Almighty Coach

"Anshan Wang, Pengfei Cui, Xiangxian Zuo and Shuang Pang." Dai Li wrote the names of the four backbones on a sheet of white paper.

As a fitness coach of the national table tennis team, if Dai Li couldn’t handle these four backbones, he would definitely not be unable to gain a foothold in the team. On the other hand, if a coach couldn’t win the athletes’ trust, then the training couldn’t go on.

"Shuang Pang is only 19, the youngest athlete in the team. Convincing him to follow the training program should be the simplest. But he is too young, and he hasn’t established his prestige in the national team yet. Thus, it would be useless to make him the first target."

"Pengfei Cui?" When Dai Li read the name aloud, he shook his head immediately.

Although Pengfei Cui was a grand slam player, he was also a famous troublemaker in the national table tennis team. He had been expelled from the national team twice, and sent back to the provincial team for his resistance to management.

"It seems that I can only choose Anshan Wang or Xiangxian Zuo. Wang is the captain of the men’s team. He has a modest and introverted character, while Zuo is outgoing and easy to get along with. They both have their own advantages, so I can choose either one of them."

After consideration, Dai Li finally chose Anshan Wang. Anshan Wang, the No.1 in current national table tennis team, had the most strength and prestige in the team. If Dai Li could win his trust, then it would be easy for Li to win the recognition of the other athletes.

"Please give me three days, and I will make you see change!" Dai Li said to Anshan Wang with an earnest expression.

But Anshan Wang was contemptuous upon hearing what Li said.

Dai Li was only a new fitness coach, but Anshan Wang was the world’s top table tennis player. Wang didn’t believe Li could bring "change" to him. On the contrary, he just felt that Dai Li was a braggart.

But Wang was a modest, diligent athlete of good self-control. Ordinarily, he followed the guidance of his coach. Therefore, he didn’t refuse Li’s training program immediately, and chose to have a try.

...

Domestic sports training basically remained at the "stop-gap" stage. For example, when Dai Li was on the national track-and-field team, the coaches there would improve athletes’ performance by aiming at their shortcomings, giving them specialized training. This was also the mainstream training method in China.

This training method was effective for non-elite athletes, but it was of no use for top athletes. The top athletes in the world are almost perfect in skills. In other words, their defects in skills would not affect their performance. Otherwise, it would be impossible for them to be No.1 in their field of sport.

During Li’s time in the AP training center, he had learned a new training theory. That is, that athletes should be regarded as a group, and thus, the performance of each athlete could be improved by improving the balance of the whole group.

This theory was just like the distribution of attribute points in computer games. Suitable attribute points should be distributed to corresponding game characters. When these attribute points reach their limit, full attribute points plus one was the best choice.

Of course, this theory did not apply to the national track-and-field team, because there was still a huge gap between the world’s top track-and-field athletes and the athletes at home. But when Li was in the national table tennis team, he found that this advanced training theory could be used.

The AP Training Center had no experience in training the world’s top table tennis players, but it had trained several top tennis players, including many four grand slam tennis players. Dai Li had seen some of this information while studying in the United States, so he decided to apply this experience to the training of top players in the national table tennis team.

The coaches of the national table tennis team were basically table tennis players. They were excellent and professional in skills, but their physical training had remained at the same level of a decade ago.

China’s table tennis had been the world’s No.1 for many years. The performance of other countries’ table tennis could not pose any threat to China, and the gap was becoming even more obvious. In this case, the coaches of the national table tennis had rarely paid attention to the training of foreign table tennis athletes. This was because they all were convinced that the training of foreign countries was definitely inferior to that of China.

Three days was transient, and it meant nothing to professional athletes.

But for Dai Li, three days could help him to make some "changes" in Anshan Wang. Li had a great training theory and method, and, in terms of training effect, it was comparable to that of the elite coaches in the national table tennis team.

More importantly, Dai Li chose the right strategy for training.

Anshan Wang had been playing table tennis since he was a child, so the forearm of his ball-holding hand was a bit longer, and the muscle of that hand was a bit stronger than that of the other. But all of these things didn’t prevent him from winning the championships and being the world’s No.1. However, there were still considered as being defects in the overall coordination of his body.

The human body should be a coordinated whole, and it took tens of millions of years for human beings to evolve into what they are today. If a man, whose arms were different in length and size, is more superior than his fellowmen, then all human beings would be bound to evolve in his same way.

The bone structures of adult athletes have been maturely shaped, and this factor is what Li can’t change, as it was impossible for him to make the length of Wang’s two forearms the same. But Dai Lin was able to improve Wang’s muscles of the shorter arm.

For ordinary people, three-day’s worth of training wouldn’t bring about any improvement in their body. However, as one of the world’s top professional athletes, Anshan Wang was much more sensitive to body changes than ordinary people.

Take the table tennis racket as an example: The table tennis rackets of the national table tennis team were specially customized by the manufacturer. Regardless of the glue and rubber, the clapper of the table tennis racket must be precise in its length, width, and thickness, for which even a millimeter of error was not permitted.

The radian of the racket shoulder is a good example for this. Ordinary people may not pay attention to the radian of the racket shoulder, but for top players, they have strict requirements for it, and can perceive the slightest change in it.

Such top athletes, like Anshan Wang, could perceive the difference in the radian of the racket shoulder, even if it was only different by 0.5 degrees. The athletes would feel uncomfortable when using the new racket. Such a slight difference in radian could not be detected in the process of regular product quality inspection. It could only be measured by engineers with precise measuring instruments.

Such was the sensitivity of top athletes, so much that they could perceive even the slightest change in their bodies or sports equipment immediately. After three days of training, Anshan Wang felt exactly the "change" that Dai Li had told him he would. It was the coordination optimization of the whole body, and subtle as it was, Wang now felt more comfortable when playing table tennis.

For Anshan Wang, one of the world’s top athletes, there was barely room for improvement in regards to his professional skills, but there could also be a great improvement for him to be a little more comfortable when playing table tennis.

In order to make these top athletes more comfortable, the team behind them must work really hard. For example, the engineers of the racket had spent a lot of time developing new rackets and asked him to trying them out. The shoe maker specially designed a pair of sneakers for them, paying attention to all details. They had made all these efforts, just to make them feel more comfortable. In order to achieve this goal, the research team of sports equipment may spend several months.

Now, it only took three days for Li to make Wang feel the change.

"Li was of the same age as me, but he could get recruited by Coach Gu. It means he has real talent," Anshan Wang said to himself. At this moment, his contempt for Li had disappeared, now replaced by appreciation, and he began to trust Li.