I love talking skating on GR too!
The story with Nicole is that she kept coach hopping because a) no one could deal with her for long and b) Jana and Joyce kept looking for a quick fix and rushed to the coach du jour. It was absolutely detrimental because you don't build that trust, nor do you get a solid technical background. A strong coach/skater relationship is probably *the* most important thing in skating.
I loved Nicole, I truly believe she was more naturally talented than Michelle, Tara, etc. Because she'd never train but if she managed to focus for like, 2 weeks and get herself in shape, she could turn out brilliant performances. That happens far too often IMO. The truly gifted ones (Sasha, Johnny, Sandhu, Bowman, etc) fall back on their talent too much because they can pull it out of their ass when they need to. But it always catches up to you, which is why none of them have the results they're capable of. Sure Michelle was very talented, but girl WORKED, stayed in shape all year, trained like a fiend, did what she was told, etc. Evan Lysacek is the same way.
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