- Joined
- Mar 29, 2014
Along with Mihali Kolyada and Maxim Kovtun, Alexander Petrov is the most likely Russian man to make the trip to the European Champions in Ostrava, Czech Republic. In this lengthy interview we have a chance to better know one of Alexei Mishin's top students.
Alexander Petrov - "I don't have Groundhog days":
http://www.fsrussia.ru/intervyu/239...et-dnej-surka-kazhdyj-den-vse-po-raznomu.html
Figure skater Alexander Petrov became the winner of “Nebelhorn Trophy” in Oberstdorf, Germany. After competition the athlete had a conversation with Tatiana Falde.
- Sasha, tell us about the preparation for the current season.
- At first we went to Canada where I worked on my SP and Liza Tuktamysheva prepared the LP. We went there as a pretty large group: Alexei Nikolayevich Mishin, Tatiana Nikolayevna Prokofieva, Liza Tuktamysheva, Zhenia Semenenko, Peter Gumennik, Alisa Lozko and Liza Nugumanova. Alexei Nikolayevich (Mishin) held a seminar and in the course of five days we’ve diligently worked on our new programs. We started “skating into” the programs only at our next training camp assembly in Tartu (Finland) which was also attended by Misha Ge and Carolina Kostner. Carolina was working on her jumps with Alexei Nikolayevich, while I, Liza, and Artur Dmitriev focused on our programs. My LP was choreographed by Misha Ge; we then put in the final touches with Richard Benoit in Courchevel. At that point the program was still “raw” so Benoit and I were making the necessary adjustments.
Between the training camps, before going to Switzerland, we returned to St. Petersburg for a week. My teammates continued to train while I took a vacation to regain energy for the upcoming season. In Switzerland I would have to train my endurance due to high altitude. I skated my programs and worked on the 4T. Yet 40 percent of the time designated for practice were missed due to my illness. I wouldn’t say that I had very high temperature, I just didn’t feel well. Perhaps it was due to a sharp change of elevation but I cannot say for sure. Therefore my preparation in Switzerland was, if not failed, then definitely incomplete. The preparation for the season was also different from last year because the time we did not visit the camp in Turkey for well-known reasons [here, he is most likely talking about our unfortunate state of politics]. Good thing that we replaced that with the Swiss training camp.
I won’t say that I am in ideal shape at the moment, yet I am gradually getting into the season. At Finlandia Trophy I will try, without speculation or promise, to ready my 4T. This is currently my primary task. I will return to St. Petersburg on Monday, get on the ice, and start working as usual but with a focus toward the 4T.
- What do you think are the difficulties you have with this jump? Does it work in practice?
- It is difficult to say why. During practice it works 40% of the time, but for now it is in “raw”, unfinished condition. I reckon that until I feel that my execution of the jump is complete, I will not include it in a program. Hence, I had no such goal in Oberstdorf.
- Is it psychologically hard for you to go for a quad?
- I think yes. Though, everything comes with time and gradually the quad is more and more becoming “my jump. My attitude has changed. It is no longer - “I’m gonna go and try”. It’s now - “I’m gonna go and do it.” I hope that I can execute it in my programs.
- This is your second senior season. What makes it different from the first year, do you see changes in yourself?
- No defining changes changes have occurred, but in some sense I have undoubtedly matured, became more experienced. The goal of my freshman season was to show myself, to become noticed. I believe we made that happen and from this point of view the season was productive. This second season will be more difficult because it is pre-Olympic. It so happened that we only have two World Championship tickets for men’s singles. We must acquire the third one. This task is in front of our entire team. In Ice Dance, the situation is the same.
- Does this create additional pressure for the athletes?
- The responsibility is colossal. However, I will speak for myself. My opinion is such – you must go out and do everything that you can. Hopefully, I can show a quad this season and progress in such away, that I won’t be dubbed a “postjunior” - an athlete that reaches the senior level yet continues to do the same things as in juniors. I have to become prepared, not even physically, not mentally, but in such a way that I can prove to myself that I am worthy of competing on a high level.
- You have an interesting long program about the 50s in America. Do you like this time period?
- I don’t know, but I have sympathy for that time; it is interesting how people lived back then, how they dressed. It’s not about it being stylish, it just had a certain charm to it. If there was a time machine, then I would definitely go back to that time and see everything with my own eyes.
- Many of your age are interested not in the past but the future. Science fiction, spaceships, etc…
- What will happen in the future is interesting for everyone. We shall live and see.
- A busy season awaits you – with Nebelhorn behind, you have Finlandia trophy, two Grand Prix assignments…
- Between Finlandia and Skate Canada, there will be a competition in Nice where I will skate as I did last year. Perhaps, it is good experience to compete in such a rhythm, with such a schedule, to constantly maintain tonus, to be able to show your maximum in any difficult situation.
- You visit such scenic places: Courchevel, Oberstdorf, Nice… Do you manage to hang around and see anything?
- In reality, there is little spare time during competition. Though, even if you just take a drive from the hotel to the rink, here in Oberstdorf, you can see a lot of delightful landscape. I fell that such experience is what’s worth living for – traveling around, observing beautiful places and, of course, preforming while striding toward your dream. Let’s hope, now that we’ve talked about it, we won’t jinx it.
- Where else would you like to visit?
- I’ve been to many place in Europe, but I’d like to visit London and Amsterdam. Besides that, I’d like to travel to Australia and East Asia. This year I am going to China for the first time in my life. It is my Grand Prix event.
- Are you still in school?
- My last year. This is what makes my season more difficult. I have to take the final exam [in Russia it’s kind of a mix between a high school exit exam and the SAT] and enroll into college. I also attend driving lessons in order to get my license. The schedule is tight but that is cool in the sense that you can allow yourself to combine everything together. So it won’t be - you come home every day and start whining about how something was bad there, something didn’t work here, but be joyful of even insignificant victories. Not a single day is perfect: something works out and something doesn’t. One has to make the right conclusions and keep going forward. The same can be said about this event in Germany. Make conclusions and work on your errors that need to be fixed for the next competition. There is no limit to perfection and we need to move only forward.
- Is school easy?
- I am a B average student. Since I miss many lessons due to the sport, I try to catch up myself and ask for tutors. I believe that if not for the sport, I’d be successful in another field. But I chose sport.
I like school. I go to a public school with AP (advanced placement) French classes. Although I don’t study the language much because I transferred here from another school where I studied German for two years. In the end, due to missing classes, I know neither of the two languages. Right now I am learning English through practice. I still remember some words in German but cannot speak the language.
I try to go to school every day when time allows it. After practice I visit for about two hours and between schoolwork and conversations with peers, I am able to switch my attention. This is not something that I would call inspiration, but something that removes fatigue. And so it happens that I am always busy with different things, that’s why I never get bored. My life does not look like a routine. I don’t have Groundhog Days. Every day things are different and I like it a lot.
Alexander Petrov - "I don't have Groundhog days":
http://www.fsrussia.ru/intervyu/239...et-dnej-surka-kazhdyj-den-vse-po-raznomu.html
Figure skater Alexander Petrov became the winner of “Nebelhorn Trophy” in Oberstdorf, Germany. After competition the athlete had a conversation with Tatiana Falde.
- Sasha, tell us about the preparation for the current season.
- At first we went to Canada where I worked on my SP and Liza Tuktamysheva prepared the LP. We went there as a pretty large group: Alexei Nikolayevich Mishin, Tatiana Nikolayevna Prokofieva, Liza Tuktamysheva, Zhenia Semenenko, Peter Gumennik, Alisa Lozko and Liza Nugumanova. Alexei Nikolayevich (Mishin) held a seminar and in the course of five days we’ve diligently worked on our new programs. We started “skating into” the programs only at our next training camp assembly in Tartu (Finland) which was also attended by Misha Ge and Carolina Kostner. Carolina was working on her jumps with Alexei Nikolayevich, while I, Liza, and Artur Dmitriev focused on our programs. My LP was choreographed by Misha Ge; we then put in the final touches with Richard Benoit in Courchevel. At that point the program was still “raw” so Benoit and I were making the necessary adjustments.
Between the training camps, before going to Switzerland, we returned to St. Petersburg for a week. My teammates continued to train while I took a vacation to regain energy for the upcoming season. In Switzerland I would have to train my endurance due to high altitude. I skated my programs and worked on the 4T. Yet 40 percent of the time designated for practice were missed due to my illness. I wouldn’t say that I had very high temperature, I just didn’t feel well. Perhaps it was due to a sharp change of elevation but I cannot say for sure. Therefore my preparation in Switzerland was, if not failed, then definitely incomplete. The preparation for the season was also different from last year because the time we did not visit the camp in Turkey for well-known reasons [here, he is most likely talking about our unfortunate state of politics]. Good thing that we replaced that with the Swiss training camp.
I won’t say that I am in ideal shape at the moment, yet I am gradually getting into the season. At Finlandia Trophy I will try, without speculation or promise, to ready my 4T. This is currently my primary task. I will return to St. Petersburg on Monday, get on the ice, and start working as usual but with a focus toward the 4T.
- What do you think are the difficulties you have with this jump? Does it work in practice?
- It is difficult to say why. During practice it works 40% of the time, but for now it is in “raw”, unfinished condition. I reckon that until I feel that my execution of the jump is complete, I will not include it in a program. Hence, I had no such goal in Oberstdorf.
- Is it psychologically hard for you to go for a quad?
- I think yes. Though, everything comes with time and gradually the quad is more and more becoming “my jump. My attitude has changed. It is no longer - “I’m gonna go and try”. It’s now - “I’m gonna go and do it.” I hope that I can execute it in my programs.
- This is your second senior season. What makes it different from the first year, do you see changes in yourself?
- No defining changes changes have occurred, but in some sense I have undoubtedly matured, became more experienced. The goal of my freshman season was to show myself, to become noticed. I believe we made that happen and from this point of view the season was productive. This second season will be more difficult because it is pre-Olympic. It so happened that we only have two World Championship tickets for men’s singles. We must acquire the third one. This task is in front of our entire team. In Ice Dance, the situation is the same.
- Does this create additional pressure for the athletes?
- The responsibility is colossal. However, I will speak for myself. My opinion is such – you must go out and do everything that you can. Hopefully, I can show a quad this season and progress in such away, that I won’t be dubbed a “postjunior” - an athlete that reaches the senior level yet continues to do the same things as in juniors. I have to become prepared, not even physically, not mentally, but in such a way that I can prove to myself that I am worthy of competing on a high level.
- You have an interesting long program about the 50s in America. Do you like this time period?
- I don’t know, but I have sympathy for that time; it is interesting how people lived back then, how they dressed. It’s not about it being stylish, it just had a certain charm to it. If there was a time machine, then I would definitely go back to that time and see everything with my own eyes.
- Many of your age are interested not in the past but the future. Science fiction, spaceships, etc…
- What will happen in the future is interesting for everyone. We shall live and see.
- A busy season awaits you – with Nebelhorn behind, you have Finlandia trophy, two Grand Prix assignments…
- Between Finlandia and Skate Canada, there will be a competition in Nice where I will skate as I did last year. Perhaps, it is good experience to compete in such a rhythm, with such a schedule, to constantly maintain tonus, to be able to show your maximum in any difficult situation.
- You visit such scenic places: Courchevel, Oberstdorf, Nice… Do you manage to hang around and see anything?
- In reality, there is little spare time during competition. Though, even if you just take a drive from the hotel to the rink, here in Oberstdorf, you can see a lot of delightful landscape. I fell that such experience is what’s worth living for – traveling around, observing beautiful places and, of course, preforming while striding toward your dream. Let’s hope, now that we’ve talked about it, we won’t jinx it.
- Where else would you like to visit?
- I’ve been to many place in Europe, but I’d like to visit London and Amsterdam. Besides that, I’d like to travel to Australia and East Asia. This year I am going to China for the first time in my life. It is my Grand Prix event.
- Are you still in school?
- My last year. This is what makes my season more difficult. I have to take the final exam [in Russia it’s kind of a mix between a high school exit exam and the SAT] and enroll into college. I also attend driving lessons in order to get my license. The schedule is tight but that is cool in the sense that you can allow yourself to combine everything together. So it won’t be - you come home every day and start whining about how something was bad there, something didn’t work here, but be joyful of even insignificant victories. Not a single day is perfect: something works out and something doesn’t. One has to make the right conclusions and keep going forward. The same can be said about this event in Germany. Make conclusions and work on your errors that need to be fixed for the next competition. There is no limit to perfection and we need to move only forward.
- Is school easy?
- I am a B average student. Since I miss many lessons due to the sport, I try to catch up myself and ask for tutors. I believe that if not for the sport, I’d be successful in another field. But I chose sport.
I like school. I go to a public school with AP (advanced placement) French classes. Although I don’t study the language much because I transferred here from another school where I studied German for two years. In the end, due to missing classes, I know neither of the two languages. Right now I am learning English through practice. I still remember some words in German but cannot speak the language.
I try to go to school every day when time allows it. After practice I visit for about two hours and between schoolwork and conversations with peers, I am able to switch my attention. This is not something that I would call inspiration, but something that removes fatigue. And so it happens that I am always busy with different things, that’s why I never get bored. My life does not look like a routine. I don’t have Groundhog Days. Every day things are different and I like it a lot.
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