A Carousel of Coaching on Ice

Elite Figure Skaters Are Switching Trainers Like Never Before

Many believe Michelle Kwan began the trend of frequent coaching changes when she left Frank Carroll, right. (Amy Sancetta -- AP)

During his 40 years as a figure skating coach, many of John Nicks's biggest stars remained under his tutelage from their preteen years to adulthood.

In some ways, Sasha Cohen resembles those skaters. She started with Nicks as a promising 10-year-old. When Cohen turns 21 in October, a few months before the 2006 Winter Games, she probably will be under Nicks's direction.

Or not.

Pupil and teacher took a two-year hiatus after Cohen, a three-time U.S. silver medal winner, dumped Nicks in search of a better coach and training environment after the 2002 Olympics. She asked Nicks to take her back last month over coffee at a Starbucks after discarding Russian-born coach Tatiana Tarasova and, later, Robin Wagner, the former coach of 2002 Olympic champion Sarah Hughes.

Cohen has, in short, made three coaching changes since she finished fourth -- which she considered a crushing defeat -- at her first Olympics not quite three years ago.

"I can clearly remember a lot of the early champions I taught. . . . I taught them from nine years old until they were 21," Nicks said by phone from his training home in Aliso Viejo, Calif. "Lately, things have changed. I'm trying to understand and come to terms with the changes."

Nicks isn't the only one. A recent blitz of coaching moves among America's finest figure skaters has left fans, coaches and other skaters feeling as if they need scorecards to keep up. Nearly every top singles skater at this week's U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Portland, Ore., has made a major change at least once since the Salt Lake City Games, and several have made multiple moves.

Michelle Kwan, seeking her ninth U.S. title here, has had four coaches -- including herself -- since 2001. Reigning Olympic bronze medal winner Tim Goebel is with his third coach since 2000. Last year's U.S. bronze medal winner, Jennifer Kirk, has had three coaches in three years, and two-time U.S. bronze medalist Angela Nikodinov has had four since 1999 (one, the late Elena Tcherkasskaia, died in 2001).

Even McLean's Michael Weiss, who trained under Audrey Weisiger at Fairfax Ice Arena for 18 years, left her in 2002 for Don Laws of Laurel.

Coaching changes have always been part of the sport, especially among skaters who felt neglected at ice rinks crowded with stars. But for the most part, the top skaters of the past -- Brian Boitano, Kristi Yamaguchi, Nancy Kerrigan and Todd Eldredge, to name a few -- spent years with the same mentor.

There were exceptions, of course. Nicole Bobek changed coaches nearly as often as she changed costumes. Paul Wylie and Scott Hamilton made major changes in mid-career. Even legend Peggy Fleming jumped around. The majority, though, seemed to strive for continuity and comfort, while some of today's skaters seem most comfortable being uncomfortable, seeking quick fixes through new voices and new environments.

"Interesting," said Wylie, the 1992 Olympic silver medal winner, "in the way it resembles musical chairs."

Cohen, a Westwood, Calif., native, said she did not regret her recent coach-hopping because she learned much about skating and life along the way. She said she returned to Nicks partly for his teaching and partly because she had been homesick in Connecticut with Tarasova and in Long Island, N.Y., with Wagner. She said she is a wiser, more savvy skater this time around.

"People are looking for different things," she said by cell phone this past weekend. They want "to be compatible [with a coach], but also with the training environment that will help them progress as a skater. Sometimes it works out. Sometimes after a year or two, you need to move on."