Weightlifting Yearbook 1983

Unflagging Attention to the Training of the Reserve

Yu. A. Sandalov, State Coach, Cand. Sc. (Pedagogy); P. A. Poletaev, Coach of the Olympic Reserve — Committee for Physical Culture and Sport under the USSR Council of Ministers

English summary of Tyazhelaya Atletika. Ezhegodnik 1983 (Moscow: Fizkultura i Sport, 1983), pp. 3–6: the text is paraphrased, not translated; data tables are given in full with English labels; figures are the original images.

Context

• 1983 targets: the VIII Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR (a test of the reserve, especially in weak classes, and a source of new team candidates) and the World and European Championships in Yerevan.
• 1982 balance: 66 world records (USSR 41, Bulgaria 20); over 600 new Masters of Sport and 82 international-class masters, 9 of them finalists of the III All-Union Youth Games (60th anniversary of the USSR); the World and European title in Ljubljana, won only narrowly over Bulgaria.

Bulgaria's advantage, as seen by L'Équipe

• USSR: the huge pool keeps renewing the elite, but lifters must constantly prove themselves at home and some reach the Worlds tired; the club-based system makes every sports society guard its own interests.
• Bulgaria: about 2,000 lifters; international-level athletes leave the club system and train systematically for years under Ivan Abadzhiev; children reportedly start at 8 to compete at 18–19; strict medical control supports six hours of training a day.
• The authors agree that narrow departmental interests of Soviet coaches and officials can undermine centralised preparation.

The 1982 junior failure

• Juniors in São Paulo and youths at "Druzhba" (Katowice) failed. At the Junior Worlds Bulgaria won 8 golds to the USSR's 2 — the same count as in Montreal 1980, but then the contest was even; the 1982 Bulgarian team was built on lifters born 1963–64, the youngest, Suleimanov, not yet 15.
• Cause: the junior coaching council under L. V. Chukhrov — an unhealthy atmosphere, administration and slogans instead of educational work — lost its authority; the gap to Bulgaria widened, especially in the light classes. The wider youth system is also at fault.
• Recovery: at the European Juniors in Haskovo (Bulgaria) the USSR won 5 gold, 2 silver, 2 bronze; Bulgaria 4 gold, 4 silver, 1 bronze and one 4th place.

Table. Results of the strongest young lifters of the USSR and Bulgaria at the 1982 World and European Junior Championships

Total (snatch + clean & jerk), kg, by bodyweight class. 0 — no total; — — no entrant.

* The source prints “392,2”, which is not a possible total; the last digit is probably damaged (most likely 392.5).

What the table shows

• Between the two meets Bulgaria improved in every class but 52 kg; the USSR only at 75, 90, 100 and 110 kg — and its European team included Yu. Zakharevich (110 kg), already two years in the senior team.
• Only 2 of 10 Soviet juniors improved before each meet: S. Li (75 kg) and I. Arsamakov (82.5 kg), junior world champions for the second time, before the Worlds; V. Kuznetsov (75 kg) and V. Solodov (90 kg) before the Europeans. These made 5 of 10 juniors on the 1983 main candidate list.
• In 1982 the senior competition team was, for the first time, made up entirely of former junior-team lifters.

The light-class gap

• Problem: all new recruits are middle- or heavyweights. There are no selection criteria or training guidelines for light classes; boys up to 44 kg (typical of 12–14-year-olds) could earn no ranks and dropped out, and coaches, rated by ranked athletes produced, had no reason to keep them.
• Measures:
  • from 1983, rank standards for 40 and 44 kg; the Candidate Master standard opened to 48 kg;
  • youth sports schools (DYuSSh, SDYuShOR) must fill ≥ 50% of beginner and training groups with light-class boys, selected mainly by height;
  • special competitions, camps and competition rules favouring the "deficit" classes;
  • youth age groups: 13–14 (up to republic level, 40 to over 75 kg), 15–16 (All-Union, 44 to over 90 kg), 17–18 (USSR championship, 48 to over 100 kg).

Conclusions

• Grassroots work must improve fundamentally — sports societies (DSO), departments, republics, regions, schools and clubs.
• Untapped reserves: army sports clubs (no youth work at all) and the USSR Ministry of Education system.
• A unified lesson-by-lesson programme is being prepared at the GTsOLIFK weightlifting department under A. S. Medvedev, Honoured Master of Sport and Honoured Coach of the USSR.