The Norwegian coach about Azerbaijan

Our team of 6 judoplayers (Martin, Karl Andre, Lars Petter, Håvard, Vegard and Pål) and myself traveled to Azerbaijan via Riga and arrived in Azerbaijan with high expectations to our stay in the country where the mountains are burning and the judofights are characterised by fire. Mr. Ali met us at the airport and greeted us with a warm welcome as he always does. The formidable fantastic Ali, a man with lots of wisdom both on and outside the judomat, took us to our hotel. Ali has produced worldclass judo athletes and also has a university degree in physics - just to underline my point about wisdom! We had arrived in Baku. We spent monday morning adjusting to the heat and the culture and surroundings. The junior players were particularly impressed by all the luxury cars in the streets. As almost a veteran in Azerbaijan, I knew we had lots of nice surprises coming. Martin, who knows this fantastic country with such nice people very well, shared his experiences and showed the local attractions to the young judokas. But we had come here for one main reason: to train with top level azerbaijani judo athletes. Monday at 17.00 we had the first training. This made a big impression, everybody was fighting very hard and the Norwegian athletes had to fight for each centimeter on the tatami. The Norwegian team was challenged both by the strong heath, and strong azerbaijani opponents from all weight categories hungry for victory. Our athletes worked hard and with their heart through this extremely hard session, but I have to honestly admit that they were thrown more often than they themselves were able to throw their opponent. Day 2 was better both with regards to the heath and the sport, now the norwegian bodies had adjusted to the timedifference and the weather. Ali had been so kind to arrange two judo sessions every day at 10.00 and 17.00 which we appreciated very much as Martin needed to prepare for the World Championships and the juniors for World Cup tournament in Chech. Wednesday morning we travelled to Zaqulba where the Azerbaijani Cadets were having a training camp. Zaqulba is a beatiful place by the Caspian Sea which during the Soviet era served as combined sports and recreation center for the sovietic athletes and upper class. In the center we found some wonderful stairs that I could not ignore; we now had running up stairs on the program. This was a hard intervall session and some bad words were being said on the way up. But I was pleased with my athletes job here. Then we were going to relax, but no, the cadets had a rugby/basket match they invited us to join. So then we played with our new friends for almost 2 hours. After lunch we had some sun and swimming in nice temperature of 25 degrees and finally time to relax. Our beach adventure ended with a football match where the cadets were beating us to my big disappointment. We have to train more football! Our day could have ended here, but no, a suprise had been prepared by our friends Ali and Agayar - a barbeque on the beach. Mr. Agayar is head coach for the Azerbaijani team with an olympic gold medal (Elnur Mammadli 73 kg.) as best result. He is as nice a person as a good coach. We were extremely tpuched by the hospitality, thank you very much Mr. Agayar and Mr. Ali for this splendid evening and for inviting us to Baku and taking such good care of our team. Thursday and Friday we had very good days with four hard judo sessions. My juniors started to get used to the environment and could give more resistance. Still, we need more time to reach Azerbaijan's judo level, but we are taking small steps forward all the time. If we can benefit well from the Azerbaijan-experience, the Judo future of Norway will be bright! Saturday the 20th of June was a day of culture. At 08.00 in the morning we went by metro escorted by one of Attilla's talented young judoplayers to the old city where sauna and massage was on the program. When we arrived Ali sat waiting, smiling and nice like always. Then we learned how to be in a real sauna with massage, beating with leaves, cold bath followed by tea. On our way out, we met with the famous composer who successfully has presented his works both in Europe and USA, Mr Khaiam Mirzazada. Thereafter we went on an excursion to Qala Archeoligic Museum guided by the wise Ali and knowledged Mr. Latif, journalist, editor, great friend of Norway and also historian! From the history lesson, we travelled to one of Azerbaijan's most famous attraction, the fire mountain. This mountain has been burning for several thousand years and gave us a very special experience which we would never get at home in Norway. At 08.00 Sunday morning we did some more running in Baku's nice stairs. They all performed really well. Tired, but pleased, we went back to the hotel. As usual Karl Andre needed to eat some Levash, this young man can never resist an opportuniy to eat Levash. Ali then showed us the old city and Maiden Tower and the markets where we had a look at oriental carpets, silk and traditional Azerbaijani costumes which we had to try on. We had a really nice day and felt well rested before new judo sessions on monday. Best regards from ”The land of fire” Jonas Mallo Head Coach Translated from the Norwegian language into English Goril Johansen