Yulia Lipnitskaya is mentioned a lot as an example of Eteri's harsh criticism but maybe Yulia just wasn't a good fit with Eteri and the pressures from her country and the pressure on herself made her have to take time away from her career as a figure skater.

I think Eteri is a very effective coach and am a proponent of that type of criticism myself. I always prefer to know exactly where I stand and I feel like any unnecessary attempts to sugar coat things don't aim to improve me. Her coaching style is not perfect for everyone but for some it can make them flourish.
 

Sophie-Anna

Medalist
Joined
May 24, 2013
First of all I want to say that (of course) certain coaching style might be perfect for someone and not so effective for another skater. I did not like some things Eteri said in some interviews, we know what happened with Julia (but the huge pressure of being followed everywhere at just 15 was a factor there too), but these things are not for us to judge. From what I saw in the video:

-Alina and Evgenia seem to have friendly relationships with each other, which was nice to see
-I really admire Alina for moving away from her parents to achieve her dreams, for working so hard and overcoming all these injuries
-notice Eteri in at around 24:50, how happy she looks. She is a person too and I don't think at all she is a bad, cruel person

Most importantly:
I don't get all the talks about how terrible it must be to train in this group, Eteri is cruel and too harsh etc etc..I did figure skating myself (at not very high level)and I can say that what was in this video is absolutely normal training.And there are many coaches who are far more harsh than Eteri. The coach should be strict and they should tell you about all of your mistakes. This team pays attention to every little detail (probably a little bit more than in the other teams?) and as we could see in the past years it pays off in competitions. The way Eteri was talking to Alina after her run-through was not harsh. I don't really think so. She is just pointing out Alina's mistakes. That's all. And when you make a mistake the coach should tell you about it and correct it.
It is normal that if things are going bad in practise you are angry. Someone more, someone less. I wouldn't create a tragedy from Evgenia being angry at practice. Nobody, not even Evgenia, is 100% every day.
So calm down, Eteri is a normal coach. She might look like a cold person, but again, I have seen coaches who were far more strict. Eteri knows what she is doing.
 

ladyjane

Medalist
Joined
Jun 26, 2012
Country
Netherlands
What a lovely documentary. If that doesn't show FS is a tough sport, I don't know what will. As regards the coaching, it doesn't look abusive to me at all. More like a strict teacher who only gives praise when a pupil is actually doing well, and not when she isn't. And the girls are just that: young girls. Some are perfectionists all on their own, others need a little more push to get there. One can of course question the need for such striving, but I presume that when you want to get somewhere in any sport, there needs to be an urge for perfection!
 

winky97

Medalist
Joined
Mar 3, 2014
Have you guys noticed, how Eteri talks to Zhenya and Alina in two completely different ways? :think:

Her tone towards Medvedeva is understanding, calm and affectionate, while rather harsh and mocking towards Zagitova.
I wonder, if it's because of her personal preference for a pupil or psychological approach suitable for a specific skater.

There is definitely a difference in how she talks to the two young ladies. Even her interaction with them is the KnC is different. I have always kinda viewed Medvedeva as being her favorite. Honestly her favorite is probably whoever is winning at the time. Her interaction with Yulia used to be sweet until it wasn’t anymore. I suspect Medvedeva proprbably was treated harsh too before she started winning everything.
 
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