How do you become a young champion
libre 12
How is it that very young boys and girls climb the highest steps of the podiums of the largest international competitions for adults - the Olympic Games, world and European championships? How do they become young champions?
Of course, it doesn't happen like that - in the evening you fall asleep as a simple gym-goer, and even more so as a weakling who doesn't even do exercises, and in the morning you suddenly wake up as a world champion! In life, any victory is given by labor. Without labor, and also love for what you want to succeed in, you will not achieve anything. This is especially evident in sports.
You can't live on tips
It is possible, of course, to get an "A" by copying the dictation from your desk mate, or to solve the problem at the blackboard with half a heartbeat on a hint, if a friend from the second row can whisper loudly, but even if this friend will shout at the top of his voice, you can't run the distance quickly and you can't jump much in height. You can' t live on tips.
Champions give way to new ones
There are such huge ice mountains in the world - icebergs, aren't there? A small part, one seventh of the mountain, above water, sparkles in the sunlight, and six sevenths are hidden under water, unnoticeable. In time, this deep part comes to replace its blinding top.
So it is in sports: world champions and record holders sparkle with the gold of medals at the top, and then over the years give way to new ones. These new ones gradually climb higher and higher up the mountain to its dazzling peak. And climbing up the mountain is not so easy, you know how much sweat it takes.
We have already been to the top, we have seen how your peers celebrate victory here, and now let's see how they got there. What precedes world victories? Before you become a world winner, it's a good idea to become a local winner.
From the history of sports
If we recall the history of sports, in the USSR, for guys, novice athletes, there were big all-union competitions in many sports at once - Spartakiads of schoolchildren - and in individual sports.
They have beautiful, fascinating names: "Starts of Hopes" - sports games, "Wicker Ball" - ball hockey, "Golden Puck" - ice hockey, "White Rook" - chess, "White Sniper" - biathlon, "Jolly Dolphin" - swimming, "Leather Ball" - soccer, "Spring Swallows" - diving and many others. Millions of children, including junior schoolchildren, participated in these competitions.
Golden Puck Sports Club
The sports club "Golden Puck" was born in 1964. That year the national team of the Soviet Union won "all the gold of the world" in the Austrian city of Innsbruck: our hockey players became champions of the Olympic Games, the world and Europe at once. They played wonderfully! And the audience admired their games.
And after the final match, Boris Mayorov, captain of the USSR national team, presented the winning puck and stick with the champions' autographs to "Pionerskaya Pravda". He said:
"Let this puck and stick call our guys to the ice."
And pilot-cosmonaut Pavel Popovich, who was standing nearby, added:
"The boys must make friends with the puck and stick, must learn to play so that the USSR national team from all championships returned to the homeland with a "golden" puck!"
And the wish of the glorious cosmonaut came true: Soviet hockey players for more than two decades almost did not know defeats on the world arena.
And that year the editorial board of "Pionerskaya Pravda" reported that the All-Union club of young hockey players "Golden Puck" was opened.
Since then, annual competitions for the prize of this club have been held all over the country. They were attended by millions of children 12-14 years old, thousands of school, yard, street, village teams. After all, hockey was the favorite game in the USSR.
"Hockey is a wonderful game,"
- claimed Yuri Gagarin, the first cosmonaut.
"If I were a boy, I would certainly become a hockey player. Ah, what a game it is!"
- famed ballerina Maya Plisetskaya once exclaimed.
"It will strengthen your courage, encourage you to become stronger and more skillful in sports, and thus in life."
- the writer Lev Kassil said about the game of hockey.
Our young hockey players participated in international meetings. Many of the children who started their sporting path in "Golden Puck" tournaments became famous masters of sport.
The "Leather Ball" prize
Hockey is played in winter and soccer is played in summer. For many years, all-Union competitions of young soccer players for the prize "Leather Ball" were held . This prize was established by the "Pioneer Pravda", the Central Committee of the Komsomol and the USSR Football Federation.
It was attended by school, yard, street teams. There were also many thousands of them. After all, at that time, if someone did not train in the soccer section, they raced the ball at a big break, marking the gate with satchels!
Some play hockey, some play soccer, some run on skis, some swim....
The newspaper "Soviet Sport" established prizes for the winners of the All-Union swimming competition "Merry Dolphin". In 1980 children born in 1967, 1968, 1969 took part in them. That's how young the athletes were. The winners showed excellent results. Those who know how to swim will be able to appreciate them.
At boys born in 1968 the winner swam 100m freestyle for 1 min. 03,2 seconds! And the winner among girls - for 1 min. 04,4 sec. She was only a little behind the boys. So young people became champions in other all-Union tournaments in other sports.
