Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

Maria Filatova has a residence permit for Russia.  Hope is she will be granted her full Russian nationality soon :-) It is the best news for the New Year so far - sending all our love to Maria. http://sibdepo.ru/news/132768-kuzbasskaya-gimnastka-mariya-filatova-poluchila-vid-na-zhitelstvo.html

Photo source : http://www.tomtheobald.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=330 I came across this journal article by joint World Champion 1985, Oksana Omelianchik.  Oksana is a senior judge at major FIG competitions under her married name of Oksana Omelianchik-Ziurkalova. She analyses eight floor routines of the Ukrainian women gymnasts, and draws conclusions regarding the composition of floor routines, and the importance of choreography in floor exercise. I like her review of the importance of choreography to the sport: 'In choreographic training of female gymnasts aesthetic, physical and educational tasks are solved. Aesthetic tasks mean cultivation of musical sense and horizon, training of movement under music; physical – mean development of coordination, flexibility, plasticity, expressiveness and accuracy of movements; educational tasks mean psychological relaxation, cultivation of ability to feel, think, remember and estimate culture of movements [3, 4, 10]. Cho...

Aliya says she is mending her back, for now. http://youtu.be/6VeYU0ewMqY Via The All Around on Facebook.

An interview with the most decorated Olympic Champion of all time,  Larissa Latynina, by Dmitry Efanov and Alexander Lyubimov for 'Kultura'. Nine time Olympic champion gymnast Larissa Latynina will be 80 years old on the 27th December.  A few days before her birthday, the legend of world sport answered some questions. Kultura: Birthday, New Year's Eve - don't you get fed up of cooking? Latynina: I love the holidays - it's a joy to communicate with loved ones. My priority is to see my daughter. Kultura: Which New Year has been the most memorable? Latynina: Probably 1957.  Returning from the Olympic Games in Melbourne.  I arrived into Vladivostock on New Year's Eve, then travelled by train to Moscow. Everywhere we went people were happy and congratulated us on our successful performance at the Olympics. They gave us gifts, and decorated Christmas trees.  Everyone was young, cheerful. With great pleasure I remember this trip. Kultura: Yo...

Trenenr: Mustafina was treated in Germany and returned to Moscow 12/20/2014 © RIA Novosti. Grigory Sysoev MOSCOW, December 20 - R-Sport, Maria Vorobyov. Olympic gymnastics champion in artistic gymnastics Aliya Mustafina returned to Moscow from Germany, where sportswoman went in early December for a course of treatment for a back injury, the agency "F-Sport" senior coach of Russia Valentina Rodionenko. After the World Cup in 2014, where Mustafina won three bronze medals, gymnasts will perform at the World Cup and the prestigious all-around discipline became only the fifth. Rodionenko explained this decline aggravation of back injury. "Alia tonight returned to Moscow from Germany. Finally, doctors at the clinic in Munich managed to find the cause of her pain tormented. Dread nothing, but there is a problem superimposed on one another - and kidneys, and other ailments were. In other words - a chronic inflammatory process constantly giving pain "- said Rodionenko by pho...

http://itar-tass.com/sport/1655757

Sergei Starkin, then coach to Denis Ablyazin and now coach to both Denis and Aliya Mustafina, at the 2012 Olympics.  Courtesy of the RGF The latest news, that Aliya Mustafina now has a personal coach - not just a personal coach, one of Russia's best coaches, Sergei Starkin - was only released yesterday.  Since then we have heard from Vladimir Zaglada on the implications of this change - and now Sergei Starkin himself has spoken to Natalia Kalugina.  The following English language summary of the article is as close as I can get to the original, though please be aware that I will have to paraphrase where the translation isn't clear; this is not a word for word translation. Back in early December, when Aliya Mustafina turned to Sergei Starkin and asked him to work with her, there was talk about why a men's coach should work in the women's sport.   This is despite the fact that Starkin began his professional life as a women's coach.  His best known...

Fan art - from Aliya Mustafina's fan page on VK.com We first read the news on RSport (thank you Lifje on Gymfever) - Aliya has a new coach, Sergei Starkin.  Sergei is already well known - as coach to World Champion Denis Ablyazin and some other senior MAG gymnasts on the national team. Source -  http://m.rsport.ru/artist_gym/20141216/795355013.html The first question on people's lips - 'can a men's coach train a female gymnast?' will best be answered over the coming two years.  But we already have a historical precedent for greatness: Alexander Alexandrov, iconic coach to countless champions, including Aliya herself, found his spurs as coach to 1983 and 1987 World Champion, the Mozart of gymnastics, Dmitri Bilozerchev.   The second question - will Raisa Ganina continue to be involved in Aliya's career? - well, we have to wait and see.  I personally hope so - considering Ganina's skillful interpretation of the Code and her outstanding work in enhancing Aliya...

Coach Starkin with his World Champion, Denis Ablyazin Valentina Rodionenko: "Aliya asked Sergei Starkin to begin coaching her.  He gave her certain conditions, and she agreed." IF this is confirmed, it is great news.  Sergei coaches Denis Ablyazin as well as other members of the senior MAG team in Penza.  He is obviously hard working, dedicated to gymnastics, and has a positive charge ... UPDATE - Via Vladimir Zaglada's direct contact with Penza, this fabulous news has been confirmed!!! More later from RRG.

Finally, another one of these iconic documentaries has been subtitled. http://youtu.be/ovN5i0sHMq4 Via Gymnastics Coaching

2012 Olympians Viktoria Komova, Anastasia Grishina, Ksenia Afanasyeva, and Nikolai Kuksenkov will compete in the Voronin Cup, Moscow, 15-17 December.   Aliya Mustafina, Emin Garibov, Denis Ablyazin and Alexander Balandin are out with injury or in recovery - expect them back next spring. http://itar-tass.com/sport/1629215

With thanks to Nico of The Liukin blog, who produced this summary/translation of an interview with Valentina Rodionenko. Source -  http://www.allsportinfo.ru/index.php?id=8798 Aliya began treatment today in Munich, where she'll be staying for two weeks. So far the specialists don't think it's anything more severe than the inflammation that has been coming and going for a few years.  So more than anything Aliya needs to take it easy and not put so much stress on her back. Her condition most likely won't require any kind of surgery, otherwise the doctors would have mentioned it early on.  However, Aliya has been enduring the pain for a long time and relying on painkillers to the point that they were no longer working,  and Aliya was refusing other kinds of treatment. Then everything started to take its toll on her in Stuttgart, so that prompted the immediate examination. And of course, the Russian coaches don't have much confidence in the medical team back home, so th...

Picture by Alexander Vilf, courtesy of Sports Express Legendary coach Leonid Arkayev talks about his personal gymnastics history, the success of the Soviet team and Simone Biles in this summary of a Sport Express interview .  He also shares his opinion of the current Russian gymnastics regime. There are coaches whose stories you don't need to tell at great length, because the very name has become a brand. All you need to do is to open the file, and read that for 32 years, Arkayev headed first the men's gymnastics team, and then the female.  63 times his athletes became world champions.  31 times they won at the Olympics. We haven't taken silver and bronze into account, but I found the figure: Arkayev's boys and girls made it onto the podium more than 70 times. *** - One of the USSR national swimming team once told me that the Soviet system of training was very effective, but it was accompanied by a large number of "victims" - those who d...

Andrew Rodionenko: "Level of complexity grown so much, That it is time to stop this process " Photo © Alexey Ivanov pictured Andrew Rodionenko During the open training for journalists at Moscow-based "Round Lake" head coach of the Russian national team Andrey Rodionenko noticed he did not think the veterans team Maxim Devyatovskiy and Anton Golotsutskova undisputed contenders for a place in the national team, and not at all sure that these gymnasts will be able to selected for the October World Championships in Tokyo - has grown to such an extent the Russian domestic competition. And after the end of classes Rodionenko answered a few questions correspondent "SE". - If you had to create a team right now ... - It would have been impossible. Because it has not held the competition, where all the kids would act together. At tournaments, they went only separately. One should also consider the format of the competition. And he was with us at the World Cup is exp...

Andrew Rodionenko: "At the finish of direct democracy - a bad adviser" Photo © Alexey Ivanov pictured Andrew Rodionenko May 8 at Lausanne start of the 28th men's European Championships, where the Russian team is going to fight for the victory in the team competition. This is the challenge facing Russian gymnasts and the Olympic Games in Beijing. For information on how you prepare the team, correspondent "SE" said head coach Andrei Rodionenko. From the coach we met at Moscow-based "Round Lake". Shortly before this conversation in the team has changed: as soon as the beginning of April in the French Clermont-Ferrand ended continental championship in women as senior coach the women's team took the former head of the youth team Alexander Kiryashov. The first question is the head coach was dictated precisely this event. - What is the solution? - We went to Clermont-Ferrand to fight for team victory - began Rodionenko. - At last year's World Champion...

http://www.velena.ru/gymnastics/LA_1993.html Leonid Arch: GENERAL WITHOUT THE ARMY Photo © Dmitry Solncev the picture Leonid Arch Interview with the head coach of the Russian gymnastics team (and in combination - and the president of the federation), on the eve of the April 93 World Cup I did not succeed. "There's nothing to me now to talk to you! - He cut off. - That's all vzgreyu in Birmingham, then ... " "Thrash" did not happen. The result of the World Cup proved to be very comforting. Second and fifth place in the all-around at the men, the fifth - in women, bronze Natasha Bobrova on the floor exercise and the only gold Sergei Kharkov on the crossbar. And a whole bunch of injuries: broken leg Dina Kochetkova, hand - Kate Vandysheva. Strongly hit the crossbar on the ankle (almost certainly miss the chance to become a champion if you do not, then the second winner) Dima Karbanenko. And least of all at the moment I wanted to talk with the head coach of the ...

Mustafina before the 2011 ACL injury, and after, are two different gymnasts.  Remarkably, in 2012 the World Champion overcame herself to the extent that she was the leading gymnastics medal-winner at the London Olympics.  In 2013 and 2014 she somehow managed to be the whole all around package, with gradually reduced routines that eventually, by this autumn, had little acrobatic content.  All by herself, she showed the world what a gymnast really is: not just a trickster but someone whose quality of movement transcends competence and/or extreme bounciness and becomes a whole vehicle for expression.  Only a Russian could master the mental contortions it took to make the massive transformation necessary to remain competitive at below full capacity, to make a paradigm shift and fight acrobatics with artistry.  Only the daughter of a Tartar wrestler could muster the sheer mystical grit to deliver a perfect fight exactly at the moment needed.  But even Mustafina ...