Reply to 2022 Olympics

Forum Index » Entertainment and Pop Culture

Reply to "2022 Olympics"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]An interesting perspective from Raf Arutyunian and Nathan Chen, from 2018.

http://www.globetrottingbyphiliphersh.com/home/2018/2/9/he-said-he-said-chen-arutunian-dissect-methods

[b]On Arutunian's reputation as a "tough love" coach[/b]

ARUTUNIAN

Hersh: You mentioned you don't have many young talents coming to you. Won't that change after your widely publicized success with Nathan?

Arutunian: In the U.S., there are some people who say about me, "Oh, he works only with older skaters" or "He's too mean." Those kids have coaches who every time say, "Oh, good job. Good job."

You don't say "Good job" every time, not 20 times a day. Come on. Whenever you win an Olympics, that's a good job.

Hersh: So you think they make the mistake of encouraging kids to think they are doing better than they really are?

Arutunian: That's a problem. Those kids are staying with a coach who says "Good job" because they like that. They will not come to me because I have very high standards. I can say "Good job," and it's really a good job, but maybe it's once a week or once a month or sometimes once a day -- but not 20 times a day.

CHEN

On this subject, Chen was asked immediately for his reaction to what his coach had said.

Hersh: Raf thinks few young skaters come to him because he doesn't give out praise constantly and because a lot of people think he is mean. Is Raf sparing with credit so it means more when he does say, "Good job?"

Chen: I would say that's true. Also, I grew up in a very Chinese-based family, and my parents are exactly the same way. When they say bad things about you, you know they have your best interests at heart. They're not trying to pull you down; they're trying to actually raise you up. That's more impactful than them congratulating you all the time.

Sometimes, when I work with coaches who do congratulate me all the time, it feels fake, not genuine. When Raf does congratulate me, you know you did a good job. Ultimately, you know that regardless of what he says, he wants you to be better. So you just try to use that as a positive versus a negative.

Hersh: Do you agree that some people do think he's mean?

Chen: For sure, but they didn't really get a chance to meet him and know him.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics