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Lupita translates: interview with Alexander Alexandrov

There is a great interview at the VTB website with Alexander Alexandrov.  The Russian WAG head coach discusses the Olympics, the pros and cons of his team's performances, and some of the differences between  working in Russia and the States.

Just look and see what he says about Grishina's training arrangements!!

I'm expecting a formal announcement some time soon about the coaching staff at Lake Krugloye.  I simply hope that they can find an arrangement that makes the best use of the coaching talent in Russia and gives the head coach the right level of authority.  And, as far as I am concerned : who else in Russia could possibly replace the inimitable Alexandrov?  Mustafina and the team need him!  The Russian team also needs to consider succession planning as Alexandrov, Rodionenko and the like cannot go on forever.  

Now read on ...

Alexander Alexandrov.  Picture courtesy of the RGF



Alexander Alexandrov, head coach of the Russian women’s team: 
‘The experts should gather and think. Perhaps, difficulty shouldn’t be increased’

September 17th 2012

An open class at ‘Mikhail Voronin’ Dynamo club was honored with the presence of a man, whose knowledge and experience were a determinant of the team’s success in London. It was impossible not to seize the opportunity of having a final interview with the master.  A good introduction to the interview was the comment of one of the coaches who went to Alexander Alexandrovich to thank him for an interesting idea.
       
           -   You have been working for a long time in the States and then two years ago you wrote a long article on children’s education in America and here. I remember one sentence: try to pay 5 more minutes to one child than to the other. 

– Our system is slightly different, – answered Alexander Alexandrov. – In the States sport is above all business. Business is business. You don’t have the right to pay more attention to someone. Here we are paid by the State and, even if the coach doesn’t want to, he realizes who has potential and he begins to devote more efforts and expertise. A gifted child stands out and reaches better results than the others.

This short dialogue reminded us that the Russian team’s success is strongly related to the fact that the Russian Federation, with its general sponsor VTB, hired Russian specialists, including Alexander Alexandrov, for the preparation of our team. 

Аlexander Alexandrovich, could you please assess the team’s performance at the London Olympics, and each one of the athletes.

– OK. Let’s start with Mustafina. I think that she performed very well, taking into account her injury and everything related to that. We can give her an excellent score. 

Аliya’s strong will amazed everyone. She was the only gymnast on the team who displayed confidence, even in front of the Americans. 

– Aliya loves to perform and is able to perform. She was looking good when she became world champion in 2010. Before London we had no time to bring back everything that Mustafina performed before her injury. We limited ourselves to what she could do. I think that her bronze medal in the AA is a very good result. Her four medals, including gold on bars, are a huge success. 

– We talked to Maria Abakumova, world champion in javelin throwing, who didn’t perform well at the London Olympics. She said that the most difficult athletes are those who can do everything in training, but who can’t in competition. Is Mustafina the opposite example? 

– No, she is not. Аliya trains pretty well. Today’s gymnastics is so complex that, if you don’t do a specific load of work in training, it’s impossible to perform well. For instance, when she had to perform at the European Championships before the Olympics, Аliya was not ready; she didn’t perform well after a long break. She said: ‘I felt like I was competing for the first time’. She made mistakes on bars and floor. If you don’t do a specific volume in training, your natural skills as a competitor don’t work. 

– Yet, strong will plays an important part. After the European Championships, the press began to bury Mustafina. It was difficult to cope with that. 

Аliya won the Russian championship this year, by the way. They said that she got help from the judges, but nobody helped her, she won cleanly. 

– Coming back to the Olympics, Mustafina probably is the only one who performed at the highest level and won the most medals? 

– I think that her performance was very successful. She used all her potential. 
 
– Let’s turn to Vika Komova. 

– Komova has one problem: she grew very quickly. When this happens, the technique has to change. Her physical state is not very good and she had small foot injuries, – all this is very demanding. Yet, Vika trained courageously and did everything possible to upgrade her routines to catch the Americans. She did it; she overcame the Americans with her difficulty. But she lacked time to be more confident. Komova brought back her Amanar vault, the most difficult vault currently. When she performed, you could feel she hadn’t polished everything and she made a mistake on the AA vault. To perform simpler combinations would have meant to give up the fight for gold against the Americans. 

– Does it mean that giving her too difficult a programme was not a mistake?

– You see, we considered all those aspects. Vika upgraded her routines on all events. You can expect mistakes when something is fragile. This was the reason. Vika knows how to perform. She upgraded the routines just before the beginning of the Olympics.  Nobody thought she should leave out anything.  For instance, on beam she could have dismounted with a simple double tuck, but she performed a double front. It’s much more difficult, but we chose this variable. The first day she beat the Americans in the qualifying competition. 

– In one magazine, there was a striking title: to compare Viktoria Komova and the Americans is like comparing the Marinsky ballet and a disco. 

– I wouldn’t say so. There are different styles in gymnastics. China and Russia go for plastic gymnastics and we strive for beauty everywhere. We have the potential for this as we have choreographers working at our children’s sport schools. When you pay attention to this aspect during childhood, the athletes look better, and the choreography training is better. The Americans lack this. 

– Don’t they have a choreographer? 

– No. The children’s clubs don’t have choreographers. They count their money and usually couples work in clubs - a man and a woman. Traditionally, the man works bars and vault and the woman – beam and floor. They don’t have time to teach choreography, they do it superficially. When the athletes make the national team, they try to make their movements more beautiful, but at that stage it’s too late to change something dramatically. They know this very well and two years ago, Marta Karolyi, US head coach, bet on athleticism and complexity of the routines. Everyone is looking for a way and we cannot say that Komova and Douglas are opposites. Yes, Komova is prettier for the way she performs and other Russian gymnasts differ from the Americans. Yet the Americans use what the US gymnastics structure allows them to use. We want to see lightness and beauty on floor. Still, Raisman, with rather poor choreography, performed such acrobatics that she had a very high D score and won gold. 

– Yuri Titov, former Olympic champion, said that eight years ago the acrobatics in women’s gymnastics was more complex. 

-  Everything depends on the Code of Points that changes every four years. At the Barcelona 1992 Olympics, our girls performed a double lay-out with a twist. All the acrobatics runs were backwards. Now the gymnasts cannot do this because they have to perform four tumbling runs and some specific combinations that sometimes are dangerous and can even cause injuries. I don’t understand why the FIG is going in this direction so stubbornly. Why do we need certain combinations in order to get bonuses? Before, we tried to perform a very difficult element – round-off, back handspring, full twist; now we have to perform combinations.  Therefore, it’s less spectacular, it looks quite simple, but the combinations get bonus, this is why it’s necessary to include them. 

– I read a curious article by a British enthusiast of gymnastics. The article’s title is: “Who really won the Olympics”. She publishes a whole report of the judges’ scores at the London Olympics. Based on the reference judges’ scores, Komova finished in first place. 

– Some judges supervise competitions. They don’t have the right to interfere, but after the competitions they write reports and can express their opinion. Gymnastics is a subjective sport, someone likes something, another one doesn’t. For this reason, it’s very difficult to state something. I repeat once again: of course, I prefer Komova, but there are deductions that are applied. On the first event, the vault, she gave ground and the judges decided to keep her in second place. If she hadn’t given ground, who knows, she could have won. Probably she would have won! There are a lot of judges from Latin America, who depend on the Americans, because all the gymnastics competitions take place in the US. They study in the US and of course they will help the Americans. Only a little, but still they help them. Even if they don’t help them, they are not going to be harsh on them. 

–Let’s now talk about Маria Paseka

– We wanted Masha Paseka to perform the Amanar vault and we knew that she could not help us anywhere else. We took her into the team and she fulfilled the expectations. Paseka came back with a medal, which was very pleasant and a great success. 

– I want to ask a question about the American gymnast who fell on vault, but still won silver. 

– You know, it’s all about psychology. Maroney was so much stronger than the rest on vault that no one could beat her and nobody thought she could make a mistake. Furthermore, according to the rules, she didn’t sit on the floor. She was deducted one point, that’s all. 

– Is nobody guilty in those decisions?

– I don’t think so. If we analyze this in depth, of course it’s possible to find errors. Any fall is due to something. Height might not have been sufficient; the rotation might not have been complete. But it was all psychological; the judges were stunned because they could have given her the gold medal with no competition. I don’t understand what was wrong with Маroney. She did everything in training and in warm-up. 

– Let’s now talk about Ksenia Afanasyeva. 

– Overall Ksenia performed well. She was hindered by a foot injury that she sustained in the finals of the Russian championships. At the beginning, we thought that it was not serious as she even finished her routine. In a week, it would be over and everything would be normal. Unfortunately, the recovery was very long and Ksenia started to train at full strength a month before the Olympics. Last year, when Ksenia competed much better in the AA and on floor, she trained a lot more. This time, she trained for one month. But at the same time Ksenia made two finals, this is also a success. Of course, after last year’s World Championships, when she became floor world champion, everyone hoped she would perform better on this event. Talking about her fall, she said: ‘Before the last run, I usually take a breath, but this time I rushed myself, found myself with no air’. We wanted Afanasyeva to win a medal in floor, but it was not possible. Still, she helped the team. 

        - Nastia Grishina…

– Our expectations for Nastia did not fulfill. Two years, or even four years, ago we thought that Grishina, Komova and Mustafina would be the main gymnasts on the team, able to fight for gold with the American team. Unfortunately, this was not so, and I think that this was her personal coach’s fault. He was responsible for Grishina’s preparation for four years. He thought that he could train Nastia better, but unfortunately this did not happen. 

– Is it true that at the Olympics Nastia Grishina refused to perform on beam? 

– When Grishina competed, she didn’t perform like the other girls. She made mistakes here and there. Naturally, she began to lose confidence. According to our plan, she was to compete on beam at the team final, but she asked: ‘Don’t put me in’. She feared to let the team down. 

– Was there no alternative to Grishina? 

– Who could make the team instead of Nastia Grishina? We didn’t think of it, taking all her potential into account. Four years ago we thought that this “troika” could fight for the medals, but you see what happened. Mustafina was injured, Komova grew taller and, according to me, Grishina didn’t train well. I want to say that it’s not her fault, but her personal coach’s. The thing is that we didn’t manage this situation very well. 

– Komova’s situation is a shame. It’s perhaps worth increasing the age to 18 in gymnastics in order to decrease the psychological load and the risk of injuries. Children are performing at the Olympics! 

– They are not children. They are already 16! They look like children because gymnastics is a sport where weight is very important. The more an athlete weighs, the more difficult it becomes to work. Currently, the age limit to compete in adult competitions is 16. At this age, girls tend to grow very fast. Nobody knows what will happen when the gymnast is 18. They gain weight and the majority of them then cannot do what they could when they were 14. 

– It means that an athlete can train during his or her childhood and when turning 18, doesn’t have the chance to perform at the highest level? 

– Yes. American Shawn Johnson started to grow before the Olympics. Six months later, she wouldn’t have made the team, although she was world champion. The experts should gather and think. Perhaps difficulty in gymnastics shouldn’t be increased. There are plenty of different approaches. It all depends on the CoP. 

– Currently do you know how the CoP will change for the next quad? 

– The CoP will slightly change, but all in all it remains the same. The priority will be strength gymnastics. We should gather and think seriously, not only us, the FIG should collect data and reach a common approach. 

– What are the expectations for this team? 

– The women’s team changes more often because when the girls are 18, they gain weight for two to three years and they quit. The men had a generation shift just before the Olympics and they’ll all train for one more quad. This won’t happen to the girls. From the previous Olympics only Afanasyeva remained, and only because she is light. 

Теxт: Leonid Sitnik, Irina Belozerova
Photos: RIA Novosti. Russian Gymnastics Federation

Comments

  1. Great interview! Thanks for posting and translating.

    I always love how frank the Russian's are, they don't try to mince their words at all.

    I really liked how he spoke about all the girls. Poor Grishina, I also blame the coach and hope that they can work things out. Is she with the other girls in Spain? If not, again she isn't with the group, maybe taking a rest.

    For all the injuries that these girls had right before the Olympics, they did really well.

    He is right about the COP and concentrating on strength. I guess when someone gets extremely hurt is when they will change it (rolleyes).

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  2. Please stay with these girls Alexandrov ... you've assembled a real Artistic Gymnastics' Russian team

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  3. That was a nice read from Alexandrov. I like that he definitely doesn't mince his words and a lot of what he said was fair and interesting.

    That said, his comment about the South American judges is completely incorrect. The FIG's documents show the nationality and scores that each judge gave out and not only are there just as many judges from countries around Russia, but the scores the South American judges gave were all pretty much the same as the European judges.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I disagree with you ... for instance (in page 140 UB Qual.) you can easily find that E5 (from Chile) was underscoring the Russian gymnasts, she gave Komova the lowest score among the whole panel 8.5 and did the same to Mustafina 8.3 and finally Grishina she felt sorry for her and gave her the second lowest score with 7.4 … is that coincidence??
      On other hand she overscored the Americans with the same tactic for instance She gave Douglas the highest score among the panel 9.1, and did the same to Ross with 8.7 and second highest score to Raisman 8.5
      is that coincidence??

      Delete
    2. And just as often I saw the Kazakhstan, Belarus, Ukraine, and Russian judges over-score the Russian gymnasts, while either underscoring or staying neutral on the American gymnasts.

      Delete
    3. Yes they overscored the Russian gymnasts but THEY DID NOT UNDERSCORE the American gymnasts like the pro-American judges did, they stayed neutral on the Americans and if you have one usable example of that systematic overscoring /underscoring like the one I have mentioned above I'll be grateful ...
      So for me the pro-Russian gymnasts were biased judges, but pro-American were mean judges, and in general it makes the results unreliable and the judging was a total fiasco.

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    4. I was only referring to the final AA scores which is what Alexandrov was talking about. 4 of the 20 judges were from South America; 2 scored Gabby lower/equal to the other judges and 1 was 0.1 higher. The only judge that showed clear bias was the Puerto Rican judge who gave Gabby a laughable 9.4 on bars. But then there was a Russian judge who gave Komova a 9.4 on beam which was even more laughable.

      I agree that Raisman's E scores were all a complete joke (thank God Musty won), but the Gabby vs Komova scores? No. Had Komova hit all 4, she would've won. But she didn't and people need to deal with that.

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    5. First I think that Alexandrov was talking about Latin judges during the whole competition not AA final because it's a logical that if there's a biased judge, he will be biased in event and will be neutral in another event ...
      Second you should concentrate on how these biased judges dealt with their favorites' rivals and I can assume that pro-russians didn't underscore the Americans unlike the pro-ameicans who worked both ways
      Third I can't understand that while you have admitted overscoring here and there, you ask people to deal with it? I mean overscoring makes the whole results unreliable because you can't assume that overscoring happened in the same degree ... so if you can deal with that so it's fine for me but don't ask "people" how to deal with it

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    6. I have found one example of a Kazakhstan judge underscoring the Americans.

      In the women's team final, on vault, the ER1 judge from Kazakhstan underscored (compared to the lowest score from the 5 panel Jury) Maroney by .1, Douglas by .1 and Wieber by .3

      This judge did not favor the Russians by too much, only matching the highest scores from the 5 panel Jury for Komova and Paseka.

      Delete
    7. 1. The judge you’re referring to is an Execution reference judge and her score didn’t apply on any cases you’ve mentioned.
      2. I think you don’t ask the judges to stamp the same score for every gymnast, there must be differences among them BUT in reasonable/acceptable limit, so tenth is a reasonable. But if you’ve looked to the example that I have stated, the discrepancy was three tenth up to seven!!
      So if you looked that way then you will find that KAZ judge didn’t underscore the American, as many judges already in the E-Panel gave her THE SAME score, and she certainly didn’t overscore the Russians as she gave Mustafina the lowest score, and gave Komova as much as two judges in E-Panel, and Paseka got the same score from one judge in the E-Panel score. (Bear in mind that the highest and lowest scores are counted out)
      3. Bias as I see when you try to favor someone but when you in the same time try to undervalue you favorite’s rival, it makes you not only biased but you are mean person... so the pro-Russian judges were biased, but pro-American judges were mean …

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    8. I realize the judge in question was a reference judge so those scores did not apply (there was no asteric next to any American or Russian gymnasts so the reference judges scores were never applied), but I was looking for a specific example as you requested which demonstrated as you asked (quoted from you above, "Yes they overscored the Russian gymnasts but THEY DID NOT UNDERSCORE the American gymnasts like the pro-American judges did").

      I was just looking for an example of a pro-Russian judge doing exactly that.

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  4. Alexander Alexandrov reminds me Evgeny Belov, who trained Tomás González here in Chile ten years ago since he was 9 years old. Evgeny even if he was very confident on Tomás´s natural talent, he was really tough with him. But the most important things he gave to Tomás were strong psychological tools and infinite love, just like if he was his grandpa. I feel like Alexandrov represents the same for Mustafina, something that maybe Grishina would need if she continues on gymnastics.
    Even if I´m far from Russia and I can only keep up with "rewriting russian gymnastics" by internet, Grishina seemed to me the little wonder-gymnast but one without the maturity at the same level... maybe she needs having more fun, more friends, more team spirit...

    Thank you so much Elizabeth for your wonderful work!

    ReplyDelete

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