The mother of figure skater Mukhametzyanova explained her sentence about “emotional violence”

Sports psychologist Elmira Mukhametzyanova, mother of the figure skater Diana Mukhametzyanova in an interview with , she told what causes stress and what pressure can be expressed by coaches.

Mukhametzyanova, paired with Ilya Mironov, won silver at the 2020 Youth Olympics and, in the 2019/20 season, silver at the Junior Grand Prix Final.

After breaking up with Mironov, she spent several departures with Vladislav Antonyshev. At the end of last year, the skater with a scandal left the group of Nina Moser and began to work with the group of coach Pavel Slyusarenko, while looking for a partner. At the beginning of July, it was learned that they had stopped cooperating.

In August 2002, the mother of figure skater Elmira Mukhametzyanova posted an entry on social networks where she announced that her daughter was ending her career, including because of psychological abuse.

– In your farewell message about the end of your career, you expressed the “emotional abuse” that Diana suffered in large numbers. What are we talking about exactly?

– Emotional abuse is a very serious thing that is not talked about much and most likely few people fully understand the harm it does to a child. Anyone, especially in sports!

In fact, there was emotional pressure on my daughter from the start. The only thing that bothered the trainer was the extra weight, in his opinion. Although Diana was always distinguished by her great strength and performance, she started jumping all triple jumps early, many complaints were filed against her. You can’t comment on a girl’s appearance around other guys. It’s very hard on self-esteem. Calling a girl “cow”, “hippopotamus”, fat, etc. means to make her understand that she is worse than the others. This will certainly manifest itself in competitions as fear and body stiffness. Such a girl will definitely not be able to run the program accurately. Every coach who wants to grow a champion should know this. Otherwise, it turns out that the coach puts a lot of effort on the athlete, develops him physically, but himself destroys him psychologically. That’s what happened to Diana.

Many were outraged by the term “emotional abuse”. But it is an established expression, even parents of athletes often use it. When the trainer in front of the whole group says to the child: “You are fat, you are such!”, it is an escape from the problem. The figure skater does not jump because she is fat, but because she has a bad emotional state. Under stress, a person will not do anything well.

There are also situations where something is wrong with an athlete, and the coach says, “This is it! I won’t comment on you anymore and will generally watch you. Work as you wish!” The coach thinks this is a good incentive, but in reality such a message is emotional abuse. Because the child has thoughts in his head: “I am worthless, I’m the worst.” What do you think, will it be possible to do something with such an attitude?

Again and again, everything accumulates, and therefore, a vicious circle. The athlete goes to the start in a state where he is nobody and he is afraid of himself. Such incidents happen to many coaches – precisely out of ignorance, misunderstanding of child and adolescent psychology. They plant cruel thoughts in the head of a fragile person.

You know, those words came out of my heart. I remembered how we survived the Olympics and the Junior Grand Prix Final, which was a selection. We then clearly said to the guys: “Which one of you performs better in the final, he will go to the Olympics. It is very difficult to bear it mentally when a child puts his soul into his daily sport. In such a moment, I want a little understanding and trust from the coach, and not just “on the head”. I appreciate teachers who work with each of their departments individually. Because every child is an individual. Diana was just tired of fighting. And even the new excellent coaching staff could not return the love of the sport. I think it was long lost on a subconscious level.