Mishin’s training camp in Pinzolo

Coaching legend Alexei Mishin held his traditional summer training camp in Pinzolo in northern Italy in June and July. Among the participants were his top skaters Evgeni Plushenko, Lisa Tuktamysheva and Artur Gachinski, but also several young students of Mishin, his wife Tatiana and assistant coaches as well as skaters from other countries such as Austria, Georgia, Bulgaria and Estonia. The younger skaters from Mishin’s school were for example Vladislav Tarasenko, Alexander Petrov, Alexei Krasnozhon, Maria Stavitskaia and Andrei Lazukin.

Mishin had invited 2008 World Champion Jeffrey Buttle for the first time to work as a choreographer with Tuktamysheva and Gachinski. He did Lisa’s long program to “Malaguena” and Artur’s Flamenco short program. Both skaters enjoyed working with the Canadian. „I personally liked working with Jeffrey a lot, how he builds the program, what kind of steps he shows – all this was very beautiful”, Tuktamysheva commented. “He suggests his steps and I suggest my steps – what I can do. We put it all together and as a result got quite interesting steps and moves, especially the footwork sequence. His idea to start the footwork in the middle of the ice rink and not at the blue line as usual, was very original. Alexei Nikolaevitch (Mishin) and I really liked that and now we have this kind of step sequence even in the free skating, because it looks so nice“, Gachinski added. Mishin was also pleased with Buttle. „I invited Jeffrey Buttle to work with Lisa and Artur, because even though he wasn’t a distinguished jumper, he is a distinguished skater and master of the blade. I wanted my athletes to learn from this positive side and I liked the result”, the coach explained.

Vakhtang Murvanidze was another former skater that Mishin invited to work with the camp students on aspects such as choreography and footwork.

Usually Mishin holds three summer camps in Italy, Spain and Estonia. This year, however, he decided to skip Spain and had two camps à two weeks each in Pinzolo, in order to save time and money. The third camp then took place end of July to early August in Tartu, Estonia.

At the end of the camp all participants presented one of their competitive programs to the public, Tuktamysheva and Gachinski even skated both. Plushenko unvealed his new short program to “Taka yak ti” (The Girl Like You) by the Ukranian band Okean Elzy. This is a very emotional piece and an original choice that never had been used before. Tuktamysheva kept her favorite style with her Latin short program and the free skating to “Malaguena”. Gachinski’s long program is set to the Anna Karenina soundtrack.

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