Sovetsky Sport. March 8, 1990. It was a real fairy tale outside the windows - everything there breathed of peace, sparkled and shimmered with millions of colored diamonds as the bright sun played. Part of this fairy tale, in the form of sunbeams, entered the gym - they merrily rushed around the carpet, apparatus, mats, and 'hunted' for the tiny figures of gymnasts...
At the Round Lake sports base near Moscow, the next gathering of the country's youth team was underway. They are actually still small - the future of our gymnastics, its tomorrow, so small that even the recent graduate of the youth team Yulia Kut seems unusually large compared to her younger friends. While Yulia manages one battement, they manage to make two... It's a typical training session. Girls move from one coach to another: warm up with a choreographer, someone goes to an acrobat, someone to a trampoline specialist, someone works on strength exercises. The team working with the youth team is quite young and enthusiastic. They are senior coach Anatoly Kozeev, choreographer Natalia Matveeva, acrobat Dmitry Zorin, trampoline artist Andrei Shishkin, and accompanist Yuri Shakhtin. Naturally, we should also add to them the personal coaches of the gymnasts coming to the training camp.
For now, gymnastics fans don't know much about the names like Lena Levochkina, her namesakes - Pahyukh and Degtyareva, Nadira Yunusova, Vika Pavlova, Masha Frolova, Masha Novikova, Tanya Lysenko, Zhanna Frik, Ira Golub, Tanya Gutsu... And this is not surprising. Their path to big-time sports is just beginning, and what it will be like depends largely on them.
I watch the youth team all day long. I watch both training sessions, listen to the girls and coaches talk, and talk to them. This is how they attempt to do things... This is how they relax...
Only in the evening, when everyone has calmed down, Anatoly Kozeev and I sit down in a corner of the gym and have a leisurely conversation about how the youth team lives, what problems it has, what worries and what pleases their coaches.
What tasks does the team set for itself when working with the youth team?
First of all, we need to find talented children with whom we can solve the main task - to become part of the first national team with advanced-difficulty routines. This means that the optional programs of young gymnasts must be much more difficult than those of older gymnasts.
Currently, there are probably no gymnasts in the first team who haven't gone through the youth team school?
Almost none. The only exception is Olya Strazheva. Lena Sazonenkova, now a world champion, also stayed with us for a very short time.
What reinforcements from the youth team have the main team received recently?
Yulia Kut, Natasha Kalinina, Olesya Dudnik, Elena Abrashitova, Svetlana Ivanova, Irina Vyatinina, and Svetlana Kozlova (the only person in the world who can perform a triple somersault off the uneven bars). This was a very lucky year for us, as it is rare to be able to keep so many girls of the same age.
Did you discover anything new last season?
Focusing on the 1992 Olympics, I should now be talking about 12-13 year olds. There are gymnasts of average level, from whom something can be 'molded,' but I do not see among them the likes of Natalia Laschenova or Svetlana Boginskaya.
But perhaps five years ago it was difficult to imagine that Boginskaya and Laschenova would grow up to be exactly these gymnasts?
It is very difficult to predict. After all, geniuses are rarely born. Some have natural abilities, and some compensate for their absence with dexterity. You're counting on someone, but she lacks diligence, her nervous system is not stable enough.
What difficulties and problems does the youth team face?
Girls who come to us at the age of 10 are very limited in their motor abilities. In practice, they are simply 'trained' to perform this or that exercise. It is necessary to return to the basics of gymnastics, and a lot of time is spent on this. But it's difficult to break the persistent stereotypes created by coaches, and all the years that the girls spend under our 'wing,' we try to rid them of this shortcoming. It is possible that the system of remuneration of coaches in the regions forces them to rush things.
Our team is also understaffed. We really need a second choreographer on the balance beam. The apparatus is tricky, and you need to work on it a lot and work thoughtfully. Half of the gymnasts' coaches are men. What can a man give to a student in mastering the beam? Acrobatics. That's all. I saw Chinese girls on the balance beam and was completely delighted - that's choreography! We are far from that. We also need a nutritionist. Nutrition at this age is a matter of great importance for gymnasts. And it must be calculated skillfully. After all, there are talented girls who are unable to fight their appetite. And here the help of an experienced specialist would be invaluable.
You have been in the youth team for nine years now. From the height of your current experience, what mistakes and miscalculations do you see?
Frankly speaking, I feel very sorry for the group that was simply taken away from me. These are gymnasts born in 1968-1969: Tanya Kim, Regina Starodub, Valya Shkoda, Olya Mostepanova, Oksana Omelyanchik, Elena Shushunova. We should have worked with them in our 'team' for another six months or a year. I asked the management about this, but I got a rather harsh answer: there is no talent in the main team. I warned them that it is too early for them to be adults, they they can get lost...I couldn't defend my opinion, which is a pity.
Some of the gymnasts I named were able to realize their potential: Lena is an all-around Olympic champion, Oksana is an all-around world champion. Olya was less fortunate - she only won Druzhba-84. Valya went to the world championship as a reserve. But Tanya Kim, unique in her abilities, disappeared. In all my 12 years of working in gymnastics, I have never met such a talented athlete. She was mesmerizing. I still feel bad that she did not become a great gymnast.
A few words about Boginskaya. When I was told that she would grow up to be a high-class gymnast, I confess: I was not convinced. She was an awkward kid. But I looked at her - she was a gifted girl. It is interesting that her coach, Lyubov Miromanova, did not do any coaching. She taught her what I advocate for - motor literacy.
We talked about local coaches. What is their level of professional and pedagogical training in general, in your opinion?
Our institutes are not designed to produce coaches. There is a trainer 'from God' - he was simply born as one, and there is a world champion - this is also inherent from birth. Our graduates do not meet the requirements that we make of them: neither as coaches, nor as educators. Even their theoretical training is weak.
Now at the State Central Physical Culture and Sport University, a children's school has been set up in the gymnastics department. The students themselves recruit children and work with them. Children and coaches grow together. I see this as a good omen. Although I'm afraid that there won't be any coaches left soon - they'll run off to cooperatives...
Real enthusiasts work for big gymnastics, who cannot be lured with big money, for whom gymnastics is life.
Late in the evening, when dim lights began to glow in the windows of the hotel where the gymnasts were staying, when silence and peace had envceloped this fabulous place, I left. I feel warm and cozy in my heart. I am sure that these girls, who are not yet scorceresses, but are just learning to be one, feel just as at home here as I do.
V. NIKIFOROVA, master of sports