Alexei Mishin

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
For the wrestler, see Aleksey Mishin. For the Russian footballer, see Aleksei Mishin.
Alexei Mishin
2011 Rostelecom Cup - Mishin Alexey.jpg
Mishin in 2011
Personal information
Country represented  Russia ( Soviet Union)
Born (1941-03-08) 8 March 1941 (age 72)
Sevastopol
Former partner Tamara Moskvina
Former coach Igor Moskvin
Maya Belenkaya[1]
Retired 1969

Alexei Nikolaevich Mishin (Russian: Алексе́й Никола́евич Ми́шин, born 8 March 1941) is a Russian figure skating coach and former pair skater. With partner Tamara Moskvina, he was the 1969 World silver medalist and USSR national champion.

Mishin is based in Saint Petersburg at Yubileyny Sports Palace. His current and former students include Olympic champions Alexei Urmanov, Alexei Yagudin, and Evgeni Plushenko. Mishin also runs summer seminars. Among the skaters who have attended those are Stéphane Lambiel and Sarah Meier.[2] He has authored several books on the biomechanics of figure skating.[2]

Contents

Early years [edit]

Mishin spent his childhood in Tbilisi and afterwards moved to Leningrad with his family. He was always interested in mechanics.[3] He started skating relatively late, at age 15, after his parents brought him to the rink.[2] His father skated with him to get him interested in the activity.[2][4] Mishin was first coached by Nina Lepninskaya,[5] a pupil of Nikolai Panin.

Competitive career [edit]

Mishin competed in singles within the Soviet Union and won the bronze medal at the 1964 Soviet Championships. In 1966, he took up pair skating as an experiment, teaming up with his first and only partner, Tamara Moskvina.[2] They were coached by Igor Moskvin.[6] Together they won the 1969 Soviet Championships, defeating both the two-time Olympic champions Ludmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov, and the future champions Irina Rodnina and Alexei Ulanov. They went on to win silver at the 1969 World Championships. At the European Championships, they won silver in 1968 and bronze in 1969. Moskvina took time off to have a baby and they decided to retire to concentrate on their coaching careers, with Mishin focusing on coaching singles while Moskvina focused on pairs. Mishin was 28 when he retired from competition and he said he was glad to start coaching when he was young.[2]

He comments:

Tamara Moskvina and I were famous in the USSR: people recognized us in the shops, we could buy a car...[7] But from the very start I looked forward to training other people and never regretted becoming a coach.[3]

Coaching career [edit]

Mishin graduated from university with a degree in mechanics and his dissertation focused on the mechanical base of figure skating technique.[2] He started with coaching junior ladies to success at national and international competitions, but later switched to men's singles.[4] He rapidly became a well-known coach, due to his training methods that made the skaters learn jumps very quickly.[2] In addition, he has authored several books on the biomechanics of figure skating and jumps which have been published in Russia, Germany, China, Japan and several other countries.[2]

Mishin with pupil Evgeni Plushenko in 2004

Mishin prefers to work with men's single skaters. The most successful and longtime student is Evgeni Plushenko, the 2006 Winter Olympics champion and two-time Olympic silver medalist, three-time World champion. Plushenko came to Mishin without parents when he was eleven years old. Then Mishin became Plushenko's father figure, both on and off the ice. Since that time, they have been working together for nearly twenty years.[8]

Plushenko later described Mishin as "Professor Higgins", a character from George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion:[9][10]

Mishin was like a second father, like Professor Higgins. He taught me how to behave in public. In which hand should I hold the knife, and fork. He pulled me out of the dirt, put me on my feet, and made me into a person.

Meanwhile as for woman's student, Mishin had stated that he thinks "better one man of average talent than two super-talented ladies" because "compared with women, men are more sporty and talented and able to learn artistic elements faster" but women are "delicate material":[11]

Coaching women is dangerous – there's always probability that the story of (mythology) Pygmalion will recur periodically. My wife was a mere pupil at first. See, what has eventually happened?[3]
Mishin with pupil Elizaveta Tuktamysheva in 2010

Nevertheless, one of his current students is ladies' single skater Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, a four-time Russian senior national medalist. Mishin was criticized for making Tuktamysheva participate in the senior Russian Championships at only 12 years of age, but he responded that "one with sustainable future won't break", and if a person cannot do triple lutz at 12 he will never be able to do it.[11]

Mishin also coaches Artur Gachinski since 2002, the 2011 World bronze medalist and 2012 European silver medalist.

Mishin is a professor at the Lesgaft School of Sports Science and Physical Education and gives seminars all over the world.[2][12] He is taking part in the development of a figure skating device which measures the number of revolutions in jumps when attached to the skater's body. According to Mishin, this device has already been patented.[11]

Mishin is based at Saint Petersburg's Yubileyny Sports Palace for most of the season but has annual summer training camps in various locations, such as Jaca (Spain), Tartu (Estonia), and Pinzolo (Italy).[2][13]

Personal life [edit]

Mishin is married to Tatiana Mishina[2] (née Oleneva), a former figure skater, and they coach together and separately. They have two sons, Andrei, born in 1977, and Nikolai, born in 1983.

Competitive highlights [edit]

Pairs with Tamara Moskvina

Event 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69
Winter Olympics 5th
World Championships 6th 4th 2nd
European Championships 6th 2nd 3rd
Soviet Championships 3rd 2nd 2nd 1st
Prize of Moscow News 1st 1st
Winter Universiade 3rd

Men's singles

Event 1964
Soviet Championships 3rd

Orders and rewards [edit]

Publications [edit]

  • Mishin, Alexei (1976). Figure skating jumps (in Russian). Moscow: Fizkultura i sport. p. 104. 
  • Mishin, Alexei (1979). School in figure skating (in Russian). Moscow: Fizkultura i sport. p. 175. 
  • Mishin, Alexei (1981). Biomechanics of figure skaters' moves (in Russian). Moscow: Fizkultura i sport. p. 144. 
  • Mishin, Alexei, ed. (1985). Figure skating: A study manual for sports colleges (in Russian). Moscow: Fizkultura i sport. p. 271. 

References [edit]

  1. ^ "Легендарная фигуристка М.П.Беленькая" (in Russian). Ledyanaya Fabrika. 2009. Archived from the original on 21 August 2010. Retrieved 13 September 2010. 
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Mittan, Barry (26 December 2004). "Russia’s Mishin Is Dean of Coaches". Skate Today. Retrieved 10 November 2011. 
  3. ^ a b c Kuznetsova, Valeria. "Interview with Alexei Mishin" (in Russian). TV-Park magazine. Archived from the original on 18 April 2005. Retrieved 8 July 2012. 
  4. ^ a b "The skating philosophy of Alexei Nikolaevich Mishin". The Official Site for Evgeni Plushenko. Archived from the original on 30 May 2008. Retrieved 6 September 2008. 
  5. ^ "Biography at Olympic encyclopedia" (in Russian). Retrieved 4 February 2008. 
  6. ^ Vaytsekhovskaya, Elena (25 August 2009). "Igor Moskvin: I have never thought that wife and me are rivals." (in Russian). Sport Express. Retrieved 4 July 2010. 
  7. ^ Buying a car in the Soviet Union was difficult due to the shortages of several goods. See Economy of the Soviet Union.
  8. ^ "International Figure Skating" May 2006
  9. ^ "Blades on Ice" November/December 2003
  10. ^ Russian Magazine "Sportclub"
  11. ^ a b c Mironova, Valeria (25 March 2009). "A revival will begin after Vancouver Olympics". Kommersant (in Russian). Retrieved 26 March 2009. 
  12. ^ "Alexei Mishin and "Mishin's Magic Vest"". Retrieved 4 February 2008. 
  13. ^ Remmel, Ia (4 November 2011). "The story behind success: Mishin'’s and Gachinski’'s season preparation". Absolute Skating. Retrieved 8 November 2011. 

External links [edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Alexei Mishin

Navigation [edit]
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alexei_Mishin&oldid=540881747"