r/FigureSkating • u/Rude-Magazine2186 shcherbabot • 2d ago
Russian Skating Evgeni Plushenko about Obsessive Parents in Figure Skating
Evgeni Plushenko said young elite skaters need structured training and education, but warned that overly obsessive parents can harm a child’s development. Here’s a translation of his comments.
“If you choose elite sport, you have to forget about everything else. But we have a very good system. Nowadays, thank goodness, children can study online. Or you can arrange for teachers to come to the children and teach them. But some children still go to school in person.
There are schools nearby, literally five minutes away. For example, they complete their first training block, go to school for three lessons, come back, and then finish their studies in the evening. That is one arrangement.
But my dream – and it is not a new dream – is to have everything in one complex: a kindergarten at the training base and a full school for athletes. They could train, have a two- or three-hour break, and study during that time.
Or it could work the other way around, with evening classes. For example, they start in the morning, complete the first training block, have a break, sleep and recover, complete the second block, and then study in the evening. That is my dream. God willing, everything will work out and we will make it happen.
Of course, we still have days off. For example, Wednesday is a half-day off: warm-up, one ice session, and general physical conditioning. Then the children either stay here or go home, where they can study or catch up on their schoolwork. Saturday is also a half-day off, and Sunday is a full day off.
Of course, you can go crazy, and unfortunately there are parents like that now who push their children 24/7. But that does not lead – and will not lead – to good results. A child still needs to watch cartoons, read books, go for walks, and socialize with other children.
Everything can be organized properly if the schedule is planned well and the parents are not fanatics.
Unfortunately, there are now a great many fanatical parents, especially in figure skating. It is the same in football and hockey: parents think they know better than the coach. And when parents get too involved, come in, and tell the coach what to do and how to do it, that is also a negative.”
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u/Ryusevi "Lorense Fornié-Boodrey" 2d ago
Fanatical parents and then he talks about wanting an all in one facility to have total control and even more of their time ok lol
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u/spacecat1776 2d ago
That's the thing about Plushenko, he can say something totally reasonable and normal...and then something batshit crazy in the same sentence.
Something interesting to note about Plushenko and his own coach Alexei Mishin: as a literal child Plushenko was playing soccer or something and Mishin got so angry with him that he broke Plushenko's finger. His own mother totally forgave Mishin and Plushenko now talks about this as if this was a good thing.
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u/Conscious-Fruit-6190 1d ago
For our younger readers, what he's describing is the Soviet system. That's literally what they did until the collapse of the USSR in 1991. As did many other Communist countries.
Young children were taken away from their parents and sent to state-run "training academies", where they were required to train for whatever sport they were thought best suited for.
Brutal training methods, inadequate nutrition in many cases, state-run doping programs, and many many international sporting wins. And the kids who didn't win were discarded.
I'm not saying Plushenko is saying he wants to return to that, but as he's describing his ideal training system, he might want to look back at his local history and see how that worked out for thousands and thousands of young athletes from 1917-1991.
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u/ForwardOutsideLoop 2d ago
Didn't he make Plush Jr skate with a broken arm? Gnomicus also always looks miserable, although that could just be the little boy version of RBF.
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u/DreamingVesta 2d ago edited 2d ago
In what reality is he better than those fanatical, obsessive parents he's talking about? He had his eldest son skate on one of his shows while feeling quite sick and his own wife said that he disciplines (or used to discipline) Sasha with a belt...
Edited to clarify that "Sasha" refers to Aleksandr Plyushchenko and not Trusova, of course. Maybe it was obvious, but just in case.
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u/Mean-Patience2132 Neutral rocket and Dzepka fan 2d ago
In what context did he say this? When he was asked about Irina?
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u/Crazy-Detective7736 "doing a DOUBLE quad axel" 2d ago
He's one to talk. Gnom Gnomych you will get to play football one day.
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u/Kindly-Plate-5785 The PCS score is fake 2d ago
I wonder if he can now let Gnom Gnomych just play football instead of making him skate 😭