Anna Ustsova, coach at the Alina Kabaeva Sky Grace Rhythmic Gymnastics Academy spoke about what the athletes learn in the classroom and assessed their success.
“We [Academy coaches] all have a base, our own knowledge. We are trying to pass this knowledge on to our children, to teach them what we learned a long time ago, being gymnasts ourselves,” Anna said.
She also added that Academy gymnasts do a special warm-up before training. “We help, correct a little, make suggestions. For example, diagonals are part of the warm-up here. We start with the feet, go through these diagonals on high toes so that they learn to stand on their toes for a long time, in the future these become elements. And, of course, all this falls into the exercise, it's necessary to have clear tunes, so that they can make rotations for a long time,” Anna said.
She also noted that the gymnasts who recently came to train at the Academy are already showing progress.
“The main thing is that they listen and hear, they try very hard. We all see progress. Suppose, even when we started to do this, they were looking for this balance, they were unstable, they constantly fell while doing these elements, and from our additional exercises. Now everything is clear, synchronous, beautiful. We are already enjoying it and showing, directing,” Anna said.
Currently, Donetsk gymnast Karolina Tarasova, as well as young athletes from Gatchina Elvira Belyaeva, Ksenia Savinova and Maria Myasnikova live and train at the Academy.