Sunday 8 December 2013

To centralize or not to centralize

In the late 1980 and earlu 1990 there has been a lot of discussion of which system to adopt in each country to maximize the results of the gymnasts and thus try to secure government support. Looking to the system of USSR and even more so to Romania where gymnasts lived, trained, slept, ate and studied together seemed to be the way to go. Many countries tried this system we have Australia, Belgium, Switzerland and most of the former Eastern  Block nations. There were even talks in other national teams to move the whole teams across countries to have them train together full time. The centralized system sure showed some great results in  some areas specially in Russia and Romania. In other areas results were mixed and even quite meager looking on the resources given to these expensive programs. Most countries have now abandoned these centralized systems and returned to some modified versions of these now the latest the US and France.
To settle the debate I have made a list trying to figure out the pros and cons of each system

Benefits of centralizes systems

  1. Gymnast constantly train with other gymnast of similar level year round
  2. Gymnasts live together, sleep together and are easy to monitor. Nutrition and rest can be monitored but not everybody needs the same treatment. 
  3. In most cases access to the most knowledgeable coaches in each field
  4. Usually there is good access to great facilities which are not over crowded
  5. The possibility of building a strong team unit with gymnasts being around each other 
  6. The National coaches know each gymnasts strengths and weaknesess and have the chance to fix them 
  7. Constant access to medical care physios, doctors,masseurs and others. 
  8. The educational system can take into account the program of the gymnasts like hours of training, competitions and training camps. 
Draw back of centralized system / benefits of decentralized system
  1. Gymnasts are sometimes the only ones in their gym/area of an advanced level. But in most clubs there are younger gymnasts constantly pushing and supporting the elite athlete. 
  2. Living with other athletes and only socialize with them can make live one dimensional and there seems to be no way of escaping the gym even for a short period of time. Also living away from home is not the best way of living for an young adult. Living with a supporting family is the best way for a developing individual. Parents can be educated on nutrition, sleep and other wholesome ways of helping their athletes. 
  3. Even though the national teams try to gather the best coaches it is not certain that the personalities and styles of the gymnasts/coach match. Furthermore giving to few coaches the chance to work with advanced athletes shallows the pool of knowledge. More people with advance knowledge gives more chances of educated discussion of technique and direction of the program. 
  4. In some areas there are no decent facilities although this seems to be changing. In these cases it might be necesarry for an talented gymnast to switch clubs. It is also worthy to remember it is not the facilities that make the gymnast but the work between the coach and gymnast and support of the administration of the club. 
  5. Spending all day every day with gymnast working towards same or similar goals can create friction between gymnasts and thus destroy the team unit.
  6. If only the national staff (which is usually not big in numbers) a small flaw can be overlooked and personal coach who is by now out of the picture has no way of identifying the growing or emerging personal or technical problem. 
  7. In a centralized system there is the possibility of specialized gymnastics based medical team. The answer might be is to contacting a sport oriented clinic educate them about the demands of the sport and be in constant contact with them. In a smaller community it is wise to first contact similar sports such as athletics, swimming and other individual sporting clubs and start a health program with these. 
  8. Education which should be the center aspect of a young adults life can usually be modified to accomondate the schedule of a young persons life. In some cases it is wise to try to take the work load of two years over three years to be able to fit everything in and not loose the athlete. 
Taking the above points into account it seems wise in most countries to stop the centralizing of national teams and try to work in a different way which seems to be the way most countries are working towards. 
These systems will be looked upon in following posts. 

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