“Sasha has 54 pairs of skis in Anterselva”: Kasperovich about working with Loginov, his perfect shooting and functional readiness

Alexander Kasperovich, who led the men's team after the Olympic Games in Sochi, and arrived in Anterselva as a personal trainer of Alexander Loginov to be with his student, I spotted in the car park near the stadium. The inconspicuously dressed trainer waited for the world champion, who added bronze to the gold medal on Sunday, to free himself from communication with the press in the media center and go to the car. The one I managed to find out, Kasperovich rented for the student right after the World Cup in Oberhof, so that Alexander could not depend on the plans of other athletes and specialists of the national team. The coach replied to the congratulations not too emotionally, but rather responded in a working way: “The championship is not over. I hope there will be more medals. "

- The head coach of the men's team Sergei Belozerov has already told reporters that you were specially invited to prepare for the final gathering of the team in Ridnau, so that Alexander Loginov would get the most fruitful preparations for the World Cup on a personal plan ...

- I was attracted to the preparation? Well then, let it be so. As we worked together with Sasha for the last seven years individually, we continue. I have my own achievements in terms of strength training, functional, infantry, the entire methodological part has been worked out. There are still many training points that can be improved, but in general, we have been working on the same scheme for a very long time and are preparing for the main starts without changing anything. The same applies to cyclicality.

- Loginov has always been so isolated, being in a team?

- I would not say that he is somehow excessively isolated. He has a fairly narrow circle of friends, although I can say that Sasha does not converge with people too easily - such a character. It takes time for him to bring a person closer to himself. But in principle, he is always quite sociable in the team.

- It so happened that Loginov is the only athlete in the Russian men's team who came to Anterselva not just to participate in the World Cup, but to fight for gold medals. And it turns out that he is not only responsible for the medal plan, covering up holes in the preparation, but actually dragging the whole team on his shoulders. Does this create extra stress on the team?

- I would not be so categorical about the "only participation" of the other athletes. We have very capable guys - the same Nikita Porshnev, Kirill Streltsov, Karim Khalili, who should in the near future, as it seems to me, move into the category of team leaders. Loginov, of course, is the strongest, but he has long gone his own way. In fact, you asked an interesting question. I never thought about it.

- It seems to me that everything here is quite obvious: the leader, one way or another, is always the figure that everyone is reaching for. But if it is easy to equal the strongest, as well as to go forward under his cover, then few people come to think about what the leader himself is in this situation. What is the responsibility, what is the pressure. Especially when the team is as bad as the Russian team this season.

- You know, Sasha does indeed constantly set an example for others, but the trouble is that they do not use this example, do not pick it up.

- What do you have in mind?

- Yes, the same exercise.

For example, we always do morning exercises everywhere, never miss it and treat it like the first workout: this is the mood for the whole day, and the awakening of the body, and partly an indicator of the current state of the athlete. That is, in the morning I can understand whether it is necessary to make adjustments to the main training work of the day.

- I remember how five or six years ago you told me about the advantages of your system in relation to individual work with an athlete. And they said that at that time you tested this technique for 11 years ...

- I really tested it on both junior teams and youth, and I think that it works very effectively. Simply, when foreign experts began to work in biathlon, a lot of views changed, including the methodology.

- But now there are no foreign specialists in the Russian team ...

- There are others. To be honest, I don’t know what methods they follow, I’m just not familiar with this.

- You and the head coach of the national team Anatoly Khovantsev ate a pound of salt together ...

- We really started working together in 1986, yes. I just worked with the girls, and Anatoly Nikolaevich - with the guys. This is a completely different job.

“And do adult guys and juniors have one?”

- The direction is the same. In this regard, Loginov and I have not changed anything since he ran in juniors. It’s just that with age, the athlete’s workload increases, the intensity of work increases, and the time that the biathlete spends at the turn is reduced. Loginov began to shoot from 38-40 seconds, now, as you see, his shooting became completely different.

- After the end of the pursuit race, I read on the Internet a review of one of your biathlon colleagues: “I have not seen anyone shoot like this for a long time. At Loginov intervals between shots, you can make a visual aid for biathlon schools. Each shot on the first three lines landed on the target, as the next part rises at once on an ideal factory conveyor. It was perfect shooting ... "

- Not so perfect, since there was a mistake. There is still a reserve in this, as in the technical plan for covering the entire distance. But the technique does not change, it is absolutely accurate.

- In the pursuit, it was clearly seen that if Johannes Boe has a certain speed reserve that allows him to fight for victory with two misses, then Loginov does not have such a reserve. It turns out that Sasha can rely only on perfect shooting? Or can a speed reserve be developed in oneself in the same way as other qualities?

- I have not talked with Sasha after the race, but I am sure that he is in very good functional condition. This was clear after the first starts in the mixed relay and sprint. Loginov is no weaker than Be, and I see that at the current stage we are very well aligned in speed with all the leaders, including Be and Fourcade. The fate of the medal between them is decided only by shooting at the turn. About how it happened: one slip - and you no longer have gold, but only bronze.

- Yes, but Boe is on the podium with two, and Loginov would surely be outside it ...

- Perhaps by Sunday Sasha had already begun to layering fatigue. I don’t know yet how his skis worked, how he felt. From what he saw from the side, he began the race easily. But the finish was already tired. But these are my guesses. It is clear that some things can be estimated by the movements of the legs on the track, by the removal of the hands. We have been working together for a long time, so I know Loginov like the back of my hand.

Suppose, when we did developmental work at a training camp in Ridnau, I immediately said that everything is very good with a functional state. I understood this when I saw how Sasha was going up. He is constantly in a phase of flight, shifting from right to left and left to right. That is, manages to pick up every movement. In the mixed relay, I only became convinced that I was right - they themselves saw what speed Sasha showed there. And in the sprint, he also showed fighting qualities.

- Do you always come to Loginov for the final gathering before the main start?

“I used to go everywhere with him.” And this season - yes, he arrived only in Ridnau.

- Do not feel discomfort, being in a team in which you are just a personal trainer of one of the athletes without any rights whatsoever, without the opportunity to suggest something?

- Yes, you say it directly - despite the fact that no one needs? Of course, this condition can hardly be called comfortable. This is very unpleasant when you constantly feel like an outcast. Nothing, survive it. I hope we will work together with Alexander until the end of his career.

- In an interview after Loginov’s victory in the sprint, RBU President Vladimir Drachev talked about how he managed to solve the problem with preparing skis for the team in a fairly short time ...

- Yes, I heard about that. But that problem did not concern us too much. For Loginov, I choose the skis myself, right at the inventory manufacturer. Here in Anterselva, Sasha has 54 pairs.

- After Drachev became president of the SBR, did he not offer you to enter the coaching staff?

- We never spoke with Drachev on this subject.