I finally saw this low budget Romanian documentary.
… famous for the legendary gymnast Nadia Comaneci, and its boarding school, which for decades has trained world class gymnasts.
Pitic and Malina might be two of its future stars, but the long road to the podium is full of deprivation. They are eight and nine years old and have been at the school in Deva since they were six. They train for four hours every day and spend the rest of their time in school.
This documentary follows the girls … leading up to their first and most important competition, capturing an intimate and moving insight into the contrast between their dreams, and the often harsh reality.
I’ve got mixed feelings. Perhaps that’s not surprising. I’ve got mixed feelings about Romanian gymnastics.
On the one hand, with a population only about as large as Texas, one of the poorest nations in Europe consistently bested Russia, China and the U.S.A.
Their girls were incredibly tough on Floor and Beam. For decades after Nadia.
On the other hand, I’ve heard more nonsense coaching theory from Romanians than any place else in the world. What kind of coach education system have they had there? None? I’m told there’s an intensive program. I’d love to see the curriculum.
The 3 coaches highlighted in this film are excellent examples of how not to coach.
Yes I realize I’m imposing Western values on Romania. Aside from ethics, what’s shown in the documentary is simply not the best way to develop elite gymnasts.
I do get the impression that things have improved there since Nicolae Forminte took over as National Coach.
Leave a comment if you know where people can download or stream The Secret of Deva.
Related posts:
• remember Adriana Giurca (1982-1993)
• allegations of gymnast abuse in Romania
Romanian-Gymnastics.com posts a Wall of Shame naming coaches who have been accused of being abusive.
(via Stephthemagicdragon on IG forum)
20 comments ↓
Where can I see it?
gymmultimedia.myfastforum.org has a copy of the documentary for download.
The Romanians have a pretty heavy duty coach education system. In order to be a coach you need to go to University and specialize in gymnastics coaching. This is the general system in eastern Europe. Once you have done the fundamental of the degree…(like anatomy, physiology, biomech etc), they then have to specialize. Then once they get that degree they need to produce athlete that make it on those schools and then into the National team in order to advance as coaches. However the old dogs always! get priority. Its a bit of an unfair system because just like in the documentry that lady coach coached Pedic and the other girl, but once they go onto the team, they got NO credit. They don’t exist. Its pretty rough.
The problem is that i think there is FARRR to much pressure to produce so all the sport psychology goes out the window, and the coaches just put that pressure onto the kids. I don’t like it and don’t agree with it. However the autocratic coaching approach has consistently been shown to be most effective with younger kids… however its a fine line
Valentin Uzunov
TheGymPress
http://www.thegympress.net
Hey Valentin,
For some reason your last comment was put into the SPAM. Luckily, I happened to white list it.
Check to see that your next comment appears correctly.
Of course I know many superb Romanian coaches. But some have simply crazy ideas about twisting, for one example. They’ve told me that’s what they learned in coach education. One even showed me a “text book” once.
And why historically have they been so relatively weak on Bars? That’s the most “technical” apparatus. You need a lot more smarts than on vault, by comparison.
I updated the original post, too, Valentin.
It doesn’t surprise me at all that they do have a comprehensive coaching education system. That’s the only way you are going to take a talent population that is small in size and get the most out of it.
The US has a large talent population but a small population of educated coaches. That’s why the gymnasts the us produces are all over the map in quality.
Worldwide, coaching is the missing link.
Just a short note to comment that “Pitic” must be a nickname for sure, because it means something like “pixie” in Romanian. My boyfriend, who is Romanian, calls me that. :p
Andrea, I looked at gym multimedia and don’t see the documentary there. Direct link?
it’s on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDxmeQd5-9w&feature=related
http://gymmultimedia.myfastforum.org/about2792.html
Here ya go, it was under documentaries.
Enjoy! I think there are a couple of people who have it up for download.
its on youtube also
It seems like calling kids a stupid cow is big in Romania – didn’t Bela and Belu do that, too? I wonder if it has a less severe meaning in that culture than we take it? Of course, telling a kid to go to hell is kinda harsh. Yeah. I would not say either to any kid in the gym. Although I can’t be the ONLY coach that wants to go up to certain kids sometimes and ask them, “Are you really that stupid?!”
To be devil’s advocate (because I love it so), you say that this kind of treatment is NOT the way to produce an elite gymnast. And yet, it has time and time again.
It’s one way to produce an Elite gymnast, TP.
But not the best way. Especially in a nation with a small population and few gyms.
It’s abusive, and that’s the problem.
I’ve read this and I’ve just seen the film, my impression is that what we see is only the tip of the iceberg and I don’t really believe Forminte is much more careful. As compared to B & B? And what period of time, the nineties, the 2000s? Even though, it all depends on how much they want medals (they = coaches, federation, olympic committee, etc). That bully has been promoted along with some gymnasts at the Oly squad. I’ll try to get back on this as soon as I can.
do families have to payyymoney to be put into deva? and say if i wanted to go now, being around level7 and 15 years old would they probably take me? what would u think….
also how old do they go upto in age in deva? like max age that they coach…
[...] is Raluca Haidu. Recall that she was one of the two little gymnasts featured in the documentary The Secret of Deva. … Surviving all that bad coaching, she looks terrific, today. In fact she’s listed as [...]
Gymnastics in Romania is free or almost free.The most talented kids have board and expenses covered by the state and medals in international competitions are handsomely rewarded.Only romanians are trained in these facilities;no foreigners allowed(yet).
Sports in Romania are extremely centralised and all coaches have to have a degree of some kind in their field either from a university or another teaching/coaching institution(that’s why Romania ranks 14th in the all time medal rankings for the summer Olympics).
I used to train for 3 track and field events and due to an injury i gave it up…which i regret now,but my two coaches were extremely knowledgeable and i loved them.
I recall how well paid Olympic medals were in 2004.
$65,000 for a gold medal.
But, by coincidence, talking to a former Romanian gymnast yesterday, I learned that Dragalescu is still waiting on payment for his two gold medals from the last World Championships.
Not verified, but I think it’s true.
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