{"id":23049,"date":"2021-09-29T09:11:05","date_gmt":"2021-09-29T13:11:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/?p=23049"},"modified":"2021-11-24T14:37:39","modified_gmt":"2021-11-24T19:37:39","slug":"michal-brezina-working-with-the-mental-health-coach-helped-a-lot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/2021\/09\/29\/michal-brezina-working-with-the-mental-health-coach-helped-a-lot\/","title":{"rendered":"Michal Brezina: ‘Working with the mental health coach helped a lot’"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Claire Cloutier, Team FSO Contributing Writer
\nPhotos courtesy of Robin Ritoss and Michal Brezina<\/p>\n

NORWOOD, Mass. – At 31, Michal Brezina stands at the crossroads of a skating life. The veteran Czech athlete is still competing and aiming for his fourth Olympic Games this February. Meanwhile, he has started an active coaching career in southern California, where he trains.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Brezina is also combining parenthood with skating and work. His wife, former Israeli skater Danielle Montalbano, gave birth to their daughter Naya Rose in February 2020. \u201cShe\u2019s running now and talking. It\u2019s fun,\u201d Brezina said of his daughter. \u201cDani and I are both at the rink all day. So she goes to day care. Sometimes, it\u2019s kind of sad, because we both feel like we\u2019re missing out on certain things. But we try to make as much family time as we can. So I coach, and I skate, plus I\u2019m trying to put [fatherhood] into it. It\u2019s challenging, but it keeps me going.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Brezina\u2019s competitive skating journey is winding toward its end, even as other paths open. Yet, he is still finding new ways to move forward and approach his training.<\/span><\/p>\n

He opened his season earlier this month by winning the U.S. International Figure Skating Classic senior B event in Norwood, Mass. Although he has earned many Grand Prix and Challenger Series medals in competition over the past decade, this was Brezina\u2019s first outright victory in an international event since the 2013 Slovenia Cup. It was a positive start to a season that Brezina hopes will allow him to \u201cfinish my career on a good note\u201d at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. \"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

In Norwood, Brezina landed a quad Salchow and triple Axel in each program to help secure the victory. \u201cThere\u2019s still things that need work, obviously,\u201d he said after the long program. \u201cI was a little bit slow. I think I skated a little bit carefully.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Brezina said that one of his goals for the season is to \u201cstay healthy.\u201d Now that he is a bit older, and perhaps more prone to injury, he has changed his approach to practicing jumps. \u201cI\u2019m working on a lot of basics. I\u2019m trying not to jump as much,\u201d he explained. \u201cI\u2019m trying to modify my practices so we do more skating. Then, when I do the heavy jumps like quad Salchow, and when we work on quad toe [loops], it\u2019s a little bit easier. I tend to do a lot more triples, and just make them bigger, so I know I have the space to rotate.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Czech skater has always been known for his strong jump technique, particularly on his triple Axel. Brezina reflected on how he learned that technique from Karol Divin, the 1960 Olympic silver medalist and one of his early coaches. \u201cMr. Divin was the guy that I mainly learned with when I was younger, because he lives in my hometown [Brno, Czechoslovakia],\u201d Brezina recalled. \u201cI was lucky enough that he was still coming to the rink every day [then].\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

One of Divin\u2019s trademark moves was his flying sit spin. \u201cHe had a really good technique for his time,\u201d Brezina noted. \u201cThat is the main reason why my Axel is the way it is still, to this day. If you know how to teach a flying sit spin, you know how to teach a triple Axel. Because the takeoff is exactly the same.\u201d Now that Brezina is a coach, he hopes to pass on the technique he learned from Divin to his own students.\u00a0<\/span>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In addition to modifying his jump approach, Brezina has also added another new element to his training. For the first time in his skating career–which spans 25 years–he is working with a mental health coach. Brezina said that it\u2019s had a significant effect on his skating.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important. I never thought that it was [before],\u201d Brezina admitted. \u201cI would say right now, it\u2019s a big part of the [coaching] team.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

His work with the coach began last spring after the 2021 World Championships, when the Czech skating federation hired a mental health counseling firm to consult with the Czech figure skaters. \u201cThey said: \u2018We signed a contract, and it would be nice if you talk with him [and] schedule an evaluation,\u2019\u201d Brezina said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe first test he gave me was assigning colors to words. When you see a word, click a color as you think about it,\u201d Brezina explained. \u201cWhen he called to talk about the results [of the evaluation], I was amazed how he could get all of this [analysis] from looking at colors. When I talk to him, I realize that whatever goes on in my head, you can see through my movement, the way that my eyes work, or my facial expressions. It\u2019s very interesting.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Brezina meets regularly with the mental health coach. \u201cThe main problem was that I always used to tell myself, \u2018I <\/span>have<\/span><\/i> to do this,\u2019 instead of, \u2018I <\/span>want<\/span><\/i> to do this,\u201d Brezina shared. \u201cIt brings you down. Telling yourself, \u2018I <\/span>want<\/span><\/i> to do this,\u2019 because you do it every day, and you just want to have fun with it, gives you a different energy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The counseling work supports his regular training with coach Rafael Arutunian. \u201cRafael, and his persuasive talking, and making you do things the way that he wants things done, I already understand,\u201d said Brezina. \u201cIt\u2019s just finding the mental strength to do it, even when you\u2019re tired, or you might be nervous. Working with the mental health coach helped a lot. When I talk to him, it makes me realize that you don\u2019t have to be perfect. For athletes on our level, sometimes we think we can do it [all] ourselves. You can\u2019t. Sometimes there\u2019s something in your heart that just doesn\u2019t allow you to get over that hump–until you talk to someone who explains it in a different way.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

At U.S. International Classic, Brezina tweaked his back in practice after the short program and felt worried. \u201cI called [the coach] right after,\u201d Brezina said. \u201cHe made me realize that it\u2019s not important. You practiced for this. The fact that your back hurts a little should not change your mental preparedness for the competition.\u201d He rallied to deliver a good, if not perfect, long program.<\/span><\/p>\n

Brezina admitted that he wonders how his career might have been different, had he begun working earlier with a mental health coach. \u201cWho knows where I could have been, if I had him at Worlds last year?\u201d Brezina pondered. \u201cOr at 2020 Europeans, when I was first after the short [program]? Or when I was second in the [short program at 2012 Worlds] in Nice? I went into it like: \u2018I need to prove something, and I need to show everybody.\u2019 If I\u2019d had someone who could tell me: \u2018Listen. Just enjoy it. Don\u2019t think about what you\u2019re doing. Think about <\/span>how<\/span><\/i> you\u2019re doing it.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But there\u2019s no turning back. So Brezina focuses on the future. \u201cEvery competition, I\u2019m just trying to see [what to] work on,\u201d he said. \u201cTo make sure that when I go to the Olympics, I skate not even for a result, but just to skate, to make myself happy, to know that I did everything in my own possibilities, to skate the best that I could.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s the Olympic moment that Michal Brezina is hoping for.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At 31, Michal Brezina stands at the crossroads of a skating life. The veteran Czech athlete is still competing and aiming for his fourth Olympic Games this February. Meanwhile, he has started an active coaching career in southern California, where he trains.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23105,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[290,341],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23049"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23128,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23049\/revisions\/23128"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}