1985
A DEFICIT OF ENTHUSIASM
(the article published in russian 'Sovetskiy Sport' on May 26, 1985)
A conversation about the reserves of winter sports continues
What will please us about our young figure skaters and their mentors?
The 1985 winter season is behind us. For Soviet figure skaters, it was especially memorable: for the first time in many years of world championship performances, our masters achieved outstanding results, winning three gold and three silver medals and scoring 42 points. Note that our main competitors—skaters from the USA—scored 17 points, Canada had 14 points, and the GDR team had 7 points.
I emphasize that the success in the '85 season was a logical outcome. A whole series of leading specialists has mastered a modern system for training "virtuosos of the skate," a system for bringing them to peak athletic form. Today, the work of such specialists as Honored Coaches of the USSR T. Moskvina, T. Tarasova, S. Zhuk, E. Chaikovskaya, I. Moskvin, and N. Dubova clearly shows the overall role of general and special training, the role of artistic components in programs, and the role of choreographers, music editors, and psychologists. They fully utilize "brigade" (team-based) methods of work.
But this system is far from being a mainstay in all our schools and centers. Who earned those 42 points at the World Championships? 25 points were given by skaters from Moscow, 12 points were brought by pairs from Leningrad, and 5 points came from K. Ivanova, representing the Moscow Region. We see a significant disproportion in the training of first-class masters.
Let us turn to the results of our juniors at the World Championships. Here, the students of coaches from Moscow, Ukraine, and Leningrad looked strongest, winning three gold, three silver, and two bronze medals. Skaters from Ukraine and Moscow made a particularly significant contribution to the national team's piggy bank.
Unfortunately, as before, the results of athletes from Union republics such as Kazakhstan, Belarus, Georgia, Latvia, and Lithuania remain more than modest. Many Youth Sports Schools (DYuSSh) in the Russian Federation are also "idling."
Take, for example, the problem of training youth pairs. Moscow brought the lion's share of points and medals through CSKA students E. Gordeeva and S. Grinkov (coach S. Leonovich). They won the Junior World Championships and the first All-Union Winter Youth Games. Two more pairs from the CSKA school, prepared by coach V. Zakharov, performed well at All-Union tournaments.
In my view, the wide use of the brigade method (all coaches in the school are effectively interested in its success) allowed the Army [CSKA] collective to achieve qualitative shifts not only in pair skating but also in singles and ice dance.
But how do things stand with reserves in other centers of figure skating? Leningraders have nothing to boast about in the reserve group — they hold 5th place in the country, and they are even losing to sports duets from Uzbekistan. The output of the Sverdlovsk figure skating center, where ten coaches specialize in pair skating, has noticeably decreased.
Among sports societies, representatives of 'Trud' and 'Spartak' have clearly lost ground, even though a number of Youth Sports Schools (DYuSSh) in these societies employ many experienced specialists — in Moscow, Leningrad, Kazan, Chelyabinsk, and Sverdlovsk. For a long time, we have not heard about performances from the students of such coaches as G. Proskurin, A. Suraikin, A. Vlasov, and A. Morozov.
Coaches often complain that they are not provided with the conditions for full-fledged training on the ice. But in reality, enthusiasm and the creativity of the coaches within the sports school collectives were and remain the most important factors.
Here are a few interesting features of the past season.
Odesa... Few believed that figure skating could be cultivated in this southern city. However, practice has refuted all the arguments of the skeptics. The arrival in Odesa of young, energetic coaches, such as G. Zmievskaya, S. Rubleva, and B. Rublev, allowed them from the very start to direct the training methodology into the right channel. Young skaters were aimed at mastering good, beautiful skating and expressive artistry. This year, 15-year-old Vik. Petrenko made a successful debut at the senior World and European Championships, while his brother, 14-year-old Vlad. Petrenko, won "silver" at the World Junior Championships. The students of G. Zmievskaya, using the methodological recommendations of coach E. Pliner, demonstrated good all-around qualities and complexity in their jumps. Here, the advantages of the 'brigade' method of work were clearly manifested.
The most paradoxical thing is that it is precisely in Odesa that the material facilities for training high-class figure skaters have significantly deteriorated. For a long time now, coaches have not had a choreography room or a room for general physical training (GPT). And we have the right to ask the leaders of the Odessa Regional Sports Committee (Chairman A. Gavenko): when will modern conditions for effective training finally be created for the figure skaters of Odesa?
Let us mention one more new center for training reserves. Since 1980, when the builders handed over the Sports Palace complete with choreography halls and rooms for general physical training, ten coaches and four choreographers were already working at the school.
All reserve training is conducted according to a strictly verified program for a four-year cycle. A video recording operator and a sound engineer are constantly involved in the work, and leading specialists of the country often visit the school. All of this ultimately bore fruit: by 1984, residents of Dnіpropetrovsk made up one-third of the Ukrainian national team.
One can name young the youth school opened at the new ice rink 'Bolshevik' in Leningrad: it has existed for only three years. The establishment of a new school is not a simple process, and yet Leningrad coaches are full of optimism. The coaches M. Belenkaya, A. Piatova, and others have several promising skaters under the age of 14. Let us note that the current junior world champion T. Andreeva (coach T. Mishina) also trained on the 'Bolshevik' ice.
In 1985, the All-Union Winter Youth Games were held in Chelyabinsk. Here is how the teams were represented in the prize-winners list in singles skating: Ukraine (6 skaters), Moscow (2), Leningrad (2), Belarus (1), Georgia (1). In the list of prize-winners in pair skating were athletes from Moscow (3 pairs), Leningrad (1), Ukraine (1), and Uzbekistan (1).
The results of this important tournament lead to sobering reflections. The output of hundreds of our specialists who have been working with junior reserves for decades has noticeably decreased. In the schools of the Russian Federation alone, there are 536 coaches. Figure skating covers about 40 regions and autonomous republics. But we have not received reinforcements for the youth national team from the schools of Chelyabinsk for a long time (despite having two rinks), or from the collectives of Sverdlovsk (despite having two rinks).
Five years ago, specialists spoke of a new center for figure skating in Kazan: after all, our current world champion A. Fadeev started his path there. For the last five years, Fadeev has trained at the CSKA school. What has happened in that time in his hometown? Year after year, the collective has lost its position, deprived of support from the republic's 'Trud' council...
In Kazakhstan, for example, about 120 coaches work. But in the last five years, they have produced only... two Masters of Sport. And this is despite having several artificial ice rinks! In Lithuania, Latvia, figure skating has been cultivated for more than ten years, but in the last Olympic cycle, no one met the Master of Sport standard in either singles or pair skating.
Now, at the beginning of a new Olympic cycle, it is necessary to turn close attention to the advanced experience of working with the reserve, which has been accumulated in our leading DYuSSh. Much and fruitfully, they work with junior pairs at the CSKA, Dynamo, and Zenit schools; ice dancers at the Spartak school in Moscow are progressing, and they are looking for talents in singles skating in the schools of G. Zmievskaya (Odessa), T. Mishina (Leningrad), M. Sokolova (Moscow), L. Maslyukova (Kiev), V. Kudryavtsev (Moscow Region), L. Lyalyakova (Moscow), A. Eremin (Moscow), and V. Kaprov (Kharkiv).
Over the last few years, the USSR Sports Committee has developed and put into practice a comprehensive system for training reserves. It provides for the purposeful development of specific types of figure skating in the largest sports centers, deeper specialization within the DYuSSh, and the wide use of brigade methods involving specialists in music, choreography, and general physical training.
In many ways, the successful upbringing of future masters of figure skating depends on the unceasing improvement of coaching staff qualifications, and a scientific approach to the organization of training.
The core path for raising reserves has been defined. The task of our DYuSSh is to embark on this path as quickly as possible.
A. GORELIK,
Honored Master of Sport.
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