Olga Bulgakova, courtesy of RGF
Key points of a short interview with Olga Bulgakova, Head Coach of the national junior team
The girls reached their minimum targets. They use the results of competition for analysis, to understand where things aren't working, and correct any weaknesses.
Seda Tutkhalyan and Maria Bondareva will be considered for the Youth Olympics in Nanjing. Seda's programme is more complex. But this was a major competition for both girls and both had errors. There is still some work to do.
Seda has complex routines, dealing with them is very hard. If her routines had been less difficult of course that would have been easier to handle and she would be more stable. But that wouldn't offer much promise. She has a very promising programme, they will make modifications.
Psychologically, these girls are a little short of international competition. Now they will know better what to expect. Our programmes are strong, but they shouldn't stand still. They want still more information to analyse and make decisions. The results may be different elsewhere.
Control competitions will be used to decide who will travel to Nanjing.
The gymnastics events at the Youth Olympics will take place between 17th and 23rd August.
In another interview, Bulgakova talks of the potential of the juniors 'they could well go to the Olympics in Rio'
http://summer.sport-express.ru/gymnastics/reviews/44640/
Seda only missed out in a podium finish because of mistakes, not because of her level or talent. In fact she had the highest SV of everyone and to cope with this was far more difficult. Now they have to do a bit more work until she begins to cope better. There are real possibilities that these girls could go on to upgrade their routines even more and then qualify for the Olympics.
It is a bit early to say how these juniors will cope with the stress, they are still children. But what these children did in Sofia, really deserves special praise.
Seda is the only gymnast in this competition to perform certain skills on the beam (I think she is referring to her full twisting back in the straight position). I believe that with just a little bit more work, she will cope with everything.
Angelina Melnikova is a very hardworking and willing girl. They told both her and Seda that whoever did not fall, would come first. The fact that Angelina made no mistakes is very valuable.
Daria Skrypnik has very promising bars, but she had problems in qualifications. Maria Bondareva and Anastasis Dmitrieva are good all arounders, but still young.
Seda and Angelina are a little taller than the other girls. Their vaults are better than some of the seniors, but the new members of the senior team are facing puberty, which makes them prone to injury. With time, they will improve their vaults.
She was quite surprised by the British success, but there is a British gymnastics tradition, the gymnasts can look up to Elizabeth Tweddle as an example.
well it doesn't help when Valentina tells you that you are a disappointment. Maybe if they had lowered Seda's difficulty, she could have had better results. I think they are trying to much with her. What happens if she peeks before the Olympics?
ReplyDeleteFirst, I would like to say that you people should be extremely careful when reading translated interviews, I have seen a bunch of Russian interviews translated into something way worse than it was. Not on this blog specifically but on the overall gym net.
DeleteYes Valentina is a b*tch but some thing she says are usually taken out of contest. On the interview I read of her taking about Seda, she did not say she IS A DISAPPOINTMENT, like in life. She said she is disappointed on Seda`s performance because she expected much more and she thought Seda is capable of more. What is wrong on saying that? It is true, Seda had a bad competition and compared with Russian nationals, she is capable of doing more.
Lowing her difficult is stupid because, for once, it is not absurdly difficult and I've seen her execute it very well so, what she should do is keep training and practicing. It is not like she is incapable of executing her D (like Skinner) is more like she is not delivering it.She needs to learn and get experience with real competition before making it to the Olympics.
Also, it is already the middle of the quad and Russian situation is critical, the experienced seniors are all serious injured and I doubt that they will even make it back, specially Ksenia unfortunately, the new seniors are showing progress way too slow, for example Karenkhova was supposed to be the new AA but so far, seems like she is walking towards beam specialist, when she hits. Kuzmina is probably out. Sprindorova is basically an UB specialist( and Russia does not need one). Rodionova is also a specialist and Sosnitskaya is quite inconsistent. So is pretty clear by now they need the juniors girls to raise to the occasion and as Bulgakova said, try to make them get international experience and work on their stress and neves...lowering their difficult will make no good and no, they won't get better results on a long row...
As an ex gymnast I can say that, if you do well as a junior that doesn't mean you'll do the same as senior. I did well as junior, but I couldn't continue as senior. Putting more pressure on your shoulders that doesn't help either. That was the main reason why I stopped. I was the girl with risky routines, too risky imo. But people wanted too much from me so I couldn't go on. I understand you want to win the Olympics, but not this way. To make an Olympic team you need at least four years, if not more. Because remember you are working with little girls, not women. There are only two years till the Olympics and the Russians have only one good AA senior, Aliya Mustafina. And she is injured. I doubt Ksenia will come back. Komova....I've never had high hopes with her. The gymnasts aren't bad, but the training it is. Rodionova ( I hope I spelled her name right) has beautiful lines,a good beam and wonderful UB. It's clearly that she can't carry an Amanar, but with some training I'm sure she'll do a wonderful DTY. Her floor isn't that difficult, but she could work on the execution. Sosnitskayia it's one of my favourites. She has beautiful lines on floor and seems powerful on vault. She just needs to work on her execution score. I'm sure that in two years she'll have a beautiful Amanar. I don't know. This is just the way I see it.
DeleteBut do not forget most of the girls that shine on Olympics started executing their difficult when they were juniors... There is no way around it.In 2004 Bellu put on a very young and very new team because the gymnasts he had originally planned for the quad was injured or retired. He said on several interviews that the team was a little of a plan B and that those were not the girls he intended on taking. You do not need four years to build a team. And you are wrong, training is not bad, is still pretty much the same as before 2012, same coaches, lot of the girls trains more on their private gym than on the Lake. Other things influence on Russia team right now as well, like the transition phase, the old and experienced seniors are giving space to the new and unexperienced ones also, sometimes is all about generation too. Some quad have a really good gymnasts others have very few ( for example compare 2008 with 2012), those girls are trained by the same coaches that have been around for ages, their method of training did not changed after Olympics.
DeleteThank you for your comment :-). Do you coach in Russia?
DeleteI'm sorry but most of your senior gymnasts have injuries. you tell that is nothing wrong with their training? I've worked with Bellu himself. And he always have told me that he always needs at least four years to make a team.
DeleteNo...I did gymnastics in russia for some time and then left . But Im still close to tbe sport. Not friends with the coaches or anything of this sort. But I follow the gymnasts ,specially from Moscow , really close.I ve seen how they train etc . And to answer the other comment. Injuries happens to everyone. Specially in gymnastics. One wrong step and u got a torn acl. 2008 4 of the 6 US gymnasts were injuried. On 2012 jordyn and mckayla were injuried.How about Memmel constant injuries.Iordache has been more injuried tha health on her senior career. In 2004 Romania had her 2 biggest stars and olympics hopes injuried. Oana Ban got injuried as well...so US and Romania are not coaching right as well? Again stop analising something based on gym net translation of things. Valentina has a big mouth but she is not respinsable for those girls training. Their coaches are pretty much the same coaches that have always been around. Yes Alexandrov is amazing and did a lot but he is not the only amazing experienced coach Russia has. Take a look at UB for example, what they have done on this apparatus is outstanding. Pretty much 80% of the girls can swing bars for real.
DeleteUSA's depth is crazy...even with injuries it does not produce the devastating consequences that it does for any other federation. Also saying 4 out of 6 Americans were injured in Beijing makes it seem like they had the same injuries that the Russians have. Injury is a broad definition to define not being at 100% but there are varying levels of injury. Currently, there are 4 seniors on the current Russian team that can make a final and be competitive for a medal at any level of sport. All of them have/had injuries requiring surgeries (some multiple). The 2008 USA girls and even the Romanians you mentioned were not ever at that level of injury except for Memmel. They all could compete and perform; same goes for 2012. You wouldn't look at McKayala's vaulting at the Olympics and think that a girl with perfect vaults had a toe injury, nor would you assume the same for Weiber from her qualifying/ team performances. They were not at 100% but they were not in unbearable career ending pain which seems to be the only kind of injury that hits Round Lake. So there's a difference, and Russia deserves to be called out for that difference, because every athlete risks injury and may get it but so many should not be at such a high level and having new problems or recurring painful ones. If they don't want people to talk about it then better not make those things public anymore.
DeleteIt's only natural to be mad when you care about gymnasts for more than their gymnastics and want them to live healthy robust lives beyond their athletic careers.
Karen Harpie...As a doctor to be (just one more year =]) I can assure you, no matter what elite gymnastics is hard on the body, specially once you get over the puberty. Also, chronicle injuries are very common on the sport world. That is, once you injury a leg or a knee that you constantly force is pretty common to always feel that part of your body.
DeleteWant to talk about it, Mckayla is on her 4th or 5th surgery/injury and she is what? 17. How about becca bross, just painful to watch by the end. Iordache is constantly making surgeries to repair her old one. Anna Porgras was pretty much all of the time injuried. US 2000 had such a awful team because their major athletes l had SERIOUS/CAREER ENDING INJURIES. Shannon Miller/Moceanu/Atler /Morgan White/Postell etc. Peng Peng Lee is injured yet again and we have not seen her competing in about 2 years or more.
Afana's injury is chronicle, have been bothering her forever and she keeps forcing her injured leg, because that is gymnastics. But have in mind she is on her 3rd quad of professional gymnastic, she is already 24, how many american do you know that get on 24 with the quality of Afana? An amazing floor routine, great beam and was vaulting an Amanar. Not even Sacramone, and I respect the hell ou of Alicia. If you knew Ksenia coach, she is just outstanding and one of the best human beings. She really cares for the athletes, understand them. To say Ksenia is being under "bad coaching"when you do not even know what kind of coach it is is, at least, uncalled. Grishna injury, everyone saw it, she twisted it on the Russian nationals, how is that a bad coaching? it was an accident. How many gymnasts from all over the world have u seen do that? Oana Ban for instance, same thing and it was career end for her. Happens.Yet, who dares to say Romania 2004 was being trained "wrong". Komova is not a serious injury, however is an old one. It is what I said before, chronicle injury. Like Maroney.
Round Lake is not where the girls spend most of their time training. They basically train at their home gyms. Each of those girls have their own program, with their own coaches and train on their own way most of the time.
I do not mind criticizing Russian system at the moment. To say we have a very scarce pull of athletes. That they are a big huge mess on competitions most of the time. That Valentina is a bitch. Whatever. But to say they are not coached well/that their coaches are not caring enough for them and so on, based on very partial translated interviews or whatever when you have never seen first hand how the girls are trained is not correct. Some ppl have been saying thing changes since Alexandrov left. Not true, they are still training on the same method they did before.
Also, again, I repeat, they train separate most of the time. It is not like Romania. So do not just put everyone together lake that. Every coach is different.Just saying, leave the hate toward Valentina aside and get the fact straight, not through those sensationalist super partial news you have around, before saying so many things.
I don't hate anyone, there is no hate to get rid of, only reasonable anger. I would like to say that bringing up things from a federation's past is fine and relevant so long as you account for if they are improving or getting better about how to prevent things form happening again. I would refer you to this excellent gymastic episode with USAG's premier doctor to get the low down of how USA learned from the admitted catastrophe of 2000 and seeks consatnt improvemtn: http://gymcastic.com/63-doctor-larry-nassar/
DeleteBut Maroney has had three surgeries no more, and of course all of the athletes and their injuries you mentioned were upsetting but- similar to the Russians- it is not like the gymnasts or coaches were clumsy or inefficient in training. In fact that is never what I argued! Many recent interviews in general talk about not resting the girls after 2012 and somewhat neglecting the newbies. The first year of a new quad is the least important; nothing counts for anything, Yet none of the juniors or seniors that they are trying to rush now were really tested except Karenkova and a lucky turn of events for Rodianova at the end of the year at World's (but neither had upgraded routines since 2012). Meanwhile people like Demy, Sosnitskaya, Shelgunova, even a healthy Paseka, had a lot of stagnation in their gymnastics (esp. Paseka) even though each gymnast showed massive potential on minimum one event such as Demy on beam. But the national coaches concentrated on working the A-team to the core because they wanted a medal haul. Who is surprised then that all these girls showed great potential yet only Alla improved (because of her fantastic personal training and her own authority to do so!). But last year she was not encouraged enough by the head staff and neither was Shelgunova who was confused why Rodianova was picked over her to go to World's. I want to say that I do not blame training methods for injuries. But bad decisions and irresponsibility from each gymnast/coach to be vocal about feeling overworked has its effects -think about how Grishina was accused of laziness for not wanting to train through a back injury in 2013! It is no wonder that in December Aliya told Andrei she wanted to quit and could not take another year of working as she did. And this is a girl who always had her sights set on Rio, but in essence the girls spent all of 2013 on a treadmill at high speed, and when the time came to get off, they stayed on at a slower pace, until the next competition came the speed was picked up again. There was no stopping and certainly your elite A-team should be resting (and there's a big diff. between a healthy rest and "resting" b/c post-surgery requires no training).
You may say that Russia wanted to put on a good show for the home crowd at Euro's and Universiade but then those aren't the only competitions they did last year and even so that does demonstrate much of my point because they sent a World class team to Universiade and a Unversiade caliber team to World's. Their priorities were wrong and that is not about training but it is about management.
At least now they are looking at long term goals which if they had been doing from the beginning we might've seen Afan get her foot fixed years ago and not get told to compete at this years Russian Champs two weeks after getting back in the gym. It seems the only athlete who is allowed to be vocal about her injuries and still get taken seriously is Vika, and that is because she is favored, not because they see potential. If Vika has a pinky problem they pull her from everything, if Aliya is in the hospital they send her to competition a week later (and it is the duty of a head coach to reign in stubborn aliya who is always going to compete if she feels she is needed but her stubbornness was in line with their desire for her to compete so why would they stop her?). Priorities and management must be fixed, not training (though they do need to fix their conditioning regimen). This is my respectful opinion.
So now it's not just USA to blame if Russia feels they've been jilted? Alright GB join the wagon. Sit right here beside Italy, and oh my, who's that? I see Switzerland and Germany pacing nicely to catch up. And who's this on the USA's left? Oh it's Canada finishing ahead of GB and 5th at the last Olympics! My my my, it seems having a good gymnastics program is the key to success and not about the code being fit for certain a country.
ReplyDelete(I make fun of them sometimes, but I do want Russia to prosper btw, at least until all the gymnasts i like retire lol. But they always say the same thing after a disappointing competition result: well go home and asses the program and fix what needs to be improved. If they had fixed it every other time they said they would, they wouldn't keep finding themselves in a similar predicament (no depth, lack of difficulty, or even too much difficulty w/o the mental game to handle it, injuries galore, mixed performance results/ medal haul etc.)
Bulgakova was very measured here and did not blame anyone for the weaknesses in their performance; she was asked about Britain and so responded.
DeleteRussia did very well here and without a few errors could conceivably have medal led on every piece. In fact, they achieved gold on four out of six competitions, with Britain winning two. Now all bith teams gave to do us go back to the drawing board and see what needs to be changed. That's just gymnastics. Bulgakova has only been in her job for a year or so, let's see if her juniors transition any better to senior level.
I don't think there is any reason to be so critical of what Bulgakova says here - it all seems pretty reasonable to me ...
I think Bulgarova was very realistic while she protected the gymnasts. She recognized the potential of their athletes, but admitted that there is a lot of work to do and that the junior team can and should improve the technical level. Seda, Daria and Angelina are definitely rising stars. But the whole team needs a lot of training so that they are able to make the transition to the senior elite and become champions.
DeleteBulgarova seems to have more technical profile for the senior team than the current coach.. He is so silent and so submissive to Valentina, who gives me shame.
I wasn't being critical of her assesment but the typical response from managers of the whole team in general. This is the first time im ever hearing the junior coaches say so much, except maybe once at gymnix they gave a few sentences.
DeleteI really respect Bulgakova for this, she's frank about wanting results but not damning; she seems healthily measured and not ready to blame the wrong people! She's positive where she can be but logical too; a big improvement from Valentina.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree with everything you said. It was a nice balance - a frank assessment of the performance, recognising that there is work to be done, without blaming the gymnasts and recognising that they are still young and inexperienced. This seems to be to be a healthier attitude to take rather than to condemn girls of barely 14 like V Rod has.
DeleteQuestion: was Bondareva injured recenlty? I thought she was like the top Russian junior star? She didn't make a single final.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know?
DeleteMaria flashed brilliantly three years ago and then as far as I know took a short career break. Since then she hasn't been half as good but still competes close to the top of her generation.
Perhaps her motivation will improve as she matures.
Thank you Queen E. I am getting a vibe of lack of motivation and passion for the sport from the whole of the Russian squad. There are individuals like Mustafina whom you can tell love it, but many seem frustrated a lot of the time and even apathetic.
DeleteJust switch Bulgakova with Valentina. I feel that Bulgakova is more critical, reasonable, and sensible when it comes to failure management. She doesnt have those unrealistic goals Valentina was looking for, and I think in terms of improvement she sees more errors in the team than Valentina. She doesn't blame others and analyse critcally the girls' situations. I believe Valentina should learn from her. Bulgakova is just a junior coach! But what Valentina is managing is a team that will go for the Olympics!
ReplyDelete