“Figure skating is a selection of small and thin girls. The smaller the size and the lighter the weight, the easier it’s to jump quads.” Coach Sofia Fedchenko
Coach Sofia Fedchenko about selection of the athletes and consistency.
original source: Youtube channel “Raskadrovka”
Russian coach Sofia Fedchenko (coach of 2023 Russian junior national champion Alina Gorbacheva) told about the selection process in figure skating and consistency of the elements. Here’s a translation of her comments.
“This is simply a natural selection. Because the smaller the size, the less the weight with the same parameters. Consequently, it will be easier to jump, and quadruple jumps will work out be faster.
Therefore, our sport is a selection of small and thin girls,” Fedchenko said.
“The programs of the athletes feature only those elements that are performed not 10 out of 10 times, but 1 out of 1 – at the right moment, at the right time.
10 out of 10 is a conditional consistency: if you’re feeling good today, you can perform, but if you’re feeling bad tomorrow, you cannot. But 1 out of 1 means that on any day, at any moment, you take an athlete and ask them to, let’s say, jump a quad toe loop – they go and do it on the first try.
You can’t accidentally make a mistake in technique. If you know how to ride a bicycle and ride it every day, you can’t just wake up one terrible morning, grab your bike and fall off because you simply don’t remember how to ride it. That doesn’t happen.
Technical errors can be found in videos, but the reasons for these technical errors need to be looked for deeper,” Fedchenko said.
Related topics: Sofia Fedchenko
How many small girls achieving high results have you seen in athletics, swimming, volleyball, etc..?;)
So has figure skating come to jumps or beautiful artistic movements on ice like a true skater?
Beauty fluid movements with lovely arms hands and legs and feet correlated with fine music not just jumping.we have given up art for grafiti!
Wow. Although understood, that is such pressure these young girls are under. And so if you happen to be a normal sized girl don’t even bother to try out? That really stinks.