Graduates of the Volga Region State Academy of Physical Culture, Sports and Tourism have joined to theFI NA Development Centre coaching team. One of them is Pavel Kudashev. Today Pavel will tell us about his story in swimming.

"My swimming journey started from childhood. As a child, I always loved to swim and I got my first skills from my parents. At the age of 7, I asked parent to swim in the pool, and it started from the special school of health and sports, where I went for 10 years. Once, my mother came home from work and suggested that I can swim in the same pool where I had swum before, but with the other coach on the professional level. My parents said that I didn't think for a long time and quickly agreed.

Olga Karyuchina became my first coach. I trained with her until I was 14. She always tried to make us participate in training camps and competitions: summer camp outside the city, camps by the sea, small training camps in Turkey and competitions in France. While I wasn't very successful as a swimmer, I tried my best. In 2010, Olga Alekseevna moved to France and we had another coach from other city. And so, it happened that at the age of 14 I left my hometown and moved to the city of Barnaul.

The second coach was - Dedlovsky Maxim Alexandrovich, the man who raised me. With him I got the Master of Sports standard at the age of 15, won the All-Russian competition and became the silver medalist of the Russian Championship. During that period, I really fell in love with swimming. Sometimes, I could not sit at home, because I wanted to go training. I was the first who came to trainings, and the last who left. I set goals, but there were disappointments at the same time.

At the age of 16, I had health problems due to the period of growing up and high stress. This often happens, but for me it was a big blow. For about six months I trained just 3 times a week so that the body could recover, but still I could not reach my best results.

Then at the age of 18 I graduated from high school and entered the University in Omsk. There I continued my sports career under the guidance of the Honored Coach of Russia - Valery Petrovich Bachin. I studied there for two years, simultaneously showing my best results. I also studied in the direction of "Sports training in swimming". That time during pedagogical practice I was able to get basic knowledge in the training process and tried myself in the role of a coach. Also, I won a bronze medal at the 2016 Russian Swimming Championship in the 4x100 freestyle relay as part of the Omsk Region team.

In 2016, I started looking for options on how and where to move on. So, I knew that that time my previous coach was working in Kazan. I decided to move to Kazan. I adapted very quickly, because I already knew the coach and the team was very friendly. In my last year, I met Darina Sergeeva. In the same year I received a bachelor's degree Volga Region Academy of Physical Culture, Sports and Tourism in the direction "Theory and methodology of sports training in swimming". At the end of the last year, I already had thoughts that it might be time to end my career as an athlete and move on, but I decided to continue swimming anyway and get Master's degree. It was then that I had my first days as a coach, when I helped Darina with her technique, helped to prepare for the competition. Then I got an injury at the Russian Championship, I decided to end my career as an athlete, but I clearly understood that I did not want to leave the sport either.

I became a coach and was entrusted with several athletes in 2019. Then I worked according to the plan of the head coach and just arrange workouts due to the plan. At the end of May 2019, I had the opportunity to work at the MadWave children's training camp in Sochi. Working there under the leadership of Mikhail Zubkov, I was able to learn a lot about technical training in swimming, which is very important for swimmers. There I met Vladimir Predkin, the director of Mad Wave company. Vladimir advised me a lot of good literature to study, which now helps me in my work. For 3 months in the camp, I have trained 400 children, and I got the valuable experience. Then I applied this experience in Kazan, working with students, among whom was Darina Sergeeva. The athletes were satisfied with our work, process and results, which were growing steadily. Then I formed my own approach to training.

These are my principles in work:

1. Constant communication with athletes. It is very difficult to move forward without well-established contact between the coach and the athlete. Everything must go through trust. If an athlete begins to doubt what he is doing, then the effectiveness of training immediately falls and the emotional state worsens, both personally and for the whole team.

2. The most important thing is technics. You can't go far without good technics. Therefore, in my programs, I always devote a lot of attention for improving the technical skills.

3. Recovery after training. Post-workout recovery is more important than doing a workout, especially during periods of high stress.

Working at the FINA Development Centre means a lot to me. This is an opportunity to fully apply all your knowledge in practice and at the same time get new ones while working with a more experienced head coach.

But the most interesting and at the same time difficult part of the work is that all communication is in English. It is difficult to switch your mind to a foreign language, but this adds even more motivation to learn something new every day.

2020 has been a difficult year for everyone. Now most of the world cannot continue the training process due to the restrictions of quarantine measures. Because of this, many athletes suffered. In 2021, the main task for me is to help everyone who will take part in the scholarship program to get back in shape and become better than they were and to prepare athletes for participation in the Olympic Games in Tokyo".

We are glad that our team is growing not only by the arrival of new athletes to Kazan, but also by the increase in the team of coach! We hope for a hardworking year and good results, because we all have one goal - to become better every day!