Alena Kostornaia: “I believe that while you’re 14-16 years old you should compete in your category, where athletes can also do the same things.”
Alena Kostornaia about figure skating, coaches and age minimum.
source: Tulsky 1 TV, text version sports.ru
What is more important psychology or physical data?
Alena Kostornaia: Psychology. Because physical data can be developed. Head is more difficult to treat.
How to deal with jitters? Maybe you have some tricks.
Alena Kostornaia: I love to perform, I love to work for the public, I like it. So for me it’s not something terrible, it’s an acceptable routine. Everything is comfortable, everything is as always. And for someone it’s the other way around – they come to give a speech or just to say a toast at a birthday party and just stand silent.
What is more interesting for you to skate – something from an artistic point of view or something difficult?
Alena Kostornaia: It’s figure skating, not jumping. Therefore, it is more interesting for me to look at integrity. Harmony is important for me. Both the second score and jumps. So that the jumps don’t cover the entire second mark or vice versa. Everything should be together.
You have changed many coaches during your career. The question is not about any particular person, but what kind of coach it should be in order to want to go to training?
Alena Kostornaia: Probably, at an earlier age, the coach should be able to give the athlete motivation. No matter what it will be, the main thing is the motivation for training. The older you get, the more the coach turns from a warden into a person who just cheers you up or energizes you, corrects mistakes.
But it is very important that energy comes from the coach. So that the athlete sees that the coach is also interested and not like ‘I have a lot of them, do everything yourself, if you don’t want, don’t do.’ And this is a sad story.
For the sake of medals, is it worth enduring not the most pleasant coach, with the maternal or paternal care?
Alena Kostornaia: There are no such. Really there are no such.
Are all the coaches tough?
Alena Kostornaia: Not always. But for the most part. We have exactingness. It doesn’t equal hardness. With someone, on the contrary, you need to be tough, with someone you need to do it differently. And someone in general needs today so, and tomorrow – the other way. The main thing here is to find what suits you more.
About age minimum
Alena Kostornaia: This is cool. Until a certain age, when you are more fluid, you can do certain things. When you are already an adult, then these things are given to you with great difficulty. Well, it is clear that a person at the age of 25 will not come out and jump all the quads in the program. It’s unrealistic. For girls. But at 15-16 you can think about it.
Therefore, I believe that while you are 14-16 years old, then you should compete in your category, where athletes can also do the same things. Not that “I will compete among the adults who cannot do this and win. How great I’m!”
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