Coach Anatoly Bondarchuk

I’ve already discussed a little background about my coach, Dr. Anatoly Bondarchuk. As I have repeatedly said, he is widely regarded as the best hammer throw coach in the world.  However, when I speak to most people about my coach, their first question is normally: ‘why is he now living in small town Canada?’  The short answer is that his current job with the Kamloops Track and Field Club allows him to be closer to his daughter, an emigrant to Canada.  A recent article in the Kamloops Daily News discusses this and more about Coach Bondarchuk, telling everything from his history as an athlete and coach to his pleas for more support for his athletes.  As for how much he enjoys his new life in Canada, the ever optimistic coach said: “Everything is good.  Good city, good people, good life, good job. Everything is fantastic.”  This was the most informative and in depth article I have read on Coach B and well worth the read.

The article also briefly delves into some of Coach B’s theories. As I’ve described before, he is always busy in his quest for more knowledge.  As the famous proverb states, the man that thinks he knows the most knows the least.  Bondarchuk follows a similar theory as described in the article:

Everybody’s training separately, everyone thinks, ‘This is my secret, I can’t show other coaches,’ … If you don’t share your secrets, your information, you can’t improve … If you don’t learn from each other, there is no progress. It surprises me, when I do clinics and share my knowledge, that a lot of people are in shock at what I share. They’re like, ‘That’s your business, why would you share?’ They aren’t really supporting, they’re competing.

Three of Coach Bondarchuk’s athletes and my training partners will be competing for Team Canada at this month’s IAAF World Championships in Athletics.  I’ll be sure to pass along results.