Borodavko: “You cannot say that I am a conservative specialist. On the contrary, he is an innovative coach.”

Senior coach of the Russian national team Yuri Borodavko said in an interview with that he is not a conservative specialist, but an innovative coach.

Since 2016, Borodavko has been the coach of one of the three groups of the main Russian national team.

— Now there are many skiers and strong skiers not only among you, but also in Egor Sorin’s group. Is there competition between coaches within the national team in this regard?

— Competition is the engine of progress. It has always been like this. Athletes and coaches always want to get close to the leaders first and then beat them. This is what sport is based on. All coaches are always trying to find something to improve their athletes, to be better than others at something. Defeat the leaders and take their place. It’s the dialectic of sport and life. It’s good.

— Nevertheless, before, all the juniors seemed to come to you, but now they began to choose Egor’s group more often. What do you think about it?

— I have no problem with that, because coaches grow and must grow with the athletes. I have certain obligations to the group that I currently have. So to speak, a group of experienced and honored athletes. But there are also young skiers with whom we can and must continue to work. If anyone thinks our training is significantly different, that is absolutely not the case. In many ways we are similar. Many trainers took a lot of inspiration from the techniques I had introduced at one point.

Now the training of athletes is becoming more unified. Many coaches, including myself, look at the Norwegian training system. The best physiologists are there, discover new training methods and explain to you why you need to work this way. There is nothing wrong with this, since the same Germans, Italians and Swedes work according to the same scheme. There are of course certain nuances to each technique. They are the ones who affect us most often.

— In general, despite the fact that you can often be called a harsh and conservative specialist, on the contrary, do you show flexibility and follow modern trends in your work?

– Well, what does it mean – conservative? I introduced many innovations that were considered absurd at the time, because no one was doing it. Now everyone repeats this and believes that it has always been done this way. So it’s not that I’m a conservative coach. On the contrary, I am an innovative coach. I’m constantly adding something and looking for it. If something new takes root in the preparation and brings results, we use it,” Borodavko told .