Coaching Changes that Made a Difference | Golden Skate

Coaching Changes that Made a Difference

Seven Sisters

Medalist
Joined
Jul 17, 2018
With all the recent discussions here of whether Alysa Liu needed to change coaches in order to develop to her greatest potential, and of the rarity of successful skaters staying with their childhood coaches, I was wondering. What early-career, mid-career, or late-career coaching changes, can we point to as having produced an obvious, substantial benefit or boost to the skater’s career? I’m trying to think of someone who might have been stagnating or clearly not living up to their potential, whose problems were solved, or whose results dramatically improved, once they changed coaches.

Let’s keep it to those who were already seniors when they switched—we all know that a lot of development occurs in juniors, and in the transition from junior to senior. I’m thinking more of skaters who were already pretty much established when they switched, as opposed to those who were works-in-progress.
 

Seren

Wakabond Forever
Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 21, 2014
This is a really cool idea for a thread!

I don't mean this as a disrespect to Kori (who did a lot for him), but Jason Brown comes to mind. I think working with Tracy Wilson has unlocked something in his skating. And we can go on about the quad all we want but he did get a small medal at Worlds last year for his SP and a silver at 4CCs since switching so something is clearly working.

I'll have to keep thinking on this.
 

Ic3Rabbit

Former Elite, now Pro. ⛸️
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 9, 2017
Country
Olympics
Jeremy Abbott's move to Yuka Sato from Tom Z.
 

macy

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 12, 2011
also a big one that came to mind- Ashley Wagner's move to John Nicks (and eventually Raf) changed her entire career.
 

Dreamer57

Record Breaker
Joined
May 20, 2018
Chock/Bates moving to Montréal seems to have refreshed their skating and they have said themselves how happy they are in their relatively new training environments. They are now winning gold medals and it's nice to see them improve.

I would also say Nazarova/Nikitin have been boosted since moving to Zhulin.
Both teams mentioned above have left Shpilband who himself is a highly esteemed coach.

As for dramatic improvement in scores, Elizabet Tursynbaeva. Although, I haven't seen her skate since the last worlds so it would be interesting to see if she can maintain those high results after a break.
 

TallyT

Record Breaker
Joined
Apr 23, 2018
Country
Australia
Javier Fernandez's move to Brian Orser, for sure.

I was just coming to say that! Going back, Javi was seen as promising and destined for good things, but I'm not sure many people expected him to become a multi-world-and-euros champion and legend the way he did.
 

Arriba627

TWO-TIME WORLD CHAMPION 🔥
Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 2, 2014
Country
United-States
This season, Shoma moving from Team Yamada in Nagoya, Japan to Stephane Lambiel in Champery, Switzerland was already starting to show results. From age 5 to 21 is a LONG time to be with the same coach. After a disastrous (coachless) IdF where he finished 8th, he went to train at Stephane's rink, although no official relationship was announced. He missed the bronze at Rostelecom by .63, won his 4th National title (beating Mr. Hanyu for the first time), and took the gold at the Challenge Cup. Stephane was announced as his coach in December. He was on an upward trajectory at that point, and I'm sure he was as disappointed as others were that Worlds was cancelled...It will be fun to see how their partnership develops.
 

LiamForeman

William/Uilyam
Medalist
Joined
Nov 24, 2006
Definitely Ashley Wagner when she went to Nicks.

Angela Nikodinov when she changed to Elena Tcherssaskaia (sp)
 

layman

On the Ice
Joined
Oct 28, 2004
Everybody who switched to Tatiana Tarasova (too many to name; including Kulik, Yagudin, Asada, Arakawa, Cohen, Grishuk/Platov, Rodnina/Zaitsev, Klimova/Ponamarenko, Fusar-Poli/Margalio...), Lysacek switching to Carroll, Yuna Kim to Orser, Javi to Orser, Hanyu to Orser, everyone who switched to Carlo Fassi (including Fleming, Hamill, Curry, Cousins, Trenary...), Nikodinov to Tcherkaskaia, all the skaters who switched to Igor Schpilband (including Punsalan and Swallow, Lang and Tchernyshev, Belbin & Agosto...), Babilonia & Gardner to John Nicks, and probably countless others that I can't remember now.
 

Flying Feijoa

On the Ice
Joined
Sep 22, 2019
Country
New-Zealand
Adam Rippon, Ashley Wagner, Michal Brezina and Mariah Bell to Rafael Arutunian. There might be other students of his that fit the criterion, I'm just most familiar with the current/recent cohort. He seems to have a knack for extending the competitive lifetime of mature skaters (women up to mid-20s, men up to late 20s).
 

karne

in Emergency Backup Mode
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 1, 2013
Country
Australia
Joshua Farris from Tom Z to Christy Krall/Damon Allen.

Went from the kid bawling in the kiss and cry with a broken leg and Z condescendingly telling him "aren't you glad you did that?" to a beautiful, mature skater who choreographed his own programs and got Proud Papa Damon in the kiss and cry instead.
 

Ziotic

Medalist
Joined
Dec 23, 2016
Alina Zagitova to Eteri: when she came to Eteri, she only had a handful of triples (3Lo, 3S, 3T, I believe?) and within a few years became the 2018 Olympic champion

Anna Shcherbakova to Eteri: when she came to Eteri, she only had doubles and went on to consistently land quads this season in her senior debut

The OP specifically asked for Senior switches only, both were junior or younger when they moved.
 

el henry

Go have some cake. And come back with jollity.
Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 3, 2014
Country
United-States
Toller Cranston to Ellen Burka:hap85:
 

Seven Sisters

Medalist
Joined
Jul 17, 2018
Oh, I just noticed that! Sorry! I'll take it down now :laugh:

No need to take your post down, Spirals for Miles—we are all friends here. I just thought it made more sense for this to focus on skaters who were not youngsters in the process of active development.

I have to say that like Seren, the first person I thought of is Jason Brown. I don’t know that his competitive results have improved all that much since his coaching change, but he seems to grown into a more mature and sophisticated performer, which is all to the good.

I did think of Chock and Bates also! They seem to be on the upswing since moving to Gadbois, and it is certainly true that they have had more crowd-pleasing programs since their move.

Javi—who I didn’t think of—might be the best example, though.
 
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