The southern part of the middle-of-nowhere Russia, around the Caucus Mountains, produces an incredibly large amount of world champion wrestlers, boxers, Sambo fighters and weightlifters. Some people say it’s because of the fresh water, air and food – because of the warrior temperament, and the high elevation. But the athlete selection process has something to do with it also.
***
An anecdote:
In 1999, a local coach gets access to a training facility in Kabardino-Balkaria, a region in the south of Russia. He invites 50 local kids to try out the sport of weightlifting. The kids are 12-14 years old, and all of them are eager to impress the coach and their peers. The coach knows how to find the athletes with the right characteristics for weightlifting. He gives them 3-6 hours of training every day for 2 months. Only the strong will survive. Within 3 weeks, the kids who don’t have the mental strength needed to endure the stress quit. The ones who don’t have the muscular endurance needed for the workload wash out. The ones who aren’t coordinated enough to do the lifts are asked to leave.
At this point, only 10 or so remain. They are determined and capable of working the hardest.
Over the following 5-6 weeks, the workouts get harder. Those without naturally good technique either get injured or can’t keep up with the increasing volume and intensity.
The coach knows that the ones who keep coming back will be able to withstand the workload needed to become the best in the world – the kids who will actually be a worthwhile investment.
At the end only 2 remain: Vasiliy Polovnikov and Khadzhimurat Akkaev.
***
The details of this story may be skewed, but this type of athlete selection process is relatively standard. This is a way in which many coaches select the people who they want to work with for years to come.
Khadzhimurat Akkaev and Vasiliy Polovnikov had something in them from the very get-go. Dmitry Klokov once said that Akkaev was born to be a weightlifter and Polovnikov was naturally stronger than a real human being should be. This is why they passed those first 2 months in Kabardino-Balkaria – they had everything that they needed to be good weightlifters from the start.
All champions are not born equal, nor are they selected for the same reasons and via the same process. Every coach has a unique list of characteristics they want in their athletes. Femur length, age of onset puberty, hand size – anything can play a role in a coach’s selection process. In the end, all coaches have the same intent – to select the athletes they believe they can coach to the highest level.
The coach was mr makkaev?
It’s everycoach, USSR.
i think culture and legacies plays huge part in finding talent. in my late teens i went through a similar “weeding out” process after applying for Special Forces military service. i’m sure that having grown up with stories about being from a linage of people with combat experience going back to the origination of the village, Laegreid, which is also my family name, was a major motivating factor.
Yes! Absolutely.
hey there and thank you for your information – I’ve definitely picked up anything
new from right here. I did however expertise some technical points using this site, since I experienced to reload the website a lot of times previous to I could get it to load
properly. I had been wondering if your web hosting is OK? Not that I am complaining,
but slow loading instances times will sometimes affect
your placement in google and can damage your quality score if advertising and marketing with Adwords.
Anyway I am adding this RSS to my email and can look out for a lot more of your respective fascinating content.
Ensure that you update this again soon.
I simply wanted to thank you very much once more. I do not know what I would have tried without these techniques shared by you regarding that subject matter. It was actually an absolute scary scenario in my position, nevertheless taking note of this specialized tactic you solved the issue took me to weep with happiness. Now i’m thankful for your support and thus sincerely hope you really know what an amazing job you have been putting in training the mediocre ones via your webpage. Most probably you haven’t met any of us. https://pamelornortriptyline.com/
You have made some good points there. I checked on the net to find out
more about the issue and found most people will go along
with your views on this web site.
I’m just commenting to let you be aware of of the fabulous discovery my cousin’s daughter experienced going through your site. She even learned lots of issues, most notably how it is like to have a very effective giving mindset to have many others just gain knowledge of chosen grueling matters. You really did more than our desires. Many thanks for distributing the important, healthy, educational and as well as easy thoughts on the topic to Gloria. https://wellbutrinbupropions.com/#
Definitely imagine that which you said. Your favorite justification seemed to be on the internet the easiest factor to take note of. I say to you, I definitely get irked whilst other people think about issues that they plainly do not understand about. You managed to hit the nail upon the top and defined out the entire thing with no need side-effects , people could take a signal. Will likely be again to get more. Thanks|
I like reading an article that can make men and women think.
Also, thanks for permitting me to comment!
Excellent way of explaining, and pleasant article to obtain data regarding
my presentation topic, which i am going to present in academy.
Hurrah, that’s what I was searching for, what a information!
present here at this webpage, thanks admin of this web page.
It’s remarkable for me to have a website, which is beneficial
in support of my know-how. thanks admin
Can you tell us more about this? I’d love to find out more details.
I wanted to thank you for this wonderful read!! I certainly enjoyed every
bit of it. I have you book-marked to look at new things you post…