- A little over a year before the Tokyo Olympics, you said that you were not too worried about the forced isolation and provided for any development of the situation. How real were you ready for the fact that Lasitskene in the last months before the Games will start to lose, get injured?
- In order to understand why this happened, you have to go back.
In previous seasons, Masha has already done a good job of rolling herself, her form.
She competed for several years in a row in a company where it was necessary to constantly work to the limit.
Accordingly, I got used to it, and at the beginning of 2020 was in very good condition.
Therefore, in fact, I did not worry that the break in performances due to the pandemic and the related quarantine is taking longer than usual.
But then, when the international starts resumed, for some time we could not go to them for reasons beyond our control, let's put it this way.
And the starts, in which Masha could take part, turned out to be not a very adequate substitute for those tournaments that were needed to prepare for the Games.
- Wasn't there the usual competition?
- Including. Remember, when we talked last time, I told you that all starts are conventionally divided into technical and psychological ones? The latter are distinguished by the fact that the athlete bears the greatest responsibility. At such tournaments, serious rivals compete with whom you need to fight, heights are declared, which an athlete can take only by maximizing his inner reserves in an extremely stressful state. In order to bring Masha to the main start in an ideally possible form, it was necessary to collect a certain number of both psychological and technical starts, alternating them in a certain sequence depending on the current state of the athlete. And here we were deprived of one of the components - psychological starts. And for two seasons they competed on the site, where the height of 190 cm began to be perceived,how very serious. Although before the start of the pandemic, I seriously thought that it was time for us to move to 190 as the starting altitude.
- Is it psychologically difficult to raise the starting height bar by 5 cm?
- It's not about psychology.
Simply in this case, Masha would have to wait too long for the start of her performances, while other girls compete at lower heights.
So I racked my brains then: what should be the warm-up system so that by 190 it would not cool down and immediately start jumping at full strength.
But after a break in serious performances, having lost the usual level of competition and the usual struggle at a high level of results, we were faced with the fact that the height of 190 begins to become, in a sense, critical.
In this regard, a kind of psychological barrier began to appear in Masha.
And this led to the fact that the jumping technique began to fall apart.
This was not always the case, but I saw that the usual course of preparation was disrupted.
- Do you mean the period when Lasickene took seventh place, performing at the tournament in Germany in May 2021?
- All this was already a consequence.
And Germany, and the stage of the Diamond League that was unsuccessful for us.
Having lost her psychological start, Masha lost the ability to carry out some of my guidelines.
We tried with all our might to get out of this pit, but it was very difficult to do it without psychological starts.
- Didn't you panic with the understanding that something needs to be changed urgently, but there is no time left for that?
- Any coach has similar doubts.
No matter how the training process develops, there is an ongoing internal search, analysis, psychoanalysis.
- These are all very correct words, but I'm trying to imagine a real picture of that period. Masha is “falling apart” before our eyes, starts to lose, the result falls, you internally twitch about this and, perhaps, seriously, but at the same time you cannot show your doubts to the athlete. Or can you?
- I would not like to talk about this now, because Masha can read it.
This does not mean that there are any secrets between us, it just has certain boundaries where I, as a coach, should not allow an athlete.
After all, my method is based primarily on psychological impact.
And any superfluous word can lead to a big step back.
- An outstanding gymnastic specialist Leonid Arkaev once said that when an athlete has an injury, it is 90% of the coach's fault.
- Undoubtedly.
I can tell you what happened with us.
When Masha lost the opportunity to compete, she was, figuratively speaking, locked in a cage like a bird.
The bird in such a situation stops singing, stops flying.
And, even if the cage is suddenly opened, it takes time for the old skills to recover.
When our familiar training system was on the path of destruction, I had to look for the correct algorithm on the fly so that Masha would regain the ability to perceive and carry out my instructions.
It was possible to put all this back in the subconscious only with the help of multiple repetitions.
But the fact is that there was very little time.
Therefore, in fact, the injury occurred: I combined in one training several things at once, which during the normal course of the training process I did in different periods.
- At that moment, did you realize that you were taking a big risk?
- Of course.
Usually, do not expect good from such situations: there will be either a loss of technique and a long return to the previous effective level, or injury.
We got injured.
Fortunately, she was not so critical as not to return to duty.
We were very lucky with the team of doctors at the clinic of Eduard Bezuglov, thanks to whom the recovery was of a very high quality.
In the process of gradual entry into work under the very strict supervision of the rehabilitation physician Igor Stepanov, we acquired such, say, temporary backlash in order to adapt Masha to new installations.
- In other words, did the trauma allow you to completely reprogram both physically and psychologically?
- Exactly.
The injury distracted me from the main problem, and the values changed.
- Formally, Masha was not selected for the Games, having missed the national championship. Did you have any agreements with the leadership of the All-Russian Athletics Federation in this regard?
- We had an intention to participate in the Russian championship.
But, if we got injured, we went to the ARAF Council with a request to allow us to skip the national selection, so as not to speed up recovery.
They went to meet us.
Well, Masha and I justified our trust.
- You once said that Lasitskene is especially good at concentrating when it is hard and scary for her.
- This is true.
- It turns out that the episode that happened in the Olympic qualification, when your athlete balanced on the brink of relegation, twice not taking 195, was the very factor that mobilized her to further performances?
- Absolutely right.
- And you absolutely, did not doubt that Masha would take the height on the third attempt and go to the final?
- Well, first of all, I never doubted Masha, nor did I doubt our training system.
The starts that we had after the injury before the Olympic Games were very encouraging in this regard.
Masha was already running well and jumping without mistakes, and she was psychologically ready for anything.
I saw that she was ready for serious starts, and would certainly do a miracle there.
And so it happened.
- What does your first Olympic experience say: Are the Games the same competition as other major tournaments, or something completely different?
- Completely different.
Even taking into account the empty stadium, without spectators, the feeling was so exciting and at the same time so solemn that even before the performance I realized: this is the very, very peak, the brightest psychological start that Masha and I have to go through.
- What was the most difficult moment of the Games for you?
- The day before the competition.
- And what is going on in the coaching head on this day?
- Everything is very difficult.
Mentally, you seem to be experiencing tomorrow, but you discard all fantasies, all thoughts of competition, all assumptions from your head.
I usually try to calm down before responsible starts, not to give in to unnecessary thoughts, and so on.
But in the Olympic Village, three nights before the competition, I could not sleep at all.
I tried, tossed and turned, but in the end I got dressed and went outside.
I walked around the town with headphones, listened to music, tried to distract myself.
I wound up 20-odd kilometers every night.
I replayed all the settings in my head, meditated in my own way.
But the more I tried to distract myself from thoughts about the upcoming performance, the worse it turned out.
- Did they try to distract Masha somehow?
- No.
I don't touch it at all before the start.
I'm not talking about starts, technique, or competitions.
- But you probably understood that in the head of your athlete is about the same thing as in you.
- I understood.
But in such situations, I think, the athlete should cook with his own thoughts.
Let it all settle in the head in a natural way, in natural layers, so that at the start, when a person enters the stadium and gets into a stressful situation, the most violent reaction occurs.
- If Lasitskene had not won in Tokyo, would it have been a tragedy for you?
- I do not know. I would certainly be upset. But I am absolutely convinced: we would not give up and went further. Incidentally, I cannot say that we went to Tokyo with the idea that the gold would be 100% ours. Before every start, I generally allow anything. No wonder there is a saying: until you jump over, do not say "hop". So it is here: despite the fact that you can be well prepared, wish yourself success, be absolutely confident in your abilities, that you will win, you need to be able to focus more on doing everything right, to give your best. Although now I can admit that there were a lot of elements of doubt before the Tokyo Games. How many passes, loss of shape, injury, and so on. We were certainly lucky in the sense that we were able to process all this negative into a very powerful positive. Although I still regret that so many starts were lost.If this had not happened, maybe now Masha would have jumped even higher.
- Lasitskene said in one of her last interviews that she still did not have time to feel like an Olympic champion. Have you managed to feel like a coach of the winner of the Games?
- Honestly, no.
Right now I’m reading the press or watching some videos that talk about Masha as an Olympic champion, and I find myself thinking that I need a little time to realize that this is my Masha.
This is a very pleasant feeling, very pleasant.
Giving both inspiration and strength for further work.
And I am very happy.
- By the way, when you woke up in Tokyo the next morning after the victory, did not the thought flicker in your head that you just dreamed of the Olympic final?
- To be honest, I slept very well after the competition. You know, on the one hand, there appeared some unusual state of semi-indifference, but at the same time - a colossal inner freedom and tranquility. As if all the tension that had been accumulating for a long time disappeared somewhere at once, released at once. It was also a very pleasant feeling. Although I never fully realized what actually happened in Tokyo. Most of all I am glad for Masha that her dreams have come true. Proud and very happy that my system worked. I am proud that Masha, as an athlete, helped me to such an extent and continues to help with her trust, her performance, her diligence. That she has acquired a very great sporting happiness for the rest of her life, against the background of which everything that we had to go through fades.
- Are the current performances of Lasitskene in the Diamond League on the wave of post-Olympic euphoria, or is it just a duty that must be endured, having endured the season to the end?
- Definitely not a duty.
Masha is a four-time winner of the overall standings of the Diamond League and, of course, I would like to perform well this season too.
- How do you assess in this regard the second place of your athlete at the stage in Paris with an equal result with the winner? Is this a failure or a working moment?
- To take 198 at the previous start and show the same result in a little over a day - an excellent result, which I definitely cannot call a failure.
For us, the current stages of the Diamond League are very good both psychological and technical starts, an excellent groundwork for the next season, and for the entire Olympic cycle that has already begun.
- Does this mean that Lasitskene has already decided to perform for the next three years?
- Well, of course, we have the idea of preparing for the next Olympics and performing in Paris.
Another question is that it is very difficult to think of something now, because it is not known what will happen after the end of the season.
If only there were no surprises again.
- Do you set any sports goals for the student in the remaining three performances of the Diamond League? Or you just intend to compete for fun, whatever happens.
- I would say that a kind of symbiosis is observed here.
The Diamond League is, of course, a responsible psychological start, where our main task is still to jump as high as possible.
At the same time, I see that Masha is performing in a very relaxed manner.
- You yourself once said that a relaxed body is a strong body.
- Yes. It's just that we have never experienced the pleasure of the process to such an extent. There was always responsibility in my head, the need to control many technical issues, to show a certain level of results. Now Masha just jumps for the soul. Perhaps for the first time in my life.