"What does the pre-match consultation do?" Dai Li asked.
"This is a tradition of our national table tennis team. It is where our team exerts its collective wisdom. Before the competition, the core coaching team and participating athletes are gathered together to discuss the problems of the athletes." Gu Zhizhong paused. , then said: "It's not just technical, but also other aspects, such as physical fitness, attitude, and psychological issues."
Gu Zhizhong said, turning to look at Dai Li: "Although we are not psychiatrists, we do not lack experienced coaches among us. Our coaches have all been athletes, so the psychological problems caused by the team members are basically What we coaches have been through, because we have solutions too.”
As Gu Zhizhong spoke, he had already reached the door of the conference room. He did not push the door open immediately, but said: "When we get to the conference room later, please listen first, don't talk first, and see how this pre-match consultation is conducted." of."
Dai Li followed Gu Zhizhong into the conference room. Except for Wang Bin, everyone else looked surprised at Dai Li's arrival. They obviously didn't expect that Dai Li would appear here.
Dai Li found an inconspicuous seat and sat down, then took out his notebook to record.
After a whole morning of hard work, Dai Li finally understood what this pre-game consultation was for.
The pre-match consultation is mainly to analyze the recent problems of athletes and find solutions to the problems. This is a process that involves the participation of everyone on site. Not only the athletes’ coaches, but also other coaches will express their opinions, and teammates will also speak freely. The athletes themselves will conduct self-analysis to find out where the problem lies.
For example, if an athlete feels that he has been under a lot of pressure recently, everyone at the consultation site will help him analyze the reasons for his pressure and then explore solutions.
It is always difficult for people to find their own shortcomings, but it is easy to find the shortcomings of others. Therefore, even the most perfect athlete will have problems pointed out and shortcomings discovered by others during the pre-game consultation stage.
For these first-line players of the national table tennis team, their shortcomings are not limited to technical aspects. For example, sometimes they are not calm enough, and sometimes they play too conservatively, etc., and they may even be specific to a certain game. A certain key ball handling.
It was the first time for Dai Li to participate in this kind of pre-match consultation, so he has always been a listener. He did not have the opportunity to speak, nor did he strive to speak. He just listened quietly. However, even if he just listened, Dai Li also benefited a lot from it.
…
After the pre-match consultation, the athletes and their coaches returned to the training ground, and Dai Li was left behind by Gu Zhizhong.
"How's it going? It's your first time participating in a pre-match consultation. How do you feel?" Gu Zhizhong asked.
"I've benefited a lot!" Li Dai said without concealment.
Gu Zhizhong continued: "I have said before that this is a place where our team exerts its collective wisdom. Here, our knowledge is shared. Due to our pre-game consultation process, we will target the technical secrets of certain well-known athletes. and character analysis in secret, so we have never disclosed this process and content to the media and the public. Only our national table tennis insiders know about it, and only our core personnel can participate."
Dai Li nodded. He can be regarded as an "industry insider" in the sports circle, but before today, he had never heard of the national table tennis team having such a special consultation before the game.
Gu Zhizhong continued: "In fact, this is also a successful application case of our national system in table tennis. If you are abroad, there is no way to gather so many of the best athletes in the world, and there is no way to find the best coaches in the world. As a team, we all work together to consult with a certain athlete, find out the problem, and find a solution to the problem."
"Our team members participated in international competitions and almost reached the semi-final stage. It was a civil war between the athletes in our team. So from another perspective, these people in the conference room just now are also competitors with each other. Everyone is You want to win the championship, but there is only one championship. If you win the championship, others will not be able to win the championship. Therefore, both the coach and the athletes have vital interests. You wake up your opponent, and your opponent becomes stronger, and you also become stronger. It becomes relatively weak.”
"And this is what our team is most proud of! Sitting here, we can take the interests of the country and the honor of the team as our highest ideals and pursuits. For these, everyone can give up personal interests and gather the whole team We must use our wisdom and go all out to help one person solve the problem. This would not be possible if it were not for the national system."
Gu Zhizhong said and stood up: "Let's go, I'll take you to our scientific research group."
"Scientific research team?" Li Dai wanted to ask what he was doing there, but he still didn't ask.
On the contrary, Gu Zhizhong had already seen through Dai Li's thoughts.
"Don't you think that our scientific research team just drinks tea, reads newspapers and does nothing else all day long?" Gu Zhizhong asked.
Dai Li smiled awkwardly. In his opinion, the so-called "scientific research group" is indeed a "labour" department. In government agencies and institutions, there are not a few such "labour" departments. In many units, there are hundreds of them. There may only be 20 people who actually work, and of these 20 people, 18 are temporary workers and the other two are leaders.
Therefore, Li Dai took it for granted that the scientific research team of the national table tennis team was also a part that provided for leisure people.
Gu Zhizhong shook his head helplessly, stood up and walked towards the scientific research team with Li Dai, and said at the same time; "Our national table tennis research team is not a place for casual meals. It is full of experienced table tennis coaches. Just now Among the coaches in charge who participated in the pre-game consultation, some were from the scientific research team.”
"The rules of table tennis have been changing over the years, but our national table tennis is still at the top of the world, and the scientific research team has made a huge contribution. Whenever the ITTF promulgates new rules, the scientific research team will immediately conduct research. , under the new rules, which playing methods are more effective and which playing methods will be weakened because of this. New technologies, new playing methods, new tactics, and new systems for the new rules will be studied by the scientific research team immediately. , and then hand it over to the athletes for experimentation and continuous improvement. Therefore, every time new rules appear in table tennis, we can adapt to them as quickly as possible." Gu Zhizhong introduced.
Li Dai also knows something about what Gu Zhizhong said. There are people within the national table tennis team who specialize in studying new rules. This is no secret.
In the past ten years, the ITTF has constantly changed the rules in order to suppress the dominance of the national table tennis team. The ITTA thought that changing the rules would weaken the national table tennis team. However, the final result was that the national table tennis team became more and more dominant. As the table tennis becomes stronger, there are fewer and fewer athletes from other countries engaging in table tennis.
A large part of the reason is that there is a team within the National Table Tennis Team that specializes in studying new rules. As soon as the ITTF rules came out, the research team immediately found the tactics and playing methods under the new rules, and the national table tennis players also adapted to the new rules very quickly. Under the new rules, players from the national table tennis team can now play, while players from other countries may have just started practicing.
This is like playing a game. A new hero character has been released. At the same time, you have completely understood the new hero. You know whether the new hero is an output type or an auxiliary type. You are familiar with the new hero's skills and understand what the new hero should be like. equipment, and then figured out how the new hero should cooperate with other heroes, and even developed special tactics for the new hero.
At this time, opponents have just become familiar with the skills of the new hero.
In this case, when the two sides fight, it will naturally be a one-sided situation. Therefore, whenever new rules first appear, the national table tennis team will always win a crushing victory. When the opponents watched the national table tennis players play, they suddenly realized that this is how they should play under the new rules!
Therefore, the national table tennis team will always be the leader!
Gu Zhizhong went on to introduce: "In fact, in addition to studying new rules, the scientific research team also does many other things, such as statistics and analysis of data. Therefore, in the scientific research team, in addition to table tennis coaches, there are also specialized statistics Personnel. There are also many statistical items, and many problems can be reflected from various statistics."
Gu Zhizhong said and asked: "Just like the time to pick up the ball, you usually won't notice it when you watch table tennis games, right?"
"Time to pick up the ball? What time to pick up the ball?" Dai Li looked like he didn't understand.
"It is the dead-ball stage between the first ball and the second serve. It is the time for the players to pick the ball up from the ground." Gu Zhizhong explained.
"Does this also need statistics? Does it make sense to count this?" Li Dai asked in surprise. He felt that counting such a time to pick up the ball was simply a pain in the ass.
However, Gu Zhizhong showed a serious face: "This is of course very meaningful. When the athletes pick up the ball, they are actually thinking about what kind of play they should use for the next ball. Therefore, the longer the players pick up the ball, the more time they take to pick up the ball. The longer it is, the longer it takes to think.”
"Just like Wang Anshan, sometimes when he plays more impatiently, he has very little time to pick up the ball, only about 20 seconds. At this time, his winning rate is often lower; and in games where his winning rate is higher, he picks up the ball. The ball will last for more than 30 seconds, which shows that he has been thinking seriously during the game; sometimes when meeting teammates, such as Zuo Xiangxian, a more difficult opponent, he will even pick up the ball once It took more than 40 seconds, which shows that he thought more fully."
Gu Zhizhong paused and then said: "This is just one of the details. Our scientific research team will also make statistics on many other details. These statistics are also very cumbersome. Sometimes a one-hour game can not meet the needs of the scientific research team. It took three or four people seven or eight hours to complete."
When Gu Zhizhong said this, he sighed: "So they are the real heroes behind the scenes of our national table tennis team. Our head coach still has the opportunity to appear on TV and be well-known by people, but our scientific research team only To be able to stay in the background in obscurity and not be known by people.”
"This is also because of the national system, right?" Dai Li suddenly asked.
"Yes, only under a national system can there be such a person who is willing to be unknown and do his own thing for decades for the sake of the world championship of two or three people. You can regard this as dedication, and also It can be seen as a kind of unity!" Gu Zhizhong nodded with emotion, and then said:
"Many people in the country now do not understand our national system in sports. However, this national system is the most successful in the application of table tennis. We have established a complete system, starting from the young players From training, to the selection of young players, to the training of adult athletes, and all kinds of logistical support, everyone is doing their own thing."
"It is precisely because of the system we have established that our table tennis is extremely powerful. As long as this system exists and is still running, there will be no indispensable people in the national table tennis team. We It will continue to be strong!”