Almighty Coach

Li Xue skipped his lunch break. He returned to his office and began grading the examination papers eagerly.

I really want to know what kind of answers these young guys gave me, Li Xue muttered to himself. He was almost sixty, so these coaches in their twenties were definitely young compared to him.

Li Xue put on his reading glasses, took out the first examination paper, and began to read it from the beginning.

The purpose of the push-off exercises using weights is to enhance the explosive force of the athlete’s legs... No need to tell me that! This is the most elementary training knowledge. Don’t you think the coaches on the national team know that? If I wanted an easy answer like this, why would I bother asking you?

Li Xue put a large red cross on the paper, then continued to read the rest of the answers.

The purpose of high knees training is to improve push-off strength and continuously work the lower limbs anaerobically. Another superfluous answer straight out of a textbook. I participated in the making of those textbooks. Giving me an answer like this is like trying to teach a fish how to swim. Li Xue made another large red cross.

This pole-vaulter’s weaknesses are: 1. premature take-off; 2. insufficient pole angle... His judgments are too superficial. Some of these problems could occur if the athlete was on a new court, was too nervous, or was trying to get the best score possible by pushing his physical limits. The points this person mentioned could be overcome by making adjustments during the match. These points cannot be considered actual weaknesses.

Li Xue shook his head constantly as he marked the examination papers.

The answers for the questions for the throwing events are actually pretty good, but his answers for the long jump, high jump, and track event questions are really terrible. This guy should be a coach for one of the throwing events he has specialized in. He could be a candidate for an assistant coaching position on one of these groups in the future.

Li Xue began marking the next examination paper.

This person could be a long-distance running coach who has knowledge on middle-distance running and hurdles as well, but all his answers miss the point. His observation ability and comprehension are poor. He isn’t a natural. He could be a coach on the provincial training team. He is too mediocre for the national team.

This coach’s answers for the race-walking questions are quite good, and his observation ability in the middle- and long-distance running events is also OK; but his answers for the sprinting questions are unsatisfactory. As for the long jump, high jump, and throwing events, he knows close to nothing. This guy could be considered a talent if you only looked at his race walking expertise. It is a pity that we have plenty of race walking coaches on the national team already. Our race-walkers could win gold medals in the Olympic Games. On his current level, he may need another ten years of experience before he has a chance of being a coach on the national team.

Gee! The answers for this examination paper are quite good. Besides the questions for race walking, hurdles, and long-distance running, the answers for the rest of the questions are satisfactory. Who is this young guy? The name is Guanglei Huang. I am vaguely familiar with this name. Oh, that’s it. According to his resume, this guy is a decathlon coach. That’s why he was able to give decent answers to most of the questions. It is quite a remarkable achievement for him to be a decathlon coach at such a young age.

Li Xue shook his head as he muttered to himself. The national team had not attached importance to the all-around event in a long time. The decathlon athletes were basically athletes who had chosen this event because they had failed to accomplish anything in the specialized events. Normally, decathlon coaches were seen as underachievers.

If a coach was proficient in a certain event, how could he switch over to the all-around event?

High level sports training was very meticulous when it came to professionalism. Because of this, the all-around event often implied that the athlete was mediocre in all the events. The national team would rather choose a coach who could master the training techniques of one event, and know nothing about other events, than choose a coach who had only a decent understanding of all the events.

Finally, Li Xue began to mark Dai Li’s examination paper.

First question: The leg swinging of this athlete is unbalanced during his running start. The purpose of the push-off exercises is to enhance his ability to distribute force evenly between both of his legs, so that his coordination can improve effectively. Through this, the unbalanced leg swinging during his running start can be corrected. This is a pretty good answer that grasped the main points of the question!

The overall coordination of the athlete’s lower limbs, including his hip joint, knee joint, and ankle joint, are imperfect. The flexibility of his ankle joint is poor. Through high knees training, the athlete can improve the overall coordination of his lower limbs, hip joint, knee joint, and ankle joint, as well as enhance the flexibility of his ankle joint. Perfect! Only a few of the other coaches know about the overall coordination of the lower limbs; yet Dai Li was even able to notice the flexibility problems in the athlete’s ankle joint. This answer is definitely a flawless one. Li Xue couldn’t help but compliment Dai Li in his mind.

...Insufficient grip strength, weak pole utilization, the grip strength of the left hand is significantly greater than that of the right hand.... He found a ton of shortcomings and gave a detailed description. It is impossible to draw so many conclusions just by watching a training session for a few minutes.

After mulling it over for a while, Li Xue said to himself, I suppose it is similar to his learning and observation skills with the No. 2 long-jump team. This coach is pretty good. It seems like he did a lot of work during this two-month learning and observation period. The observation ability and comprehension of this young guy is quite impressive. Being gifted and hardworking, this young guy is truly talented. What is his name? Hm, Dai Li?

Dai Li’s face immediately popped into Li Xue’s mind. He could still remember when he had hardly asked the question that Dai Li began to quickly write down his answer, which had made him feel like his questions were too easy.

So these answers came from the coach who got the full score of 400 points! This guy really knows his stuff. All his answers grasped the main concepts. Now let me check his training plan. Li Xue continued to read the rest of Dai Li’s answers.

Hmm, impressive. This training plan is well-targeted. He has found the detailed weaknesses of this athlete. Wait, what’s this? The breathing capacity of this athlete will be chaotic when he reaches his limit? Why did I not know that? Li Xue’s frowned immediately.

HLi Xue’s intuition told him that Dai Li had not made it up. This long-distance runner really would have trouble breathing when he reached his physical limit. However, the coach who was responsible for the athlete had not arranged specific training for this weakness in the training plan. In other words, the coach had made a mistake due to negligence.

Being the quick-tempered person he was, Li Xue stopped grading the examination papers and went to the video room right away.

On the national team, all training activities were recorded, so that the coaches could improve their training using the videos. There was a special video room for the national team that was responsible for the storage and collation of the training and match videos of the athletes.

"Show me the training videos for the No. 1 long-distance running team," Li Xue requested directly.

Seeing Li Xue enter the room, the clerk in the video room found the video immediately without any hesitation.

"Fast forward, fast forward, stop! Rewind. OK, now play the video at normal speed." Li Xue watched the video and gasped.

Once he came close to reaching his limit, he began to have trouble breathing, just as Dai Li mentioned! What a shame! This detail neglected by the coach of the national team was found by a young guy who is here for further study!