“I told her, “In the end, the only thing we can show is results. In this cold world, no one will recognize what you’ve been through. That’s how we started.” Ji Eun Choi on working with You Young
Coach Ji Eun Choi shares insights on rebuilding trust, training strategies, and the challenges of guiding You Young’s comeback to competitive figure skating.
original source: mfocus.kr dd.29th November 2025 by Lee Min-jun
In an interview, coach Ji Eun Choi discusses the journey of working with You Young through her return to the ice, the importance of trust and communication, and the detailed approach to training and overcoming setbacks. Here’s a translation of her comments posted on MFocus.
“Q: Ji Eun Choi, could you share your perspective on Young You’s off-season?
Ji Eun Choi: Up until France, you could say we were following Plan A. At that time, Young and I were building trust and getting in sync. I gave her feedback on what I felt and even told her in advance, “I think this is how the results will turn out for this competition.” Young also said, “I want to try competing in France like this,” so we decided to go and then talk again afterward.
After returning from France, I said, “Since this happened there, let’s fix things this way for the Japan competition. If you follow the training I suggest, we can move forward together and show an even better performance.” Young really worked hard to keep up.
The only way to improve skills is through training volume. You can’t improve just by taking it easy, so I thought, “I have to push her no matter what,” but I tried to do it in a way that minimized stress.
There are some things we can’t do about the step sequence right now, and our priority was to show as much of what we prepared as possible to raise the technical score, even a little. We showed everything we prepared for the spins, so even though we didn’t make the podium, I’m really satisfied with the performance.
Q: You two haven’t been working together for very long, but your trust and bond seem incredibly strong.
Ji Eun Choi: We’ve known each other for a few years, and even when Young was with Coach Shin (Shin Hea Sook), I would often accompany her, help with choreography, and discuss short and free programs together.
Q: Many people are curious about how you two started working together. Could you share that story?
Ji Eun Choi: It’s hard to go into detail right now. Young went through a lot of tough times. I wouldn’t say I “rescued” her, but it was really hard for her to regain her footing and come back to the rink. We both struggled a lot through the process of understanding and talking things out.
So I told her, “In the end, the only thing we can show is results. No one will recognize what you’ve been through. In this cold world, the only thing that matters is showing your best, showing you’ve been reborn. No one cares what happened or what you went through. So I’ll help you – just trust me and follow me.” That’s how we started.
Q: What’s been difficult or easy in Young You’s come back from your perspective?
Ji Eun Choi: I wouldn’t say it’s “difficult,” but we need more time to build up. My regret about the France event is that I wish I’d met Young a bit earlier.
Before France, our relationship wasn’t fully formed, and trust wasn’t high. If I’d been able to run things my way for France, Japan, and the next plans, we could have prepared for the ranking event more solidly.
My only regret is that time is tight. Every day, every 24 hours is precious. When we get back, we’ll start training right away.
Q: You mentioned being disappointed with the step sequence in the free skate. Do you have plans to improve it?
Ji Eun Choi: Young isn’t bad at steps. She’s practiced the short program steps a lot and made several corrections. But this time, she couldn’t perform in competition as well as in practice. Her stamina was so low her legs were shaking. When you’re nervous, you lose stamina even faster. No one wants to give up on steps. She does each one well in practice, but when it’s all put together, her stamina doesn’t hold up. If we focus too much on steps, we worry about other elements. So for now, we’ll try to perfect the other elements and still aim for at least Level 3 on steps. I’ve already talked to Coach Becky (Rebeka Kim) about it. We need to practice more. If her stamina holds up, I think it’s possible.
I trust Young. She has a natural strength, which is why she’s able to come back so quickly when I push her. Not everyone can do that.
Q: So the goal is to improve steps with Coach Rebeka and build stamina as quickly as possible?
Ji Eun Choi: Yes. But we don’t just do stamina training off the ice – we do it on the ice, to the point where you can taste blood.
Q: It must have been hard to maintain stamina after losing so much weight. (Young You told that after going through a tough time last year, she lost a lot of weight)
Ji Eun Choi: Before France, Young was about 1.5 kg above her best weight. I told her, “If you diet right before a competition, it’ll affect your performance. From a week or ten days before, just eat and train. On competition day, you should eat even more to have energy.”
But I couldn’t go to France with her. Without someone to nag her, she didn’t eat well and lost even more weight. So I kept calling her, saying, “Don’t lose any more.” After she got back from France, we decided to just maintain her weight, and now she’s training while keeping it steady.”
Related topics: Ji Eun Choi, Young You
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