Alexey Shchebelin: coaching without violence, team tactics and leaving Katusha
Title of the issue: "DOPING by E-MAIL//ALEXEY SHCHEBELIN"
Alexey Shchebelin raced professionally in Italy, worked as the sports director of the Katusha youth team, and now he trains amateurs and goes to the start with them himself. On the air with questions from subscribers, he tells why the desire to train should be protected and not squeezed, how to teach the team to work for each other and why he does not wear a power meter. A separate story is how he was removed from Katusha with hints of doping.
Guest
Master of sports of international class in cycling, former sports director of the youth "Katusha", coach and bikefitter, who trains the St. Petersburg club and the Etalon team.
Useful from the issue
- Cherish the desire to train
An even moderate volume for the whole month is better than a jerk of 25 hours a week followed by a failure. In a year, the volume may be the same, but the pleasure and the result may be different.
- Go to training fresh
Do not add a second workout for the sake of recovery: for recovery there is massage and rest, and for volume — an extra half hour to the main work.
- Don't tear up at the beginning of a long workout
If you don't know your level, drive the first 60 out of 100 km calmly, and the remaining 40 in full force. Otherwise, the rest of the training will turn into survival.
- Balance with work and family is a must
If sport eats up sleep and family, you won't last that long. Sometimes the honest answer is to reconsider the workload or even the work.
- Save your strength in the race
Do the shifts according to your strength, use the draft, don't rush for every break. The winner is the one who has saved more strength to the finish line.
- Teamwork is based on reciprocity
Explain to everyone his purpose and role: helping a partner today, a rider gets help tomorrow. Without this, the team splits up into singles.
- The team needs more than just training
A party is important for people: joint coffee parties, a sauna, a regular general ride once a month. Without communication, part of the team will fall off.
- A pulse instead of a wattmeter is also an option
Alexey trains by pulse: he shows the functional state and does not scare with floating watts after illness or power.
- Steering wheel for your tasks
A narrow handlebar provides aerodynamics, which is rarely needed in a road race, but it deprives you of leverage at the finish and on the climb. Alexey's universal option is 42 cm.
The path from pro to amateur coach
Alexey starts with regalia: his entire youth career, Russian championships, international starts. He calls the most memorable victory the general standings of the heavy stage race in Spain, which Russian riders had not been able to take before him. After his career, he was called the sports director and coach of the youth "Katusha", and future professionals like Ilnur Zakarin passed through his hands.
Alexey considers working with amateurs to be the same coaching job: the task is to transfer experience and show that cycling can be loved, not tolerated. Participating in amateur races, he does the same as before from the escort car, only now he prompts right in the group. He is not interested in results for the sake of results: he considers his sports career over.
Why do I need a coach and how many students can I teach
The coach, according to Alexey, saves time, spares health, and takes responsibility for not harming a person. He recalls how in Italy, without a coach, he gathered knowledge himself, paid noticeable money for plans, tested everything on himself, and eventually began coaching clubmates. Katyusha hired him precisely because he knew how to prepare himself.
Over the years he had about two hundred students, now about thirty. Everyone has different goals: someone prepares for one start and leaves, someone trains for six or seven years. In order to truly analyze athletes who are focused on results, the coach, in his estimation, it is reasonable to lead about twenty people.
Approach: the desire must be preserved
Alexey took his principle from the coaching mentor: the athlete's desire should not be satisfied, but preserved. It is better to train all month with a moderate volume than two weeks of 25 hours and then quit. He doesn't kick anyone for skipping: if a person doesn't train for a week, it means that work or family is more important now, and without a balance between them and sports, nothing will work anyway.
After the Soviet school with exhausting loads, the Italian approach surprised him: if you want to recover, go to a massage therapist, if you want more work, add half an hour to the workout, rest the rest of the time. When he rebuilt and began to go to training fresh, the results increased. Even before the big races, his volume was around 12-15 hours a week, and 3-4 hours for training, according to him, is usually enough.
Leaving Katusha and doping by e-mail
According to him, Alexey was squeezed out of Katyusha: he had more authority among the athletes than a senior coach with connections. He was told that there was no result and the athletes did not want to work with him, although the day before his riders took several places in the top seven at the All-Russian start. Later he found out that his lack of results was explained to the team by doping, which he allegedly gave.
A year and a half later, two riders were caught doping in the team and it was closed, and Alexey says he was glad to be on the sidelines. Former wards called him to write plans remotely, started winning, and then there were rumors that he was also sending doping by mail. Hence the name of the issue.
How to make amateurs work for each other
Teamwork among amateurs is possible if you explain a simple principle: today you helped, tomorrow they will help you. Alexey gives an example from Etalon: a strong racer, whose main goal was in the second half of the season, worked for a partner at the Moscow La Strada, and he won, and then responded in kind. At Katusha, he spent three years building trust in the team, and when it appeared, victories began to be shared by different riders, including after the selfless work of partners in the last kilometer.
Another trick from the youth team is to divide the team at the All—Russian starts into three teams with their leaders, so that the riders learn to make decisions themselves. Etalon has grown to about a hundred people, and Alexey wants to separate the club and the competitive team. He is happy about the competition: new teams will appear — well, it develops the sport.
Race tactics: think and save
The race is won by the one who brought the freshest legs to the finish line. Alexey advises to make shorter shifts if the opponent is stronger, use the draft and not rush immediately after each breakaway. If you need a breakaway, you can provoke a series of attacks and drive away on it. He studies the weaknesses of his rivals and admits that at the finish of the Tour de Selishchi he also struggled with cramps, just didn't show it.
The power on the machine and on the road are different things: to go forward and twist 500 watts is not enough, you need to accelerate, make a gap and guess the moment. He calls his participation in the races free training for rivals and rejoices when he is beaten by tactics.
Federation, clusters and narrow handlebars
According to Alexey, there is nothing to expect from the amateur cycling federation: it's easier to organize yourself. He offers amateurs to team up with the organizers and hold starts the same way as in Europe, where amateur clusters start behind professionals on the same track. Disputes about who can race in which cluster, he considers double standards: he himself once lost the second place in cluster A, because the coach, and simply accepted the rules of the organizer.
About the numbers, Alexey says that he trains and trains by pulse: watts are confusing after illness or strength, and the pulse shows the functional state. He does not need narrow handlebars: aerodynamics is of little importance in a road race, and a lever is needed at the finish line, so he puts a universal steering wheel 42 cm wide. Of the professionals, he is interested in Pogachar with his attack a hundred kilometers before the finish of the World Cup, and as a child he was rooting for Ulrich and even met him at a training session in Italy. Alexey promises to come to the Tsar Grader for 180 km.
Timestamps
- 00:00The elite is visiting
- 00:26Regalia and achievements
- 02:28Classes with amateurs
- 08:10What is a coach for
- 15:50How many students can I lead
- 20:34Schebelin's coaching approach
- 28:46Invitation to the "Tsar Grader" and tactics
- 33:58Teamwork and leaving Katusha
- 48:08The "benchmark" and tactics within the team
- 1:04:57Federation and sports development
- 1:09:23Clusters, amateurs and pros
- 1:17:06A record in watts and numbers
- 1:19:40About idols
- 1:23:14Questions with an asterisk
- 1:26:13Wishes to the audience
Mentioned in this episode
Katusha · Etalon · La Strada · Tour de Selishchi · Tsar Grader · Zwift · Discord · Strava