World of hobbies

Love for tennis forever

End of story. Beginning in No 9.

If you compare the children that come to tennis today with those in the 1990s, is there a difference?

-Nowadays, the children are much busier at school. Previously, they were free at 1-2 PM, today - later. They have no time to practice three times a week - additional classes, tutors almost from the first grade. If parents cover expenses for trips and in table tennis going on a trip to take part in a competition means 3-4 days accommodation in a hotel, then children participate in competitions. Such participation is compulsory in order to confirm the category. And in order to confirm your category, you need to register in the Russian rating and this is also an additional cost. I have not yet seen table tennis harm anyone and fast reaction, instant decision making help a lot in life.

Dmitry Medvedev has proposed including badminton in the school curriculum. Maybe tennis should be included? For, badminton requires a hall with a net and a table can be placed almost anywhere.

- Today, there are tables in schools, but this is not enough. Tables have been also installed on the renovated Dubna embankment and JINR veteran Evgeny Titov that plays volleyball and shoots, besides tennis, also teaches children to play, talks about my section. Three tables have been set up in the shopping centre "Mayak", you can play for free and competitions somehow have been held there. The kids like it and come to the section, but of course, not everyone stays, especially when they are older. Particularly, when older pupils come and they compete against younger ones, that have already learned something, I warn them in advance: you have to be patient when youngsters start beating you. That's a real blow to a teenager's self-esteem! A coach should be a psychologist, he should support and console them if necessary, explain the situation, show individual approach. You can't play tennis without competition.

What is the most memorable competition of your life?

- The USSR Championship in Leningrad in 1982. Since I competed in three categories - individual, women's doubles and mixed, then all my semi-final competitions ended at the first hour of the night. And since I have a defensive style of play: you are attacked, you defend, you exhaust your opponent, you exhaust yourself - then all the meetings turn out to be very protracted. The next day, I had to play three finals. Today, the set is played up to 11 points, whereas at that time, it was played up to 21 and me losing in the semi-finals 0-2 and 15-20 in the third set, succeeded to equalize the score, to win the next two sets and the final one. And I won the other two semi-finals. The absolute championship was hard to come by and my whole sporting life has gone through difficulties.

Was this style of defensive play suggested to you by your coach?

- When I came to the section, at first I was a bit behind the others - at first everyone is taught the same way and is not divided into styles. After having noticed my good reaction, the coach started teaching me a defensive style and six months later I beat everyone I had lost to before.

Do your sons continue the tennis dynasty?

- The elder son was engaged in other sports, he is tall, it's harder for him to play tennis. The younger has been with me in the gym since the age of 5, I didn't want to give him a racket, he took it himself. He's a candidate master of sports, he teaches PE and runs a tennis section at school.

You have said that it's more difficult for taller children but you do not refuse them because of their physical parameters, do you?

- In no case. Moreover, I have noticed that overweight children have a sense of the ball. It cannot be developed by training, it is innate.

* * *

The interview was coming to an end and the balls were banging louder and louder - meanwhile, the children started practising. It turned out to be cool in the hall, Inna Konstantinovna said that this year Head of the JINR Social Infrastructure Management Office Andrey Tamonov promised to change the old wooden frames, since the temperature in the hall on frosty and windy days dropped to 12 degrees. And she is also grateful to SIM Office that has supported her desire to move from a managerial job at the Dubna State University (Acting Head of the Department of Physical Education) to a coaching job and has bought professional tables for the section. Her bright destiny with victories and difficulties, dozens of students and even a name article in Wikipedia adorns the biography of our city.

Olga TARANTINA

Sports victories

On 11 March, a table tennis tournament was held in the framework of the XXIV JINR Sports Games. 24 athletes from seven teams participated: VBLHEP, VBLHEP-2, DLNP, FLNP, Chief Power Engineer's Department, Kazakhstan, Romania.

Team winners:
1st place - DLNP;
2nd place - VBLHEP;
3rd place - FLNP.

In the women's individual category, the places were distributed as follows:
1st place - Inna Tikhomirova;
2nd place - Kymbat Asemkhan;
3rd place - Maria Dima.

In the individual men's category, the winners are:
1st place - Dmitry Medvedev;
2nd place - Evgeny Levin;
3rd place - Semyon Gursky.

Congratulations to the winners and prize-winners!

According to the VK group "Sport at JINR"