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"Sport Makes Your Brain More Efficient"

"Sport Makes Your Brain More Efficient"

Igor Batov is in his second year of ICEF’s bachelor’s programme and has received the honoured Master of Sports title at the Russian Ballroom Dancing Championship. In this interview, Igor shares how to balance studying and dancing, how sports help in building skills, and why strive for sporting success.

About dancing as a way of life

I started ballroom dancing at 4, first in Yekaterinburg, where I lived until I was 14, and then in Moscow, where I got a new partner and where my training for competitions entered a more serious phase. We became regular participants in both national and international events. One of them – the 2022 Russian Ballroom Dancing Championship, held this past spring – had conferred on me the title of Master of Sports.  

Since dance sport has been a huge part of my life, I didn't give it up when I started studying at ICEF. It does take a lot of time, between 18 and 20 hours a week, and it hasn’t been easy to cram dance training into my schedule as a student. But, luckily, my tough schedule in grade 11 had prepared me well enough. As with many of my classmates, my every day was busy. I spent the weekday mornings tutored, then went to school, then to the gym after a hurried lunch where I would train until the evening. Now as a university student I have a lot to learn and there are many student activities I’d like to join, but there’s never enough time and it’s always been a matter of sacrificing one thing for another.

About his Master of Sports title

I don’t think I’ll be developing my dancer career further. The career of a dance coach or a judge doesn’t sound attractive somehow. I decided to leave gracefully, with the title of Master of Sports, and so I did. It’s very important to have your skill recognized at a higher level. Dancing is my true passion. I know a good dancer when I see one, I spent hundreds of hours training, and this title culminates my years-long work. It gave me some much needed self-esteem.

My becoming a Master of Sports is also a source of pride for my parents. It was they who got me into ballroom dancing. I am very grateful to them for putting so much time and effort and resources into this. It is very important for them to have our merit recognized officially.

For me, the most important part of my winning isn’t material. It is the meaning that it carries, the memory of a period which was truly landmark and eventful

I’ll cherish my medal as a memory of the time when I moved to Moscow to be torn between studying and dancing, of the nights I spent studying for my exams, of being full of energy. For me, this high recognition of my sporting achievements marks the start of a new stage and the need to succeed in something else after leaving behind what proved a remarkable period of my life.

About his future

In a career sense, the Master of Sports title is a nice safety cushion, qualifying me for coaching and sports management, but I would like to be somewhere else professionally, specifically, in data analysis. This wasn’t an easy choice. A huge part of my life is connected with sports and it made more sense to stay in sports, of course.

Data analysis is what I am exploring on my own so far. I’m thinking of doing a course at Yandex School of Data Analysis after graduating from ICEF, and for the time being I am building my hard skills. One useful course I have been doing since my first year is the elective data analysis course by Yaroslav Lyulko of ICEF, who is a truly inspiring teacher and gives very useful information, motivating me to move forward in my chosen field. I am looking forward to Year 4 and its course Data Science for Economists.

About studying and sports

After long and careful consideration of my possible career paths in grade 11, I chose to do a management or management-related degree. I had a strong belief in myself, fueled by my sporting achievements, so I later set sights on economics and finance. Why not? Even though I didn’t have the in-depth knowledge of economics, I did well at school, my parents supported my decision. I applied to ICEF and got enrolled. I never regretted my choice. I admire ICEF’s teachers, environment and HSE at large. My degree programme is highly intense, requiring me to adjust to each new course, and this is where my sports experience helps a lot.

Sport makes your brain more efficient. Ballroom is more difficult to learn than anything else. As a complex coordination sport, it requires one to coordinate their legs and arms while getting into the rhythm, accentuating the positions and keeping the balance, and there’s a partner to lead and set direction for. There’s a whole multitude of things to be achieved within a two-minute dance.

Sport can make us excellent stress managers. It constantly exhort us to make efforts

When you perform in front of judges and spectators, you learn to cope with tension and agitation. This experience comes very much in handy when I sit exams, giving me the ability not to get lost. 

Also, sport is nice way to take a break from studying. By alternating attention and physical fitness you can maintain your productivity. A portion of physical exercise clears you brain, making it much easier for you to get down to study. The more hours I spend in the gym, the better for my academic performance. The self-confidence that comes with dancing actually facilitates success in any endeavor. Every time there’s a challenge to take, my thinking is, “If I can make it in the gym by putting just a bit more effort, I can make it anywhere,” I start to work harder and things start to work out for me.