“He never spared himself”: on the 73rd year of his life, the legendary water polo player and coach Kabanov died

The whole life of Alexander Kabanov is a difficult cross, shouldered when he decided to become a coach. One of the famous predecessors of Kabanov, Anatoly Blumenthal once said about him: “In great athletes, their greatness almost always shows through. This is normal, it should be so. But the great is much harder to listen to, look at what is happening around. As a rule, this is not given to them. ”

In the late 1980s, Kabanov headed the Navy CSK and became the second coach of the USSR team, but he admitted that he did not consider himself a real specialist, because the name of the mentor was made by the students.

“In principle, the coach should be a dictator, such as Blumenthal himself. I don’t have such rigidity, and this is to some extent a minus. It’s hard to get players to work. Feeling that they hate you, ready to kill. Especially when the game does not go. But I always remember that I myself was the same as them. I went through this myself and I know what this work is worth, ”the expert admitted in an interview of those times.

The coach, however, was constantly blamed for cruelty and obstinacy. Even temporarily removed from the team - after Kabanov removed from the team two stars at once: Sergey Markoch and Dmitry Apanasenko. It would seem that athletes should remember such grievances all their lives, but the former later admitted that this was out of the question.

“I regret that I went into conflict then, and stood in a pose. If it were now, I would crawl into the national team on my belly, would cling to any opportunity. But he was young, ambitious, hot. I did not understand the main thing: I am a soldier. Whatever the trainer, my job is to bite the bit, endure and go forward, ”said Markoch.

In the light of the merits of Kabanov himself as a player who won two Olympic golds and two more awards of world championships of the highest standard during his career, medals of other dignity, already obtained as a coach, were perceived as failures, although in reality few specialists were able to boast of such.

At the four Olympics (in Seoul 1988, Barcelona 1992, Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004), the Kabanova team climbed the podium, twice won the World Championships, won the European Championship, World League and World Cup. It was as if he continued to prove to Blumenthal, who had long since passed away, that the master was wrong, throwing in his address words about the inability of the great to listen, which became almost a stigma.

I wondered more than once: was Blumenthal so precise in his message then? To maintain such a period of coaching hard labor, which fell on the days of perestroika, collapse and rebirth, will not help any past greatness. Is that fanaticism. Or unlimited love for your sport, which, in fact, is one and the same. Kabanov had all this in abundance. Paradoxically, it was the dictator-Blumenthal who appreciated the Kabanov-player incredibly high.

“In any sport, there are essential components of excellence. If a player has a limp at least one, he cannot be considered outstanding. So, Kabanov had no shortcomings. Despite the fact that his physical parameters were very modest, he was an absolutely harmonious player. He possessed a masterly throwing technique, several crown moves, scored a lot, and at the most crucial moment he could have scored with a hinged one, which in water polo is considered the absolute top of skill. He, perhaps, had only one drawback: he never spared himself. I never admitted this, but I felt: his heart was worn out, ”Blumenthal explained.

As a coach, Kabanov was in water polo, probably one of the last romantics. In the 1980s, the outstanding water polo player Ratko Rudich began working in Yugoslavia, he began to develop an extremely pragmatic water polo, built on absolutely rigid schemes and aimed exclusively at the result. Later, when Yugoslavia found itself in a blockade, many specialists from this country dispersed around the world, continuing to promote this particular style of play.

Kabanov, to the last, stood on the fact that a similar style for him as a water polo player was nonsense. That the organization decides a lot in sports, but it should not kill the game, turn it into pure martial art.

“If I caught a goldfish, I would ask for a good and beautiful game at the Olympics. Just a medal, even a gold one, is not at all like winning with a good game, ”the expert once said in an interview, answering a playful and popular question with journalists about wishes.

As if to confirm his words after Russia won the World League in 2002, one of the European newspapers came out with the headline: “This is a true team of the 21st century!”

In 2009, Kabanov began working with women, although just a few years before that appointment, he flatly refused to put women's water polo on a par with men's.

“Until the early 2000s, it was not a water polo at all, but a kind of specific female game with a ball in the water. And then, former and very good water polo players who previously worked with men's teams began to come there. So it was in Holland, in Italy ... The Hungarian team was led by Tomasz Faraga, whom I generally consider to be the best water polo player of the last century. By the way, it was he who was at the head of the national team when in 2005 the Hungarians won the world championship in Montreal. With the advent of these people, women's water polo began to acquire elements of the present very quickly. And immediately it became interesting, ”Kabanov explained.

After working for three years in the women's national team of Russia, the famous coach went to Kirishi, to KINEF, not even suspecting that he would be associated with this team until his death. This year, Kabanov took his trophy with his girls, winning the national championship, although he felt not in the best way: there have already been cases when, right on the coaching bench, the coach had interruptions in his heart.

The next and very strong, in fact, fatal blow was the death of Boris Ukhov, his closest friend and associate for work in the national team: Kabanov survived him for only one week. In such cases, they usually say about a person: "I'm tired of living." But others want to remember the coach. Peppy, confident and invariably ironic.

“The girls in the game are more aggressive. I think it comes from nature. Historically, a woman protected her offspring while a man procured food. Guarded the nest. Just aggression is not always needed. On the field, you need, firstly, to see the ball, and secondly, to take such a position that the ball could not reach the opponent's player. That is, to constantly move. In my days, it was considered a mistake if someone could grab you. And this is your own mistake and inability, ”Kabanov smiled.

He explained that he was not a supporter of locking girls on key bases, that sometimes they practiced in other sports, because any prohibition or similar measure would immediately entail retaliatory actions. It seemed to him that when people have their heads turned on, the effect is much greater than from fear and horror.

“When I first came to watch women's water polo, it struck me how reckless it was. Any female game is always more emotional. And not as "reasonable" and stenciled as men. It turns out sometimes very interesting. Unpredictable. But now the traits of rationalism, unfortunately, are beginning to show up strongly among Canadians, American women, Australians, Chinese women. When I saw these teams for the first time during World League matches, I was in shock. There, the athletes are also selected appropriate - tall, powerful, capable primarily of waging a power struggle. I want my team to play and play beautifully, ”added the specialist.

Kabanov firmly believed that during the competition the coach was no longer able to change anything, his task was to consider who jammed, who “swam” psychologically, and who had other problems, and make adjustments to the game in time with replacements.

It was difficult to surprise a specialist with questions, but it happened that the wards took us by surprise: “We have one young athlete, and somehow at the training camp she asked me:“ Alexander Sergeyevich, have you ever played water polo? ”