Revolving Door Is Latest Skating Move

Top figure skaters switch coaches at such dizzying speeds these days, they make Hollywood couples look like models of stability.

Olympic bronze medalist Tim Goebel moved from one coast to another in November after Frank Carroll, his coach of 4 1/2 years, suggested they part ways. Jennifer Kirk, fourth at last week’s U.S. Figure Skating Championships, is now with Carroll after a two-year pit stop in Detroit. Michelle Kwan has had two coaches in the last 2 1/2 years.

And Sasha Cohen? You need a flow chart to keep up with her moves.

Then there’s Johnny Weir. He’d been skating for two weeks when he started training with Priscilla Hill. Eight years and two national titles later, they’re still going strong.

“We trust each other,” he said. “I trust her with my career, and she trusts me to work hard and do my job. If you can trust the person you’re working with, then there’s really no need to run around and switch coaches.

“If I want to go work with someone else -- I work with Tatiana Tarasova in the summers -- Priscilla knows I’ll always come back. I know my home is in Delaware, and she’s my coach.”

Way back when, Weir’s story was the norm. Skaters stayed with the same coach from the time they were stumbling around the rink until the day they retired, and just the thought of switching was scandalous.

But skaters have become a much more nomadic bunch over the years.

The boondoggle of ice shows and competitions that followed the Tonya-Nancy soap opera led to more interaction between skaters -- and other coaches. Coaches often send their skaters somewhere else in the summer now for additional work. And where coaches once had the final say on virtually everything, people like agents, choreographers and trainers have added voices to the decision-making process.

There are more top-level coaches out there, too. When the Soviet Union fell and state funding dried up, many of the best coaches set up shop in the United States.

“It’s not like the old world where you had one coach and you swore

And just like everybody else in U.S. society, skaters want results and they want them yesterday.

“I think, unfortunately, people rush out of things too quickly and they don’t want to work through the hard times,” Hill said. “They just hope going to something new is just going to fix everything. I don’t think it works that way in life.”

The relationship between skater and coach is a delicate one. Besides the technical training, coaches have to be motivators. Psychologists. Choreographers. Wardrobe consultants. Music directors.

But sometimes -- or many times it seems these days -- personalities or philosophies just don’t mesh.

In Kirk’s case, she was looking for a different style, someone she could relate to personally as well as professionally. Former U.S. junior champ Parker Pennington left Carol Heiss Jenkins in the fall after 10 years because he felt he needed more work on his artistry, and he didn’t feel the resources were available in Cleveland.

Carroll actually left Goebel, telling the two-time world silver medalist he thought it best for Goebel’s development if he found a new coach.

“The kid has to really enjoy the coach and have a good relationship with him. And the coach also has to enjoy the skater,” Carroll said. “It works both ways.”

Then there are the serial switchers, skaters who bounce from one coach to another like a wayward pinball. Remember Nicole Bobek? She trained with almost every top coach in the country, lasting a few years with some, mere months with others.

Cohen isn’t in her league -- yet.

After six years with John Nicks, who developed her into a world-class skater, Cohen left in the summer of 2002 to train with Tarasova in Simsbury, Conn. Then, in December 2003, Cohen announced she’d switched to Robin Wagner, Sarah Hughes’ former coach.

Last month, she made another yet switch, this time returning to Southern California and Nicks.

“I was looking for something, for someone to make me be No. 1 and make me perfect,” Cohen told reporters last week. “I realized the last two years that that person is me.”

That’s the inherent danger with switching coaches. Sometimes the problem is one no amount of moving can fix.

“Sometimes,” Kirk said, “maybe it’s something that’s wrong with you.”

The rash of switches since the Salt Lake City Olympics makes Weir and Hill’s story that much more impressive. Last week, Weir won his second title.

Finding that right fit is vital, and not simply because it saves on moving expenses. “The only great success I ever had with any skater is over a long time,” said Carroll, who worked with both Kwan and Linda Fratianne for 10 years. “I can’t do it in a year. People come to me for help and for the magic cure. I’m always laughing, ‘My magic wand is not working. The batteries are run down in my magic wand.’ ”