In September 2007, a small delegation of representatives from Glasgow council visited the city of Rostov-On-Don, Russia, an urban centre of 1.2m people that sits on the southern hinge of the East European plateau.

Amongst the group was Angie Porter, Director of the Glasgow School of Sport (GSOS) at Bellahouston Academy.  She wasn’t sure when she went out there what to expect.  At a base level, she was hoping for the opportunity to set up some reciprocal links between her city and theirs.  Swapping ‘like for like,’ as she puts it.

At the GSOS, Angie is responsible for the sporting and academic development of some of Scotland’s finest young athletes.  They are being trained to represent Scotland and Britain at the highest level.  So she is obviously always on the lookout for openings to help advance the progress of her pupils.  They were not short on the ground in Rostov.  And when Angie met Vladimir Fudimova, suddenly a world of opportunity was opened up to her and her school.

Vladimir was introduced as the Head of the Russian Olympic Reserve School No 2.  The school specialises in gymnastics, and its sole aim to produce athletes who will win at the Olympic Games.  And that was where Angie’s adventure began.

“I had gone out with no expectation,” she exclaims.  “Glasgow has been a twin city of Rostov for 22 years but no links had been developed in sport, I was hoping the School of Sport could be the first. I didn’t even know they had an Olympic Reserve School in Rostov! 

“I was welcomed by Vladimir, and taken by minibus to see the school.  I walked in and there were 130 gymnasts in one area, practicing their gymnastics.  And that wasn’t because I was visiting, that’s normal!  When I looked round the facility, there were five other gymnastics halls, full of kids, from talented beginners, right the way through to their Olympic Champions.”

Vladimir’s Olympic Reserve School has over 1,000 pupils, aged between 5 and 18.  The facility is regarded as one of the best gymnastic complexes in Russia.  That’s like having the best tea in China, or the best burger in America.  It’s no mean feat.

The children who attend the school, are selected from the surrounding kindergartens and primary schools by Vladimir and his colleagues.  A typical day at the Reserve School, where the kids board full time from the day they enrol, entails six hours of training, six hours of lessons, plus meals.  That may seem excessive for children so young.  Indeed, it would make any British parent shudder at the thought of their child being worked so hard. 

But it is said that an athlete needs about ten years of practice and preparation to become an Olympic or World champion.  This is why so many Russian gymnasts are on the podium before they even reach their mid-teens.  And why so few Britons do likewise.

The cartoon dollar signs – or in this case, pommel horses – shot up in front of Angie’s eyes.  Here was a chance to expose the gymnasts at her school to one of the most successful athletic development models in the world.  Quickly making friends with Vladimir, she has since organised for her very own delegate of gymnastics pupils and coaches to go out to his school Rostov, and there are even talks ongoing about bringing one of Vladimir’s expert coaches over to work in Scotland on a full-time contract, in the build up to the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2014.

And, just last month (May), Vladimir, accompanied by two coaches (one of whom is his wife) and several star pupils, touched down in Glasgow, ready to share their secrets with Scotland’s top talent.  Or, if not their secrets, at least a little bit of their knowledge and experience from operating at the very top level. 

Vladimir and his entourage spent several days in Scotland.  His coaches worked with the gymnasts at the GSOS, his pupils made friends with them.  They went for day trips to see the country.  And they put on a couple of shows for the Scottish public.

The reason for their visit is obvious, says Angie.   They can have more of an impact upon the gymnastics community in a few days than most people could have in a lifetime, such is the calibre of their programme back in Russia.  So what makes the Russian system so special?

“Without offending the gymnastics community, I would say it’s mainly cultural,” she says.  “Gymnastics is a huge sport over there, but also, sport in general is viewed differently.  If you are a successful sports person in Russia, it is considered as good as being a philosopher or a scientist, someone who has achieved something great.  You are placed on a pedestal.

“Much like Glasgow, not everybody is from an advantaged background, and sport for them offers a way out.  The children are worked hard, but they are happy to do to it.  You need to be, because if you slip doing that you could do more than break a nail.”

Vladimir, speaking through an interpreter, backs up Angie’s comments.  Speaking exclusively to In The Winning Zone on the afternoon of their last day in Scotland, he told us the many benefits of gaining a coveted place in his school.

“I have been a fanatic all my life.  My wife is a coach, we are a gymnastics family, we are devoted to the sport.  My goal is to achieve the highest results. 

“Yes, it is difficult for young children to train so much, as well as getting their education.  But we never force anyone.  And we always start off just playing.  A child gathers their own interest, playing on the trampoline.  And children are never frightened to do anything.  I couldn’t train an adult to be a gymnast. If you have an impulse, a fear of getting hurt, it would be difficult to train you.  But a child can be put on the beam at the age of five.”

The school, and the system, undoubtedly works.  The pedigree of its graduates is seriously impressive, with Sydney 2000 medal winner Elena Produnova and Athens 2004 medallist Maria Kruychkova amongst them.  The training halls in the school are named after its greatest pupils, Elena and Maria included.  The current generation are determined to see their names on the wall too.  They are not happy to just qualify for the Olympics, they want to finish in the medal position.  That’s how high the standards are, as Angie confirms.

“I was chatting with the Russian gymnasts after their first show, telling them that their performance was magnificent.  And the coach turned round and said, ‘no, this is not magnificent’.  They started discussing things amongst themselves and I’m sure they were saying it could have been done much better.  They are so completely motivated to be the best in the world, and that’s their vision.  Ours is 2014.  That’s the big motivator for us.  Hopefully this exchange will help us achieve something there.”

So what was the appeal of Scotland to Vladimir and his school?

“They [the pupils] won’t learn much technically, but we followed another aim when we came here.  We are eager to give what we can from a technical point of view to our Scottish colleagues, but we also came to bring some cultural experience back, and friendship.”

Such is the disparity between Scottish and Russian gymnastics, there was never going to be much the Reserve School pupils and coaches could learn from their peers in Glasgow.  But when Angie Porter sends her team out to Rostov, the lessons they learn could help to bridge that gap, if only by a tiny margin.

“When they come to Russia, they will be trained hard,” says Vladimir sternly, but with a hint of a grin as well.  “It will be much harder than anything they have done here.  And there will be no mums and dads around either!  They will live at the school, train, have meals and rest.  But we will have fun too.  We will walk around Rostov and enjoy the city and its food – we have lots of nice pastry shops.”

Angie, meanwhile, will be trying in vain to help her pupils eradicate baked sweets and savouries from her pupils’ diets on their visit.  They get enough of them at home.  But she can still envisage a wealth of benefits from the exchange.

“The gap is big in Olympic terms, but maybe the exchange will inspire everyone to actually do something with their own sport and see that they aren’t that different from the Russians.  There might be a different language, and a different environment, but they are all looking for the same thing.  Hopefully the gap will get smaller, and hopefully one day we can talk about Olympic success. 

“We are going to send three coaches as well.  They’ll go out and they will learn from the setup there, the techniques and styles of coaching.  They will bring something back that everyone can benefit from, not just the gymnasts who are out there. 

“Long term, I think it is a mixture of the coaches going out there and bringing the knowledge back, but the young gymnasts going out there and being inspired is very important too.  If they don’t go to the Olympic Games, that’s OK.  Maybe they can make selection for 2014.  And if they don’t do that, that’s OK too.  Maybe they want to coach.  The main thing is they come back with a passion for sport, and that they want to share that with other people.”

Russia, here we come!

RO
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