To say that swimming is one of the most useful activities for a person is, of course, banal. But why to become champions, how to overcome fears, when you want to learn to swim, how to become a swimmer and achieve the desired results – that is a question. The Zhytomyr.Travel editorial office was looking for an answer together with Alla Kruk, a senior lecturer at the Ivan Franko Zhytomyr State University, a judge of the National Swimming Category and a swimming coach with extensive experience
«I came to sports on my own, it was my personal desire. My parents were indirectly involved in sports: my father went skiing and, and my mother did gymnastics. They had some results in their area»
«Once before the third grade, in the summer, I went to sea for the first time – my parents and I went on vacation to Evpatoria, and there they taught me to swim. Then I really enjoyed diving, doing certain exercises, I was impressed by the amount of water. Not everyone is comfortable, but I really like the state of weightlessness, and the only place on earth where the state of weightlessness is reproduced is water. And when in the winter I came across my mother’s magazine, which showed that children swim not only in the sea, but also in the pool, I immediately asked to take me there. A year after the trip to the sea, I came to my first training. Then I thought that I knew and could do everything, but immediately began to sink, because I climbed to the depths. The coach pulled me out and made me «catch up». At first I didn’t have any special results, I was a mediocre athlete. However, over time, I was absorbed in swimming, and I am «sick» with it for life»
«My first sports competitions were in the eighth grade. I swam a distance of 100 meters, it was very difficult. I was not trained so well to show high results. Then I lost to many, and it affected me: I wanted to be the first. So I started to improve and achieved the desired result. I became a record holder, champion of the region, won prizes at the championships of Ukraine.
«I am comfortable on stayer distances, where you need to swim for a long time, but not at maximum speed. This is difficult because it requires endurance. I have a natural endurance that was given to me by my parents. I improved on 800, 1500 meters freestyle, 200 «dolphin», 400 – complex. By the way, I inherited these same distances to my son and brother. My son once became an eleven-time regional champion. Now he, like me, works as a coach. I hear good feedback from people, it makes me very happy as a mother. I even «planted» my husband to swim, even though he is a volleyball player»
«There are no small things in sports. Athletes largely deny themselves to achieve results. You need to pay attention to everything, because success does not come by chance. There must be a daily routine. If you fall out of this general routine, it will have a bad effect on recovery, on training. You have to give up certain benefits of society, but if you have a goal to stand on a pedestal, then sports themselves will be fun. When I studied at the Kyiv Sports Boarding School, we trained three times a day, and in our free time we had a school. However, first of all there was sport. The loads were great, very often after training we just fell into bed, but the motivation added strength»
«My mother thought that because of sports I would do poorly in school. When she came to the coach, he led her to the window where the children were sitting on a bench drinking beer and asked, «Do you want her to be there? Take her away». The child who is usually busy in sports, never thinks about drinking, drugs – there is a goal, and the child goes to it. And uninterested kids are looking for adventures, and eventually find them»
«Everything I did was interesting to my parents, and I’m grateful to them for that. If something didn’t work out for me, I went to them for advice. I had «iron» support. My parents are my pride. My father was an excellent public educator, Honored Teacher of Ukraine, and my mother – a speech therapist, a leading speech pathologist in the region. It was she who created the network of speech therapy centers that now exist. I am very proud of my parents and I think if they had lived to this day, they would also be proud of me»
«My whole life is spent swimming. I started my coaching career at the age of 16. After school, at the request of my parents, I entered the University of National Economy and did not enter. Then I went to the pool to my coach Anatoly Kryukov, who offered me a job at the Instructor Training Center. When I was trained, I was not accepted as an instructor because of my age: I was still a minor, so I had no right to take responsibility for the lives and health of children. But my coach wrote a receipt stating that he took full responsibility. Then I was immediately admitted to coaching»
«When the Faculty of Physical Education and Sports began its activities, I was offered to become a teacher at ZhSU named after I. Franko. By the way, that’s when I won the competition «Teacher of the Year». I really enjoy working with students, I feel like this is my niche. I currently have 42 years of teaching experience»
«The authority of a coach consists of many components. The coach must be demanding, fair and kind. Just good, not kind. An extremely strict coach will push children away. Love for children is also important – in coaching practice it is immediately apparent. However, children shouldn`t be always praised – it is worth knowing the measure. If something does not work out for the child, he should be supported, encouraged to show interest»
«There is nowhere to go swimming in Zhytomyr – our pool is too crowded due to the development of other sports, such as pentathlon and triathlon. There is no possibility to train children normally, so if we reach a certain level, we try to send children to sports boarding schools. It is there that they will be able to achieve high sports results. Recently, our guys Bubon Georgiy and Datsun Oleksiy met the standards of masters of sports. However, they study in Kyiv and can swim in a 50-meter pool, while in Zhytomyr only 25 meters. Unfortunately, we have been swimming on a limited number of tracks lately, and swimmers need to have good conditions for training. Yes, we have the opportunity to learn to swim, but to train – no. Zhytomyr lacks pools: in fact, we have only one for 52 years»
«I didn’t finish my sports career – I compete, but in a different age category, which changes every five years. Athletes usually swim actively until the age of 25, and they play in the national team of Ukraine as long as they can play for the national team with their results. Those who want to continue swimming continue their training and compete in sports veterans. The first category of sports veterans is 25-30 years old, and the last is 90+. My coach now also competes in this category and is a world record holder and European champion. He is now 87 years old»
«If a person is afraid of water, it is necessary to find out the cause of fear: it may be a child’s fear or acquired. Perhaps a person once saw something in the water that scared her. Even when parents bathe a small child and accidentally pour cold or too hot water on it, fear is recorded in the subconscious. Ordinary conversations can also cause fear. Often adults do not hesitate to say to children what they should not hear. If the fear is pathological, you need to see a psychologist. And only then you can go to the pool. Let’s start with a simple lesson – walking on the bottom»
«Athletic character is the ability not to succumb to the blows of fate. Most athletes are hardened, they do not give up at the first failure and achieve their goal. My goal is to teach children to swim. Drowning statistics are simply frightening, because people, unable to swim, go into the water and get drown. Some swimmers misbehave in the water. I have had cases when I rescued people on the water – I have a professional vision of the water, “pass” through my eyes. Probably such a vocation… One day an old lady came to me with flowers to thank me for teaching her seven-year-old granddaughter to swim. As it turned out, the girl slipped and fell into a deep fountain, but was able to stay afloat. For the sake of such moments we live»
