“This is our first time in luxurious conditions like this!” Coach Anna Bitieva talks about training at the Academy

As part of the Trade Union physical culture and sports society Anna Bitieva, a coach and participant in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, came to the training camp at the Academy along with her students.

She shared her impressions of her stay and training.

“It’s our first time in such luxurious conditions. Thanks to Alina Kabaeva for this opportunity for the children, for the coaches, of course, it’s just great. And a hall with so many carpets, height, convenience, comfort, equipment, and a dining room for children. There is everything here, you don’t have to run anywhere, everything is under one roof.  It is very comfortable,” Anna said. 

The coach spoke in detail about the details of the athletes’ activities.

“Today we studied boomerangs, interesting work with the objects, since the ribbon is quite complicated and a lot of time is devoted to it at these training camps, because both big children and little ones need to learn to find something interesting, some boomerangs, risks, elements, And this is what we’re doing. I can say that almost all of the children learned how to do it today. Interesting and complicated boomerangs seem not to be in use as much now, but if you look at the criteria, you can choose something interesting for the exercise,” she said. 

She added that gymnasts at the training camp have classes in various areas.

“The children’s workload is quite large, there are a lot of diverse activities. That is, they have approximately 6 hours a day of very diverse work: warm-up, object training, specialized training, stretching, dancing, and the pool. We have a wide range of knowledge here. Today I have three groups with ribbons plus a warm-up. After lunch, jump ropes and specific training will start, certain strength exercises for specific muscle groups, working out certain elements. If you work at full strength, a lot of knowledge is given here both for children and for coaches, as it were. In my free time, I also go to classes, listen to something new, take something for myself, because our sport is developing very quickly and there is always something new,” Anna said. 

The coach also noted the level of competition according to the International Sky Grace Rhythmic Gymnastics Clubs Association rules.

“ Next year we would like to try to take our children to the competition held by Sky Grace. We are used to the FIG rules, but Sky Grace is something new, interesting, something we haven’t tried,” she said. 

The Trade Union physical culture and sports society training camp is held at the Academy, April 30 to May 8.