Tatyana Samolenko: “When I came to your city for the first time, I remembered my youth”
From August 18 to 23, the Olga Rypakova Athletics Center hosted advanced training courses for coaches. The 1988 Olympic champion in the 3000 m Samoylenko Tatyana Vladimirovna, together with her husband, the USSR decathlon record holder Alexander Valentinovich Apaichev from Ukraine, came to Ust-Kamenogorsk to share their knowledge. Every day was special for the coaches. In the morning, they listened to lectures on various topics: barrier running, middle-distance running, horizontal jumping, as well as about the correct recovery process, the guests shared not only their knowledge, but also told stories from life. Alexander Apaichev has a huge coaching experience, for example, in 2001 he was invited to work with the Qatar athletics team. By the way, Alexander Valentinovich, he gave a lot of examples specifically related to these athletes, so there can be no doubt that it was incredibly interesting to attend the classes! In addition to theory, the coaches also watched videos, discussed topics with the teachers, and asked questions to which they received open and clear answers. In the evening program, practical classes were waiting for all participants of the courses, and the most interesting thing was happening here. Not only the coaches took part, but also the children, and this is a tremendous experience for them. They tried out all the exercises and performance techniques, listening to every word of the Ukrainian lecturers. Alexander Valentinovich and Tatyana Vladimirovna, not only explained, almost on their fingers, but they also showed clearly. On the last day of the course, the teaching staff was waiting for an exam on the lectures they had passed. And during our independent work, we managed to talk with Tatyana Samolenko, and learn a lot of interesting things about this famous runner. – Tatyana Vladimirovna, you recently had a birthday (August 12), and we would like to congratulate you on this wonderful holiday from our federation. I wish you good health, success, and thank you for taking the time to come to Kazakhstan in order to personally share your knowledge with our coaches! – Thank you very much! (smiles) – Tell us, how do you like our city? Is this your first time in Ust-Kamenogorsk? – Yes, in fact, this is my first time in Kazakhstan, especially in Ust-Kamenogorsk! During these days, we managed to make a sightseeing tour, of course, we saw little, but, nevertheless, we visited some places. Having our first degree in hydraulic engineering, we immediately went to the hydroelectric power station. It was very interesting to see and remember my knowledge (laughs). I really liked it. I remember our students came here, but at that time I was training and couldn’t come, I just had to listen to the stories of others. And now, I’ve seen everything with my own eyes and it’s like I’ve returned to my youth. Then we went to the embankment. I really liked it there, right now I often do Nordic walking, and I just fell in love with this embankment. It is very big, you can walk and walk along the river. This is very important for the health of the nation, I think it is very useful, because you can walk not only with Scandinavian walking, but you can also run and ride bicycles. After that, we went to Strelka. At first we were at a loss: “What is an arrow?” (laughs), and then it turned out that this is the place where two rivers will join. Very impressive! Also, we looked into the Orthodox church, and that was the end of our tour, because we had to prepare for the courses. We are pleased with what we saw: you have a very well-mannered people, a wonderful culture of behavior and communication, the streets of the city are clean. – You have visited a lot of places during your sports career, seen a lot of things, and now you have come to us. What are your impressions of our athletics arena? – I want to say that not every city has such arenas in order to practice in winter. The arena impressed not only us, but also those people to whom we sent information about you! They asked me to photograph every corner, every dot, how everything is located compactly. This is very convenient, because your winter is also long, so there are excellent conditions for classes here. Moreover, you have someone to take an example from, many of your Olympic champions, for example Olya Rypakova. I know that she is a very open person, she also shares her experience, communicates with coaches, this is very important! I noticed that you have a lot of children who are engaged even in the summer and want to do it, hence the result! – Tell me, how long have you been teaching courses, personally visiting the coaches? – We come to the courses when we are invited. If they want us to share our knowledge, not only theoretical, but also practical. It was very important for me to share it from a psychological point of view, since I performed in large arenas. I was most impressed that everyone wants to know more about tactics, this is important, because if an athlete is physically ready, then tactically he can still lose. There were a lot of questions from your coaches in the practical classes, and that’s great. We’re going to where they’re waiting for us! For example, Alexander Valentinovich traveled to Baku to give lectures on sprints and hurdles, and in Rio de Janeiro they asked to sort out topics on the all-around. In general, depending on which types you read, I’m mostly based on medium distances. – I know that you have your own methodical book, tell us about it? – (laughs) Having such a lot of experience and victories, I decided to share my experience and the secrets that every Olympic champion has. This book is a method of individual planning of highly qualified athletes in preparation. I took my Olympic cycle for four