“You don’t seem to eat anything, but the weight still doesn’t go away.” How do figure skaters grow up?

Puberty is the Achilles’ heel of even the best skaters. It is generally believed that this is especially true for girls, for whom maturing of the body often turns into serious problems with jumps and increased struggle with weight. Many do not adapt to the changes or do not withstand the decline in results at the start, so they end up with figure skating. It is good if the athlete by this time has managed to collect some titles and medals of prestigious tournaments. If not, it is especially frustrating to end a career. But this is exactly what happens for the majority.

Nevertheless, there is an opinion that puberty is just an excuse of not too hard-working athletes or those who just try to justify unsuccessful starts in this way. And also supposedly guys are lucky, and the difficult period of growing up does not affect their athletic success.

So does this puberty exist in figure skaters, what does it manifest itself in, how does it affect jumps, do guys face it and is it possible to ease its passage? We tell you all about it in the special project of the “Championship” “Anatomy of a figure”.

What is puberty?

Puberty is the maturation of the organism: at this time hormones are raging, the body is changing, there are changes in the head – in the mental state. Of course, figure skaters, like all people, cannot jump through this period. It’s just that for some it starts earlier, for others later. Usually puberty comes at 13-15 years old. But it also happens at 16-17, which is normal for high-performance sports.

Unfortunately, the transformation of a child into an adult often seriously affects sports results, and in a negative way. Elena Radionova, European vice-champion and bronze medalist at the World Championships, confirms that puberty is a difficult period for figure skaters.

Elena Radionova

World and European championship medalist

“Puberty in figure skaters really exists and affects the jumps. It’s true, because we can’t stay children anyway, our proportions change. And as soon as our proportions change, the axis on which we spin shifts. So every centimeter, even every millimeter, has a big impact.”

Normal for ordinary girls, the appearance of feminine forms and weight gain sometimes become a real blow for athletes. Especially in difficult coordination sports, which includes figure skating. Not everyone manages to cope with the problems, although after a while everything is sure to normalize.

“It was not an easy moment, not an easy time, which I definitely don’t remember with any charm. It was very hard for me at the time. Changes were happening to me, of course, not only physically, but also psychologically. I was changing, transforming from a child into an adult.

One of my most vivid memories: my coaches and myself were very careful about my weight. It was hard at some moments. You don’t eat anything, but the weight still doesn’t go away. And the body itself, despite the heavy loads, was not as dry as I wanted it to be. I was working out six days a week from morning till evening, but there were still, let’s say, questions about my appearance. Naturally, during this period the psyche is very vulnerable, and all sorts of barbed words, some said offensive things are taken to heart. It’s unpleasant. It seems to me that in such moments you should not touch a person, but let him calmly experience it, because he understands perfectly well how he should look like. And every time you remind him that he is fat or something else is wrong, it aggravates the situation. After a while everything will normalize and settle down,” recalls Elena Radionova.

Elena Radionova

Why do figure skaters have problems with jumps during puberty?

It’s a typical picture: a girl, who yesterday easily handled all the jumps in the rental, demonstrating the purest skating, suddenly begins to make mistakes. The culprit is puberty, or rather, its consequences: change of proportions, growth and weight jump, shift of the center of gravity.

Elizaveta Tuktamysheva did not make it to the Sochi Olympics because her transformation into a girl was accompanied by the need to re-learn how to control her body. In such conditions, she had to postpone learning the triple axel, which Lisa had tried as a child. It is good that later she came back to it and now regularly performs it brilliantly at tournaments, because it is much harder for an adult to learn the element of ultra-si than for a child.

Elizaveta Tuktamysheva

Tatyana Vasilevskaya, sports psychologist, coach and master of sports in figure skating, explains why children progress faster in training:

Tatyana Vasilevskaya

sports psychologist, coach, master of sports in figure skating.

“If we take figure skating, we can notice how quickly a child learns everything a coach gives him on the ice, because he doesn’t think and doesn’t push himself into limits; and how an adult learns to skate on the ice! An adult, before starting to do what the coach says, will think a hundred times, put himself in psychological stress, then do 5-6 times, and that’s it. A child will repeat a hundred times, and the first hundred times he will do it all. Accordingly, the psyche will be in a calm state, and, without stress, but on the contrary, having received positive emotions, the child will want to continue to perform the elements”.

When the body changes, you have to readjust to the jumps: it’s not easy and it’s not always obvious what a particular athlete needs to do. The main thing here is not to give up, but to try to work on the weaknesses in technique that have appeared.

“If our body proportions change, weight changes, accordingly, it will affect the jump, because in front of it, you may need more speed or lack of height, sharpness. Therefore, the more changes in the body, the more we need to work it out,” shares Elena Radionova.

Elena Radionova

Agree, it’s a shame when in childhood everything jumps easily and effortlessly, and then puberty comes and some problems start. And not only physical. Young figure skaters are helped a lot by lack of fear. Even a bad fall, as a rule, does not knock a child out of the rut for a long time, but becomes a useful experience.

“Of course, children take risks more easily and are less afraid of jumps. I would say they are not afraid at all. As a rule, kids with jumping skills are still light and airy. They don’t view jumping as something difficult, more often than not they enjoy jumping. Again, without a negative experience (a hard fall), this attitude toward jumping continues. After a while, when the child grows up and reaches multi-turn jumps, unpleasant falls are inevitable. Naturally, fear appears. It’s understandable. But even if fear appears, it is usually worked through by successful performance and then goes away. But experience and sober assessment of the situation remain, which makes the athlete more careful and thinking,” says Tatyana Vasilevskaya.

The instinct of self-preservation is what allows a child to jump fearlessly, but prevents an adult from doing so. On the other hand, taking care of yourself is necessary to avoid injury.

“I think during puberty we see not only visual changes in a teenager, but also mental, psychological changes. Because once an athlete/athlete puts on weight, the body has to be ready for it. If it is not ready, our self-preservation instinct kicks in, and even the head does not let us jump these jumps, showing that the body is not ready and you need to save yourself, better prepare your body,” says Elena Radionova.

Is there puberty in boys?

Boys also grow up, but they usually start puberty later than girls. However, they also have enough problems. Coordination suffers, which is essential in figure skating!

Artur Gachinsky

World and European championship medalist

“Guys are still going through puberty. How does it manifest itself? I can tell you by the example of our athletes. That year we faced puberty. When the boys grew up, limbs grew, coordination was lost completely. Boys have their own puberty, girls have their own puberty. When it’s a boy, coordination, of course, is lost to nothing. It was hard, difficult. There were such cases: we show him one step at the practice, he takes another step and believes that he is doing it correctly. And we show him the video and tell him it’s a different step. He says: “Now I understand.

Guys, of course, need support from coaches and relatives during this period. When results at competitions suffer and training goes badly, it is very easy to give in to emotions and give up figure skating. But if there are understanding people around, ready to share the difficulties of the transition age with the young man, it is possible to avoid a dramatic farewell to the sport and possibly the loss of a very talented figure skater.

“Not that it’s difficult, it depends more on the coach, parents, support when you talk to them. It happens, they seemed to be preparing for competitions during this period, everything was not bad, and then it turns out something not what they planned. Of course, you want to shout and nail them or do something else inside yourself, but you realize: he just couldn’t cope, because his body is different, his limbs are different, his muscles are different – everything is different. Here you just have to support, otherwise the athlete may freak out and say: “Well, that’s it…”. – says Gachinsky.

Artur Gachinsky

In addition to the support of the immediate environment, working with a psychologist helps to overcome the hardships of puberty. Today, it is increasingly common to see examples of skaters (both children and adults) turning to specialists in order to work through their painful issues.

“I think it definitely makes sense for figure skaters to work with a sports psychologist during puberty. And in general, athletes at any age need it, because they regularly face different difficulties on their way.

To have a person who helps to go through turbulence as gently as possible is a necessity nowadays. Then there will be more psychologically healthy athletes!” she said. – Tatyana Vasilevskaya is sure.

Is it possible to postpone puberty?

Puberty is not an apartment rent payment, it is not possible to agree on postponement. There are opinions that intensive training and rigid diets can slow it down, but Elena Radionova believes that it is impossible to cheat genetics. Another thing is that with a competent approach you can minimize the difficulties an athlete faces at this time:

“I think there is no way to postpone puberty. As it is written in genetics, so it will be. The only thing is that it can be controlled and you can try not to let yourself go too much. If you stick to proper nutrition, training, if you have a normal mental state, puberty will be easier to go through.

For example, for me, I wouldn’t say it was a super hard time, because I, unlike many skaters, went through it less painfully than it could have been. I had a good team that helped me through it.”

Elena Radionova

Alas, many figure skaters struggle with puberty. And just through dietary restrictions and hunger strikes. For example, Alina Zagitova, at the age of 15, did not believe that puberty interferes with athletic success. She said that “you just need to close your mouth and not eat.” And she was far from alone in following this principle. It is still adhered to by many girls, not realizing how negatively it affects the body.

“Girls often go strong changes in the figure, weight jumps, the body changes, and here, of course, goes and discomfort, which directly affects the psychological state. Someone begins to try different diets, torturing themselves with hunger. In the end, it has the opposite effect, because there is no knowledge in this area, if the child does not work with professional nutritionists. And as weight changes and shapes change, the performance of elements on the ice also changes. Often not for the better. That’s why the psychological state suffers, because it used to be one thing, and now everything is different,” says Tatiana Vasilevskaya.

Elena Radionova also confirms that rigid diets are bad. The European vice-champion is sure that it is high time to stop talking about diets in female athletes altogether, replacing them with proper nutrition:

“Rigid diets don’t help. I believe that you need to eat right. The more diets, the worse for the body, and after each diet there are breakdowns. Therefore, in my opinion, only proper nutrition.

In general, the word “diet” should be excluded in sports. I think if you ask every figure skater, every sportswoman about dieting, they will immediately have a trigger that it is terrible, scary, they will immediately have some memories from their sports career. I think we should replace the word “diet” with the phrase “proper nutrition”.

How does puberty affect the mental state of a figure skater?

We have already mentioned that puberty is not only physiological, but also mental changes. In detail, what happens in the skater’s mind and behavior, tells sports psychologist Tatiana Vasilevskaya:

“Puberty is a time of physiological and mental changes that gradually lead to the onset of physical and puberty. And, of course, it affects the psychological state and everyone has a different degree, you can not drive everyone under the same rug.

For example, many people at the onset of such a period cease to consider the opinion of the coach and parents authoritative and correct, disagreements, misunderstandings begin, and, of course, this immediately affects the psychological state of the athlete and his results, because the results depend not only on how much time you spent on the ice or in the hall.

It can also be noticed that during such a period an athlete often starts to prioritize spending time with friends and, to put it mildly, neglects training, which eventually affects the results, and as a consequence there are psychological swings: from “I want to become an Olympic champion” to “I have to finish with sport”. Although successes directly depend on the approach and internal attitude to the training process”.

Elena Radionova

According to Elena Radionova, one should try not to worry about the problems that arise in the period of growing up. They are temporary, you need to understand that this is normal and everything will gradually normalize. Besides, puberty in figure skaters would not be the object of such a heated discussion if it fell on the junior, not adult career:

“Of course, the mental state changes during puberty, because changes occur not only externally, but also internally. The psyche can play differently in the same competitions. You may know how to prepare yourself for competitions, but, for example, during puberty everything can go differently, because the body is changing. You just have to be ready for it and wait. In time, everything will normalize.

There’s really nothing wrong with it, although there is so much talk about puberty in figure skaters. The thing is that our sport is very early, and the adult seasons fall on puberty. That’s why everyone notices it so much. But if we had a longer sport, then the whole puberty would take place in the junior age, and already in the adult figure skating would go out formed girls”.

In the future, thanks to the raising of the age limit, puberty in figure skaters will probably not attract so much attention. Very soon it will be possible to enter adult figure skating only after reaching the age of 17.