During the past 3 weeks Rangiora Olympic Wrestling Club has been fortunate in hosting a wrestling coach from Russia. Saveliy Byazrov is one of the top coaches in Russian, amongst one of the top 5 coaches in the world. He was funded to come to New Zealand by SPARC and hold wrestling/ coaching clinics.
Byazrov’s connection to New Zealand started in 2005 when 5 members of Rangiora Wrestling Club traveled with the New Zealand team to Russia and was further enhanced with an invite from Russian Wrestling inviting Stephen Hill to train and live in Russia fulltime in 2006 and 2007.
Under Byazrov guidance, a strong friendship was formed in not only in wrestling coaching but also in Russian culture.
The area that Byazrov is from is in Southern Russia (North Ossetia) with a population of 400,000. 4 members of his club won The Russian National Championship which entitled them to compete in the World Championship in Azerbaijan in 2007 winning 3 gold and 1 bronze medals.
Kevan McLauchlan (New Zealand High Performance Director) and Rodney Jarman (New Zealand Senior Male Coach) were delighted to obtain the services of Byazrov.
Byazrov had a one week coaching clinic in Auckland, spent two weeks in North Canterbury running a coaching clinic and attending/advising at club training sessions. During the sessions Byazrov was asked many questions on wrestling and wrestling techniques, some of the more interesting ones were.
Q. Should water be taken during training by wrestlers?
A. No, because during competition wrestlers are not allowed to drink any fluids
Q. What food should be taken by wrestlers during competition?
A. They should only drink herbal tea and maybe chicken broth.
Q. What sort of nutrient should a wrestler eat?
A. A wrestler should not limit himself to any particular type or style of food, but he should eat only whole and unprocessed foods that do not have chemicals added (pesticides, herbicides, and artificial colours etc).
Q. Where do you get your ideas for new wrestling techniques?
A. I watch closely animals and young children who use natural ability to move, run, jump and adapt these to wrestling situations.
Byazrov was shown the sites of Auckland and of Canterbury. He was very impressed with Arthur’s Pass and Banks Peninsula. He said that he was not interested in man made things but would rather experience nature. The Auckland harbour bridge and skytower came a distant second to the natural beauty of Canterbury.
Comments from participants
Bonnie Begley:
The training camp in Christchurch on the 1st and 2nd was very useful because it allowed me to see what I need to work.e.g what muscles and stretches I need to improve to achieve this. It was also good the way he had so many different ways to do one move. This was good because it allowed me to figure out what best suited me by trying different techniques.
He also showed us many ways to escape certain situations by using certain moves e.g. slipping under their arms to the ground and shooting for the legs he also showed you different ways of getting the same move you want if they move a leg .e.g. fireman’s
It was also very useful hearing about visualising a match or a move to help you mentally prepare for a match or a situation and what you could do to escape or use it against them. These scenario then happen in a match and you would know how to stop them.
It was also interesting hearing about how important drinking hot drinks and eating properly can improve your performance.
All in all I'm glad I attended and learnt so much more.
Craig Miller:
It's funny how life works sometimes. In that, something you should know, something so basic, yet essential to the cause, something you´ve been told time and again, but escapes you and is ignored. You manage to go without it, and even succeed. In Wrestling, for me that thing was staying in your stance.
Talking to a more musically inclined friend, she suffered the same problem with aural notating, that´s listening to a piece of music, and writing what was played down, she was always told, find the rhythm, then work out the notes. After years of struggling through music writing, it clicked to her, and aural notating, became a breeze.
Back to Wrestling, and the camp we undertook at the start of December which was instructed by the Russian Olympic Coach. The thing about Seville is although he has an amazing amount of knowledge, and the level of technique he is able of is phenomenal to a wrestler in a wrestling backwater, Seville is able to offer coaching to any level, he has trained 5 year olds through to Olympic Champions. While alot of his techniques and teachings went over my head, a few gems my eyes lit up at and i´m rearing to unleash them first tournament in 2008.
But what did it for me the most was the three minutes at the end of the two long days. Three minutes of shadow wrestling.
Now I´ve been around coaches who have employed this method, and half-heartedly I went along with it, practicing a leg shoot or arm drag.
Seville did it different, for three minutes it wasn´t that perfect leg shoot or duck under, it was stay in your stance, defend, and move naturally. In the space of the three minutes, I got told off around a half a dozen times by both Seville and the high performance director of NZ Wrestling, and a multitude more by our clubs new Assistant Coach. I really struggled, I crossed my feet, something you just don’t do, I kept standing upright, and I just couldn´t do it.
A few weeks on, every practice, every drill, every wrestle, I´ve made a concerted effort to stay the hell in my stance. Defending has gotten three times easier, and Leg Shots by the same margin, all around I´m a much better wrestler, and although am working harder, am finding it a lot easier.
Jessica Todd:
This camp was a great opportunity to gain an insight into what overseas training is like from a top international coach. We were offered a chance to learn new and improve old techniques and further develop our wrestling skills. Throughout the weekend we trained with several partners from other clubs allowing us to sample other wrestlers styles and strengths.
One of the main highlights was training with Olena Bonderenko one of the top female wrestlers in New Zealand. I really enjoyed this as she taught me many useful variations of techniques.
Although at times it was challenging learning all those new moves in such a short time period it was an excellent experience and I definitely learnt a lot.
Saveliy Byazrov was a very humble professional who was prepared to help everyone down to the smallest detail. To have such a great coach prepared to train wrestlers of all ages was excellent. I found some of the physical exercises different and challenging. We were very lucky that Kevin and Rodney went to such lengths to bring such a great coach to New Zealand and host us. I look forward to more such training camps in the future.
Florian Rades:
I found the training camp, hosted by Rangiora in Christchurch, a very enjoyable trip because it was well set up and prepared and there were many things that I learnt during the course of the two days. Firstly I found the introduction of the national ranking system very good and was glad to have it explained by the person who set it up.
The main thing I learnt at the training camp was that the different between New Zealand wrestling and wrestling at an international level is that in New Zealand we place too much effort in strength rather than thinking and using technique. The Russian coach and Kevin both explained that New Zealand wrestlers spend two much time face to face, which neutralizes any major advantage for either wrestler. Wrestlers place to much value in their strength rather than looking to manipulate angles and holds to control the opposition.
I learnt at the camp that a good wrestler will try and use a s little energy as possible when wrestling and this made me realise that to be more successful we have to use our minds more.
The coach also had us start wrestling from unusual positions, the effect of which was to get us used to getting better at attacking or defending from less common positions, which also showed me that in ever situation, even ones where one person is appearing to dominate, there are always things you can do to defence or attack.
Even though the coach couldn’t speak English, I found he communicated his messages very well, through translator, or demonstrating the moves and this made it a lot easier to understand what he was saying and kept me more interested in what he had to say.
Overall the trip was very successful and good to go to because I learnt that you need to focus on technique more to get to a better level of wrestling, and that in any situation you find yourself in there is always a counter to a move. The hosts were well organized and this made the training camp very good to attend. The motel we stayed at was also very nice.
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