Vorkout in Krasnodar. Where to start doing vorkout?

On August 19 and 20, Krasnodar hosted a bright and memorable event #DATSUNPIKNIK, dedicated to street athletics in general and the vorkout movement in particular. We managed to meet and talk to one of the organizers of the event in Krasnodar, professional athlete and coach Alexey Kobyakov about how his career in vorkout began, what role this sport plays in the life of his hometown, on what sites you can join the movement and the most common mistakes of beginners.

– Alexey, please tell us how and when did you start doing vorkout? At what point did it become something more than just a hobby for you?
– I started doing vorkout in 2012. At first we just went out in the summer with friends, played the well-known “ladder”, learned to do pull-ups. At that moment I didn’t know how to do anything at all. After that we began to exchange experience and learn some new, simple elements. Naturally, we didn’t even know what they were called. Then, after some time, we started studying YouTube videos, watching and repeating those guys who were filmed in them. I really wanted to progress in this direction: I started taking information, again, from the Internet, because I had no mentor. Basically, what I saw, I repeated.

– Do you participate in any competitions now?
– Yes, mostly I try to attend regional and regional events. In spring I managed to visit international competitions called “Battle of the Bars”. There I took the third place, those competitions were the most powerful and the most important for me at that moment of my career. It wasn’t easy, to be honest, because there were 16 athletes from different countries: Russia, Germany, Malaysia, USA and others. All fought on the same platform and had a high level of preparation.

I almost never participate in city competitions, as I am almost always their organizer. From the outside it would look wrong: if I both organize and participate at the same time. I usually go to compete somewhere not far away: North Ossetia, Dagestan (Makhachkala), Rostov-on-Don. I also took part in Moscow competitions many times.

– And what element can you call the most difficult of those you know how to do?
– The most difficult element for me at the moment is “Horizon” – it is a sore subject. It’s an element that I’ve been learning for quite a long time, but it’s very difficult for me. Maybe I don’t have a predisposition, maybe I don’t want it so much. Nevertheless, from practice to practice I try to keep practicing it.

– How well developed is the vorkout movement in your city? How many guys do it in Krasnodar?
– It’s a difficult question, because vorkout is a big movement, and, probably, everyone has its own definition. Therefore, it is hard enough to say exactly how many people are engaged in it. In principle, you can even call a person who can do pull-ups a vorkaut, and there are a lot of such people. As for the development of vorkout, I believe that Krasnodar is one of the leaders in this respect in Russia, because we constantly hold various championships and festivals. There is regular “movement”.

– Are there enough tourniquets and really good grounds in your city?
– There are not so many good grounds in our city, they can literally be counted on the fingers of one hand, probably. It is the specialized playgrounds that are missing! Our administration and other organizations that deal with this, put the simplest grounds, tourniquets, bars, and they do not meet the requirements of professional athletes or people who just want to keep themselves in shape. Therefore, of course, we would like to increase the number of quality playgrounds. We are trying to do everything possible for this.

– Suppose I am a beginner and I want to do vorkout in Krasnodar, where and who should I turn to?
– To us! As a rule, now we have trainings on the territory of the activity “FlyZone” at Stasova Street, 182/1. It is a trampoline hall, the third in the city, and it has a certain pro-zone, a zone of professionals, parkour playground, vorkout playground, climbing wall, professional trampolines. That is, you can not only jump, but also sign up for any section.

In general, our guys-vorkouters are divided, perhaps, into two types. The first are those who started practicing on the street, and they are not ready, let’s say, to pay money for a good hall, they are used to practicing in the conditions that they have under their side. And there are the second – guys who are just coming into our discipline and want to be explained to them, chewed up, how exactly it is worth practicing, how to properly conduct their training process. Classes are conducted directly by me. I have a coaching education, besides, I used to work as a fitness coach for four years. I have accumulated enough knowledge to teach this discipline. You can come to us for training three times a week: Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 7 pm. And you can also meet guys who train on street grounds. For example, in the city park at the site near the “Olympus”, simply put, “zaton”, in the Chistyakov Grove.

– What mistakes are often made by beginners coming to the site? And at the same time, what advice would you give them: where should they start?
– First of all, they often neglect warming up, and it goes badly for them. Young athletes don’t worry about warming up their joints, stretching their muscles. They immediately come to the court and try to surprise not only themselves, but also those around them. So those people who have been practicing longer, they do not have such a goal, because they know how to do a lot of things and they do not see the point in “showing off”, showing off in front of someone.

Secondly, if you have started to learn something, then be sure to finish it to the end! There is no need to quit halfway – you should always strive to do what you have planned, try to progress.

Thirdly, there should always be a properly designed training process.

You can start with elementary pull-ups, push-ups from the floor, push-ups on the bars. Then move on to more complex variations of exercises: exit on two hands, lifting with a flip, push-ups in a handstand. Everything else – only when a person has already formed a good base, and such in vorkout is considered to be about 25-30 pull-ups, 50-60 push-ups on the bars, 70-100 – from the floor. Naturally, all this for an approach, in good quality, without rocking and excessive inertia. Only after accumulating such a base a person can easily learn strength elements. Again, it’s all individual: you should rely on your height and weight, because you are working with the weight of your own body. Everyone progresses differently. The most important thing is the base.

– How was the Datsun-picnic in Krasnodar? What did you remember most of all?
– I think that the event was held at a fairly high level, there were guests from Moscow – famous guys who conducted master classes and some percentage of people, I’m sure, motivated by their example, especially beginner athletes.

Most of all, of course, the competitions were memorable. I heard from our judges, Moscow guests and organizers that Krasnodar had probably the highest percentage of professionals, the highest level compared to other cities. This, of course, is good to hear. It means that all the work we have been doing for several years is not in vain!

– How would you motivate a person to become a part of your movement?
– I try to motivate people by my own example. When I see an athlete, a person who is practicing, whose eyes are burning, I always try to ask him how long he has been practicing, to find a common language. Perhaps to give some advice and tips, as well as to show all the variety of this discipline. After all, you can not only do pull-ups and push-ups, but also do other tricks. Or if a person just wants to be in great shape, I am ready to show him a number of interesting exercises that he did not know before.

By and large, the motivation for guys is various competitions, when they can ride around the cities and take prizes. It is always a storm of emotions and impressions, as well as invaluable experience.

– What, in your opinion, should be done to make vorkout in Krasnodar even more accessible and comfortable?
– I think it all comes down to infrastructure. When there will be a good infrastructure, people will pull themselves. Seeing a large number of people on the site, the guys will also come up, try something, get interested.

TOP 3 VENUES IN KRASNODAR

In terms of attendance
1) “Zaton” – a playground on the city beach near the sports complex “Olymp”.
2) Playground in the park City Garden.
3) Playground in the yard of the residential complex “Panorama”.

In terms of functionality
1) Playground on Rossiyskaya Street from the company “Kanguru.pro”. Until recently it was the largest in the Southern Federal District. It is located far from the center, and the number of people studying there is many times less than on some old Soviet site.
2) A playground in the Slavyansky microdistrict.
3) And again a playground in the yard in the Panorama Residential Complex. Since it is located directly in the houses, it is those who live in them who most often exercise there.