Serbian Sport Suffers From Poor Coaching And Facilities, Says Milorad Cavic
Poor facilities, below par coaching methods and a lack of incentive to achieve the highest standards could be crippling Serbian athletics. That is the hard-talking wake-up call from Olympic medalist Milorad Čavić, shared with W!LDRooSTeR. Recalling his own success within the US training system, Čavić pointed out areas that need to be addressed if opportunities for young Serbian athletes are to improve.
In terms of facilities, there is some light on the horizon. “Thankfully, we received two new 50m pools this year,’ said Čavić. “One is where I train and the other is an outdoor pool with a balloon over it. In that regard, in Belgrade the conditions are much better now. It’s not ideal but it’s getting better. I have a good relationship with the President [Tadić]. He asked me how I liked the new training facilities. I said it was fantastic and he said, ‘I hope so, we dumped a lot of money into it’.
“There was a lot of money involved. But we have the world championship team in waterpolo, we have Partizan, the world championship club team, and it’s about time this country, this city, did something to really help these programmes, because we clearly have the talent.”
But while facilities in Serbia are often criticised and more investment in infrastructure is badly needed, the American-born Serb who won silver at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, believes that the root of the problem goes much deeper. One solution could be to borrow successful coaching methods from America, said Čavić. “In the United States they have such fantastic science for youth athletics that they build them up the safe way,’ he said. “There are right and wrong ways of doing things and I think that the problem here is resources. A lot of the coaches here do not have the resources to know these things. They have a very Eastern European approach to running their teams here.
“So many times I have heard about coaches giving athletes ten times 400m and then they would just go off and read the newspaper, completely disconnected from what their athletes were doing. So much talent was destroyed, either by shoulder problems or some other injuries that could have absolutely been prevented if they had a couple of smart people looking after it. I firmly believe that junior coaches have to be better than professional coaches. They have to be smarter, they have to know that with a kid you have to build them up the right way.
“I see junior swimmers here and the way coaches are running most junior teams and I think the methods of many coaches are lacking. They don’t even endorse stretching. If you have the pool for an hour from six to seven in the evening, then you have to get the kids there at 5:30 to stretch. Or get the kids there at five o’clock, stretch them for twenty minutes, and then for a further thirty-forty minutes get them doing stadium runs or medicine ball tosses. You don’t send a fourteen-year-old kid to the gym. They have still got four years to grow. You can’t stunt their growth. There is a way to build a child up and this is one thing that they do not do here [in Serbia], which they do in the United States.”
Čavić has been in discussions with sports chiefs and political leaders to solve some of the problems he sees in Serbian sport. “For many years I have been speaking out against the Minister of Sport here [in Serbia], saying that they are not bringing in the right people,’ said Čavić.“I know some people are trying the best they can with the money they’ve got to bring some foreign coaches to run seminars here and, thank God, we’ve seen some changes. Of course, no coach is going to sell his secret but there is a lot to learn from the drills they are doing and their method. In Serbia, we need to coach the coaches.
“I plan on opening a swimming academy in the future. I don’t plan on being on deck as a coach but I do plan on running coaches into the ground with information that they probably never knew. I did run one swimming camp here and it was an amazing turnout.
“I think the kids really did learn a lot. But whether or not they took the lessons back to their workouts and continued the lessons they learned, which is so key, I don’t know. It’s their loss. But then again, they are kids. You have to tell them every day. It needs to be reinforced.”
Part of the solution could come from abroad, according to Čavić. “You have to invest in sports by investing in foreigners,’ he said. “I think it would be a good investment if we were able to get a young, good ex-swimmer from the West, from the United States, Germany or Canada and have him intern here. We need someone who came from this sort of programme who is looking to start something on his own. We need someone to get it started off right and then during the year, bring in some top coaches from around the world to run these things for us.”
That would deal with a hangover from the former political system that Čavić believes to be leaving Serbian sport exposed. “Unfortunately, there is an incentive problem with coaches here,’ he said. “If they produce a swimmer or if they don’t produce a swimmer, they are going to see the same money every month and it is not going to change their lives. It’s the same with everything here, even in the business world. It’s a problem of not being a fully developed market economy.
“People in power here would sooner pay someone 200 Euros, which is 100 Euros under the average, and get a lower quality worker, than pay 500 Euros for someone smarter or maybe 700 Euros for a really useful worker. It is almost as if communism is still present here. You could work all day and whether you produce fifty pieces of something or ten pieces, you are not going to see any difference. It’s all about incentives. It is a serious issue here.”
With some changes already in place, Čavić has noticed small improvements. “You can see changes with the new coaches we have on deck. These are ex-athletes who are more aware of what is being done around the world and they know what wasn’t available to them when they were younger. They are young and they have this energy and passion about the sport and you see them wanting to learn more about the sport. But again, a lot of it has to do with resources. For example, if you want to get on the pro level and if you want to know what is happening under water, you need to get under water with him and watch. The best thing is when a coach can film an athlete and they can review it together. The next step is to buy an underwater camera for about $1500. Technology is a serious problem but training conditions are our number one problem.”
12 / 10 / 2011 9:20 pm
Save it Cavic.. you should swim for the United States. Your arrogance fits right in with the red white and blue.
You are talking about a country of a few million that dominate almost every sport on earth! Who swims anymore and who even watches swimming?
Why don’t you talk about the complete dominance of Serbian Water Polo, Volleyball, Basketball, Tennis, and the captain of the best team in the soccer world, Manchester United, is a Serb. Red Star is the only team from Eastern europe without foreign talent to win the Champions League and you are talking about sport.
How are you not embarrassed of yourself?
Instead of lifting up the people’s spirit you come on this blog and try to crush whats left of the Serbian soul? Who are you dude?
I hope you read this Milorad and come back to the US and stop humiliating yourself and get back to eating hamburgers and watching espn where you belong.
There has been over 500 Christian Serbian Churches erased from existence with the support of Wild Rooster’s huminatarian government in the UK, Serbs are being killed non-stop in Kosovo, young kids had their freakin ORGANS removed! and you are here trying to lecture them, when you grow up in rich and excessive southern california.
You are a loser bro. You need a serious lesson in compassion and understanding. STOP trying to make Serbia become America! First help Serbia heal from Mr. Wild Rooster’s bloodthirsty government, from the countless of Serbs children and all who got their heads cut-off by the Islamists in Bosnia, those poor Muslims they are great Democrats right, instead of trying to help the over 1 million serbian refugees and the Serbs that cannot even say they are Serbs in Slovenia, Croatia and other nazi offspring countries, this guy is talking about how he paid 20,000$ more for his land rover.. ahahahhahahhahahhahahhaahahhahahhahah ahahah
ahahahhahahahahaaaa
omgggg! is he serious!
12 / 18 / 2011 1:59 am
Cavic arrogant? Haha Anonymous, bro, more likely you are a typical arrogant and stubborn Serb who can’t take an honest, friendly, and constructive criticism. That’s why Serbia will never improve in anything – INAT! We just don’t want anybody telling us what to do. Also, that’s gotta be the worst possible argument: why are we talking about swimming when people are getting killed? Guess what, life is cruel, but it goes on. You yourself surely get up every day and drink your coffee, laugh and talk about trivial things EVEN THOUGH people (AND churches) are being “erased from existence” somewhere in the world. Get over yourself… seriously.
12 / 18 / 2011 4:03 am
no Name you get over yourself – this guy is talking about how bad Serbia is because he over paid for is LAND ROVER?
ARE YOU FOR REAL? Do you not understand English? He came to a broken country and instead of trying to help it heal, he is saying that he over-paid for a car!
ahhahahahhahahhahahhahahha omgggggggggg!
it looks like the American
HONEST FRIENDLY CRITISM? Huh? Are you for real? Do you read the news, everyday someone is talking about how Serbs are nazi’s, how muslims are the poor victims, how serbs need to do this and that, what planet do you live on all everyone does when they talk about SERBIA IS CRITICIZE IT.
Are you that naive NAME? Do you think it is ok for the world to hate Serbia and be so racist against it and if you think it is all HONEST CRITICISM.
Cavic – has the nerve to talk about Gay rights? Does he know that in 90% of the leading democracy in the WORLD the USA, you would get beat up for kissing a guy in public.
What is he trying to say.
This has nothing to do with Serbs not being able to take criticism. STOP your manipulation and STOP grouping SERBS that is racism and stereotyping and YOU STOP NOW.
You or nobody else is allowed to HATE SERBS anymore – what don’t you get about that? That time of your hate for Serbs, disguise it as criticism or whatever else you want to call it, but it is DONE – your hate is LOSING>
Life is cruel right that is your excuse for 500 teenagers that got their kidneys and hearts and eyeballs removed by those poor muslims??? that is all you have to say for yourself for 100’s of churches being destoryed and erased?
omgggggggg i wish you would say that if the same thing happened in the United States to a Christian church. “Life is cruel Americans…go drink your coffee.”
you cold low life, how do you know what i do everyday?
STOP embarrasing yourself like Cavic.