Almighty Coach

After breakfast, Zhizhong Gu went to his office, and saw that Bin Wang was standing by his door, eagerly awaiting him there.

"Anything I can help with?" Zhizhong behaved casually. He took out a key to open the door, as Bin Wang, not hesitating, followed Zhizhong Gu into his office directly.

"Hey Old Gu, I have found something big!" Bin Wang said with excitement.

"Take your time, have some water first." Zhizhong Gu took out a paper cup from a locker below the water dispenser, passing it to Bin Wang.

"Old Gu, I have found a good way for warming up." Bin Wang got some water for himself, then drank it.

Zhizhong Gu took off his jacket and hung it on a clothes tree, while asking, "What is it?"

"Square dance!" said Bin Wang.

"This is not funny at all!" Zhizhong Gu fetched a box of tea, shook the box toward Bin Wang, then asked, "Tea? This year’s new tea. Not the best one, but tastes good."

"I’m not joking!" Bin Wang ignored that box of tea, and continued to explain, "I arrived early this morning, and went directly to the training center. You know what I saw? Dai Li was leading a group of athletes doing square dance!"

"Say it again? Square dance!" Zhizhong Gu put down the tea box. "This is ridiculous!"

"Listen, this square dance can warm up your body," Bin Wang explained.

"Square dance can warm up my body? Hahahaha..." Zhizhong Gu couldn’t help but laugh out loud. His laughter was filled with scorn and mockery.

"Hey, trust me, I’m serious, I also danced several times!" Bin Wang said.

"You went to the training center early this morning, for square dance? Hahahaha..." Zhizhong Gu laughed even louder.

Bin Wang felt a little speechless, but he didn’t blame Zhizhong Gu. After all, a few hours ago, he didn’t believe that square dance could help him warm up, either.

"Old Gu, I’m telling you the truth, not a joke. Think about this, if I wanted to make fun of you, why would I came to wait for you so early in the morning?!" Bin Wang defended himself.

Hearing this, Zhizhong Gu finally became serious. He considered carefully for a while, feeling that Bin Wang did make some sense.

"That square dance, have you ever tried it? Did it indeed work?" Zhizhong Gu checked with Bin Wang.

"I did! And it worked out very well. This morning, I only danced for about ten minutes, and my body was warmed up, so I was excited. At that time, I had an impulse to catch a bat and have a competition with someone!" said Bin Wang.

Zhizhong Gu frowned a little bit. He thought for a few seconds, then ordered, "Let’s go to the training center. And in passing, call Coach Wang, Coach Zhou, and Coach Hu. Also call the Women’s team’s Coach Li, Coach Zhang, and Coach Chu, and perhaps Team Two’s Feihong Liu. Let’s all go find Dai Li together!"

...

Dai Li was shocked by the spectacle. Not only were Zhizhong Gu and Bin Wang present, but the core coaches in the national ping-pong team were all there as well. They all came for his Warming Up Square Dance.

Dai Li was embarrassed, as those people standing in front of him were "old coaches", who had been coaching for years, with sufficient experience and techniques, and who often participated in foreign games, so they wouldn’t be fooled easily. Those coaches gazed at Dai Li with different facial expressions. Some looked at him curiously, some were waiting to poke fun at what they assumed would be Dai Li’s upcoming misfortune.

"The square dance I developed indeed has positive warming up effect," Dai Li introduced, remaining thick-skinned. "Square dance is a series of coherent holistic actions, to my understanding, and in my square dance, I incorporate different warming up movements that are coordinated together as a whole. Activities like traditional muscle stretching and joint activation could be performed in the square dance, too."

Dai Li covered a lot of information, while secretly observing the others’ facial expressions. Seeing that no one disagreed with his words, he continued more bravely, "I use square dance as a warm up, and actually, I’m taking athletes as a whole group also. To adopt a series of coherent warming up exercise into a coherent group, we can gain two-fold results, with half the effort."

He continued, "Moreover, I found that square dance music can easily stimulate the human cerebral cortex, and instantly activate human vitality. Meanwhile, such mental excitement could also stimulate Hormone secretion faster, thus signifying the warming up effect."

Dai Li forcibly explained for a while, realizing that he was about to convince even himself, and he admired his "make things up as he goes" ability. To be honest, Dai Li didn’t want to talk nonsense. Knowledge about Warming Up Square Dance had already spread in the national ping-pong team, plus, Zhizhong Gu came here with a group of professional experienced coaches, so he must find a reasonable excuse to convince them about the dance’s positive effect.

Luckily, the Dai Li at present was no longer who he had been several years ago. He was more knowledgeable now, and more experienced, which was why he was able to make up a "Square Dance can Warm Up" theory confidently, and without shame.

But the coaches present were all men with experience, and although Dai Li spoke in seeming earnestness and sounded theoretical, none of them were fooled. It was only due to the fact that they were not willing to disappoint him, since he was young a newcomer, that they didn’t say it out loud. However, in their hearts, they took Dai Li’s theory as only a joke.

Dai Li could sense the embarrassment in the air, as he took off his coat and said, "If you are interested, dance with me for a while, so that you can examine the effect."

The coaches stared at each other, none willing to participate. They were all famous ping-pong coaches, and had gained much fame in the Ping-Pong arena, so how could they put away pride to do square dance? The atmosphere grew even more embarrassing.

As the one who had experienced square dance, Bin Wang had faith in Dai Li. He looked around, noticing that nobody was willing to dance, and so he volunteered to be the first one.

"Let me have a try!" As he said this, Bin Wang pulled Team Two chief coach Feihong Liu out of the crowd.

"I...don’t want to..." Feihong Liu stuttered, ready to refuse, but was shot a look by Bin Wang, whose eyes were clearly warning him: You must support me!

Feihong Liu sighed helplessly, and was pulled out by Bin Wang stiffly. He looked at the crowd with a "SOS" expression in his eyes.

"Alright then, I will have a try, too!" Zhizhong Gu stepped out at last.

As the chief coach, Zhizhong Gu’s participation was basically his announcing that he supported Dai Li. After all, Dai Li was recruited to the national ping-pong team by Zhizhong Gu himself. Therefore, when necessary, Zhizhong Gu should show his support.

"Then I will have some exercise!" Seeing that Zhizhong Gu clarified his position, and mentality, two more coaches stepped out.

...

Square dance’s magical music rang out, as Zhizhong Gu and the other coaches learned to dance after Dai Li, but their facial expressions were still embarrassed.

However, after a few minutes, the dancers felt the warming up effect being delivered throughout their bodies.

This square dance can indeed warm up! Zhizhong Gu’s face gradually became serious. He could sense that his body was subconsciously dancing with the beats.

Except for Dai Li, the others were all retired professional ping-pong players, including the world’s top ones. As such, they had much more practical experience than Dai Li. Therefore, they were more sensitive towards warm up effects.

"Old Chu, old Zhou, come join us." Zhizhong Gu waved to the coaches observing on the side.

This time, Zhizhong Gu instructed them himself, so the others dared not refuse. Although they were reluctant to dance, they still joined in.

...

"I have been a coach for more than ten years, and this is my first time to see that square dance cam warm up"

"This square dance is incredible. I was fully activated after I danced for ten minutes. My head was sweating."

"Li is right, this square dance does have a nice effect. Besides, I’m excited now, and really want to have a competition with someone!"

"Li mentioned music could stimulate cerebral cortex something, which I didn’t take seriously. Now it looks like there is something like that! We old men should communicate more with young people, otherwise we will become outdated."

The coaches exchanged experiences with each other. On their faces, in addition to astonishment, there was now a growing admiration for Dai Li.

Bin Wang approached Zhizhong Gu and asked, "How do you feel? Doesn’t this square dance work? I think that we can spread this dance in the whole team. In the future, we can set a specific time period in the morning, and athletes who want to warm up can join in during this period, and do the square dance."

"Sounds good." Zhizhong Gu nodded in agreement. "But it’s going to occupy much time from Li."

Bin Wang said, "There is not much difference between shepherding one sheep and a group of sheep. This square dance is different from traditional warming up exercises, in that, as long as we have enough training space, it’s OK to have many people dance together."

"Actually, warming up before training indicated something. I think it will work in real competitions," Zhizhong Gu said. "When we are out for competitions, we sometimes have limited time to prepare. Maybe we arrive today and compete tomorrow. Moreover, in foreign countries, which we know nothing about, we have to adjust ourselves quickly with the various diets, living conditions, and training. Warming up is usually unguaranteed in most cases. Our athletes often warm up through formal games."

He continued his explanation, "If this square dance can be used as warm up, it will increase our competence to a large extent. Our athletes are already more competitive than their opponents, so once we are in good conditions at the beginning of the game, we will surely win."

"Furthermore, square dance doesn’t require much space or equipment. As long as we have an empty room and a music player, we can dance. Truly, this is customized for us!"

Bin Wang nodded: "You are considerable. But in that case, when we go abroad for competitions, we need to add a person. You have to bring Dai Li with us."

"It’s just adding a person! As long as we can win, it doesn’t matter. Besides, Li is not a traveler, he is also a coach in our team," Zhizhong Gu said generously.

The national ping-pong team had a lot of rich sponsors, hence, they had better conditions and resources for going abroad. Zhizhong Gu didn’t care about adding one more person’s cost.

Zhizhong Gu continued, "Several days from now, there will be an Austria Open Tournament. So when you list the participants for this, add Dai Li onto the list!"