Interview with Professor Vladimir Koprivica
By James Smith
Vladimir Koprivica is a Professor of Sports Training Theory at the Serbian and Montenegro Basketball Academy in Belgrade. He has worked as a conditioning coach at several men’s and women’s top division basketball teams in his country.
James:
"Zdravo Professor Koprivica. I would first like to tell that it is an honor for me to have the opportunity to personally receive and share your insights with the viewers of Elite Fitness Systems and Power Development Inc. It is a privilege that I have gained the acquaintance of you and Mladen. I look forward to future correspondence with you.
Professor, I am very familiar with the fact that the types of questions I am going to ask you could easily prompt the makings of a text book. So please be as brief or detailed as you wish with your responses."
Prof Koprivica:
"Thank you for the kind words Mr. Smith. It should always be kept in mind that both science and practice are born in discussion, which means that we are all learning from each other. We are more similar in what we don’t know than we are different in what we know. And for this very reason we should be happy for every encounter/meeting, including this one over the Internet."
James:
"I appreciate the thoughtful response Professor. Would you please share a brief history of your coaching and academic experiences?"
Prof Koprivica:
"I have studied at Faculty of physical culture in Belgrade. At the same faculty I finished graduate studies with the highest grades (to praise myself a little) and defended my master thesis. Later on, I have finished my doctoral studies by defending doctoral thesis (“Structural characteristics of 11-15 years old basketball players”) and became a teacher at the Theory of sport training department. I was lucky to become the assistant of Prof. Petrović, great teacher and very successful coach in athletics. Later on, I have been on a specialization in Russia with Prof. L.P. Matveyev, who is proclaimed as the scientist who has done the biggest influence on sport development in 20th century. Those are my practical and scientific role-models. Theoretically and practically, outside of faculty responsibilities, I have most devoted to basketball (over 25 years). I have worked with all age categories, from juvenile to senior representations. Teams that were coached by me, as a conditioning coach, took large number of national championships, cup competitions and medals on international levels. Especially, I have worked on the education of coaching staff."
James:
"Your experiences and accomplishments are truly inspirational professor. I understand that your country was not part of the former Soviet-bloc; however, have any aspects of the multi-year process of training athletes changed in your country since the fall of the Soviet Union?"
Prof Koprivica:
"The world is, along with large differences, unique, and as a result of that, all of the positive and negative influences are indivertible. The USSR had a very big, coordinated, expensive and very successful system of training. Their multi-year oriented preparation system gave results, so it was copied by other countries, especially those countries which were in common economic,
political and military block. Our country (former Yugoslavia) wasn’t in that block, but it has established a system of training which was partly influenced by Russian’s. However, we also used positive experiences from others, but we also had our own original solutions. This was closely related to our basketball and other sport games. Decades before civilian war, and along with Italy, we were the most successful in the world in sport games. War and country break-down brought many negative changes in all former republics (now countries/states). Every break of continuity is bad, and the recovery always lasts very long. The process of, once again, establishing the system is in progress, but now it is very evident that we have permanently lost many things."
James:
"Unfortunately, the majority of coaches and sport systems in the US have failed to adopt these highly successful components of the Soviet training model. Furthermore, here in the United States many coaches and parents make the mistake of early specialization with their young school age athletes. The mistake of this early specialization in sport is further compounded by a lack of attention paid to the development of elementary motor forms (general physical preparedness). What words of advice can you share with such coaches and parents?"
Prof Koprivica:
"Theoretical basis for this problem is very clear: training and competitions should be in unity with bio-psycho-social development of youth and the groundwork/fundamentals for later sport success should be developed. The goal of youth preparations should be in achieving great results in the period of their career when the best results are achieved. Forced (specialized) work, sadly, gives results quickly, but it also limits the athlete in his development. It is very important to know the definition of early specialization. Early specialization is NOT if the child of 7 years takes a tennis racquet or ball in his hands. More important is what the child does. Training contents should be miscellaneous and aligned so it is appropriate for the child’s age and achieved level of skill. The first thing that should be done is to learn motor alphabet. Early specialization is when young athletes, poorly prepared and educated, undergo very specialized and very intensive training and large number of competitions. Outcomes/results are sport, but also biological and psycho-social in nature. Old pedagogues have told that it is not important what the child does with the ball, but what the ball does with the child."
James:
"I hope that the coaches and parents who are reading this interview pay special attention to your words Professor.
What types of indicators do you use for determining when a young athlete is sufficiently prepared for specialized training for a particular sport? I know that you have great experience working with basketball players so perhaps you could answer the question considering the sport of basketball."
Prof Koprivica:
"I believe that for this very question there are no clear answers for all the cases. If they existed, they would be certainly available to everybody. Different development of each individual requires different paths. Criteria can be general (level of biological, psychological and social development), special (for example technical-tactical preparedness) and individual (for example the force of knee extensors). All the criteria must be taken into consideration in every individual case. Besides that, every sport branch has its own specificity. There is a different development of boys and girls, different speed of their maturation and it is not always in unity with their chronological age. According to this, every practical problem of our profession can be seen in each athlete, so it is almost impossible to give universal rule.
In our basketball, in youngest age groups, we give great emphasis to the early development of the sport skills, both general and specific. Loads that are in the lactate zone of intensity are used in more degree only after the age of 15, when the body develops required conditions. During that time, training in the game situations and competitions gets more and more emphasis. Specialized training without mastered basic skills and without acquired adequate abilities is bad. Competitions of
insufficiently prepared and educated athletes, with the goal of achieving only results, have no meaning. They (competitions) must be a function of preparation for later results."
James:
"Professor, we know that different sporting disciplines (and even positional requirements for the same sport) require the development of varying abilities. How does your criterion vary, regarding different sports, for determining when a youth is sufficiently prepared for specialized training?"
Prof Koprivica:
"If I could recommend something it would be the constant monitoring of training effects. It is very important that we, in beginning, use most basic exercises, and then progress to most complex ones. Most effective means should not be used too early! When some training mean does not bring any training effects to the athlete, new, more complex and more demanding means should be used. On the top of their career, if they wish to progress even more, athletes must use extreme, “shocking” means. In sport branches, where the athlete uses sport implements (tennis, table tennis, skiing, skating, games with a ball…), specific training should start very early. But this is about skill training and certainly not about large loads! On the other side, there are endurance-type sport branches, in which we take a large time to introduce athletes to a period of “the rush” for results. This is all in the unity with biological development and motor development characteristics."
James:
"Professor you may then be distressed to know that complex exercises such as barbell snatches and clean and jerks are routinely introduced into the training of western athletes who lack the supporting motor forms to safely and effectively perform the lifts. Furthermore, perhaps more coaches and physical educators here in America would observe more training effects if the majority of physical activity wasn’t limited to sport practice and competition.
Professor, for the last question of this interview I would like to address the development of reaction speed and speed-strength in young athletes. Considering the fact that the nervous system of pre-adolescent youths is underdeveloped and largely influenced by the types of activities the youths are exposed to prior to puberty, would you please discuss what types of activities are most appropriate and effective for developing reaction speed and speed-strength in athletes who fall in this stage of physical development."
Prof Koprivica:
"Research that was done in our domain shows that we cannot largely influence reaction speed, because it is very genetically determined. However, with the pre-adolescents we should spent most of our time in the development of coordination and sport skill acquisition. The one who doesn’t use this period cannot make up for it later. Regarding strength, it is hard to give a short answer. For the youngest athletes this represents various types of games which include a variety of different jumps, ball or other objects throws and short sprints with change of direction all in different situations. In this very period, the game is the basic method and the mean of development.
We are at the end of one mega-project which I coordinate and in which we measured physical abilities and physical development of the same children from their 7th till their 15th year. I hope that those data will be very valuable and that they are going to bring some answers."
James:
"So many thanks for sharing your insights Professor. Your time and thoughts are greatly appreciated. I look forward to our next exchange."
Special thanks to Mladen Jovanovic for taking the time and interest to translate my and the professor’s words for each other, and foster the international correspondence which I have been fortunate to gain with him and Professor Koprivica.