Russian coach, who held several seminars in Sweden and practiced some Swedish skaters answers questions, which I received from visitors of my site.

-Retell what kind of skater you were before you became a coach?
- To tell you the true, I never took high places in competitions. I was pretty good skater, but I had some psychological problems, it bothered me to take high places and win medals.  I finished with skating career, when I was 19. It was a time, when Urmanov, Yagudin, Kulik skated too. So it was very hard to compete.

-When you began to work as a coach?
-It happened 11 years ago. I had some invitations to skate in different shows, but then I should leave Russia and move to some other county, USA for example. I did not want to move somewhere, so I stayed in Russia and began to work as a coach. Though I was young coach and not so experienced in the beginning, I’ve got pretty good conditions for job here.

-Tell about your work in Sweden.
- There is not so much I can tell about it actually. As you know level in figure skating in Sweden is not so high. I held some seminars, different coaches and skaters came there and I consulted them. I always had wonderful conditions in Sweden. And by the way, one time we did big figure skating tour in Sweden, I was in many cities and skated there.

-What can you say about situation with figure skating in Russia?  Seems it’s not so good period right now. What’s your opinion?
-Well, I would not say that the situation is very bad. Some people say it, but I don’t agree actually. I have an explanation, why such situation happened now. Do you remember, what was in Russia during 90ths? All political problems and so on. People did not think about figure skating , people just thought how to survive, what to eat. There was nobody, who wanted to skate at that period of time. But now we have completely different situation, many parents come with their children and they are very interested in figure skating. We have wonderful juniors now, for example my skater Gordey Gorshkov, very talented guy. He is only 14 years old, but he can do very much.

-What do you think about new system of judgment?
-  In the beginning I liked it. But now it became worse, than it used to be. Skaters, who are not popular and not so experienced come to competitions, and it’s impossible for them to take high places, even if their skating was very good. Judges don’t give them enough component score. They get less, than they have to receive for their skating. It always existed, but not so much as now. There is no development in figure skating right now. Skaters sometimes refuse from quads, because you can win without them. But if to talk about positive sites of new system of judgment I would mention spins, they became more interesting in my opinion now.

-If to talk about your skaters, whom would you mention first?
-For sure it’s Gordey Gorshkov, I already mentioned him before. He is very talented guy, he can work hard and it’s very important. Another my skater Konstantin Menshov has all opportunities to win in different competitions, he can do technical elements on high level, but the problem is only in his psychology. Nerves bother him to skate without mistakes in competitions, to take high places.  He is already 24 years, but I think if we decide these psychological problems, everything will be good. Some skaters do their best, when they are 18-20, but some when they are 25. We will see.

-What kinds of activities do coaches have except figure skating? ( You can answer in general or personally about yourself)
- I think it’s possible to have some kind of business, when coach does not participate in it every day. If to talk about me, we work with some actors right now, I hope in nearest future it will be possible to be on serious level, to make some shows where skaters and actors take part.
But it’s not going to become my main activity. My main activity is to be coach and to train skaters. Maybe some days I become tired of figure skating, but it’s my life.

  This is second coach in Rukovicin's team Kirill Davydenko. He trains both children and adult skaters.

Thanks to Anna Solomonova for doing this interview!