“I tried to finish sports three times”: 47-year-old water polo player Maksimov on motivation, pride and comparison with Bjoerndalen

"Outstanding trainers have worked with me"

In the last days of October, an extraordinary event took place in Russian water polo.

Goalkeeper Nikolai Maksimov, who will turn 48 years old on November 15, became the winner of the National Cup with Dynamo Moscow. 

The conversation with Maximov took place in early autumn, almost immediately after he stunned the water polo world with a statement that he had started training with Dynamo.

- Really big sport, in which you won two Olympic medals, won the World Cup, the World League and a dozen more of the most diverse trophies, does not let go to such an extent?

- Dmitry Apanasenko, sports director of the water polo Dynamo, with whom we played in both the Moscow team and the Russian national team and who at one time was justly considered one of the best players in the world, asked me to return to my native club.

In order to deal with the selection and training of young goalkeepers.

And he could have walked into the gate himself if something went wrong.

- Simply put, Apanasenko came to you and said: "Kolya, we have a hole in the gate, get up."

- I would not speak so harshly, but certainly there are certain flaws.

Good players don't come out of nowhere; they need to be raised for many years.

Goalkeepers in this regard are no exception.

I was very lucky in my time.

- That the place of the main goalkeeper of the national team did you get at 22?

- No, the fact that such outstanding coaches as Boris Abramovich Goykhman, Vadim Vladimirovich Gulyaev (Olympic champion 1972. -

), Vyacheslav Georgievich Sobchenko (Olympic champion 1972 and 1980. -

)

worked with me at one time

, Yuri Petrovich Pashkin.

Evgeny Sharonov (Olympic champion 1980 -

)

prepared us for the Olympic Games in Atlanta

.

I specially came to Gulyaev at the CSK Navy, worked out according to a special goalkeeper swimming program, then went to the Dynamo pool and there I continued training with my team, working at the goal with the ball.

I was constantly prompted, paid attention to mistakes, explained how and what to do, what moments to remember.

It was such a solid foundation on which all further work was then built.

Unfortunately, the goalkeeping coaches worked with us only until 1996, and after that, due to certain circumstances, they were no longer involved.

And it turned out that I passed all the Olympics without a mentor.

It was very difficult.

- It seems that a very powerful foundation has really been laid in your water polo education, since it allows you at more than 40 years to talk about how you can continue to perform at a very high level.

- For 30 years I have played a lot of places.

Naturally, I did not sit still, but watched, studied various training systems, completed advanced training courses in my diploma of higher education, studied at the Fitness Academy and received a diploma in physical training.

The sports industry is constantly evolving and training methods are changing.

You try one thing, another, you see what is effective, what is not, what works better, what is worse.

Accordingly, you begin to understand how to keep yourself in shape at an age when all your peers have long since finished playing.

This is roughly how Ole Einar Bjoerndalen did, who won his last Olympic gold in a very difficult sport at 40, and at 42 became the world champion. 

- Nevertheless, I very much doubt that it was in your plans to play almost 50 when you started your career.

- Then I dreamed of coaching boys after sports, as Boris Abramovich Goykhman did.

In principle, I came to this, just the circumstances are such that I had to play again.

I’ve already tried to end up with sports three times.

- What made you say to yourself: "Stop, that's enough"?

- All major competitions, all Olympics were very emotional.

Probably, this is not the most useful quality for an athlete, you have to be cooler, more restrained in emotions, but I couldn't do it.

And when I really left for the first time, it was already a thoughtful decision.

I was then invited to "Storm" and set a rather interesting goal in the future - to restore the Russian, or rather, even the Soviet goalkeeper school.

- Why didn't it work out?

- A well-known specialist from Montenegro, Petar Porobich, came to the club and brought the whole team of coaches with him.

Accordingly, I had to leave.

Didn't work out.

- In one of your interviews, I read that you are, in principle, against foreign coaches.

Is this position somehow connected with that story?

- Partly yes.

Observing their work, I realized that no foreigner is interested in raising competitors for himself.

No one will give out secrets, share any subtleties of the profession.

As practice shows, this always happens.

- But Radko Rudic, who played for Yugoslavia at the Moscow Olympics, works in other countries, but how did the coach win Olympic gold three times with the teams of three different countries?

- I think this is the very exception that confirms the general rule.

• Dynamo players and coaches with the main trophy of the Russian Cup

"There is no gol, so everything is fine"

- Playing at the goal, did you divide the opponents into comfortable and uncomfortable ones? 

- It was inconvenient to play with the Hungarians, with the Serbs.

I was even told that I had developed a certain complex in relation to these teams.

Now I understand that it is wrong for the goalkeeper to think that someone is comfortable and someone is not.

It was necessary to look at the situation completely differently, to tune in to it differently.

Much depends on the psychological preparation.

For example, I never liked the saying that coaches often repeated to us in childhood: you have to be able to play with dignity.

The idea seems to be such a noble one - do not yield to an opponent without a fight.

But in fact, it subconsciously gives the installation that you can lose.

And such words should not sound at all.

Especially when working with children.

They need to be taught how to win, not how to lose correctly.

- I would say that the goalkeeper is the most psychologically vulnerable role.

When Kabanov replaced you at the Games in Atlanta after the first lost match, as far as I remember, there was no unanimity even in the coaching staff.

I have heard the opinion that with the change of the goalkeeper at such a responsible tournament, the team involuntarily appears uncertain.

- In the next match with Yugoslavia they put me in the goal again.

After the second period we were losing, but we were able to equalize - 7: 7.

There was also a memorable moment when we played in the quarterfinals with the Hungarians at the World Championships in Rome, and, let's say, my game didn't go well.

And it did not go at all.

When the score was 1: 6, I was replaced by Dima Dugin, who pulled out that match.

Thanks to this, we reached the final stage and eventually took third place.

In the bronze medal match, the coaches entrusted the goal to me again.

- Football goalkeeper Dmitry Kharin once said that the goalkeeper must cling to his place to the last, even when he realizes that someone is capable of playing stronger than him.

Otherwise, you can lose it for a very long time. 

- In 2004, when the Olympic season began, I gave up the Games in Athens.

I thought that other goalkeepers who were involved in working with the national team were no worse than me, more stable.

And he just gave up his place.

It seemed to me in the interests of the team.

I was very uncomfortable with the thought that I was taking someone else's position, that I could fail, not justify trust.

But then, just before the Olympics, it happened that both the coaches and the guys called me back.

It was already a completely different situation - I felt that I needed.

- Which of the coaches was the hardest for you to work with?

- It is certainly more comfortable to work with a person with whom you can conduct a dialogue.

Who trusts, takes into account the opinion of senior players, as it was, for example, when I happened to work in Kazan "Sintez" under the leadership of Vladimir Nikolaevich Zakharov.

The team then consisted of three Serbs, several players from our national team.

Separately, it should be said about Andrey Belofastov, the most experienced center forward, the only player who won the Champions League with the South from Dubrovnik.

Of course, Vladimir Nikolaevich was interested in our opinion.

By that time, I already had a lot of experience, I played in Croatia, in Spain.

At the national team level, it was not easy.

And the coaches with me were hard.

Bad character, as they say.

• Maximov in Dynamo

- What, really really bad?

- Yes.

I react too harshly and emotionally to some moments.

Especially in his youth, this was different.

Now I sometimes think that some issues should have been resolved more diplomatically.

For example, it has always been difficult for me to talk to coaches who were once field players.

When you watch the game from the goal, there is always a slightly different look.

Sometimes it is fundamentally different.

In this regard, I was very comfortable working in the Spanish "Sabadel", which was led by the former goalkeeper Manel Silvestre.

We understood each other perfectly.

Sometimes he called the guys and said: "We act as Nikolai suggested."

- You spent one of the best periods of your career at Sabadell.

- When I was going to Spain for the second season, I was recovering from an injury.

It was necessary to strengthen my back, and I decided to turn to the guys who are engaged in bodybuilding.

Two trainers worked with me personally for four months.

During this time, I gained 10 kg.

I thought I couldn't play.

- In terms of?

- When I came to the pool, I could not swim 100 m normally - everything hurt.

He scolded himself: "Why did you do all this?"

The coaches calmed me down, explained in detail that everything would be fine.

For a month I put myself in order: I dropped all the pounds I gained, the fat was gone, only muscle mass remained.

And it really was the best season of my career, both in the club and in the national team.

The Russian national team won the World Cup, the World League, I was recognized as the best goalkeeper in the world.

"Sabadell" won the Spanish Super Cup, took second place in the national championship.  

- Have you ever been scared at the gate?

- I think everyone is afraid to make a mistake, to let the team down.

It never happens that someone is not afraid.   

- I mean the instinctive fear when the ball flies in the face, and you can't even think about how to cover yourself from the blow.

- Is it scary, a ball in your face?

Is this fear?

He doesn't even leave bruises.

There are worse things.

The main thing is that there is no goal.

Gol is not present, so everything is fine.

Well, if at the same time the ball flew in the face, then this is production costs.

Although there are quite serious concussions.

It is especially dangerous to get it in the head with a pumped ball.

- Is the degree of pumping controlled somehow?

- There are certain standards that are spelled out in the rules of the International Swimming Federation (FINA).

But, for example, at the Games in London there were very pumped balls, we could not adapt to them in any way.

They even brought special needles into the pool and lowered the shells to an acceptable level.

That Olympics turned out to be strange in general.

The water polo pool was made exactly to the very minimum FINA standards, with a depth of 1.80 m. And for the Croats, the average height of the players was two meters.

They all stood at the bottom and eventually became Olympic champions.  

"Pride can always be curbed"

- Is it true that in 2006 you were going to leave water polo for a monastery?

- No.

My friends and I were just trying to restore a church not far from the Diveyevo monastery, this became known to journalists and somehow quickly overgrown with all sorts of stories.

- In fact, I wanted to ask you, as a believer, not about this.

According to Christian canons, pride is considered one of the most terrible sins.

And what is great sport if not a manifestation of pride?

- It depends on how you look at it.

Not so long ago, a note was published on Facebook in memory of the hockey player of the Yaroslavl Lokomotiv Ivan Tkachenko, who was involved in charity work and made his last donation half an hour before his death - he transferred half a million rubles to the girl for the operation.

Is this not an example of how a person in his place serves a great cause?

Pride can always be curbed.

I never had a goal to be the coolest player in the world.

Admitted - good, nice.

But the main thing has always been not this.

And in not letting down those who believe in you: guys, team.

I always remembered that Russia was behind my back.

Even when I performed in Spain, I thought that I represent our country.

That people look at me as her representative.

And he tried to behave accordingly.

- Now you work in a team where most of the players are suitable for your sons by age.

Do you feel that they are different at all?

With different ideals, different values?

“They are really different, a different generation, but I don’t need to think about it.

My task is to do as well as possible the work for which I have been assigned.

Fight off everything that flies into the gate.

This is a job.

I try to focus on this.

- Do you have any career ambitions?

Join the national team as a player or coach, win the Olympics or at least win a million dollars in the lottery, go to Valaam and build a church there?

- I would very much like to keep our goalkeeper school.

I still remember how Goikhman once called us, 14-15-year-old boys, to the side and said: “You have something to do with Soviet water polo.

Carry this flag as high as we raised it. "

Maybe someday I will say the same words to my guys.

I would like all our winning goalkeeper experience to continue to live, to be used, applied.

Because, first of all, it all works.

Secondly, it is very consistent with what goalkeepers show at the international level, and besides, it becomes clear what the flaws are.

Some promising training methods that I use myself have already begun to bear fruit this season, so I plan to play another Olympic cycle at least.  

- You remembered Goykhman, but it seems to me that it was very difficult for your generation to correspond to the predecessors who won everything they could in water polo.

When you were a national team player, did you feel that you are constantly being compared and this comparison is not in your favor?

- I can say one thing: we tried very hard.

Probably, they could have played better somewhere, but what could have been done when, in the same Athens, our central striker Revaz Chomakhidze was sent off during the match with the Hungarians for three far-fetched mistakes?

For the fact that a man, swimming behind his back, suddenly began to flounder, showing that he was being held.

This happened often - we were always badly judged.  

- Do you regret anything in relation to your sports life?

- I regret that I did not even try to enter the Olympic Games in Beijing, although I was asked to.

But there were purely personal reasons for that.   

- And if you are called to the national team now, will you go?

- I asked several times to be hired as a coach.

Even if not in the first team, but at some age.

- I'm not talking about coaching now.

- To be honest, there are such thoughts.

It's just that this work is not one year.

We need to work out the entire Olympic cycle from scratch.

It is not enough to reach a certain level and maintain yourself in this state.

It is necessary to study all players, all potential rivals.

It would be nice to play in a club that will be represented in European competitions.

In other words, this is a complex and very difficult job.

We are not playing football in the yard.

Here you need a result, you need to win, you need to turn yourself inside out.

Therefore, I do not get too far in my thoughts.

There is a season that needs to be worked out.

And then we will see.