BLUE YOUNGS

Against the background of the success of the national team in the League of Nations, the "achievements" of our reserve teams do not look so optimistic. And if "bronze" at the student Universiade - even though a step back, but still medal, then in youth and youth volleyball, we completely fell out of the line of winners. And the further, the deeper - the U-21 national team finished fourth at the World Championship, and the U-17 team took the "honorable" eighth place in the continental championship. Well, the "bronze" U-19 at an indistinct event called "Youth Olympic Festival" also does not inspire much optimism..

Youth and youth volleyball is our tomorrow. And may not all players and teams, successful here, automatically reach a high level in adult volleyball, definite correlation, certainly, there is. Simply put, we have no other sources for replenishment.

At one time, there were legitimate concerns about the age of the mid-nineties.. Remember - the difficult economic situation in the country, as a consequence - a decline in the birth rate, unfavorable social environment ... But it was this generation that brought an amazing harvest. Actually 1995-1996 year of birth - our last stellar burst at youth level, smoothly and powerfully coming to the fore in adult volleyball: Dmitry Volkov, Pavel Pankov, Viktor Poletaev, Denis Bogdan, Maxim Belogortsev, Kirill Ursov, Evgeny Andreev ... This age took our last world "gold" at U-19 in 2013 and U-21 in 2015, and we will be able to rely on it for a long time.

From the point of view of the gene pool and developmental conditions, there is an explanation for this phenomenon.: in the mid-nineties people became parents, who grew up in the USSR themselves, on Soviet GOSTs, without, relatively speaking, palm oil in my head. And those who managed to avoid the degeneration of the early nineties - therefore, strong and healthy in every sense. And their children grew up just by that time, when there was stability and growth in prosperity in Russia. Generally, on the one hand - a strong gene pool, on the other hand, relatively favorable conditions for development.

Inevitable, however, with our tectonic shifts, "Breakdown" of the gene pool begins to affect right now. The sharp drop in the birth rate of the early nineties is the current decline in the number of parents and a noticeable deterioration in their "quality", plus numerous social factors, which lead to a general weakening of the nation. The situation in youth sports is just one of the manifestations of global demographic processes, in which we are still losing more, what we buy.

You noticed, that the first roles in the youth team are now the sons of yesterday's famous players? Tyetyukhin, Sidenko, Zakhvatenkov, Dineykin - we hear familiar surnames again, and for good reason. Excellent gene pool - once, decent social conditions - two, targeted motivated training - three. Where are the others? Ask any child coach, any breeder - finding a talented boy is now akin to winning the lottery. What is there talented - just healthy, with physiological potential. It is also difficult to find the first coach, human, who will see the potential and give the necessary start. But this is the second side of the coin..

How do we treat those few, what do we have? And in terms of the gene pool, and in terms of infrastructure, at the junction of which future Olympic champions should be melted? Youth volleyball is still in the deep paddock, the existing system is not "sharpened" for selection, coaching staff, in fact, demotivated and disappear, as a class. Student volleyball not working, it is not in the existing system of sportsmanship growth.

Professional volleyball clubs remain, who are a priori interested in the personnel reserve. They interact with a limited number of sports schools, looking for talents, recruiting them to their boarding schools and affiliated teams in the hope, that someone will play at a high level. But, roughly speaking, food supply is extremely weak, nothing to rely on, efforts mostly fall into the pit described above.

And some nugget will make its way, will be noticed by a caring children's coach, picked up at the club, will be brought to a certain level - and agents are already waiting for the young player, juggling great deals, "Invite" to the national team. The kitchen begins, which also does not stimulate in any way to engage in long-term cultivation of talents. You, relatively speaking, long and painstakingly growing the crop - and someone else harvests it. Moreover, it collects often rudely, ruining a fair share of the harvest ... And, by the way, the system of registered contributions introduced this year only adds fuel to the fire in this kitchen, escalating the struggle to sign the first professional contract.

Well, finally, cherries on cakes, institute of youth and youth teams. Wfv, I have no words, cares: equipment, fees, competitions, comprehensive support. But the design, eventually, it still falls by one, then on the other side - mostly, on the above, for reasons not formally dependent on the federation. Only the coaching staff remains unchanged, lack of rotation in which can only be explained by blind faith, that young talents are about to reveal themselves and save the Fatherland once again. With this approach, the coach is not a system-forming figure., and the subsidiary, and that explains everything.

meanwhile, there are enough specialists in the country, who could add some added value to the youth teams' play, could try to unleash the existing potential in some other way, build tactics. Because the potential, despite all of the above - there is! At the same U-21 World Championship, we beat future champions from Iran in the group, failing the end of the tournament is more of a coaching defeat. I'm not talking about, that at the European U-17 Championship we lost in the match for 7th place to the team of Belarus ...

However, this is just the final stroke of the big picture, albeit very characteristic. The situation is alarming in general. If, of course, we do not expect to live a couple of the next Olympic cycles exclusively on luggage 1995-1996 gg. birth ...