Some Adam interviews about his coaching change and the future~
ADAM RIPPON (AND BRIAN ORSER) TALK TO THE PRESS
First Kim, now Rippon: what does latest split mean for Orser?
By Philip Hersh
April 08, 2011
Coaching changes are so common among figure skaters that they rarely are newsworthy, per se.
Of course, there have been a few exceptions, most notably:
* Michelle Kwan leaving her coach of 10 years, Frank Carroll, only a few months before the 2002 Olympics, where she finished third after having won world titles the two previous seasons.
*Kim Yuna leaving Brian Orser only a few months after winning the 2010 Olympics.
*And now Adam Rippon announcing last week he also was leaving Orser.
On the surface, Rippon's move is not startling.
He had joined Orser after only 1 1/2 seasons with Nikolai Morozov. And Rippon, the two-time world junior champion who only a year ago looked like the star of Generation Next in U.S. men's skating, decided to switch for the reason most skaters do: stagnation or decline in results.
But when you combine Rippon's exit with Kim's, they add up to questions about why Orser had lost two such talented skaters: one who had won everything with him as her primary coach over four seasons; the other, who seems to have enough talent to contend for national if not world and Olympic titles, but left Orser after 2 1/2 seasons.
To the notion that the combination of the departures is an indictment of him, Orser told me by telephone, "I do the best I can. I believe in my athletes. I believe in my training. Yuna was Olympic champion, and I believe I had something to do with that. I also give credit to (coach) Tracy (Wilson) and (choreographer) David (Wilson). I didn't do it alone.
"Adam's leaving was his idea. Sometimes after a season that doesn't go as planned, they (skaters) make changes. I'm sure there were times Yuna wanted to change coaches, but they were in it for the long run, and they got the big prize. You have to be patient in this business."
Unlike the Kim-Orser breakup, which devolved into a bitter feud played out in the media, Rippon and Orser have parted with no acrimony and mutual respect.
"He is a very talented skater, and I wish him the best," said Orser, two-time Olympic silver medalist.
Both Orser and Rippon attribute their split to differences in training philosophy after a 2011 season the skater began with an impressive victory at the Japan Open in September. Rippon faded slowly but inexorably after that.
He took fifth at nationals for the second straight year, even though this season's field did not include Olympic champion Evan Lysacek and three-time U.S. champion Johnny Weir.
Rippon's result at nationals looked even worse when Richard Dornbush, 11th in 2010, and Ross Miner, who missed the 2010 meet with an injury, moved up to second and third, respectively, making the team that will compete at the delayed World Championships beginning April 25 in Moscow. Rippon also finished fifth at Four Continents after winning that event in 2010.
"I feel I improved this season, but my results fell short," Rippon said.
Orser and Rippon agree the skater's decline over the course of the season needed to be addressed - and that differences in how to do it could not be resolved.
"The reason I made the change is I thought the strategy of training had to be changed," Rippon said.
"Adam and I discussed the season and the challenges we had," Orser said. "I had some ideas with conditioning, and they (Rippon and his advisors) said they were going to stick with their off-ice plan, that it was fine for them.
"It wasn't fine for me. I had some other ideas to help him complete at the level I know he can, sports psychology and other tools most elite athletes use."
Neither would give specifics about the training ideas, but in listening to both, it seemed clear Rippon felt he was allowed to peak too early, while Orser thought the skater's ideas about what constituted off-ice training were part of the problem.
"I wanted to reevaluate the way I was paced," said Rippon, 21, of Clarks Summit, Pa.
Curiously, Rippon has decided to keep training at the same rink where Orser is skating director, the Toronto Cricket Skating & Curling Club. His new primary coach will be Ghislain Briand, who has been working with Rippon there for a couple years. Rippon said he also will make a few trips to Colorado Springs, as he did last month, to work with Kathy Casey and Christy Krall.
"I think it will be a little awkward but I'm ready to deal with it," Rippon said.
One reason Rippon decided to stay put was to limit the effects of the coaching change.
"If I were to move, it would be another whole year of transition and adjusting to a new place," he said.
Orser said he approached Rippon when he returned from Colorado recently to discuss the awkwardness issue.
"I want things to be as smooth as possible," Orser said. "I want him to feel at home here."
Rippon already has experienced discomfort at the Cricket Club, even if it didn't directly involve him. The tension between Team Kim and Orser that lasted several weeks before and after their split last summer pervaded the atmosphere in the rink.
"Of course it was hard in the summer with the media battle between Yuna and Brian," Rippon said. "It affected all of us at the club a little bit.
"It was an awkward few months., We all felt the loss of a really big presence when Yuna left. The energy and dynamics at the club changed."
Kim had extraordinary potential and a world junior title when she arrived in Toronto before the 2007 season. As she moved from there to world medalist in 2007 and world champion in 2009, becoming a superstar in her homeland, the pressure on her grew exponentially. That she handled it with the aplomb to deliver a performance for the ages in the Olympics is a testament to both her mental strength and the preparation Orser gave her.
With Rippon gone, Christina Gao is the only elite skater Oreser still is coaching. In the past two seasons, Gao, 17, of Cincinnati has finished fifth at nationals twice and gone from 8th to 4th at world juniors.
"Slow and easy wins the race here," Orser said of Gao's progress. "We're looking for next season to be great and a perfect setup for the next two years."
Even if he may have been less patient, Rippon felt the timing of his difficult season and change also was perfect.
"If there is a year to learn in the four-year Olympic cycle, the first year is the one," he said.
Orser, who has been coaching elites barely five years, also felt he has learned something from last season, when his reactions to some of Rippon's subpar performances, especially body language in the "Kiss and Cry" area, raised eyebrows.
The coach had drawn lots of positive attention -- and cameras -- for the unfettered joy in the way he mimed Kim's programs while standing at the rink boards as she did them on the ice.
"One of Brian's positive qualities is he is personally invested in and affected by how his students skate," Rippon said, "The problem was if I wasn't skating well, I felt he was upset as well. His emotional state, I just fed off that."
When told Rippon felt that way, Orser said it would spur him to curb his enthusiasm.
"It's just human for my coach to be disappointed if a skater doesn't do the best he can," Orser said. "I made it clear to him I was never disappointed in him. I take responsibility, so I get disappointed with myself.
"The bottom line is I have to be less emotional when my skaters don't skate well. But every coach who believes in a student will be disappointed with they don't skate well."
In the end, does Rippon following Kim out the door may add up to nothing more than individual problems in their relationships with Orser. Future results may or may not prove each made the correct decision.
But Orser's bottom line will always include being the coach who was at Kim's side when she won the biggest prize in their sport.
(source)
--------------------
Rippon talks recent coaching change, quads
Two-time world junior champion will stay in Toronto
By Lynn Rutherford, special to icenetwork.com
(04/08/2011) - Earlier this month, two-time world junior champion Adam Rippon announced a parting of the ways with Brian Orser, the two-time Canadian Olympic silver medalist who has coached him the past two seasons.
Rippon isn't making a geographical move; he now trains under Ghislain Briand, a long-time friend and colleague of Orser's who coaches at the same facility, Toronto's Cricket Skating and Curling Club. The skater worked with Briand last summer to perfect his jumps and try to master a quad.
"During this season I really didn't have a chance to work with [Briand] very often, and that was something I really wanted, especially for this season coming up," Rippon said.
The two-time world junior champion had an up-and-down 2010-11 season. He opened with a stellar free skate at the Japan Open, defeating reigning world champion Daisuke Takahashi and 2006 Olympic champion Evgeni Plushenko, and then went on to claim the bronze medal at Skate Canada.
At the 2011 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Rippon had an uncharacteristic fall on his signature jump, the "Rippon" triple Lutz with arms overhead, in his short program. Although he came back strong in the free skate, he placed fifth overall.
Icenetwork.com caught up with Rippon at Figure Skating in Harlem's annual Skating with the Stars gala at the Wollman Rink in Central Park. The 21-year-old was tying on his skates for his second not-for-profit effort in two days, having just flown in after performing a benefit for Japan's earthquake and tsunami victims in California.
Rippon shrugged off suggestions of fatigue.
"I was there, I'm here now, and it's great," he said. "FSH is a fantastic program for girls; it's amazing that, I think, all of them go on to college. With so many younger brothers and sisters [Rippon is the eldest of six children], I know the importance of extra-curricular activities."
Here's what he had to say about his plans for next season.
What will working full-time with Ghislain bring to your skating?
He is very technical. Everything is very simplistic, and I really thrive in the kind of environment where it's just technical and not very emotional, so I can keep focused on the task at hand. I've been working with Ghislain for a long time and I do like working with him, I get a lot out of it.
For me, coaching-wise, opposites attract. I'm the kind of person who can feed off different people's emotions. I'm sensitive to that. If someone is nervous, I feel that. Ghislain, he's constantly very level-headed. When things are going great, he's still very level-headed; when things aren't going well, [he will say] things are going to get better.
So, you are staying at Toronto's Cricket Club full-time.
When I went to Toronto about two-and-a-half years ago, I went there for the environment. I really love it there. It's such a great place to train. The community of people involved in the rink is great. I don't want to lose that. If I changed rinks I would have to start all over again and I really wasn't looking to do that.
As far as [former coach Orser] also at the rink, it's such a small piece of the puzzle. It probably leads for maybe a few weeks of awkwardness, but the practice intensity and everything else doesn't change. People have changed coaches within the rink before. It's something that happened, and I know that Brian respects my decision, and he understands what I need and we just move forward from here.
Last summer, you were working with Brian and Ghislain to get a quad. Any update on that?
It was something I really wanted to do all year and when I was saying in interviews I planned it, I really did. It was just something that didn't happen. It's going really well now, but of course, the season's over.
I've been working on the [quad] Lutz. As soon as I put my arms in, it was easier. And no, I'm not doing it with my arms over my head.
I'm still working on [quad] toe as well, but I've been doing a few [Lutzes] every day and I am going to keep training it and working on it because it's something I would really love to do next season.
This season, you performed two programs choreographed by David Wilson. Any thoughts on whether or not you will get new programs?
Well, I talked to David, and there is only a few years left before [the Sochi] Olympics, actually three years left. [Next season] is kind of my last year left to sort of play around and see what kind of styles are going to work best for me.
I'm planning to use different choreographers this year for the short and long, and I'm talking to David about who we should approach.
So you are still working with David, regardless of whether he choreographs your programs?
David is still a really big part of my team. He wants me to try different styles to see what will work best personally for me. I really couldn't ask for a better person to have on my side, he's great.
(source)
--------------------
UNIVERSAL SPORTS INTERVIEW WITH ADAM AT FIGURE SKATING IN HARLEM (can't embed)
^Video currently requires Silverlight - When I get home, I will record this and post it here so that those of you without Silverlight can watch.^
LifeSkate interview at Figure Skating in Harlem with Adam and others (Jeremy, Tanith, Sarah Hughes) about Worlds:
--------------------
TL;DR~ Adam needs a calm/less emotional/more level-headed coach; is working on quad lutz; had an amicable split with Brian; is looking at other choreographers while keeping David Wilson close; is hopeful for next season and Sochi is his goal. GO ADAM!
First Kim, now Rippon: what does latest split mean for Orser?
By Philip Hersh
April 08, 2011
Coaching changes are so common among figure skaters that they rarely are newsworthy, per se.
Of course, there have been a few exceptions, most notably:
* Michelle Kwan leaving her coach of 10 years, Frank Carroll, only a few months before the 2002 Olympics, where she finished third after having won world titles the two previous seasons.
*Kim Yuna leaving Brian Orser only a few months after winning the 2010 Olympics.
*And now Adam Rippon announcing last week he also was leaving Orser.
On the surface, Rippon's move is not startling.
He had joined Orser after only 1 1/2 seasons with Nikolai Morozov. And Rippon, the two-time world junior champion who only a year ago looked like the star of Generation Next in U.S. men's skating, decided to switch for the reason most skaters do: stagnation or decline in results.
But when you combine Rippon's exit with Kim's, they add up to questions about why Orser had lost two such talented skaters: one who had won everything with him as her primary coach over four seasons; the other, who seems to have enough talent to contend for national if not world and Olympic titles, but left Orser after 2 1/2 seasons.
To the notion that the combination of the departures is an indictment of him, Orser told me by telephone, "I do the best I can. I believe in my athletes. I believe in my training. Yuna was Olympic champion, and I believe I had something to do with that. I also give credit to (coach) Tracy (Wilson) and (choreographer) David (Wilson). I didn't do it alone.
"Adam's leaving was his idea. Sometimes after a season that doesn't go as planned, they (skaters) make changes. I'm sure there were times Yuna wanted to change coaches, but they were in it for the long run, and they got the big prize. You have to be patient in this business."
Unlike the Kim-Orser breakup, which devolved into a bitter feud played out in the media, Rippon and Orser have parted with no acrimony and mutual respect.
"He is a very talented skater, and I wish him the best," said Orser, two-time Olympic silver medalist.
Both Orser and Rippon attribute their split to differences in training philosophy after a 2011 season the skater began with an impressive victory at the Japan Open in September. Rippon faded slowly but inexorably after that.
He took fifth at nationals for the second straight year, even though this season's field did not include Olympic champion Evan Lysacek and three-time U.S. champion Johnny Weir.
Rippon's result at nationals looked even worse when Richard Dornbush, 11th in 2010, and Ross Miner, who missed the 2010 meet with an injury, moved up to second and third, respectively, making the team that will compete at the delayed World Championships beginning April 25 in Moscow. Rippon also finished fifth at Four Continents after winning that event in 2010.
"I feel I improved this season, but my results fell short," Rippon said.
Orser and Rippon agree the skater's decline over the course of the season needed to be addressed - and that differences in how to do it could not be resolved.
"The reason I made the change is I thought the strategy of training had to be changed," Rippon said.
"Adam and I discussed the season and the challenges we had," Orser said. "I had some ideas with conditioning, and they (Rippon and his advisors) said they were going to stick with their off-ice plan, that it was fine for them.
"It wasn't fine for me. I had some other ideas to help him complete at the level I know he can, sports psychology and other tools most elite athletes use."
Neither would give specifics about the training ideas, but in listening to both, it seemed clear Rippon felt he was allowed to peak too early, while Orser thought the skater's ideas about what constituted off-ice training were part of the problem.
"I wanted to reevaluate the way I was paced," said Rippon, 21, of Clarks Summit, Pa.
Curiously, Rippon has decided to keep training at the same rink where Orser is skating director, the Toronto Cricket Skating & Curling Club. His new primary coach will be Ghislain Briand, who has been working with Rippon there for a couple years. Rippon said he also will make a few trips to Colorado Springs, as he did last month, to work with Kathy Casey and Christy Krall.
"I think it will be a little awkward but I'm ready to deal with it," Rippon said.
One reason Rippon decided to stay put was to limit the effects of the coaching change.
"If I were to move, it would be another whole year of transition and adjusting to a new place," he said.
Orser said he approached Rippon when he returned from Colorado recently to discuss the awkwardness issue.
"I want things to be as smooth as possible," Orser said. "I want him to feel at home here."
Rippon already has experienced discomfort at the Cricket Club, even if it didn't directly involve him. The tension between Team Kim and Orser that lasted several weeks before and after their split last summer pervaded the atmosphere in the rink.
"Of course it was hard in the summer with the media battle between Yuna and Brian," Rippon said. "It affected all of us at the club a little bit.
"It was an awkward few months., We all felt the loss of a really big presence when Yuna left. The energy and dynamics at the club changed."
Kim had extraordinary potential and a world junior title when she arrived in Toronto before the 2007 season. As she moved from there to world medalist in 2007 and world champion in 2009, becoming a superstar in her homeland, the pressure on her grew exponentially. That she handled it with the aplomb to deliver a performance for the ages in the Olympics is a testament to both her mental strength and the preparation Orser gave her.
With Rippon gone, Christina Gao is the only elite skater Oreser still is coaching. In the past two seasons, Gao, 17, of Cincinnati has finished fifth at nationals twice and gone from 8th to 4th at world juniors.
"Slow and easy wins the race here," Orser said of Gao's progress. "We're looking for next season to be great and a perfect setup for the next two years."
Even if he may have been less patient, Rippon felt the timing of his difficult season and change also was perfect.
"If there is a year to learn in the four-year Olympic cycle, the first year is the one," he said.
Orser, who has been coaching elites barely five years, also felt he has learned something from last season, when his reactions to some of Rippon's subpar performances, especially body language in the "Kiss and Cry" area, raised eyebrows.
The coach had drawn lots of positive attention -- and cameras -- for the unfettered joy in the way he mimed Kim's programs while standing at the rink boards as she did them on the ice.
"One of Brian's positive qualities is he is personally invested in and affected by how his students skate," Rippon said, "The problem was if I wasn't skating well, I felt he was upset as well. His emotional state, I just fed off that."
When told Rippon felt that way, Orser said it would spur him to curb his enthusiasm.
"It's just human for my coach to be disappointed if a skater doesn't do the best he can," Orser said. "I made it clear to him I was never disappointed in him. I take responsibility, so I get disappointed with myself.
"The bottom line is I have to be less emotional when my skaters don't skate well. But every coach who believes in a student will be disappointed with they don't skate well."
In the end, does Rippon following Kim out the door may add up to nothing more than individual problems in their relationships with Orser. Future results may or may not prove each made the correct decision.
But Orser's bottom line will always include being the coach who was at Kim's side when she won the biggest prize in their sport.
(source)
--------------------
Rippon talks recent coaching change, quads
Two-time world junior champion will stay in Toronto
By Lynn Rutherford, special to icenetwork.com
(04/08/2011) - Earlier this month, two-time world junior champion Adam Rippon announced a parting of the ways with Brian Orser, the two-time Canadian Olympic silver medalist who has coached him the past two seasons.
Rippon isn't making a geographical move; he now trains under Ghislain Briand, a long-time friend and colleague of Orser's who coaches at the same facility, Toronto's Cricket Skating and Curling Club. The skater worked with Briand last summer to perfect his jumps and try to master a quad.
"During this season I really didn't have a chance to work with [Briand] very often, and that was something I really wanted, especially for this season coming up," Rippon said.
The two-time world junior champion had an up-and-down 2010-11 season. He opened with a stellar free skate at the Japan Open, defeating reigning world champion Daisuke Takahashi and 2006 Olympic champion Evgeni Plushenko, and then went on to claim the bronze medal at Skate Canada.
At the 2011 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Rippon had an uncharacteristic fall on his signature jump, the "Rippon" triple Lutz with arms overhead, in his short program. Although he came back strong in the free skate, he placed fifth overall.
Icenetwork.com caught up with Rippon at Figure Skating in Harlem's annual Skating with the Stars gala at the Wollman Rink in Central Park. The 21-year-old was tying on his skates for his second not-for-profit effort in two days, having just flown in after performing a benefit for Japan's earthquake and tsunami victims in California.
Rippon shrugged off suggestions of fatigue.
"I was there, I'm here now, and it's great," he said. "FSH is a fantastic program for girls; it's amazing that, I think, all of them go on to college. With so many younger brothers and sisters [Rippon is the eldest of six children], I know the importance of extra-curricular activities."
Here's what he had to say about his plans for next season.
What will working full-time with Ghislain bring to your skating?
He is very technical. Everything is very simplistic, and I really thrive in the kind of environment where it's just technical and not very emotional, so I can keep focused on the task at hand. I've been working with Ghislain for a long time and I do like working with him, I get a lot out of it.
For me, coaching-wise, opposites attract. I'm the kind of person who can feed off different people's emotions. I'm sensitive to that. If someone is nervous, I feel that. Ghislain, he's constantly very level-headed. When things are going great, he's still very level-headed; when things aren't going well, [he will say] things are going to get better.
So, you are staying at Toronto's Cricket Club full-time.
When I went to Toronto about two-and-a-half years ago, I went there for the environment. I really love it there. It's such a great place to train. The community of people involved in the rink is great. I don't want to lose that. If I changed rinks I would have to start all over again and I really wasn't looking to do that.
As far as [former coach Orser] also at the rink, it's such a small piece of the puzzle. It probably leads for maybe a few weeks of awkwardness, but the practice intensity and everything else doesn't change. People have changed coaches within the rink before. It's something that happened, and I know that Brian respects my decision, and he understands what I need and we just move forward from here.
Last summer, you were working with Brian and Ghislain to get a quad. Any update on that?
It was something I really wanted to do all year and when I was saying in interviews I planned it, I really did. It was just something that didn't happen. It's going really well now, but of course, the season's over.
I've been working on the [quad] Lutz. As soon as I put my arms in, it was easier. And no, I'm not doing it with my arms over my head.
I'm still working on [quad] toe as well, but I've been doing a few [Lutzes] every day and I am going to keep training it and working on it because it's something I would really love to do next season.
This season, you performed two programs choreographed by David Wilson. Any thoughts on whether or not you will get new programs?
Well, I talked to David, and there is only a few years left before [the Sochi] Olympics, actually three years left. [Next season] is kind of my last year left to sort of play around and see what kind of styles are going to work best for me.
I'm planning to use different choreographers this year for the short and long, and I'm talking to David about who we should approach.
So you are still working with David, regardless of whether he choreographs your programs?
David is still a really big part of my team. He wants me to try different styles to see what will work best personally for me. I really couldn't ask for a better person to have on my side, he's great.
(source)
--------------------
UNIVERSAL SPORTS INTERVIEW WITH ADAM AT FIGURE SKATING IN HARLEM (can't embed)
^Video currently requires Silverlight - When I get home, I will record this and post it here so that those of you without Silverlight can watch.^
LifeSkate interview at Figure Skating in Harlem with Adam and others (Jeremy, Tanith, Sarah Hughes) about Worlds:
Click to view--------------------
TL;DR~ Adam needs a calm/less emotional/more level-headed coach; is working on quad lutz; had an amicable split with Brian; is looking at other choreographers while keeping David Wilson close; is hopeful for next season and Sochi is his goal. GO ADAM!