Who are the modern hopes of Russian figure skating? Not so long ago, having begun to compete at an adult level, these young people already occupy high places in competitions of the highest level. Among them is the skater Alexander Samarin. But behind each successful rental athlete is a painstaking collaboration with the coach. The skater is training under the leadership of Svetlana Sokolovskaya.
Trainer Biography
Born in 1965, December 10th. She was engaged in women's single figure skating under the direction of Zhanna Gromova (who raised the world champion and Olympic medalist Irina Slutskaya) in the city of Norilsk. Later, Svetlana Sokolovskaya moved to the Moscow region and went on ice dancing, Yuri Razbeglov coached her. In this form, she received the title of candidate for master of sports of the USSR. At the end of her sports career, the future figure skating coach Svetlana Vladimirovna Sokolovskaya entered the pedagogical institute in Ust-Kamenogorsk.
pupils
Among the famous pupils of Svetlana included the Russian figure skater, loner Arina Martynova. Under the leadership of Sokolovskaya, she became the fourth in the championship of Russia among juniors. In 2007, Svetlana Vladimirovna trained Yana Smekhnova, who became the fifth in the adult championship of Russia. Since 2009, under her leadership, Katarina Gerboldt trained, which Svetlana led to the silver in the Russian Cup final. From 2007 to 2011, she worked with Anna Ovcharova (who later began to play for Switzerland). Anna is the most titled single of all who trained with Sokolovskaya. She under her leadership in the 2009-2010 season became the silver medalist of the Junior Championship of Russia, also took second place at the junior Grand Prix stage in Poland, which allowed her to go to the final of the series, where Ovcharova became fifth.
In the 2011-2012 season, she won a bronze medal at the International Nice Cup. In 2012, the skater left the group of Svetlana Sokolovskaya and moved to Geneva. Some students themselves later became trainers, for example, Svetlana Panova. Her most famous student is Maria Sotskova, the silver medalist at the Youth Olympic Games.
Collaboration with Alexander Samarin
To date, this athlete is the most titled in the group of Svetlana. They have been working together since 2014. Their cooperation began very successfully: at the stages of the junior Grand Prix, Alexander became a bronze and silver medalist, respectively. At the debut adult competitions Samarin also performed well - took second place in the Ice Challenge. Under the leadership of Svetlana Vladimirovna, he learned a difficult multi-turn jump - a quadruple sheepskin coat. The result was not long in coming: while still playing at the junior level, Alexander won two stages of the Grand Prix and took second place at the Russian Championship among youths, which allowed him to represent the country already at the world championship. There he successfully completed a short program and received a small silver medal, which was the first award of a student of Svetlana at such a high level. In the 2016-2017 season, Sokolovskaya led Samarin to victories in two stages of the junior Grand Prix and silver series finals. At the national championship, he already competed with adult athletes, Alexander took a high second place. Since the age of the athlete already allowed him to participate in the European Championship, he also performed at this tournament, taking eighth place. Taking part in the junior world championship, Alexander won a bronze medal.
New elements and directions of athlete development
The coach and the skater were not going to limit the set of quadruple jumps only to the sheepskin coat. They learned one of the most difficult jumps in figure skating: a four-turn lutz. At the Grand Prix stage in Canada, Alexander demonstrated one of the most difficult cascades of four lutz and triple sheepskin coat. But the presence of a cascade in the program has become not difficult enough for the coach and skater. At a commercial tournament in Shanghai, they decided to include three quadruple jumps in the free program, two of which are Lutz. Such complexity allowed Alexander to win the competition.
Now, talking about cooperation with Samarin, Svetlana emphasizes that he needs to work more on program components: ligaments and choreography.
She sees difficulties in the very high growth of the skater (178 cm), with such data it is not only difficult to perform multi-turn jumps, but also dangerous. However, Svetlana Sokolovskaya in her interviews emphasizes that she believes in a skater and does not doubt his abilities, and this is the most important component in the relationship between a coach and a student.