Belorussian WAG has been going through many changes in the past few years. Valery Kolodinsky, Elena Piskun’s personal coach and a former national team head coach was one of the people up for this position in 2013 but the job offer fell through. For the past two years, Olga Barkalova led the WAG team and now she is being joined by Valery Kolodynsky who will assume the head coach position again. Belarus WAG has two head coaches positions with one being more hands-on with the national team(which Barkalova will continue doing) and another being more in charge of the team development and strategy (which Kolodynsky will be doing). Kolodynsky left Belarus in 2004 and spent 10 years coaching in the Australian Institute of Sport (among others, he coached a 2006 Commonwealth Games champion Hollie Dykes). He came back home in 2013 hoping to get the head coach job again and decided to stay even when the job situation didn’t work out since his daughter, a World Champion wrestler, just gave birth and asked him to help her get back in shape.
In an interview with the Belorussian Gymnastics Federation, Kolodynsky talked about his plans for the team.
Q: How hard was it for you to decide to become the head coach of the women’s team again?
A: Not hard, I already had a successful experience in this position. By the way, one of the reasons for my return from Australia was an opportunity to coach at home. Back in 2013, we talked about the possibility of working with the national team. But then there were structural changes in the Ministry of Sports and a decision was made to keep the previous coaching team. I went back to my native Bobruysk and, basically, have been taking a break. That is, I worked, but not at the same level. I’ve always given an example: a university professor came back to a kindergarten to teach children how to read. I’m glad that now I was given an opportunity to apply my knowledge and experience. I hope everything works out. The formula of success is simple: a talented athlete and a talented coach.
Q: Your family likely supported this decision…
A: The opinions were divided. My daughter Vanessa who’s a successful athlete congratulated me, but my brother was skeptical, same as the coaches who I invited to work with me in Australia in the past. But there’s an opposite example as well. Yesterday, I talked to one of my pupils who lives in America now, she supported me, said “finally”. She has two daughters, both are doing gymnastics and the youngest one is at a very high level. A year and a half ago she told me: “If you were the head coach, I would want Polina to compete for Belarus”. Why not, if she will make the team according to her results. She was born in our country, she has Belorussian citizenship. Such an attitude is a sign of respect for me as a coach.
Q: What will you do first in your new role?
A: I have a lot of plans. First, I want to visit all the schools and see for myself how the coaches are working, how the gymnasts are training, in what conditions. Tomorrow, I’ll be in Gomel, then in Grodno, and going on from there around the country. Usually, the head coach says: pass the athletes to me and I’ll work with them. But when there are no results, we often hear that those athletes came to the national team unprepared. Or another example – you send the athletes to the national team and they regress. There should be a connection between the center and the regions. The head coaches, including myself, used to not give any homework to the regions and if they did, they never fully controlled how it was done. You live, you learn. Right now, after Australia, I’m more prepared for the position of the head coach than back then when I held this position. I’ve acquired priceless experience, and I’m sure of myself in terms of technique. You can achieve a lot with the right organization. Australia has a population of 25 million, gymnastics is not a major national sport, but the Australians won over Japan, Canada, and Brazil where Ostapenko, Mishchenko and other strong Russian and Ukrainian coaches worked and gymnastics got extra attention. And the population of Brazil is ten times larger, it makes the selection easier.
Q: What do you expect from the Belorussian team at the European Championships?
A: I was at the last camp before the competition. I didn’t interfere with the process much, that would not be ethical. Especially since changing something at the last moment is wrong – that could be detrimental for young athletes. The team is quite ready. Anastasia Alistratava made a final at the junior European Championships last year, she is more experience now and I hope she’ll be able to repeat this success.
Photo: Belarus Today
Support Gymnovosti on Patreon from only $1 a month and help us bring to you even more awesome gymnastics coverage!
Buy cool gymnastics-themed t-shirts, hoodies, pillows, phone cases, and more at our store on Teepublic!
