Natalia Bach/Vladimir Pavlikhin did not achieve great success. The best achievement of the figure skater Bach, who became Dubova after her marriage, was the third place at the 1965 USSR Championship and the fourth at the 1966 Universiade. As she herself recalled in an old interview, it was this circumstance that added ambitions in the coaching craft.
In it, Dubova succeeded almost immediately. She achieved her first successes with the duet Elena Garanina/Igor Zavozin, but they left the young coach for Tatyana Tarasova, who had already won recognition. As compensation, sports leaders gave Natalya Ilyinichna to work with Irina Moiseeva and Andrei Minenkov, who went through the school of Tarasova and Lyudmila Pakhomova. As Dubova recalled, she simply created conditions for experienced skaters to practice and rather learned from them herself than taught something.
Soon, the young coach, who worked at the Spartak skating rink in Sokolniki, had the first world champions among juniors. In the late 70s, this title was won twice by Tatyana Durasova and Sergey Ponomarenko, and in the mid-80s by Elena Krykanova and Evgeny Platov three times. Having paired with Ponomarenko the young Sverdlovsk Marina Klimova, Dubova went through almost three Olympic cycles with this duet.
A more precise definition of «Dubov's horse» was given by two-time Olympic champion Platov, who was also paired with Oksana Grischuk by Dubova. Under her leadership, the then young duet won bronze at the World Championships. «Dubovsky horse» is the highest praise for any skater, Platov emphasized. — No one but her could put such a slide!He noted the two-time Olympic champion and the Dubov team. The master was assisted by Mark Gurevich, who transferred to paper literally every step of Dubov's students on the ice. This is how the obligatory «Golden Waltz» was born, which was first performed by Klimov and Ponomarenko.
The second assistant, Eduard Samokhin, the father of a famous figure skater at that time, and now a no less famous coach, did a huge rough job . This trio made up the Dubov school. As today, the Tutberidze Team is not only Eteri Georgievna herself, but also Sergey Dudakov and Daniil Gleikhengauz.
The duo Grischuk/Platov didn't take Dubov to the Olympic heights either. She simply kicked Oksana out of her group when she tried to have an affair with Alexander Zhulin, removing competitors from the path — the duet Maya Usova/Alexander Zhulin. Left without a partner, Platov even tried to pair with Tatyana Navka. As Evgeny recalled, he went without hesitation to Grischuk in the group of Natalia Linichuk. «With Dubova, all attention was directed to the leading duet — Usova/Zhulin, and the promises to work with me and Tanya 24 hours a day remained an empty phrase.» br>
It seemed, what can be grievances? Only Dubova did not greet Linichuk either, crossing paths at competitions, and even tried to go to different ends of the training rinks. When the duet Irina Lobacheva/Ilya Averbukh under the leadership of Linichuk was preparing for the 2002 Olympics, the Russian coach Dubova (although she had long since left for the United States) got involved in work with the main competitors of the Russians — Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat.
She modestly assessed her contribution to the victory of the Olympic champions: “My main merit was that I managed to push Marina to the French team,” Dubova said in an interview that she managed to take from her in Salt Lake City. France Anisina never became her own. Yes, and did not strive for this. After the end of the competition, she went to the Russian party, attracted Russian directors, costume designers, makeup artists. In the Olympic season, brilliant French designers and wonderful choreographers appeared in the team of Marina and Gwendal, whose work stood out on the «Russian background».
In addition, according to Dubova, the French coach Mireille Boucher-Zazoui needed a professional consultant nearby in training and competitions. It was this role that Natalya Ilyinichna assigned herself. And she emphasized that she was happy to be involved in the Olympic triumph of the French dancers.
Although she noted more than once that she works as a coach not for the sake of medals and titles, but with pleasure. Did Dubova speak sincerely? Perhaps the most indicative in this regard is her answer to the question whether it was not a shame that in the Olympic Lillehammer the gold medal from her students Usova and Zhulin literally sailed away to Grischuk and Platov.
«
«It was a shame for the stupidity of the athletes who put their family squabbles on public display,» Dubova replied. «It was because of this that they lost the Olympics. And she greatly strengthened her opinion of herself not only as a good coach, but also as a decent person. then, as an excellent journalist, Semyon Belits-Geiman, she left for the USA. After her star duets, she trained Chinese, Turkish, Kazakh dancers. She wrote a book that did not receive a review from Tarasova. And the «dubovsky skate» is still remembered at any major competition of dancers. Most often, it is noted with regret that it is practically lost. br>