“Pokrovskaya said I should return”: Vyatchanina about insults, about working with Belonogoff and about the level of Efimova

Five years ago, having lost all students and leaving to work in Turkey, Irina Vyatchanina said in an interview: “It seemed to me that specialists of a class like me do not lie on the road. That they will try to keep me at least formally from this step, or at least someone will express regret. Good luck to me. ”

There was so much undisguised resentment in that interview that I was sure that an outstanding coach would never return to the Russian team. But she returned - with the British Tatyana Belonogoff, who received in February the right to speak for Russia.

“You surprised you with your return, Irina Germanovna.” After all, you were very offended, admit it.

- Yes, it was, but, as you know, they carry water on offended ones. Perhaps this can be called worldly wisdom, love for his profession, for his homeland, no matter how trite it may sound. It's a shame for the state ...

- When did you first come up with this formulation?

- For the state I was offended even when Yulia Efimova was sent to train in America. After that I could not watch the competition at all. It was hard that this happened without me, it was hard to see her tantrums at the 2011 World Championships in Shanghai, when the girl did not know what to do and how to swim, and indeed did not seem to understand what was happening to her. And at the Olympic Games in London, despite the bronze medal, everything was very ambiguous.

- And you began to work with Victoria Gunesh in Turkey to “wash” all those who did not believe in you as a specialist?

- Rather, I wanted to show that I am still in service. Everything that I did before when I worked in Taganrog with kids and led seminars was completely not mine. Even the director of our children's sports school told me then: “Ira, don’t try to go on a set. Because, working with young children, you can get lost very quickly. And the trainer of your level should continue to develop yourself, your professionalism. ”

- International seminars, which you were actively involved in, enriched you as a coach?

- Rather, they gave confidence. No wonder they say: if you want to organize this or that knowledge in your head, write it down or speak it out loud. When I started telling others what I know myself, I suddenly saw that people were really interested. We are often embarrassed to share knowledge, perceive it as something routine that we do daily, so much has become a discovery for me. With this I began to encounter in Turkey. A trainer from America worked there, who once asked to consult him on the technique of breaststroke. It seemed to me that I was telling the most ordinary things, and a person suddenly said to me: “Everything that I have known so far, you have turned upside down. Thanks to you, I looked at my work in a completely different way, and now everything has become clear to me. ”

- According to your posts on Facebook, it seemed that you are absolutely happy, wandering around the world with lectures and seminars.

“That was far from the case.” It’s just that I’ve never been a pessimist in my life. Therefore, I found pleasure in what I had and waited. Perhaps she could, using her name, for the first time, when she lost Efimova, and the second time, when she stopped working with Gunesh, throw a cry that I am free and gather a team, and athletes would show up to me. But I never considered it possible to take the students of others.

- But does an athlete always come from someone?

- Yes, but it’s important for me to know that the coach who worked with the person before me does not mind this transition. Perhaps the whole point is that I myself experienced a similar situation, and the memories of her are very deep in me.

- Therefore, it seemed to me that resentment could greatly prevent you from making a decision to return to your former life.

- To some extent, I was helped in this by a rather random meeting with Tatyana Pokrovskaya when I was sitting in Taganrog without work, and she brought the team there for the training camp. Tatyana and I have known each other for many years, but as it turned out, she didn’t even know that I live in Taganrog and that I was out of work. She then told me: "You must return, no matter how bitter and insulting." And I realized that she was right. I always wanted to learn from Pokrovskaya how she managed to build a system in synchronized swimming, combining all this Indian kingdom into a very powerful team. After all, it is precisely such a system of unified leadership and unified truth that leads to the highest results for many, many years. Athletes come and go, and coaches stay. They do, but this is the greatest value of any sport. As soon as I realized this, all the insults ended.

- How did you manage to cross with Tanya Belonogoff? Is it a coincidence, or the result of certain efforts on your part too?

- To some extent, an accident. We met when I was still working in Turkey. Tanya and her mother found me through one of the experts, we talked online, I advised this athlete on the part of technology. At that time I had problems with work in Turkey.

- What were they connected with?

- Vika, who returned to me after a two-year break, was not ready for the work that she seemed to be waiting for and which she missed. For two years, she simply forgot how to work, and went too far down. I honestly told her about this, explaining that there was no point in rushing around and tearing each other’s souls, and terminated the contract with the club, although he allowed me to live quite comfortably until this year. Shortly before this, I received another offer - to head one of the clubs in Germany. But I did not accept him.

- Why?

- Because a year and a half before the Olympics, the head coach left this club, taking all the best athletes, that is, those whom he considered interesting and necessary. I was invited in order to prepare at least the Olympiad finalist for the Games. To do this without knowing the situation, without really understanding how and what is organized in German swimming, it seemed to me simply unrealistic. So I thought: for example, I’ll take it, harness it as I got used to it, but will it not happen that I just substitute my coaching name under the ambitions of others? And will I have enough health?

- By the way, how are things with health now?

- I recently had two heart operations. They put a pacemaker with a defibrillator, such a two-chamber. I went to Rostov to be examined in order to get a quota for being operated on in Moscow, but it turned out that they no longer let me out of the Rostov clinic. It turned out that I used quarantine just to improve my health.

- When Sergey Chepik was appointed head coach of the Russian national team in 2018, he said almost immediately that he would very much like to return you to the national team.

- Talks about this have been going on before, but there was no specifics: how is this to be returned? In any form? The previous head coach said in an interview: they say, when Vyatchanina will have an athlete of a decent level, we will open the doors to her with pleasure. But why open something before me, if in this case I myself will open any doors? As actually happened now: an athlete appeared, with whom I was able to work in the national team. Although officially I remain a pensioner, and work, as they say, on a commercial basis.

- Starting cooperation with Gunesh in 2015, you said that this girl is able to break world records and compete with Efimova. What can you say about Belonogoff?

- Tanya has a character, has an interest in expressing herself. After all, she absolutely consciously made such a serious decision - to go under the flag of Russia. Another question is that Efimova at one time came to me at the age of 12 and all motor skills, all the equipment was initially formed correctly. And here you need to redo a lot.

- In other words, this is not a question of one year of work, but at least two or three?

- No no. Talking about a period of two or three years is impossible and unrealistic, because an athlete cannot so much time be in an eclipse and not see his result. He will simply lose faith in himself and in the coach. Therefore, I would talk about a period of six to eight months. At one time with Vika, we reached her best result in just eight months. It is interesting that Tatyana came to me without swimming at all 200 meters, however, according to my observations, she is most likely to swim this distance, and not “a hundred”. At 200, she and I moved much more tangibly, so we are laying the base.

- When you started working with Belonogoff, didn’t consider the option that she would sail for England, and you would become an English coach?

- This option was not considered primarily by the British. From their point of view, it was completely unacceptable for a girl with a Russian name and surname to be in the national team. And it does not matter that this girl was born in England, and graduated from school there. Therefore, in fact, Tanya thought about changing sports citizenship.

- The period of forced isolation greatly crippled your plans?

- If these two and a half months we were training in the mode that we planned in the fall, we would now have gained a certain technique and a certain training methodology. In other words, a moment of creativity would have come, not doubt. Now practically we started all the work over. But I saw certain changes - in physical condition, in flexibility, mobility, coordination - in everything that could be done on land in isolation.

- If Belonogoff manages to reach the level of world top results by the next Olympics, in your opinion, will she compete with Efimova, or already with someone else?

- If the Tokyo Olympics will be held in 2021, then Yulka, I think, will tolerate, and perhaps she will be able to fulfill her long-awaited dream - to compete for the Olympics gold and get it.

- Do you think that Efimova is able to progress at her age?

- Here you need not to progress, but to keep your own. 2:19 in the two-hundred meter breaststroke, I think, now there are five people in the world. This is a grandmaster result, which is not a fact that will be required to win: if you recall the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, the gold there was played at completely different speeds. 1:04 on a hundred-meter mark is also a very serious level. I want to say that the results that allow you to win gold medals are likely to remain the same in Tokyo. But not the fact that they will be shown by those whom we are currently discussing. Still, the breaststroke is the very way to swim, where the young jump out as suddenly as anywhere else.