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Robinson to train with Lipinski's coach
The former Canadian women's figure skating champion, frustrated by an inability to meet her own expectations or those of skating officials and fans, will spend the summer training in Detroit with renowned U.S. coach Richard Callaghan. Robinson, 21, has trained exclusively in Barrie with coaches Doug and Michelle Leigh since leaving her Windsor home at age 13.
"Maybe a change is what I need," said Robinson, who won the national title in 1996, but has skated poorly and finished third at the last two Canadian championships. "Maybe I just need a little kick in the butt."
Callaghan is considered one of the elite coaches in the United States. He guided Tara Lipinski to U.S. and world titles at age 14, then to an Olympic gold medal in February at Nagano. The plan was to have Robinson skate with Lipinski in Detroit, with the hopes that being with an Olympic champion would give Robinson's own training a boost.
However, Lipinski has turned pro and will no longer train full time in Detroit. Robinson said she hopes Callaghan's success coaching other female skaters will rub off on her.
"I've seen what he's done with other skaters," Robinson said. "I have an open mind. I'm ready to try new things, which is usually really difficult for me to do."
The Leighs approached Callaghan at the world championships earlier this month in Minneapolis to make the arrangements. Robinson said she will spend the summer in Detroit -- living with her parents in Windsor -- and "a week every now and then" after that. She still plans to train in Barrie the rest of the year.
Robinson made a rapid rise in the Canadian rankings as a teenager, winning the national junior title in 1994, then placing second to Netty Kim at the senior level a year later.
At the 1995 world championships in England, Robinson was 19th, but after her national title in 1996 in Ottawa -- when she upset heavily favored Josee Chouinard -- she slipped to 21st at the worlds.
The biggest problem with her recent results has been inconsistency with her jumps, which has also plagued her in practice.
"What I think it really boils down to," she said, "is doing clean run-throughs (in practice) and getting it ... to a level where I go into a competition knowing I can count on the jump."