Zheleznyakov: “I often observed how young coaches gave tasks and immersed themselves in smartphones, while athletes tinkered with something.”

Alexey Zheleznyakov, former choreographer of Eteri Tutberidze’s group, said in an interview with that he often sees poor quality work from beginning figure skating coaches.

Zheleznyakov is 42 years old. In November, the specialist announced that he had left Tutberidze’s group on his own initiative.

— Nowadays, many people do choreography not for sports, but for conditional TikTok. What do you think about the change in accent among young people?

— It’s the prerogative of young people who panic on social networks. I have a normal attitude, the main thing is that the content is decent and interesting. When a “bottom” is laid, I don’t appreciate it. In general, teenagers are interested – they dance, invent something, the main thing is that this does not interfere with the main thing. Many start to live with this and do not succeed either in social networks or in life. It is a problem. There must be a happy medium everywhere. In my time there was no Internet, we roamed the forests, built huts, lit fires, now it’s another century, there is nothing wrong with that.

“This may be why fewer teenagers will play sports.

— Yes, guys are starting to admire all kinds of bloggers, strange people. Even in the world of choreography, some watch enough TikToks, go to a dance studio for six months, and that’s it, they already consider themselves professional specialists. They have no education, they don’t even really know the basics, they don’t understand adolescent psychology, but they are already going to teach. I consider it a complete stupidity, an initiative, but now this phenomenon is everywhere.

In the world of sports, everything is exactly the same: I finished my professional activities and immediately went to become a coach. I liked Dasha Usacheva, who said that she would first become an assistant, try, learn, and only then she would call herself a coach. This is the right approach. But someone wants everything at once – well, that doesn’t happen. A coach and an athlete are two different things, you have to completely rebuild yourself. I do not approve of this approach.

“Their logic is that during their career they have seen the work of coaches and understand the specifics of the sport.

“A few athletes out of a thousand will be able to immediately understand and transmit the experience. It’s a colossal job. After finishing your career, you can become an apprentice, but immediately imagining yourself as a coach is stupid. People learn everything. I often observed on the ice how young people gave tasks and “dived” into smartphones, while athletes fiddled with them and fell. It’s absurd, absurd. If I, as a parent, saw this, I would immediately take the child away and no longer have anything in common with this “specialist,” Zheleznyakov told .