Alexei Yagudin: “In our country, they simply don’t teach skating. They teach you to jump, jump, and jump. Then people wonder why the component scores are so low.”
Olympic champion Alexei Yagudin on the show “Katok” criticized the system of training figure skaters in Russia.
original source: Sport24
Olympic champion Alexei Yagudin criticized the Russian figure skating training system for focusing too much on jumps and neglecting skating skills, suggesting this affects international results and component scores. Here’s a translation.
“It made me very sad because I watched Petya Gumennik’s performance at the Russian Nationals. He was head and shoulders above everyone in skating skills. But at the Olympics, he got lost. Maybe he was a bit tense, and the content was tough,” said Stanislava Konstantinova.
“In our country, they simply don’t teach skating. That’s all. They teach you to jump, jump, and jump. Our focus is on jumps. Even the president of the Russian Figure Skating Federation, Anton Sikharulidze, has noted this.
We need to shift the focus from jumps to gliding, spins, and transition steps. I won’t name names, but there are people who say that Adeliia (Petrosian) and Petya (Gumennik) do almost everything in the center and at much slower speeds than everyone else.
Many also say that when our skaters’ programs are choreographed, after a couple of weeks you look at the program and see that everything has been cut. Why? Because you need to jump, you need to make it easier. In other countries, they set a program and it stays. Then people wonder why the component scores are so low,” Yagudin concluded.
Related topics: Alexei Yagudin
Alexei Yagudin, I agree with you, that the sport is out of balance in some training arenas, with the primary focus on jumps. You should know, since you were trained by the best of the best – Tatiana Tarasova. During your competitive years, you displayed the perfect balance betwixt athleticism and artistry. I’d love to see more of that from today’s figure skaters.
This is confusing. Who is speaking, Yagudin or Konstantinova? How is Gumennik head and shoulders above everyone in skating skills (par 1) yet Russians simply don’t teach skating? Please clarify.
It’s a show where former skaters discuss figure skating. Both Yagudin and Konstantinova were discussing the Olympics in that episode.