2018-19 Russian Ladies' figure skating

The Russian ladies carry a weight far too heavy for their young shoulders. Sofia's tears after her skate.. Still not a fan of those tanos but I'm glad she skated clean.

Polina...:sad4: Such a beautiful skater with the most gorgeous jumps when executed...sigh.

Really want to know what happened to Polina. Her SP was good but the score... The judges are really going after her.

But in the LP, it seems her many doubles were planned doubles. Is she skating injured? Or her self confidence was shattered so much that she no longer believes she can jump triples? If I were her, I would be depressed. How ironic it is that two ladies with the smallest jumps got on the podium and the one with the biggest jumps is the worst jump in judges' eyes.

Can skaters solve their under rotation problem by pre rotate their jumps, at least for the judges? Or it is too difficult for those who don't pre rotate or pre rotate little to use pre rotation techniques?

shiroKJ said:

The Russian ladies carry a weight far too heavy for their young shoulders. Sofia's tears after her skate.. Still not a fan of those tanos but I'm glad she skated clean.

Polina...:sad4: Such a beautiful skater with the most gorgeous jumps when executed...sigh.

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Pretty sure that Sofia's tears were of happiness - it was her first senior GP and she skated herself onto the podium.

So sad to see Tsurskaya struggling again today... leaving Eteri seems to have cursed her. Happy for Samodurova though! Great skate from Sophia!

Sofia was lovely (I was in the rink). She really sold her programs.

Poor Polina- it’s crazy how she jumps so high but still has trouble with rotations. You could tell before she started she was nervous- I think that more than anything led to the pops.

AshWagsFan said:

So sad to see Tsurskaya struggling again today... leaving Eteri seems to have cursed her. Happy for Samodurova though! Great skate from Sophia!

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I don't know that it was leaving Eteri that did it. She mentioned in an interview after joining Buianova's group that she had a significant back injury that was bad enough to impede her training. I think the injuries are catching up to her. I don't know exactly what she did to her back, but I badly injured mine over a decade ago and to this day, it still hurts when I skate. I think even if she'd stayed with Eteri, she'd be having similar issues.

DanseMacabre said:

I don't know that it was leaving Eteri that did it. She mentioned in an interview after joining Buianova's group that she had a significant back injury that was bad enough to impede her training. I think the injuries are catching up to her. I don't know exactly what she did to her back, but I badly injured mine over a decade ago and to this day, it's still hurts when I skate. I think even if she'd stayed with Eteri, she'd be having similar issues.

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Wasn't there reports/rumors that she had some kind of genetic bone disease or some career-threatening type injury to her back?

Amei said:

Wasn't there reports/rumors that she had some kind of genetic bone disease or some career-threatening type injury to her back?

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Apparently, Eteri said something to that effect but Polina's mother said it wasn't true. What they both agree on is that she's had a series of injuries, some to the back.

Here's the translated interview where she talks about her injury: https://fs-gossips.com/polina-tsurskaya-i-realized-that-i-urgently-needed-to-change-something/

And the original: https://rsport.ria.ru/interview/20180828/1140930235.html

She basically confirms that her back wasn't a one and done injury. It's an ongoing issue that she has to consider in training and constantly monitor, so I wouldn't be surprised if it was still bothering her. I don't think people realize how much stress skating puts on the lower back even without jumping. Since she's had lumbar spine issues before I would bet dollars to doughnuts that it acts up every now and then.

I feel for skaters with back issues. I still deal with constant pain on a daily basis, and I cringe at the thought of even skating around a rink, let alone doing spins or jumps. Back issues are career ending. I have no hope for Pogo either due to her back issues.

Somehow I feel Polina should go to Plush, because Anna with injuries went to him, Tarakanov had some illness (?) and injury went to him.
With other top coaches, I don't think having a year off healing is an option, but with Plush, it is workable. And with Tarakanova's success so far, Plush's academy is quite promising. (I totally thought whoever goes to Plush will not be competitive for sure last season.)

But u don’t HAVE to do a beilmann anymore. You don’t even have to do a layback anymore.

Plush???

atsumiri said:

Plush???

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Plushenko... Tarakanova‘s coach.... I was and am still a bit sceptical about his coaching but so far he‘s been doing better with Nastya than Buyanova has with any of her skater this season. Of course that‘s not the ultimate proof that he‘s superior or anything, we have to wait and see it‘s way too early to predict anything. But so far he‘s doing pretty well. Let‘s see how it will continue to look like in the future.

DanseMacabre said:

Apparently, Eteri said something to that effect but Polina's mother said it wasn't true. What they both agree on is that she's had a series of injuries, some to the back.

Here's the translated interview where she talks about her injury: https://fs-gossips.com/polina-tsurskaya-i-realized-that-i-urgently-needed-to-change-something/

And the original: https://rsport.ria.ru/interview/20180828/1140930235.html

She basically confirms that her back wasn't a one and done injury. It's an ongoing issue that she has to consider in training and constantly monitor, so I wouldn't be surprised if it was still bothering her. I don't think people realize how much stress skating puts on the lower back even without jumping. Since she's had lumbar spine issues before I would bet dollars to doughnuts that it acts up every now and then.

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Then she needs to stop skating. Seriously. And I was thinking the same of Vincent Zhou watching him skate in what seems to be considerable pain. Polina has wonderful huge jumps, but perhaps a year off would help her heal, and it is a good year to take off.

Fluture said:

Plushenko... Tarakanova‘s coach.... I was and am still a bit sceptical about his coaching but so far he‘s been doing better with Nastya than Buyanova has with any of her skater this season. Of course that‘s not the ultimate proof that he‘s superior or anything, we have to wait and see it‘s way too early to predict anything. But so far he‘s doing pretty well. Let‘s see how it will continue to look like in the future.

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Nastya is different case. She is adjusted to coaches changing and hasn't such number of injuries behind. And what is maybe even more important Nastya really want to win competitions.

Fluture said:

Plushenko... Tarakanova‘s coach.... I was and am still a bit sceptical about his coaching but so far he‘s been doing better with Nastya than Buyanova has with any of her skater this season. Of course that‘s not the ultimate proof that he‘s superior or anything, we have to wait and see it‘s way too early to predict anything. But so far he‘s doing pretty well. Let‘s see how it will continue to look like in the future.

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He brought Serafima back from the dead. He deserves a lot of credit for that too. We all thought she was done and would retire and he got her a GP even.

Fluture said:

Plushenko... Tarakanova‘s coach.... I was and am still a bit sceptical about his coaching but so far he‘s been doing better with Nastya than Buyanova has with any of her skater this season. Of course that‘s not the ultimate proof that he‘s superior or anything, we have to wait and see it‘s way too early to predict anything. But so far he‘s doing pretty well. Let‘s see how it will continue to look like in the future.

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I know who he is. I just think it so funny ... to see and read statements like this one.
Because. no. he is not a coach. by any definition.
He is a school director. Manager... an adman... whoever also. But he is not a coach.
If you come in several times a month to the ice rink to film some videos. It does not make you a coach.

DanseMacabre said:

I don't know that it was leaving Eteri that did it. She mentioned in an interview after joining Buianova's group that she had a significant back injury that was bad enough to impede her training. I think the injuries are catching up to her. I don't know exactly what she did to her back, but I badly injured mine over a decade ago and to this day, it still hurts when I skate. I think even if she'd stayed with Eteri, she'd be having similar issues.

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Not sure.

During interviews everyone was soo read to hear from her how Eteri treated her poorly, but actually she said she left only because of how stressful the competition was on that group, but she blamed more herself for not telling the truth to the coaches and continuing working to catch up with the other girls.

I don't buy the whole "it's because of the back problems" because she is still doing the layback spin (and it's no longer a required spin, you can change it with something else). My guess is lack of training / not spending enough time fixing the jumps because:

1) All the girls from that group are struggling right now.

2) She wasted the entire month of June not training, because Buyanova wasn't sure about getting her.

3) I'm not sure who is supposed to be the technician on that group. Maria Sotskova has always been struggling with UR since she is with Buyanova, and Radionova also got carrots since she changed coach,...

The performance at SA reminded me of her outing at Junior Worlds 2017.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41v6oLKD0uA

She was coming from an injury so she didn't have enough time to prepare for the event, she looked less confident on everything and that also brought underrotations (which was something surprising and unexpected cause with Eteri she rarely got calls).

I don't believe in curses but people need to understand that Eteri is probably the group where you train maybe more than any other groups in Russia, as pretty much all their skaters said when they compare their work there with other coaches, so when you leave, it can be really hard to adjust your training.

Fluture said:

Plushenko... Tarakanova‘s coach.... I was and am still a bit sceptical about his coaching but so far he‘s been doing better with Nastya than Buyanova has with any of her skater this season. Of course that‘s not the ultimate proof that he‘s superior or anything, we have to wait and see it‘s way too early to predict anything. But so far he‘s doing pretty well. Let‘s see how it will continue to look like in the future.

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I think the recovery was maybe more impressive with Sakhanovich, because when she left Rukavicin she couldn't even a jump a 3-3 anymore, she was thinking about quitting the sport, while with Plushenko they were never able to really brought her at the level she was with Eteri but, at least they restored all the jumps and the spins.

Tarakanova is doing great now but she was also great a year ago, i do like the approach they are taking with her though.

But if you look at the programs for all the skaters from that group, he's reusing some of the Mishin tricks focusing on the jumps watering down the choreography and transitions, which it actually could work for Polina.

I just hope she doesn't quit the sport (unless she has to), which is usually what skaters tend to do when things don't go well with Buyanova.

About Plushy: you need more than 1-2 successful competitions by one student to prove yourself as a coach.
For instance, someone here said Plushy > Buianova. That is not true - yep, Buianova's skaters are all struggling this season and we all hate her, but she managed to keep Masha as russian top 3 for two seasons. Not just a competition or two where she medaled - the whole bunch of GPs, GPFs, and Rusnats. She managed to coach Adelina into an Olympic medal - yep, that was a lot of luck and politiking, but you cannot say Adelina was a bad skater. Inconsistent, yep, but she was pretty good.

atsumiri said:

Plush???

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atsumiri said:

I know who he is. I just think it so funny ... to see and read statements like this one.
Because. no. he is not a coach. by any definition.
He is a school director. Manager... an adman... whoever also. But he is not a coach.
If you come in several times a month to the ice rink to film some videos. It does not make you a coach.

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No, you are wrong. I find funny do you think a totally unknown coach Ksenia Ivanova teaches to Nastya that technic?? Plus if you watch Nastya she has moves those were teached by Plush..totally plushenkoish Yes he had many shows, but he was on summer camp he worked with Nasty a lot. He is working there as a coach, too you can read this in Sotnikova's interview - she said Plushy is the best technical coach!!!, Tukthamysheva praised his skills, and Ge thanked to him his help (and Mishin ) 1-2 years ago- and we have a Russian fan who can go to the school, Irina she told us.

If he is not on show he is there every day. Totally sure.