“In my entire coaching career, I haven’t met champions with easy personalities. That’s how it should be. An athlete begins to trust you when they realize you won’t betray them and that you’re always striving to help.” Gleikhengauz and Petrosian on trust between athlete and coach
Three-time Russian figure skating champion Adeliia Petrosian and choreographer Daniil Gleikhengauz reflected on the trust between athlete and coach.
original source: Marie Claire
Choreographer Daniil Gleikhengauz and three-time Russian champion Adeliia Petrosian discuss the importance of trust between athlete and coach, and how Petrosian’s high standards for herself can sometimes be a challenge. Here’s a translation of their comments.
“Daniil: Trust doesn’t appear instantly or by itself – it develops over time. An athlete begins to trust you when they realize you won’t betray them and that you’re always striving to help.
Adeliia: I can always talk about how I’m feeling, share my joys or problems. That’s what trust is. Daniil Markovich always asks what’s going on with me, listens when things are hard, and gives advice. That’s very important.
Daniil: In my entire coaching career, I haven’t met champions with easy personalities. That’s how it should be. You have to find an approach, get used to each other both in work and in communication. Sometimes, an athlete doesn’t complete a task. You discuss it, explain why it’s important to do it a certain way, and why it will lead to a positive result. Once the athlete sees that result, they argue less and trust you more.
Adelia: Trust in a coach comes from the coach’s trust in the skater. Sometimes I doubt myself, but my coaches keep working with me because they believes in my success. When things start to go well on the ice, my motivation grows again.
Daniil: Adelia is very demanding of herself. Sometimes it gets in the way. Sometimes you make a minor comment, and she starts overthinking, which leads to emotions. Coaching wisdom is about understanding why this happens: the athlete respects and trusts you, but is so wound up that it’s better to slow down and give them time. I remember my own sports career – when you can’t land a jump you already know, it’s frustrating. No one gets upset when learning something new – if you’ve never jumped it, it’s normal not to succeed. But if you fail at something you’ve already mastered, you flare up like a fuse…
Adelia: Nothing strengthens trust in a coach like shared challenges and victories. I dreamed so much of training with Eteri Georgievna Tutberidze’s team that I trusted them immediately. Of course, now I can express my own opinions, but I trust all my coaches because I know – they only want the best for me.
Daniil: Athletes trust their own sensations, but often doubt themselves. For example, during training, you notice a mistake and realize the skater didn’t complete enough rotations, so you point it out. The athlete has their own perspective – sometimes they feel it’s not their body deceiving them, but the coach. The best solution is to show the athlete a video recording of the moment. Our videographers film our practices, so we can always review and show what really happened.
Adelia: By the way, that’s about trust and control – “trust, but verify.” For me, trust and control always complement each other.
Daniil: I try to stick to the principle of “trust, don’t verify.” But a lot depends on the context. At certain times, we all want to avoid extra effort. By nature, people aren’t inclined to push their physical limits every day. But an athlete has no choice, so you have to monitor them. You tell them to run on the treadmill or do stretching and warm-ups after practice. It’s good for the athlete – it helps them recover more easily. But if you don’t check, sometimes there’s no one in the gym – the student has already gone home (laughs).”
Related topics: Adeliia Petrosian, Daniil Gleikhengauz
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