Sovetsky Sport. May 30, 1985. When a gymnast performs at a national championship for the first time, they say to him: "Here you are on the big platform." Yes, it is especially honorable to show your art on the main platform of the country; not every Master of Sports manages to participate in the All-Union Championship. To do this you need to join the national team of your republic or your society.
Teams from the republics, Moscow, and Leningrad arrived in Alma-Ata for the individual and team championships of the Soviet Union. I will not, of course, repeat who won and who became a medalist, but I'll try to give a general assessment of the skill of the athletes who took to the big stage.
Let's start our story with the performance of the male gymnasts. This time, more than ever, they had a lot of breakdowns, especially in the compulsory program. You can find an explanation for this: the compulsory exercises are new, and not all of them have been able to be properly studied and practiced. The gymnasts tried to perform some tricky elements at maximum amplitude, but they still didn't have the skill. This led to serious mistakes.
Mastering a new program is a matter of time. Another thing is worrying: the scores for the performances of a large group of gymnasts were too low.
Three or four years ago, experts emphasized that the middle level of gymnastics had clearly strengthened, and that most Masters had mastered the high difficulty of exercises. And now I can confirm this trend - even completely unknown gymnasts have elements of the highest difficulty, from Group D, in their arsenal. For example, 17-year-old Ramil Afazlov from Tashkent dared to show for the first time a new dismount from the horizontal bar - a triple somersault forward.
The problem, and a very serious one, is now different. For many, the quality of performance lags far behind. In pursuit of this very difficulty, the coaches - I got the impression - seemed to have forgotten that in gymnastics the primary thing is still purity, elegance, and artistry.
It must be said that the members of the national team are noticeably distinguished by their special technical training and 'school' lines. This is not surprising, because the senior coach of the country's men's team, Leonid Arkaev, has a keen understanding of the nuances of gymnastics, and his training focuses on competent mastery of modern elements.
Let me give you the following figures: only 31 people fulfilled the Master of Sports standard at the championship in the team competition, and 70 competed. This is not enough for such a tournament.
In my opinion, in general men's gymnastics is going through some kind of crisis. It's no secret that sections for boys are sometimes closed, and that coaches in the men's sections are retrained to work with female gymnasts. There's also an explanation for this: it's still easier to coach girls, and they can easily learn Master routines even at the age of 12. And they don't have six, but four, events. Therefore, they can do more in a training session.
In Alma-Ata, gymnasts from Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Armenia (with the exception of world champion Artur Akopyan) were criticized for poor performances. Poor physical preparation, sloppy routines, some kind of backward technique for performing combinations - this, unfortunately, is what we saw on the big platform. But that's not all. Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, and Turkmenistan failed to field men's teams (although women's teams participated in the competition). This is another confirmation that coaches are more willing to work with female gymnasts. Estonia, Lithuania, and Tajikstan did not send any teams at all. But in these republics there is gymnastics, and it is not bad.
Perhaps radical measures are needed to restore the authority of men's gymnastics in the country. Perhaps, by order, transfer the best (as well as young and energetic) specialists to work with young men, not follow the lead of some leaders of sports societies who, in pursuit of quick results, by hook or by crook, dissociate themselves from men's gymnastics.
As for our leaders, I will say that so far they have not achieved the necessary stability, and they allowed too many falls. In the world championships year, this is worth paying close attention to. World champions Dmitry Bilozerchev from Moscow and Vladimir Artemov from Vladimir were far from their best sports form. But they still fought to the end, didn't give up after failures, and for this they deserve praise.
Minsk resident Yuri Balabanov, Alexander Tumilovich from Vitebsk, and Yerevan resident Artur Akopyan prepared and performed interesting programs. This season the team received good reinforcements from Tbilisi resident Vladimir Gogoladze, Valentin Mogilny from Leninsk-Kuznetsk, and Sergei Gusev from the Moscow region.
About the women. Here the impressions are more positive. Thirty-five out of 82 gymnasts fulfilled the Master of Sports standard in the team competition. Not a lot, of course, but in the all-around final all 32 participants scored more than 71 points. This suggests that the athletes are progressing and are not standing still in the optional program. Yes, the girls had a lot of new elements, as well as original solutions.
The performances of Oksana Omelyanchik from Kiev and Leningrader Elena Shushunova were sparkling. Rostovite Natalia Yurchenko and Irina Baraksanova from Tashkent performed consistently as usual.
Now about things that aren't very pleasant. I've been writing about gymnastics for many years and appreciate the hard work of the coaches. Unfortunately, lately I have noticed that it has become "fashionable" for coaches to treat their pupils (or rather, female pupils - we are talking about the girls' coaches) in a rude, deliberately pushy manner. You know, it's interesting to watch the girls - little ones, they have fun and cry and reason sensibly. Polina Astakhova said it right about today's 15-year-old gymnasts: "They are children, grown-up children."
But the girls don't cry only because of low scores. Tears are a natural reaction to rudeness. I have been to gymnastics training sessions, and at competitions I try to be closer to the platform in order to feel the wonderful atmosphere of the competition. How unpleasant it can be when you hear the angry "hissing" of some coach, his almost obscene language addressed to a cute creature. And the girl freezes in fear, and her eyes are wet, and the desire to run away from this shame, when many nearby are watching all this. By the way, the athlete is already a member of the national team.
For example, take V. Yakovleva from Tashkent. A good coach, and her student is already known. "Trash" and "lousy" are perhaps the most "affectionate" words from V. Yakovleva's vocabulary when she scolds the gymnast if she makes a mistake. Yes, rigor is needed, and being demanding is also indispensable. But there should be no place for rudeness and lack of manners in the coaching environment.
One last thing. I am saddened to see that there are fewer and fewer spectators at competitions. In Donetsk, Moscow, and Alma-Ata, the sports palaces were far from completely filled. Of course, performing in front of half-empty stands is not very fun. Okay, maybe fans are now spoiled by television. We have written more than once that schoolchildren and youth sports schools must be invited to the arenas. For them, it's joy, learning, and contact with a world of beauty. But no. No one heeds the calls, and again there were almost no young gymnasts in the stands. It's a pity.
I would like to end this on an optimistic note: the shortcomings can and should be corrected. And our creativity - it moves forward, sometimes prettier, and blossoms. May it continue to be so!
We now have exciting spectacles ahead of us: the men's European Championships (June 1-2 in Oslo), the Universiade in Japan (July 29 - August 4), the USSR Cup (Sept. 24 - Oct. 1) and the World Championships in Canada (Nov. 3-10).
V. GOLUBEV