Kirill Davydenko - the coach of the world junior champion Andrei Mozalev in an interview with the FFKKR website told about online training, explained why the coach needs to keep fit, analyzed the results of his students' performance and answered the question why it should calmly start the next season, adapting to the new life realities.
- Kirill Anatolyevich, everyone knows what the situation is in the world today in connection with the coronavirus, many people, including athletes, are at home, on a "remote site". How do you train in such conditions?
- The current situation has opened up for us, coaches, we can say new horizons for the training process. Previously, we only heard and read about distance training of Harutyunyan and Chen, but we didn’t use it ourselves. And today quarantine pushed to use modern methods.
If we say how this happens in reality, then every day I spend with my students group workouts online, with older and younger separately. I sit down at the computer, the guys are all on my screen in small windows. If it is necessary to examine each in more detail, then I click on a specific athlete, I see what needs to be corrected. I say, for example, take your shoulder, above your leg, and so on, how many times you need to repeat the movement. If the exercise counts, then I think that the athletes should hear the score ... In fact, this is the same training on the floor, only in the distance version.
Our guys are currently at home. When it became clear that quarantine and self-isolation would be delayed, the visiting athletes left St. Petersburg, but they also train with us online.
- The profession of a coach is very expensive, it requires the investment of moral and physical strength. How do you keep fit in this situation?
“You said it right.” It may seem to someone: what is it? There is a man at the side, he does not ride himself? But in reality, no one but the trainers, probably, can fully understand what happens to each of us during the competition, before the athlete gets to the start, after when your student rolls the program ... At these moments, the coach spends a lot of emotional strength and in order to replenish them, so that these forces are, so as not to be nervous, not to transfer their excitement to the athlete, to remain in a state of balance, on positive, to be sure, one must really have a good physical shape. I get up early, get home from work quite late, actually spend the whole day at the rink, and I need to withstand such loads.
In addition, all the trainers in the past themselves were involved in sports, led an active lifestyle, and can no longer do without it. Until a strict quarantine regime was introduced in St. Petersburg, I traveled 20 kilometers every day. In general, I like to walk, during such "walks" sometimes interesting thoughts and ideas are born. And to maintain physical fitness - this is great and necessary.
Now that the circumstances have changed, I’m doing physical fitness exercises at home - push-ups, press exercises, squats ... It’s impossible to just sit on a sofa and stupidly “stare” at the TV, in the worst case, and at best - read an interesting book. This is difficult for active people, and even now it is necessary to maintain shape in order to be in good shape. Spend calories, not just consume them.
- In St. Petersburg, skaters a little later than in Moscow went to quarantine. Have you managed to do something on new programs in this short time?
- I don’t know exactly when the training on ice ended in Moscow, we worked as usual until March 28. Then the rollers were closed due to quarantine. First, until April 5, then extended until the end of the month. During this time, we managed to do something, did not stand still. Understood: the situation is not simple, everything can be, so we tried to get the most out of it. Wondered according to the productions, the hopping part ...
At that moment, we just returned from the Olympics from Krasnoyarsk. The season was hard, and according to the mind, Andrei had to let it out. We took a couple of days for a break, then went out on the ice. I explained the situation, said that it is not known what will happen next with the ice, so we must now use the available resources to the maximum. And there, ”I say,“ if there is rest, we will rest, watch, adapt to the situation.
We immediately decided: since next season Andrei is transitioning to adults, it is necessary to change both programs. Free he rolled the second season. She was placed two years ago under another Andrei. During this time, Andrey has developed both spiritually and motorly, respectively, he deserves more adult programs. The short program to the music of “Juno and Avos” was well received by experts and viewers, there were many good reviews. But we decided to change it anyway, because, as I said, we must enter the adult season with new programs.
We already have musical ideas, certain developments, but for now I will not voice them. First you need to implement all this, show, and then comment.
- Unlike adult skaters, you spent a full season - you performed at the World Junior Championships, where Andrei won gold, then you participated in the Spartakiad in Krasnoyarsk. What is your assessment of student performance?
- We began pre-season training with the goal of spending the season as efficiently as possible, not to stay too long in juniors. In my opinion, they coped with the task. Of course, not everything turned out as we wanted, but not everything in our life comes out perfectly, without a hitch. Especially when it comes to starts throughout the season - a sufficiently long period of time.
Yes, the starts were better, the worse. But, in general, there was no such trash, hell, or failure, as it is now fashionable to say. Yes, at the junior championship of Russia, to put it mildly, it did not work out in the short program. But we managed to tune in to the fight and in arbitrary proved - it was an accident. This was confirmed by the Junior World Cup, which Andrew won.
As for renting a short program in Saransk ... You know, any mechanism can misfire, let alone people ... It’s clear that the Russian championship was a responsible tournament, the selection for the World Cup, and Andrei was well prepared for the start. Ready was physically, psychologically. But something happened at that moment ... We then analyzed, worked on the mistakes and showed and proved at the World Championship that what happened in Saransk is not a regularity. If you look at the season, as Andrei rolled a short one, then what happened at the Russian championship was not even close.
Season Andrew was stable. Of course, there is no limit to perfection, and I wanted the Grand Prix finals to have first place, and not second, at the Youth Olympic Games ... Someone will say: stuck! But the soldier who does not want to be a general is bad. And the second place is a kind of understatement, "undernourishment" or something ... But that is what makes a person draw conclusions, strive to study new elements, and move forward. After the Grand Prix finals, when Andrei saw that the Japanese Shun Sato showed three quadruple jumps, he looked at what was happening differently. This pushed him forward to the study of some new things.
Of course, the past season will give Andrei confidence, experience, and the realization that at the crucial moment he can get together and show good skiing. Andrey has matured a lot this year. It has been mentally changed for the better. I see this by the nuances in training, by his actions, statements ... Although Andrei is a taciturn comrade in life, but I notice these changes.
- And Anton Shulepov, who also trains in your group?
- Unfortunately, the old injury did not allow Anton to reveal himself in terms of quadruple jumps. We were preparing, but as soon as we slightly increased the volume in order to dash the programs with a quadruple jump, the injury began to worsen. So the season drove without quadruples, focused on clean skating.
After the final of the Cup of Russia, I gave Anton a long rest so that he would undergo a course of treatment and recover. Now, as I understand it, the guy is not complaining when loading the ankle. God grant that this is preserved, and then we can work substantively in the direction of the quadruple jumps. Separately, Anton jumped them. But this is not the question, but to make the quadruple in the program. This requires a different amount of work. I really hope that the measures taken, rest, treatment, will bear fruit. Time will tell.
- What do you think, with what attitude should you enter the next season? Maybe you should take it as a challenge, they say, we have overcome difficulties and are ready for anything?
- I do not think that it is necessary to complicate an already difficult situation. Yes, the situation is incomprehensible, but the suspense keeps people in suspense. Therefore, our task is to prepare for the season as efficiently as possible, to put in interesting new programs that we and the public would like, to finish up what we wanted to finish in terms of complicating the programs, and to show high-quality stable, good and clean skating.
We do not know now what the calendar will be. Perhaps everything will remain as it was, maybe it will be late ... But there should not be any nervousness and apathy. And most importantly, the coaches. Because the mood of the athletes depends on the trainers. If the trainer is charged for positive, is set to work, motivates the guys, then they will feel and do the same.
If we talk about our group, then we have no despondency. And will not be. In any case, I will not allow this. Yes, it’s hard for everyone, but we are optimists! After all, we know that someday this will end, we will return to the mainstream. Just have a little patience. There are different situations in life, and one must be mobile, be able to adapt to new life patterns. We all have no other option. We must include our wisdom, experience, logical thinking, instinct in order to adapt to the situation and get out of it.
- Thank you, Kirill Anatolyevich, good luck!
Olga YERMOLINA
