By Yuri Titov, Merited Master of Sports and Head of the Gymnastics Department of the USSR Sports Committee
Sovetsky Sport. November 28, 1974. This difficult season has come to an end. Behind us is the last competition for juniors, in Minsk. True, some gymnasts still have a tour of Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. But it's time to take stock.
Soviet gymnastics did not stand still. And the progressive movement forward is visible and provable, although on this difficult path there are inevitably thorns. Our girls performed well in Varna, and our men again remained in second place. Our female gymnasts showed that they are trendsetters, and the men are nipping at the heels of the leaders.
Yes, this season has brought forward many challenges. At its Olympic traverse Munich-Montreal, gymnastics has made a qualitative leap. The skill level of many teams has risen, and there are favorites in apparatus exercises from Hungary, Romania, the FRG, and the GDR. All this must be taken into account in our future work.
In order not to lose our advantage, our girls need to diversify and strengthen their vaults, make their uneven bars more dynamic, and saturate their floor exercises with acrobatic elements. This is the general trend, and we must not ignore it.
The prestige of our men's team has risen. I talked to the leaders of Japanese gymnastics, and they were somewhat stunned that our guys had made such a dramatic leap in difficulty so quickly. But we should also not turn a blind eye to the fact that our gymnasts do not have the safety margin that our main rivals have. The pursuit of difficulty has even come at the expense of polishing the compulsory program. Frankly speaking, the athletes didn't have time to 'pull' two things at once. Does it mean that we will suspend learning new routines? Absolutely not! Only superiority in the difficulty of exercises can give an advantage. But this superiority must be based on a high level of performance, and for this purpose we, learning from the lessons of Varna, need to pay more attention to the compulsory program.
In women's gymnastics, young talents come to the All-Union platform from year to year, but in men's gymnastics the number of reserves is worse. Why is this happening? The fact is that the female coaches have long outdone themselves, developed common views on the compulsories (although this does not mean at all that they are all working according to a template). They have learned to painstakingly seek out talent and work with a long-term perspective. But the mentors of the male gymnasts have not yet summarized all the accumulated experience, have not combined their efforts. Disagreements about the methods of training high-class masters are still ongoing. Creativity does not exclude disagreements and disputes, but it's time to get down to business!
The VI Summer Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR will be a general review of Soviet gymnastics and its Olympic reserve. Now, all the republics and societies should direct their efforts to the preparation of gymnastics teams and to this event. The Spartakiad opens up new names and gives a ticket to big-time sports. May we see 1976 Olympians in Moscow next summer who will pick up the baton of victories from the older generation of gymnasts.