Skip to main content

Lupita translates Alexander Alexandrov's interview



Lupita has been hard at work again, and here provides a full translation of the interview which featured in Wednesday's blog post.


'If Mustafina's health is good, I have no reason to doubt her'


 






-   Alexander Sergueievich, did you attend the EC?
-   Of course! I didn’t accompany Mustafina to the podium. I watched everything from outside.

-    Mustafina said she wanted to talk to you, because you might be offended, because she was accompanied by other coaches.
-    We have already talked, but not as long as we wanted, we had no time. I am old enough not to be offended. There are always misunderstandings between coach and athlete from time to time. I am no longer 30 years old, I do not need to be on the podium to prove myself.

-  How do you assess Mustafina’s performance?
-  It’s always difficult to start a new season. When the athletes start a new quad, it’s much more difficult to work with them. Aliya’s gold in the AA deserves credit. In spite of everything, she was able to collect herself, to compete and to win important medals. Yet, I want her preparation to be more precise because if things have not been worked through, it’s dangerous to compete, there is more risk of injuries. But Aliya is a fighter, she did everything she was able to do the second day.

-   Could you explain what was not worked through in the training process?
-   There were deviations in the process due to injuries or to other things. This is why I say that when we prepare for the important competitions, I would like to do more balanced and accurate work. I repeat, when something is not done thoroughly, there will be pain. I understand that Aliya loves competition, but her love for competition, her competitive skills cannot be overexploited. She has already done a lot for gymnastics. I think Mustafina should only perform when she is totally ready. We cannot lose her because of silly and sad injuries.

-  Mustafina asked to be replaced on the floor final.
-  It was a good thing that they took her opinion into account. You cannot make mistakes in those cases, her as well. It’s not about winning medals, it’s about the risk of getting injured, and be put out of action for a long time.

-   Does Mustafina have problems with her knee?
-   No, she now has problems with her back. For a long time we didn’t know what the cause was.

-    Does this mean that she competed at the EC not in her best form?
-    This is what I mean. She couldn’t perform what she wanted because her back was hurting. We didn’t prepare as we had planned. But she loves to compete and she stated that she would compete even if she was not very fit.

-    Mustafina was not very successful on beam.
-    Partially, we changed her routine a little bit according to the new rules. But her back and, later, her heel prevented her from performing the routine we wanted. Her combinations were highly difficult, but we couldn’t polish everything.

-   Are you going to upgrade her routines on some events?
-   Upgrading her routines means to increase the D score. It’s possible to do it on every event. There are elements from the D group on floor that allow to increase the routine’s D score. Of course, all gymnasts are working on that, including Aliya. She has to continue work on beam and to recover her bars. We will decide what we do on vault, because her double twisting Yurchenko is very powerful, and we will see if she is psychologically ready to perform the Amanar. This will allow her to fight for the medals in Europe and at the world level.

-   Alexandr Sergueievich, how is your work with Mustafina structured? What are your duties as a personal coach?
-   The personal coach is responsible for the whole programme. He is helped by the events specialists.
Тhis is how the Russian team works.

-   Mustafina could not train completely for the EC. This season there’s no time for a break. She will compete at the Universiade and at the World Championships.
-    What else can we do? There is no reserve to our team, there was reserve when I began my position as head coach, we prepared four gymnasts for the World Championships, and the four of them competed. It’s good that all the girls who competed at the 2012 Olympics are fit and can train even with some small injuries, compete and win. So far there’s no replacement. This is why we have to train and compete both at the Universiade and at Worlds. It’s a good thing that they decided to have Komova rest during the first half of the season. Vika is the most important gymnast to win medals for Russia, they did right not having her compete.

-   How are you going to plan Mustafina’s future preparation?
-   With the athletes who have competed at the Olympics, there is always a specific approach: they have experience, they are very different from those who just made the team. The main goal is to plan the training accurately, so that Aliya can compete successfully.

-   When will you begin to prepare the Universiade?
-   There is little time left, and there are small things to correct. Moreover, the preparation in gymnastics is multifaceted. You need constant physical condition, fitness, and to manage your weight.

-   Do you plan to introduce changes in the routines for the Universiade?
-   I think so. But it will depend if there are small injuries that increase with the years of gymnastics. First, Aliya has to recover her bars routine and to perform all planned elements on beam. Ideally, she should begin to train a more difficult vault. If she has no health problems, Aliya of course will improve. I have no doubts about this.

Comments

  1. Vika is the most important gymnast to win medals for Russia, they did right not having her compete, wowww what expectations!!!!!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

USSR is a mighty sports power!

Once upon a time sportsmen were heros and role models, a shining moral example for all of society as to the values of a strong work ethic and a healthy body. USSR is a might sports power!  B. Reshetnikov, 1962  Picture courtesy of A Soviet Poster a Day I love these Soviet era posters and the way they capture the spirit of the time, something special about the purity of the collective sporting effort.  Of course today, sport is about different things.  The political and behavioural symbolic value of sport has been replaced by sport as a commodity.  Sports stars exist as brand heroes in our shopping centres and glossy magazines, the sometimes lurid details of their everyday lives trumpeted on the pages of such magazines as Hello! and the gossip pages of the internet. Compare photographs of Olympians Svetlana Khorkina (1996, 2000 and 2004) and Ludmilla Tourischeva (1972, 1976): Khorkina is in all her glamour shot, sexually charged splendour; Svetlana Khorkina, undated Tou

UPDATE 23/9 - Russian WAG team for Nanning confirmed

Daria Spiridonova will compete at her first World Championships this autumn.  Picture : RGF Natalia Kalugina has confirmed the Russian team for Nanning : Aliya Mustafina, Maria Kharenkova, Tatiana Nabieva,Ekaterina Kramarenko, Alla Sosnitskaya, Daria Spiridonova.  Reserve : Polina Fyodorova Here is a paraphrased translation of a comment by Natalia Kalugina on her Facebook page : 'Aliya has confidence in competition and she is, kind of, a coach to this team.  In Europe she succeeded in this role and she has told the coaches that she even liked it. The main fighting force will be Kharenkova, Sosnitskaya and Spiridonova.  Accordingly, the strongest apparatus will be beam (Marina Bulashenko With God!).  The Chinese women, of course, have been known to win that apparatus, but if one falls, they all fall.   Alla Sosnitskaya could compete in the vault final, and - in theory - on the floor. On bars, of course, Russia will probably lose to the Chinese women, but they should be able to hold

Who really won the WAG All Around?

You will find a link to the FIG's newly published book of results at the Olympic Games here .  This year, they have broken down the judge's execution scores so you can see exactly how each judge evaluated the gymnasts' performances.  It makes for interesting reading - if only I had more time to analyse each judge's marking.  A skim reading already highlights multiple inconsistencies in individual judges' marks and makes you wonder why they bother with the jury at all. I have taken the time to look at the reference judges' scores for the top four in the women's all around.  The FIG explains here what their role is, and how they are selected.  I even used my calculator, which is a risky thing in my hands.  My, how I wish we could have seen a similar document for the Tokyo World Championships. I wonder if anyone can explain how, if the FIG's Code of Points is so objective and fair, it is possible to come up with two different results using two differ

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more