Almighty Coach

The Athlete Album, by its appearance, looked really gorgeous and precious. It was beautifully packaged and made of fine quality paper. But for Dai Li, it was of no practical use.

Dai Li had been expecting the upgrading for more than a year. He had expected to get some excellent bonus, yet it turned out to be something totally useless.

Dai Li felt that the athlete album was like a white elephant gift. What’s the use of it to collect the data of athletes? It was totally useless.

The greater the hope, the greater the disappointment.

The voice of the system was heard again, "There are several things I need to clarify. First, only the athletes in your coaching list can be added into the athlete album. You cannot include an athlete who is not in your coaching list."

"Second, the status of the athlete shown in the album was the status of the athlete when he or she was added to the album. If you put an athlete into the album when he or she is at his or her peak state, then the status of the athlete shown in the album was his or her peak state status. If you add an athlete when he or she is ill or injured, then the album will show him or her at his or her illness or injury state."

"Third, if you add the same athlete into the athlete album several times, the album will record the best status of the athlete."

"That is, if you put a peak-state athlete into the album, the album records the peak-state of the athlete. Ten years later, the athlete’s conditions will deteriorate due to aging. If you put him or her into the album again, then the album will not update his deteriorated statue, but automatically store what were his physical conditions ten years earlier. However, the athlete, after the ten years, will have accumulated more experience in the sport. With the physical peak-state stored in the album, the athlete will be even better than he or she was ten years ago. So, in terms of experience, the athlete album will store the status of the athlete ten years later."

"I see. Let me try it first," Dai Li answered listlessly.

Dai Li put Anshan Wang into the album, carefully following the instructions of the system. He chose Anshan Wang, because Wang was the "No.1 male table tennis player", and with his S+ level talent and almost 1000-point character attribute, he was definitely at his peak state.

Then, Dai Li saw the profile of Anshan Wang in the athlete album. There was the data about his height, body weight, and skill features, and the tactics he was good at were also described in detail. It was indeed an all-around introduction of Anshan Wang.

Dai Li thought, even Anshan Wang could not know about himself so well as the album.

"How is it? The introduction of the athlete is very detailed, right? Imagine if the whole album is full of the detailed introduction of athletes, how beautiful would it be?!" the system said.

Dai Li ignored the system, wanting to put Pengfei Cui, Xiangxian Zuo, and some other athletes into the album. But what the system then said stopped him.

"I forgot to tell you one thing. It costs 10,000 empirical value points to put an athlete into the album. So, be cautious when you decide to put any athlete into the album," the system warned.

"Cost of empirical value points? At 10,000 points? I lost 10,000 points of empirical value for just one small operation like that? Just to have a look at the information of Anshan Wang?" Dai Li roared with anger.

"Relax! I have not finished yet. The first three times are free. But after that, it will cost 10,000 empirical value points to add one athlete into the album. The first three times are like 10,000 empirical value points for you for free. What’s more, if you add the same athlete into the album for the second time, it would cost you only 5,000 points. That’s 50% off!" the system explained.

"I have put Anshan Wang in the album. So, I have left only two chances for free." Dai Li shook his head helplessly. He could not control the system, as to deciding what the bonus would be. He had to take whatever the system gave. So, his only hope was that the new skill would be more useful.

Dai Li looked at the other bonus item, the skill book. There were three huge words on the cover of it.

"Warm-up Square Dance?" Dai Li read them aloud.

By the name of the skill book, Dai Li knew the function of the new skill.

"Athletes need to warm up before either training or a game. So, this skill must have something to do with warming up!" Dai Li murmured.

"Exactly. This is a skill related to the warm-up before any sporting. If the athletes, led by you, practice the square dance, they can warm up more quickly, and thus, enter into better sports conditions. The athletes will also find it to be more easy and efficient when doing sports. Hence, the effect of the square dance is much better than when prefaced with ordinary warm-up exercises."

The system was like a salesman, and it said, "After the square-dancing warm-up, the probability of athlete’s getting injured during the activity will decrease significantly. It works no matter whether it is practiced before a game or training."

"This is more useful." Dai Li finally cheered up a little.

The square dance could help the athletes warm up more quickly. For Dai Li, this advantage was better than nothing.

Warming-up was something the athletes did every day. And the period of time needed was different, according to the effect of the warm-up. In summer, when it is hot, the warm-up would take less time, while in winter, when it is cold, it would take longer. So, for the coaches or the athletes, to shorten the warm-up time by several minutes was not so practically meaningful.

Comparatively, to reduce the probability of injury was vastly more important than shortening the warm-up time. The biggest enemies of athletes are illness and injuries. As such, athletes are willing to try all sorts of things to avoid them, including daily massage, cupping therapy, skin scraping, foot massage, everything that is useful. The professional teams of the NBA were even known to hire foot massage therapists for their basketball stars.

For example, a lot of foreigners don’t trust Chinese medicine, and may even see acupuncture as witchcraft. But to relax the muscles and avoid injuries as much as possible, the foreign athletes would rather believe it than not, and hence, often they’ll have a try with it.

"It can reduce the probability of injuries. This makes it very useful, even just for this one function." Dai Li flipped open the Warm-up Square Dance.

The next moment, however, awkwardness crept on Dai Li’s face.

"What? The movements shown in this book are really square dance steps! Isn’t this a joke? I’m a professional coach, and I coach the most top-class athletes in the world. How can I get them to do square-dancing according to this book?"

An image flashed in Dai Li’s mind, where Anshan Wang, Pengfei Cui, Xiangxian Zuo, Shuang Pang and other core players of the national table tennis team, in a neat formation, were square-dancing to some dynamic tunes. And the one who is leading the dance? It was none other than Dai Li himself!

The next second, Dai Li felt goose bumps all over his body.

"How awkward!"