The Coaching Conundrum

Can the media offer analysis of a skater's coaching situation, or should it be off limits? And are we in this spot because critical analysis of the sport is rare?

There are times in all sports where it is apparent that an athlete or team needs to change their coaching situation. In team sports, debating and discussing coaching changes is done with regularity – take the last three months in New England, for instance, where an hour of sports radio has not gone by without a host or caller calling for the removal of the Patriots’ Matt Patricia. (They owe him a fancy coffee maker for how much his questionable play calling gave them show fodder.)

But in artistic sports, like figure skating and gymnastics, it is a bit touchier of a subject. A coach and skater or a coach and a gymnast have such a closer relationship because of the nature of individual sport. Patricia has dozens of guys to lead at the same time, and may not speak to each player individually daily. A skating coach has dedicated individual time with each elite skater in their stable daily. A gymnastics coach may be coaching several gymnasts at a time, but when doing skill instruction, they have to work one-on-one with a gymnast. A closer interpersonal relationship is formed – for better or for worse.

So when a media member wants to suggest that a skater needs to find a new coach or training team, it almost feels like the equivalent of telling a couple they should divorce, or telling your child that they can’t be friends with someone anymore. It feels like you’re commenting on a close personal relationship that’s none of your business.

Skaters don’t typically take direct questions about coaching situations well, and it’s understandable given the close relationship. In the times I’ve covered competitions live or remote, it’s felt taboo to ask questions about a coaching situation, even when the skater invites it with a comment they made previously. 

An example comes in Nathan Chen’s recent memoir, One Jump at a Time, where he speaks of avoiding the media. While I was a little surprised by his disdain, it was understandable given what his coaching situation really ended up being: his mom and coach Rafael Arutyunyan, not just the latter, as it was assumed. Thanks to his avoiding the media and the topic of coaching being taboo to ask about, Chen was able to explain his coaching situation on his own terms – in his book after he won the Olympic gold medal. But not everyone gets that chance – there’s only so many gold medals to go around. Did the coaching situation work? Well, he has an Olympic gold, so I would say yes. Would the media and fans have reacted nicely to the arrangement had it come out widely¹ previously? Probably not.

How, then, to best analyze a few situations that have popped up with Canadian figure skating as of late, especially as presented at last week’s Canadian Figure Skating Championships? Canada has been one of the most successful nations in the sport, but this year’s championships were frighteningly poor. It’s not as if the talent isn’t there – it’s that some of that talent doesn’t have their stuff together, and it feels like some of the coaching is to blame. 

A straight reporting of the event isn’t going to necessarily analyze that, but if you seek to dive beyond reporting and into opinion and analysis – which is present in every major sport, so it should also be present in figure skating – you’re going to have to comment on a seemingly poor coaching situation. But how do you do so without feeling or appearing completely cold and heartless? How dare we comment on that relationship? 

Is it that the lack of commentary and analysis in figure skating over the past two decades has made the idea of calling for a skater to change coaches seem cold? Or is it truly cold? After all, choosing coaches is the skater’s call. Plus, the media will never know what day-to-day training is like. It might appear from a skater’s performance that a coach isn’t making a skater do program run-throughs. Another skater might have previously said that the particular coach didn’t make them do program run-through’s like their current coach does. But is the appearance and another skater’s commentary enough to comment that the skater needs a change? Are those two items enough to ask the question in an interview or press conference? And if so, how can the media ask the question respectfully, and can a skater answer it without taking it personally? 

Or is a skater’s coaching situation something that the media should not ask about or comment on?

I don’t have the answer. As someone who only gets to cover skating on the fringes, while covering other sports simultaneously, I don’t think it’s something for me to decide, because I’m not in the community enough. (But then again, none of the Boston sports radio pundits are in the Patriots’ locker room, and most of them don’t even attend open practice, and they feel more than qualified to call for a coach’s head. So who knows?)

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Share them with me at katcornetta@gmail.com. (And if your thought is, “Kat, you’re thinking WAY too in detail about this,” that’s very valid.) 

Programming note:

Winter is my toughest writing season: I cover three sports for the Boston Globe (women’s college hockey, girls’ high school hockey and high school gymnastics), so time for any other writing is limited. But it’s not impossible! I will do my best to get out a U.S. Nationals preview Monday or Tuesday of this week. After that, I have a nice interview that has already been transcribed and just needs to be edited, as well as a historical piece. So stay tuned - more is on its way! Thank you for your interest and support.

If you have any topic suggestions or would like to be featured in my newsletter, please reach out at katcornetta@gmail.com.

1. I say widely here because it had been rumored for several years, but not commented about in the broader media. It wasn’t something many fans would have known.