Tamara Moskvina “Pair skating has recently undergone stagnation, so we have developed our own strategy and resumed the work on quad throw and twist.”

Tamara Moskvina about quads and new programs.

source: fsrussia, championat

Tamara Moskvina: The skaters of our group, who participated in the Olympics, had no reason to skip the season. They are young and just have reached a high level. Everyone understands that you can’t stop, you have to move forward, even despite the situation with the suspension of Russian athletes from international competitions. If you slow down, then you may not catch up with rivals who will not wait: a holy place is never empty.

But in what direction should we move? Before the start of the season, we expressed ideas to the athletes that it was necessary not only to work on those elements that we already have, but also to learn new ones. For example, prepare a quadruple throw in a very delicate mode, try a quadruple twist, which was performed by the Chinese Sui – Han, our Tarasova – Morozov.

Yes, the value of these elements isn’t high now, but if there is a reserve, then this can be a “trump card”. After all, quad twists and throws have already been performed in competitions. So why not resume work on these ultra-c now? It seems to me that pair skating has recently undergone stagnation, so we have developed our own strategy and will try to follow it.

With such a goal we built our off-season training. We decided that our pairs would occasionally participate in shows in order to focus on the main tasks – to strengthen and update the arsenal of elements, learn new ones, diversify lifts, entries, etc., choreograph interesting programs in a new style. All this takes time, because in addition to technique, it also involves creative work. Therefore, the guys sacrificed several offers to participate in the show, focusing on the main thing.

Of course, we understood that after the Olympic season, athletes need a long rest. The Olympic season, and before that the COVID-19 season, the Olympics, with all the “distractions” – covid tests, restrictions on movement, and so on – all this created additional stress.

Throughout my coaching career, I came across various situations when it was necessary to quickly rebuild, change plans and prepare athletes, but the guys did not have such experience, everything went quite smoothly and systematically in their work. To recover from all these ups and downs, we even offered athletes longer vacations than usual – 4 weeks instead of 2-3.

We wanted our pairs to have different programs, different characters, different styles, different music, so that all the audiences to be satisfied. I know this proverb: “Someone loves a priest, someone loves a priest’s wife, and someone loves a priest’s daughter.” Therefore, the music is different, and the programs are different, and the costumes. It seems to me that the task that we are solving is to please the audience, so that people come, watch, cheer up, distract from life outside. We have completed this task.

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