Sovetsky Sport. November 13, 1981. "I would like once again to express my heartfelt gratitude to those who helped me in Moscow - and, above all, to the President of the International Gymnastics Federation, Yu. Titov, and the coaches..."
These lines are taken from a letter by Swiss gymnast Josef Zellweger, a candidate for his country's national team for the Moscow Championships who, at the invitation of the FIG President, spent two weeks training in the USSR. The letter is published in abridged form.
I arrived in the Soviet Union alone, and was therefore assigned to a group of Soviet gymnasts. These joint training sessions proved to be a revelation for me in every respect. First and foremost, I saw how the new compulsory exercises for the World Championships ought to be performed. Almost all the gymnasts I trained with executed them with elegance - and even virtuosity.
Secondlly, in a short span of time, I managed to achieve a great deal: in the floor exercises, I improved my double layout somersault and the moon salto; on the pommel horse, I perfected various transitions; and on the parallel bars, I mastered the double tuck somersault dismount. And finally - what pleases me most of all - while in Moscow, I learned an entirely new element, one I had never dreamed of attempting: the Tkachev release on the high bar.
My experienced coach, Vladimir Popov - who worked with me consistently (and who had previously trained Olympic champion V. Markelov) - told me that the very first gymnast to perform this element had required a full month to master it. I could not even imagine that I would be able to pull it off in just two weeks. But V. Popov convinced me that I possessed the natural aptitude for it, repeating time and again that he had absolutely no doubts about my success. And he was not mistaken: within just three days I had, in principle, mastered this incredibly difficult element; and by the end of my stay in Moscow I was able to execute five Tkachev releases in a row!
Most often, I trained at the CSKA gym. I was struck by how well equipped it was. There were three sets of every apparatus. Take the high bar, for instance: one was standard, another was positioned over a foam pit, and the third - also situated over a pit - was set quite low to allow for practicing elements involving a flight phase. In Switzerland, we can only dream of a gym like that - just as we can only dream of the unlimited supply of special soft foam mats, which proved invaluable to me while learning the Tkachev release.
My trip to the USSR left an unforgettable impression on me.
With friendly greetings, Josef ZELLWEGER.