Act Two

I

Yakov is currently at the ice rink where he used to spend many hours training for competitions. The dirty blonde haired man had been retired for two and a half years now and currently coaches five figure skaters. Yakov knew he'd find success in this new coaching lifestyle. It will still take getting used to, of course. The skaters are in their early teens, all wanting to become the greatest. Yakov is a tough coach on them. Not in a negative way, but a more realistic one. He isn't going to sugarcoat his skaters and disappoint them. Yakov learned to skate the hard way and that's what brought him to be a successful competitor.

"Kira-Demyaneva, outside-edge. You will never land a triple-lutz if you don't deepen your edge." Yakov shouts from across the rink to his youngest skater. "Sorry, Coach Yakov-Ivanovich!" Kira apologizes, stroking back to her starting point. Yakov observes the young female, her technique needs improvement but overall, Yakov sees potential in her. She reminds him of himself when he was that age.

Determined.

"Outside-three-turn," Yakov guides his student through the sequence, eyes stuck on her skates and arms. "Arms up, leg extended, outside-edge..." Kira follows his instructions, reaching back with her right leg. Yakov knew she could do it. She's been struggling with the triple for a few sessions now, it was only a matter of time until she stuck the landing. "Snap your arms together as soon as you take off." Kira strikes the ice with her right toe-pick, launching herself into the air. " (1) *Один, два, три-" Yakov counts her rotations, almost fearful for the outcome.

Kira just lands on her right outside-edge, wobbling and catching herself. The jump was under-rotated but she had finally landed her first triple lutz. Yakov can hardly believe his eyes, his face showing the surprise he felt. " (2) *Молодец, Kira-Demyaneva!" Yakov exclaims, gliding over to his student. "D-Did I do it right?" Kira looks up at her coach, hands on her knees while she catches her breath. "Yes, but it was under-rotated which we will need to work on. You need to build up strength for your jumps, reaching more height. Then you will land a triple-lutz flawlessly every time." Yakov already switches to his lecture side of coaching. Kira sighs and nods, listening to her coach in the end.

"Let me try it again! This time I'll gain more momentum! Swear!" Kira begs, bouncing up on her toe-picks. "No. No more jumps for today. We are ending on a good note. Why don't you work on your edges some more? The deeper, the better." Yakov shakes his head, already gliding away to assist his other students. "But-... fine." Kira grumbles, speeding off to the opposite corner to work on forward power pulls. "How are the camel spins?" Yakov hockey stops in front of his two male students. "Um..." Alek looks over at his fraternal twin brother, Dominik. Yakov crosses his arms, eyeing the two boys. They are always goofing off and never training like they should be doing.

"Good! I got ten rotations!" Dominik grins, clasping his hands together behind his back. "All right, then why don't you show me?" Yakov smiles back at the boys. He knew they were lying. This is not his first rodeo with them. "Oh- right now?" Alek purses his lips, glancing at the ice. "Yes, right now. We are here, are we not?" Yakov confirms, stepping back and presenting the rink with his left hand. Dominik gives his brother a side-eye before gliding out, Mohawk, backward crossover, leading with his left foot and lifting his right leg behind him.

" (3) *Один, два, три, четыре, пять, шесть, семь-" Yakov counts Dominik's rotations, sighing when he loses his balance and falls to the ice. "It was ice! There's a chip in it and my toe-pick caught it!" The young brunette quickly excuses himself, getting up from the wet ice. "Dominik-Maksovich, there are no chips in the ice. They are over by Kira-Demyaneva from jumping. You've been stuck on seven rotations since you learned the spin. Now I want you to work on spirals to help your balance and not mess around with your brother." Coach Yakov says sternly, spinning around to look at Alek. "That goes for you too. I already know you can't complete ten full rotations. Now get to work." Yakov skates off to check in on the other two skaters.