Almighty Coach

Chapter 278: A Red Envelope

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Dai Li joined in the ping-pong team as he wished, and became an agent fitness coach. On the training field, Dai Li made a brief self-introduction, and while getting to know each other, he also detected the team members.

"Talent, C+; Talent, C+; Talent, C+." Such a reading revealed that the continuous three athletes all had C+ talent.

Ping-pong is indeed the national ball, C+ talent is the most commonly seen in the provincial team. If it had been in the athletic team, C+talent would definitely be the major force. And with a large potential, the athlete could be recruited into the national team.

Dai Li detected the others, until finally, he found a B- talent player.

Aha, a B- talent, why wasn’t he selected to the national team?!

Dai Li sighed in his heart. Ping Wang pointed at a 23 or 24 year old, suntanned man, and introduced him, "This is Feng Zhu, the best player in our team. Feng Zhu is also the one with the highest potential to be in the national team."

"Nice to meet you, Coach Li!" Feng Zhu greeted him at once.

Dai Li replied, while he detected Feng Zhu...

He is a B+ talent, so why does such a talented person stay in the provincial team? His talent is great, and if he was in athletics, even in the national team, he could be a major force! I never expected that, in ping-pong, a B+ talent can only be at the top in provincial team. So then, does this mean, in the national ping-pong team, that the players all have A-level talents? Or, maybe there will be more than one S-level talent player in the national team?

Dai Li boldly guessed these things. After all, Dai Li had stayed in the national athletic team for a long while, and knew pretty much about each athlete in the team. For instance, people like Guohong Niu, who was a B-level athlete, although he was already 22 years old when he was recruited, and yet he still received focused cultivation from the team.

Actually, among all present in the national athletic team, B-level talents were the main force. In some weak events, the team even needed C+ level talents to keep up appearances. There were only a few A-level talents, as people like Sijie Yang and Haiquan Fang were regarded as geniuses of their decades.

In regards to talents, athletics had nothing to compare with ping-pong, but it was in direct proportion to strength.

The national team’s athletic competence was not poor, after all, as during every Olympics, the team won gold medals in athletic events, and often won the championships in athletic World Championships. Therefore, the national team’s ability, although it may not be at the top-level in Track and Field Powers, was admittedly a contender as being the second-level in the world.

But the national ping-pong team was a place gathered by "Kings of the Devils". To foreign athletes, the national team randomly sent a player, who was a hell-difficult opponent. The national team owned absolute power in regards to ping-pong throughout the world, and this fact was undisputed.

In regards to World-level games, it was no longer news to hear that the national team won all the gold medals, but it might be big news if they failed to do so. Therefore, seeing domestic players showing high talents in regards to ping-pong was a normal thing.

Other than talents, the detector also presented athletes’ shortcomings. Unfortunately, shortcomings on ping-pong techniques were things that Dai Li could not handle, as Dai Li was only a fitness coach, not a professional ping-pong coach. Moreover, ping-pong emphasized greatly on techniques.

To be honest, Dai Li’s ping-pong skills were fine, at least when he held the bat. Then, no matter if he was to serve or receive, he could make his play presentable. But, as for guiding another professional, especially professional players in the provincial team, he was far from being qualified. Even though Dai Li could figure out a player’s shortcomings, he didn’t have the ability to guide that player in improving.

Domestic ping-pong coaches were at an extremely high level. Many coaches in the provincial team used to be national grand masters themselves, or might even have been at the top among masters. They had the world’s best skills on techniques, experiences, and comprehension of the sport, so there was no need for Dai Li to show off in front of them.

Therefore, after he came to the ping-pong team, Dai Li focused on his own job as a fitness coach. Being the fitness coach, Dai Li handled his tasks and role with great facility. What he had learned in the national team was good enough for him to deal with any fitness training.

Among all sports, athletics required the most fitness training. Compared with other events, the athletic events were more simple, and were mainly just about who ran faster, who jumped higher, who threw further, etc. In these competitions, the role of the fitness coach was especially important. While in other sports, the importance of fitness training was apparently not on the top of the list.

Take basketball and football for example, the players not only needed sufficient energy, but also techniques, cooperation, and tactics. In the competitions, cooperation and tactics were more important than individual ability.

Basketball or football coaches, who had attained some fame, all created their own tactics, which they were good at, like top-level basketball or football coaches, who were masters of tactics. But, it was never heard that a famous basketball or football coach was famous for his fitness training.

Most individual events required more learning of techniques than improvements of physical qualities. Take shooting for instance, which was a sport that totally relied on techniques. Even if the athlete had a poor physical quality, and needed to take a break after every shoot, as long as he could take good aim, he could win as champion.

In fighting events, like boxing and Taekwondo, no matter how hard one punched or kicked, or how energetic an athlete was, if he could not hit his opponent, it was all in vain. Many times, one punch could KO and end the game.

Water games were also different. Diving was a high-technique activity, but swimming was similar to running, in that, both were speed contests. However, athletes’ physical talents were more crucial in this arena. With big palms and feet, swimmers could have more power to thrash and pedal water. Thus, big hands and feet were basic requirements for being a top swimmer. People with small hands or feet would surely be eliminated in selections.

Since athletic events relied much on fitness coaches, therefore, as long as one was an athletic coach, his fitness training ability wasn’t bad. And athletic coaches could do well on other events, like fitness coaches. In addition, Dai Li received assistance from the detector. He knew every athlete’s pros and cons.

So, although Dai Li couldn’t help on ping-pong techniques, he could help players fix fitness problems.

On the first day of joining the ping-pong team, Dai Li showed a convincing performance. Fitness training on ping-pong mainly included several points: speed training, flexibility training, power training and endurance training. The four programs didn’t refer much to professional techniques, and thus, they belonged to a fitness coach’s working area.

Speed training mainly focused on the speed of waving the arm when hitting the ball, and the speed of movement when getting the position of stance. After a single fast action, the muscles could receive relaxation and maintain brief pauses, so that they could remain unfatigued for a period of time.

Ping-pong contests required athletes to make immediate judgements, have fast reactions, quick starts, high swing speeds, and quick movements, as well as being able to change direction quickly. Only when doing these, could the player could grasp the initiative in fast, but complex, contests. These were also all based on an athlete’s possessing good speed.

Flexibility influenced the athlete’s accuracy of judgement and speed of reaction. The feature of ping-ping required players to react with flexible movements in the field. Meanwhile, enhancing body flexibility could improve action coordination and the accuracy of movements. Hence, players could better react to various situations, and control their bodies more accurately.

Power was the non-neglected part in modern ping-pong. Especially in recent years, the rules of the ping-ping game had changed, which caused changes in ping-pong techniques, and produced higher requirements of the players’ powers. Nowadays, ping-pong had increased its demand on rotation and speed, because without sufficient power, the ball couldn’t have high-rotation or high-speed.

Endurance was the necessity in most events, including ping-pong. Ping-pong was a game in which the rhythm and intensity changed continuously. Without enough endurance, the player couldn’t respond to the rhythm and intensity in the game.

Moreover, after International Table Tennis Association changed the small ball into big ball, and set rules for "Unshielded Service", speed and rotating intensity were reduced more than before. These obviously all offered stricter demands on players’ endurance.

Moreover, since every player had their own styles and types, ping-pong fitness training could not be generalized, but was adjusted based on each person’s technical features. For example, some athletes were strength type, and had strong power, so there was no need for them to undergo long term power training.

Meanwhile, the time of training should also be paid attention to. For instance, if the player was doing flexibility training, he’d better do so at the beginning of training, when he had sufficient energy still. Only with enough energy, would the excitement and inhibition of the central nervous system be relatively strong and balanced, and maintain a high accuracy. Only in such conditions, could athletes develop sensitivity.

Before speed training, players should do a certain amount of intensive sprint or upper-body movements, for these could increase the excitability of the nerve process, and thus, provide better effects for training. After speed training, players could do some jumping training, which was good for improving both speed and jumping ability.

After a whole day’s training, athletes left the training field in groups, talking amongst themselves.

"This newcomer, Coach Li, does have something, as he could tell with a glance that I lack flexibility, and asked me to start to whistle run tomorrow."

"Coach Li saw my shortcoming on endurance, too. He added a 1500m run in my tasks."

"Why do I feel that this Coach Li is better than our previous Coach Ma?"

"Of course! I heard that Coach Li used to stay in the national team for a while, and that he has coached several Asian Games champions! He is the trump card in the athletic team! If not for the Deputy Director, how would he be degenerating himself to our team as a fitness coach?"

"Tell us more about inside story!"

Several gossipy athletes immediately gathered together. Usually, as gossip spreads, the story becomes more exaggerated. So, if the thing used to be as simple as 1+1=2, after being delivered from one to another, the story ended up much more complicated, and in many various versions.

Recently Dai Li had given up Glory of Kings, but fell into Survival of the Jedi. After a whole day’s training, Dai Li roughly finished his dinner, then ran directly to the a cyber bar. Two hours later, after experiencing several times of "landing box", and being tortured by cunning players, Dai Li went back to his dorm with extremely bad feelings.

However, there was a man at fifties stood in front of Dai Li’s room. This man was not tall, was suntanned, and although he was not simply dressed, he didn’t wear expensive brands either.

Seeing that Dai Li walked towards him, the man stared at Dai Li for a while, as if checking Dai Li’s identity. Then, he asked, "Excuse me, are you Coach Dai Li?"

"Yes, I am. Who are you? What can I do for you?" Dai Li looked at the man with confusion, as he knew nothing about this man.

"Finally, Coach Li!" The man smiled, as he stepped forward, then said, "I’m Feng Zhu’s father. Feng Zhu is in the ping-pong team."

"Oh, you are Mr. Zhu." Dai Li recalled Zhu Feng at once, as he was also dark skinned, not tall in height, but had B+ talent. From his appearance, Feng Zhu and his father were very alike.

"Mr. Zhu, why are you coming for me?" Dai Li asked.

"Sorry, this is not a suitable place. Shall we move inside?" Feng Zhu’s father pointed at Dai Li’s door.

Dai Li hesitated, then nodded and opened the door. He went on to clean up the mess inside, while he apologized, "Sorry Mr. Zhu, I didn’t do the cleaning today, so it’s a little bit messy here."

"It’s alright, it’s alright." Feng Zhu’s father waved his hand. He closed the door voluntarily, then took out an envelope from his pocket.

"Coach Li, please take this." Feng Zhu’s father cautiously handed the envelope to Dai Li.

"What is this?" Dai Li subconsciously received the envelope. But at the time when he took the envelope, he sensed there was a pile of money in the envelope.

Dai Li was slightly shocked, and he hurriedly opened the envelope. There was indeed a pile of money inside, which was tied firmly in a small bundle. From its thickness, there might be ten thousand yuan.

"Sorry, Mr. Zhu, what do you mean by this?" Dai Li’s face turned cold.

Feng Zhu’s father rubbed his hands embarrassingly, as he faltered out the explanation, "Coach Li, I inquired that you have some relationships in Huajing, and I wondered whether you could transfer my son Feng Zhu to the national team or not!"

"Sorry, what?" Dai LI felt that surely he hadn’t heard clearly.

"Coach Li, I know this is not enough, and that this is just our first meeting, but as long as you can put my son in the national team, please feel free to tell me how much more you want!" Feng Zhu’s father said generously.

At this time, Dai Li finally figured out what was happening. Feng Zhu’s father was here to give him a red envelope, filled with cash!