One of the country’s leading coaches, Sergei Davydov, in an interview with RIA Novosti Sport talked about the main men’s struggle in the Russian junior championship, the main star in women’s skating, Maria Gordeeva, and also encouraged two-time Olympic champion Evgeny Plushenko. not to appear guilty among students of other specialists.

– How did you find the results of the junior championship of Russia?

“I think it was a successful tournament for us. The only thing is that Leo (Lazarev) could be taller. Or rather, win. It wasn’t bug-free, however, so it turned out well overall.

— You say Leo can win. But Arseniy Fedotov is quite a strong man.

– Leo still has the quadruple lutz, and Arseniy makes salchow and sheepskin coats. If we compare all his sets, then with a clean lease I think Lev would have a higher base. But we were wrong, we lost ourselves. In general, Arseniy is a freer comrade on the ice. We are trying to liberate the lion a little.

– That is, it is impossible to teach a skater to be a “component”?

– Partly. But I wouldn’t call Leo componentless. It’s a component, just in its own way. It stretches, even in rotations it takes as needed. Arseniy is just a different format – he is an entertainer, it can be seen from him that he is comfortable in public. Free on ice, even in a place where he improvises. Leo has planned everything ahead.

– One of the most striking opinions about Leo was expressed to me recently in an interview with Anya Frolova. He said that after the training he was never tired, he joked with everyone, but 5 minutes before that he was able to bombard the lutz with the lutz.

The lion is just as tired as anyone else. Maybe she had just had a good day when everything went well, and Anya remembered that. In general, children all get tired, literally “die”. They train all day. They come home and fall into bed.

Just like the lion. We’re working on weaknesses, trying to find something. We stretch, she goes to yoga to unwind. She dances twice a week with a choreographer. Just a little stress here – and everything returns to its original state. But it’s like all of us.

In general, the main thing for him is to collect his elements. He has a dream – to jump all quads. He even told us, “Now the season will be over and I will finish my studies.” And he can do it.

– Directly on all quads?

– About everything. We’ve already done the flip, rittberger, and salchow. The only difficulty is connecting it to the program. No more fur coat, axel, lutz, etc. He comes to practice knowing what he has to do. He clearly understands what and how much to jump. But he also has a dream – to have all the quads and I support him in just that. Just do a quad program – why not?

– About two years ago you said Leo would be fine. What attracted you in the first place?

“And from the very beginning, everything is visible from the children. Especially for men. Their units are those who come and plow.

Are you talking about performance?

– Definitely. According to Leo, it was immediately noticed that he really liked it, he devoted himself completely to the process. Live this sport. And his initial data is good, it was clear that he was going to grow – the only question is how.

It has developed and grown from year to year. Over time, the idea of ​​the quartet emerged. After all, it comes first and foremost from the head, we don’t impose it on children. Yes, we explain that without complicating you can lose, but if the athlete himself does not come to this, then nothing will come of it. Leo immediately put this idea in his head, said that he would study.

Men have an extraordinary working capacity. Plus, very trainable, attentive, performs all tasks. Here Anya correctly remembered – the more you tell her, the more she will do. And more. You give the other guys a task – they do half and go. Leo is not like that at all.

By the way, Masha Gordeeva is exactly the same. I think they help each other a lot in terms of business. In a way, you know, they look in one direction. They don’t argue, “Let’s not end it here, we’ll mess it up”. Tell them – the two of them go and work.

– At the same time, Masha’s season has not been easy.

– You see, Masha is the kind of person who’s been in season for quite some time. Next time I’ll figure out how to get them all working quickly. This isn’t the first year like this one, it’s kicked off in the past, launched it, and at roughly the same time, as we speak to you now, won four tournaments in a row.

And then they ran for a very long time. Although it’s impossible to blame him for inoperability or something like that. It’s just the way the body was designed.

So this isn’t your typical coming-of-age story?

No, it was always like this. I remember that when we taught the trio, Masha also had a hard time getting into the season. That’s how it’s set up. Now we will literally try to push a little. Maybe we’ll dig into OFP a little more.

– Against the background of all this, did you expect that he would reclaim the Russian championship in this way?

– We never expect work from our men – we only expect the performance of our work. He did what he planned. Yep, we found the q on the sheepskin coat (a quarter-turn sub that doesn’t affect the base cost of the jump) – we can probably bet on the second quad as well. But everyone has it, and I don’t always see a reason to make a story out of it. It turned out a little awkward, although in training he perfectly twisted these quads.

As for everything else, I have no complaints. Masha did everything included in the program, including non-jump elements. And most importantly – it was he who shifted the program, which is very important. In this sense, I am satisfied with everything. And third place is good too.

– I noticed that Masha began to open up in full at the presentation of programs this season.

– To accept. We are working hard on this, too, and we understand that this is his weak spot. And they always understood. The choreographer works with him, we help. We’re trying to make skating look more feminine. And I see it moving in that direction. It’s not as super fast as I’d like, but it still tries. And this is the most important thing.

He said his main target for the off-season is the triple Axel.

– Yes. And this is again Masha’s desire. I can only suggest – look, here is the short schedule of the championship. Titova and Zhilina drive with you on triple axles. Yes, they failed this time, but if they did, they would be in a much higher rank. Catching up with them in the free program is already much more difficult. I say, do you understand? “Yes I do.” What should be done about it? “We need to learn about Axel.” Everything, well done, no questions.

Of course, although the small ones briefly have a triple axle – this is a big risk. You make a mistake on it – and think now, without a cascade. If you do this, you will get more than others. And if not, then you come back very strongly.

Teens have a much higher risk than adults.

– Not even so – there is no risk with the triple axle in adults. Even if you fall from it or something goes wrong, you still get 3-4 points. Regarding the double axle, you don’t lose much. In juniors, you completely lose the rank and that is 10 points.

But in the minors, I managed to get out with a triple axle due to the cascade, there was a gap. They did not trust it, but they all adapted. In general, this does not make much sense, because they still do this on an arbitrary axis. And quads too. You learn them in training, you jump a lot.

— I can’t help but ask if you’ve watched Evgeni Plushenko’s interview.

To be honest, I haven’t paid much attention to this for a long time. Let’s start with the fact that people themselves make mistakes in the short program. And if so, there is no point in telling who completed or did not complete what in the free program. We must start with ourselves, as we all do. Correcting your own mistakes and not blaming the other kids, the coaches, the federation, and everyone else over and over.

For a long time I have been of the opinion that, first of all, you should not make mistakes on your own. If you are not mistaken, you can really talk about something, discuss it. In that case, I think all these conversations are absolutely inappropriate.

– The subject of ultra-si amount was mentioned in that interview. Let’s say four hard jumps must exceed two.

– This is the moment. I always tell my children this: You have to be aware of who these elements will work for – for or against you. If you can complete a routine with lots of ultra-cs, you’ll score a lot of points. If you jumped, but not on turns, triple jumps, etc.

Therefore, in this case, yes, four ultra-si. But what else? Roll the program, do all the turns up to the fourth level, because it wasn’t all. Again, questions to yourself. Figure skating doesn’t just live on quads.

– To summarize – say, do you have any complaints about the result of Masha Gordeeva?

– I will say this – Masha Gordeeva has an advantage of 13 points. That’s too much. Even if you want to “cut” him somewhere, it won’t be enough to move him to fourth place. I think it’s pointless to talk about it. Masha, I repeat, she did her job, I have no questions for her.

– Introduce the guys in your group, who should you follow? We know Leo and Masha, right?

– We have a very good generation of young people growing up, the change is great, 2013-2014. I think the shift will be great if we keep working like we do now. I think you’ll hear about them soon. There are girls and boys. We are now in full training on triple axes, quad jumps. Kids can do this.

— Is there an unpleasant aftertaste from some last pass?

“You know, we’re ready for it. That’s life. Someone finishes, someone passes, it’s okay. Therefore, for a long time we built a system of ladders – we lead not one group, but several groups for different ages. There is interchangeability. The child has grown – they are more We take the big group, we take the other children into the smaller one. Now we reach the very young children 2015-2016. It is added, including from our private school. There is always a change.

– After the transition with Svetlana Sokolovskaya (Sofia Samodelkina) did not break contact?

– No, we have absolutely normal relations. The transition is not the choice of Svetlana Vladimirovna. It may or may not take just one athlete as a coach. That’s why I can’t have any claims or problems with Svetlana Vladimirovna.

– Now all the work is probably diverted to the Grand Prix Final?

– Yes, Lev, Masha and Anya Frolova are preparing for the final. He will act as a substitute for the withdrawing athlete. We are preparing, we will try to show ourselves.

– Anya got a straight season revival.

– It’s very difficult for him. And on the legs, age and transitions at this age are more difficult to endure. All this complicates the work. But he’s a great guy, trying every possible way to outdo himself.

Are you proud of him?

– I am very glad that there are such athletes who find it difficult but still try to get the most out of themselves. They just don’t say it, they say it got harder, I drove a little bit – goodbye. The idea of ​​overdoing myself has always made me happy. This is the meaning of sport. We always see it when it’s hard. But if an athlete tries to go through a showdown, albeit with difficulty, but tries – then this is certainly worthy of respect.