Maxim Trankov: Tarasova and Morozov trust body a lot, trust head very little

Interview with Maxim Trankov about Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov before Rostelecom Cup 2018.

This is your first home competitions as a coach, how do you and guys feel?

– Finally, someone asked me about Evgenia and Vladimir, not about Zagitova! Everything is fine, they skate pretty well in trainings, competition is another matter, of course, so we’ll see how they skate.

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There are a lot of talks that you are trying to give them a certain image, to make them more artistic. Do you agree with this statement and how would you characterize this image?

– It’s not that I’m looking for this artistic image, rather I try to teach the guys some sense of movement, how to show the music, any music. For me and Tatiana it was like this – we believed that if you are a professional, you should be able to interpret any music. There is no bad music, there is an unpolished program, choreography. That’s what I try to teach them.

Is it difficult to motivate Evgenia and Vladimir when they win the competition with a margin of 30 points?

– They are already at that age and status when they are watching the main rivals, and not the guys who compete at the same competitions. In pair skating there’s a distant competition between several duets now, which lead at different grand prix – according to scores, skating. Now the task is not to shine at every stage, but to win competitions after competition. Where there will be the strongest in the rivals, there they need to focuse on the opponent. Now they are primarily working on clean skate. Yes, it doesn’t turn out yet. But last season was Olympic, they fought for medals, though unsuccessful, but it leaves its mark. In Moscow, I would like to see clean skating, scores are not so important.

After the Grand Prix in USA, you said that the problem was in nerves. Is it hard to cope with nerves in coaching?

– It happens that I’m nervous, but being a coach, I’m much less nervous than when I skated myself. Sometimes I have to give a kick and raise my voice, unfortunately we still need it, but in general … I also get acquainted with the coaching activities, while I haven’t found some keys, I guess. From competition to competition I try to grow. I came to understanding that coach behind the board also means a lot.

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Vladimir once said that it is harder for you to train, easier to show. Is it true?

– Yes, I’m almost always in skates, it’s more convenient, we don’t have to waste time, I can skate to them, show something, including lifts, I still can do it quite well. Something is working, something … will work. If the guys didn’t like it, I think they would have said it a long time ago.

How do you think what is the weakes point of the guyas now? What were you working on before the GP on Moscow?

– We worked a lot on choreography, Alla Kapranova helped us, Tanya and I have worked with her all our career, and thank her very much that she agreed to help. She contributed a lot, and the guys completely changed, started to skated differently. Hopefully viewers and judges will notice. As for the weak point … as the proverb says, no rest for the weary, it’s about them. They trust  body a lot, trust head very little, this is not entirely correct in our sport. And my weakness is lack of experience.

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Does the former coach of the pair Nina Mozer help a lot?

– Yes, of course, Nina Mikhailovna is a senior coach, I report back to her every skate, every practice, how the guys feel, how the rehabilitation procedures went. She is absolutely aware of everything.

What does she say, if not a secret?

– She had just returned from Japan, where she was with Enbert and Zabijako, I saw her quickly at accreditation. As usual, she was all in business, and I didn’t distract her from communicating with technical experts, judges, from organizational issues. She hasn’t seen the guys since America yet, will see only at practices, there, probably, she will give me some instructions before the competitions.

by Dmitri Lunev for sport-express.ru

Related topics: Evgenia Tarasova Vladimir Morozov, interview, Tatiana Volosozhar Maxim Trankov