Komova on inbars, fear of injuries and becoming a coach

Viktoria Komova joined her teammate Angelina Melnikova at the local Voronezh radio station and talked about coming back from an injury and dealing with the fear, combining training and studies and working as a coach. She also mentioned that she and her coaches are thinking about completely restructuring her bars routine as she is still unable to add inbars (she currently has toe-on skills in her routine as place holders for inbars). Also, those little kids that scream with excitement when they see Komova are basically all of us.

Q: How were you able to overcome the multiple injuries and get to the top shape again? As we know, you recently won an all-around medal at the Russian Championships.

A: Yes. Well, it wasn’t so easy to overcome, it’s was a long treatment,  there was very strong mental pressure because the never-ending injuries kept bothering me. But anyway I recovered, managed this task and here I competed at the Russian Championships, took the third place there which I’m very happy about. I guess you can say it was my comeback.

Q: How hard was to compete after such a long break?

A: Well, it wasn’t my first competition [after the break] but it was a very serious one. Of course, there were nerves, lots of adrenaline, I was talking to myself in my head, calming myself down, and the fact that I was preparing for a long time helped me, of course.

Q: You were very emotional in London, did it pass already with growing up or anything can happen?

A: Everything’s in the past, I learned from the mistakes I had there and I let go of the rest and persuaded myself a long time ago that the second place at the Olympics isn’t so bad.

Q: How is your relationship with your teammate, Angelina Melnikova? On one hand, she’s younger and you’re more experienced, on the other hand, she’s now one of the team leaders and you’re just coming back.

A: Yes, Angelina’s doing a great job, she works a lot, she’s in top shape right now, she’s 16, she’s jumping, running – of course, she has a great potential. She’s doing pretty difficult elements, the ones that are hard for me. I’ll be honest, she’s doing some elements that I would probably never be able to do. But we’re helping each other, we don’t have a competition, we have good relationships on the team and help each other.

Q: Is she able to do these elements due to her young age?

A: Yes, she’s light, she’s strong. And she likes doing new elements very much. She’s always striving for new elements, trying something new, always experimenting.

Q: And in your case, do the consequences of the injury are still felt and that’s why it’s hard to experiment for now?

A: Well, yes. I’m a bit scared still. Despite the fact that I’ve been tumbling so much, had so much training load, and my back doesn’t bother me, I’m still a bit scared to go for some risky elements.

Q: But by now the serious issues have passed, right?

A: Of course, such injuries don’t heal without a trace. Sometimes my back hurts or my ankles on which I had surgeries start to hurt but nevertheless it doesn’t interfere with my training.

Q: What diet do you follow to be in shape?

A: Honestly, I don’t have any diets, I just keep my weight the same. Let’s say, I eat what I want. Well, if the weight is high, then, of course, I have to restrain from eating something in the evening and then the weight goes down.

Q: Where are you training now? Are you in the full training mode or there are still limitations?

A: Right now we have a short vacation after the competition, I came home, and on Sunday we have a training camp, I’m going to Moscow, to the Round Lake training center, that’s where our gym is, where we train.

Q: What are your plans for the closest future, are you preparing for some competition?

A: We have the Russian Cup in 1,5-2 months, I don’t remember exactly. Russian Cup, the selection for the European Championships and then a bit further World Championships. Of course, if I’ll make the team – I hope so.

Q: Can you talk about your daily schedule?

A: We now have two practices a day. We wake up, have breakfast, then there’s a practice at 9:30 am to 1 pm or 2 pm – depending on how fast people finish. Then we’re training from 4:30 pm and until 7-7:30 pm. And then, of course, there are recovery procedures, massage, treatment for those who need it.

Q: When you’re in Voronezh, do you rest more or do you train as well?

A: Generally, I train but since our gym isn’t so good, I have to lower the training load because I can’t do difficult elements here. And it’s hard to train here because there are a lot of people, the gym is small, the kids are running around. God forbid I land onto them or something. So, I have to decrease the training load here.

Q: How do the kids react when they see Viktoria Komova near them?

A: They start yelling: “Oh, Viktoria Komova’s here! Viktoria Komova!” It’s funny, of course, but, I don’t know, I’m not used to it because it hasn’t happened for a while. And they watched all the competition at Russian Championships now. I recently was outside the gym and the kids were coming from the school, so they’re started turning their heads to see me: “oh, Viktoria Komova!” They’re crossing the street and keep looking at me, I’m walking behind them, their minder’s telling them: “don’t turn, go ahead, what are you looking at?” but they keep staring at me. It was a bit awkward.

Q: Do people often stop you in the streets and ask for autographs?

A: No, actually, not so often. I’ve changed, people don’t recognize me. Perhaps, our people aren’t that interested in the sports, almost no one recognizes me.

Q: Have you thought already about what you’re going to do after you retire?

A: Not yet. But I want to say that I like working with kids, I like transmitting my skills to them, my thoughts, to give them what I know, give them tips, they like it. And I like to have a contact with them, when they’re looking into my eyes, they just want to hear something from me, some tip. Of course, I like it, I’d like to work with kids.

Q: How do you manage to avoid temptations like internet, clubs and so on? There’s so much stuff now in the 21st century.

A: I’m not that excited about all of it, I don’t really go out much. Of course, sometimes I go out with my friends, we have fun, how else, I’m 23 years old and I can allow myself to go out. But since I have a very busy training schedule, I rarely can do it, mostly I just stay home.

Q: But when you go out, do you mostly go to cafes, restaurants, movies?

A: We go to cafes, to the movies. Sometimes we just walk around, I can walk around the park with my friends, drive around, listen to the music, come over to friends’ houses, do a barbecue, just regular stuff. We don’t do anything unusual.

Q: How are your studies going? Are you able to combine them [with your training?

A: The studies are hard, of course, because they’re hard to combine with the training. I’m in a Masters program right now, I graduated from the Physical Education Institute and applied to the Pedagogical Institute’s Masters program, I’m studying there now.

Q: And what is your major at the Pedagogical Institute?

A: Physical education, it’s the same.

Q: So, a physical education teacher?

A: Yes, an instructor, a physical education teacher.

Q: Do you think there’s a new generation of strong gymnasts from Voronezh growing up? And could it happen one day that at least half the national team will consist of gymnasts from our city? Right now there are you and Angelina Melnikova.

A: Well, I’m not going to keep training forever. Actually, I very rarely visit the gym in Voronezh and I can’t watch what kids are there, whether they’re good. But I can say that not all coaches can bring a gymnast up to such a level. My coach has a little girl, she’s on the junior national team. But it’s hard to say anything now because she’s still little and no one knows what will happen. But regarding having a third of the team from Voronezh – I doubt it. Because there aren’t enough coaches and there aren’t enough kids for Voronezh. We only have one gym and all the coaches are young – perhaps they’re not so skilled yet. Generally, there are only two really good coaches – mine and Angelina’s – who prepared us. There are no others for now.

Q: In your opinion, how much bigger the gym in Voronezh has to be in order to train properly?

A: First of all, we need men’s gymnastics too, because we don’t have it at all, we don’t even have a men’s gym. That is, they’re training at the Physical Education institute but what can you train there, there are no pits to learn difficult elements – you won’t teach kids to land on hard surfaces from the start. Our gym also doesn’t have pits or a tumbling track, there is no special equipment that helps with progressions for little kids to more difficult elements. The gym has to be much bigger, definitely not like ours.

Q: Were you able to upgrade your routines?

A: I’ve been restoring my old routines now, I didn’t do anything new, I only restored all the old things. Now we’re going to be thinking about bars. After all, bars are my best event but since I grew up and my center of gravity has changed, I’m having a bit of trouble with one of the elements and we’ll possibly be changing the whole routine.

Q: Your mom is a coach, does she give you any tips?

A: No, my mom doesn’t interfere, she can only support me emotionally. But of course, if I’m making errors, she’ll tell me as a judge – where I didn’t raise a leg enough, where there will be a deduction, where I fell out of a turn, this kind of tips. But otherwise, she only supports me emotionally. Mostly, I work with Gennady Borisovich and Olga Mitrofanovna.

Q: Do they take pity on you considering that you had a serious injury?

A: No. At first, they told me to be careful but now the coach is like “let’s go, nothing hurts already, you’re a healthy person, let’s work, nothing bad will happen”. Now they’ve started treating me seriously, persuading me that I’m ok. I am really ok but I guess I just don’t believe it and so every day they’re like: “you’re ok, you’re not in pain, you’re healthy, that’s it, you can progress, you can tumble, you can run, everything’s ok”.

Q: Do you think that you’d need to work with a psychologist on that matter or you’re managing by yourself?

A: No, I’m managing, generally. It’s all in my head. I think that psychologists are needed, in general, but I’ve been managing for now.

Q: You’re probably already thinking over and over how you’ll compete at Euros, at Worlds, at other major competitions. Can you tell how are currently your serious opponents internationally?

A: I can honestly say that for now my routines are likely ready for an international competition but I still need to work on execution and on difficulty because I’m looking at others and realizing that my routines are not yet ready to present on a major stage. perhaps it’s just my self-doubt but nevertheless, my opinion is that I still need to work a lot in order to compete. I’m generally ready, my goal is to go out and do everything cleanly and beautifully. And then everything will be fine and I’ll get the scores. I guess the most important thing is to work.

Q: You said that the routines are generally the same as before the injury. In your opinion, how much do you need to upgrade them in order to be on the same level as perhaps the Americans or our leading gymnasts?

A: I need to raise my difficulty score by 0.3-0.4 on every event, to add more difficult elements on each event. Either to clean up so that I would do the routines perfectly or to raise the difficulty so that I would have a room for a small mistake.

Q: Who of the leading gymnasts are your main competitors internationally now?

A: You know, this season I practically haven’t seen any of the international gymnasts. I guess the first competition where everyone will be present is European Championships and there we’ll see who’s training how, what they are doing. I can’t really say anything now – perhaps, there are new gymnasts, perhaps there are old ones. For now, frankly, I haven’t heard anything and there were no World Championships after the Olympics*. It’s hard to say anything now because the rosters are changing on all the team and new gymnasts may appear. I can’t say anything about others because there aren’t really any videos online. Well, there are bits and pieces but it doesn’t mean anything. That is, I haven’t seen any full routines from anyone.

Q: Viktoria, do you think gymnastics became much younger? In figure skating now, little girls are competing, and what is happening in gymnastics?

A: Our sport is generally young, all new gymnasts appear at 16 and there are a lot of new ones, the old ones are gradually retiring. Those with whom I competed – Iordache’s recovering, she was also injured, Diana Bulimar’s injured, many Americans retired, almost everyone, I guess. Biles is coming back, looks like.

Q: What is the age limit in gymnastics now after which people will start giving you looks like it’s time to retire?

A: Generally, we don’t have an age limit. We have Oksana Chusovitina competing, she’s 42 or 43, I don’t remember exactly, she’s still competing. But generally it’s a young sport, from 16 and till 25-27 years old, that’s the maximum.

Q: Would you be able to follow Chusovitina’s example?

A: No, definitely not.  I probably wouldn’t be able to stay for so many years in gymnastics, I want to have a normal life, too. I think gymnastics is a young sport and it’s hard to train at such an age already.

Q: You said you like coaching. Do you take notes on what your coaches are doing?

A: No, it’s all in my head, I remember everything, how I was taught everything, since I was seven years old, all the exercises. Well, naturally, I go over everything in my head sometimes. When I stopped training, when I had the back injury, I was going over the practice schedule – where what was, what to teach to the kids. Because I’ve already been to the gym, I worked [as a coach], I have such an experience and I liked it but I didn’t take notes.

Q: So, coaching is your priority?

A: Honestly, I can’t say now. For now, I’m competing, everything’s good for me in the sport, I’m training, competing, I don’t have any thoughts about the future. For now, my goal is Tokyo 2020.

Q: Or perhaps, you’re planning to focus on your personal life?

A: Well, perhaps, afterward. Of course, personal life – I already need [to do something].

Q: But for now you don’t have any plans to get married?

A: For now, no, I don’t.

 

 

*I don’t know why Komova said there were no Worlds in this quad, perhaps she meant that there were no TEAM Worlds, as the individual Worlds took place in Montreal in 2017.

 

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