Sovetsky Sport. December 29, 1967. The discussion about the problems of youth gymnastics attracted the attention of not only specialists and coaches, but also just fans of this wonderful sport. The geography of the letters is vast, and this is gratifying, because as is well known, recruitment to the national team now comes from cities that were not previously marked on our sports map.
Judging by the letters, it can be said that the majority of interested parties propose organizing one- or two-year general physical training groups for boys aged 9-10 and girls aged 8-9 (age fluctuations in one direction or another are acceptable for especially gifted children) with mandatory classes in acrobatics and choreography.
Yev. Baron, a coach from Chelyabinsk, writes that five-year-old children should not be given a huge load in the form of daily classes without days off and holidays.
G. Vasiliev, head of the gymnastics department at the Lesgaft State Institute of Physical Culture (Leningrad), shares the same opinion. "Often training with beginners is conducted in the same way as with adults. Where is the playfulness of sports that is inherent to children? Where are the interesting, emotional play exercises in rope climbing, jumping, running, and balance?"
Another important issue is raised in the letters. Children's sports school coach G. Kudrinsky (Simferopol) writes: "Children's coaches themselves have to construct the most diverse extensions to adult apparatus. For example, we divide the women's bars in this way: we attach one pole very close to the floor, and then the lower one becomes the upper one. It's possible to teach girls many different elements on such children's parallel bars. Therefore, it's time to develop combined or collapsible apparatus for training."
An interesting idea, in our opinion, was expressed by G. Levin, a coach of the children's sport school (Omsk). He suggests cancelling the execises of youth categories and composing them several days before the competition. Young gymnasts should perform "from scratch," i.e., without knowing the exercises in advance.
The proposal by L. Katsman, senior coach of the children's and youth sports school (Kharkov) is interesting but not without controversy. He points out that in our system, age groups are determined by the year of birth. For example, a boy born in December 1951 belongs to the order age group, while one born in January 1952 belongs in the middle age group. The first one is not allowed to compete below the First Category, and the second one below the Second Category. Therefore, we are inevitably forced to accelerate the training of some gymnasts. For this reason, it is more appropriate to determine the age of the gymnasts on the day of the competition.
This article also used letters from other readers. Here are their names: V. Biryuk (Kiev), A. Shtrak (Kuibyshev), M. Gladkov (Kharkov), L. Gorbovskaya (Volgograd), G. Vasilkov (Lvov), V. Grigoriev (Moscow), V. Bukhanovsky (Novosibirsk), G. Tsvetkov (Riga), N. Voloshin (Zaporozhe), O. Kurilo (Leningrad), G. Midro (Kemerovo), D. Bartalovsky (Smolensk), P. Stepanyan (Moscow), N. Podruadov (Riga).