very interesting.
If Preobrazhenskaya's approach were boiled down to one word (and it frequently was), that word would be tekhnika — technique. This is enforced by iron decree: none of her students are permitted to play in a tournament for the first three years of study. It's a notion that I don't imagine would fly with American parents, but none of the Russian parents questioned it for a second.
and
The reasons that the United States is losing ground on the talent map have less to do with training mechanisms and more to do with bigger factors: a highly distractive youth culture, a focus on the glamour of winning rather than on the brickwork of building technique and a sporting environment that is gentler than those found in many of the world's harder corners.
Ideas that have been discussed on this forum. I am a firm believer in the emphasis on technique, but I also agree with some of the other points like a love for the sport and discipline. To push beyond comfort zones and the enthusiasm and drive to improve.
We have also discussed competitive play, and at what age players should take part in leagues etc. As I have stated before I think it is good for young players to compete, but a victorious result should be low or even almost irrelevent to our coaching motives. I believe we need (in the UK and US and internationally) a much higher coaching/training to match ratio. In the UK it is commonly 1:1. I think it should be at least 3:1.
I enjoyed the article, thanks for posting.
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