Almighty Coach

The first day of training had ended; or, more specifically, the four hour afternoon training session had ended.

Exhausted, the athletes walked towards the canteen, talking about Dai Li on their way.

"This Coach Li sent by the national team is so young. I think he is only a few years older than me!"

"It does not look like Coach Li was ever an athlete. I really cannot figure out since why the national team has coaches as young as him."

"Maybe he got this position through a connection!" Xiaotian Xin said.

"That goes without saying. A coach on the national team who is under thirty must have gotten his position through connections!" Guohong Niu curled his lip disdainfully, then said, "You saw today’s training. It was even less than we usually do. I am afraid that this Coach Li is just a mediocre coach on the national team who was only sent here because of his poor performance."

The athletes did not trust Dai Li. Age was indeed Dai Li’s biggest shortcoming. It had been fine when he was still training youth team athletes; however, at his age, Dai Li would definitely be looked down upon by adult athletes.

This was quite common in careers that required a lot of experience. For example, if a guy wanted to find more information about his antique vase, and he found two appraisers—a young guy who was just over twenty and an old man over sixty—the guy would definitely believe the older man’s appraisal. He might think that the young man could make mistake because of his lack of experience, which would make his appraisal inaccurate.

Another example would be the doctors. If a young doctor who was only twenty-four or twenty-five was sitting in the consulting room, most of the patients would think he was just an intern.

However, if an old doctor with grey hair and reading glasses was sitting there, people might think he was a specialist, even if he was not. In television shows with doctors, there was always the cliché that young doctors had been refused by the patients because they were considered inexperienced.

Another example was a group named the "Four Miraculous Doctors," who had deceived people in over ten different provinces. Each day they sold medicine on TV programs by pretending to be medical specialists. Sometimes they were doctors of Miao Nationality (an ethnic group belonging to South China, and is recognized by the government of China as one of the 55 official minority groups.) Medicine, who could perform things like "acupuncture, prescriptions, sputum removal, and asthma treatment"; the next day, they would be doctors of Traditional Mongolian Medicine, shouting claims of their ancestral "Heart & Brain Prescription from Traditional Mongolian Medicine." Their cover would constantly change.

Even though everything was a lie, there were still many people who chose to believe and got deceived by them. Almost all the swindlers had grey hair and wore wire-framed glasses. Had they been young guys who were in their twenties, nobody would have believed they were miraculous doctors, no matter how professional they pretended to be.

This rule was applicable to coaches as well. It was very difficult for young coaches to gain the trust of their athletes. If the coach was younger than the athletes, more trouble would be caused. If the athletes thought they were more experienced and competent than the coach, why would they obey his or her orders!

Those who were admitted to Tsinghua University were elites among the students. Most of them were arrogant, and would not be completely convinced unless a coach came and showed some real skills, even if they were experienced.

Dai Li was young. He was only a few years older than them. Furthermore, in the first afternoon of training, Dai Li had arranged some basic training instead of some specific training aimed at the weaknesses of each athlete. Dai Li had planned to make an observation first, then formulate different training plans for each athlete. However, to Dai Li’s surprise, his training arrangement for the first afternoon had been despised by the athletes.

The scornful mood of the athletes was shown during the second afternoon of training.

Whether the coach was respected by the athletes or not could easily be seen in how the athletes trained. For tough coaches who were very authoritative, athletes would do their best to finish all of their training, even if they were completely exhausted. If the coach was unpopular, on the other hand, the simplest training tasks would be performed by the athletes carelessly.

Dai Li could sense the contempt of the athletes immediately.

Dai Li had experienced the same feeling when he had been on the national team. During the two-month observation and learning period, he wasn’t accepted by the athletes, even though he had participated in the training as a coach. The athletes knew that the young coaches were only here to observe and learn, and that they would not stay on the national team for a long time. Therefore, they looked at the young coaches as outsiders, naturally, and just ignored their presence during training.

Only later, when Dai Li had successfully passed the examination and was chosen by Li Xue as his favorite pupil, did the athletes’ attitude towards Dai Li change. This was because Dai Li was hard-working, as well as the fact that he was respected by Coach Li Xue.

Now Dai Li was despised by the athletes again. However, Dai Li was no longer a rowdy brat. He knew being tough would not be enough to tame these athletes. He would have to show some real ability to prove to the athletes that he was somebody, and to make them obey his instructions.

Alas, I have to put on act again. I really hate that! Dai Li took a deep breath and clapped his hands to summon everyone.

...

"Because of the afternoon training session yesterday, I have discovered a lot of problems in your sprinting techniques. So, I will now emphasize how to solve your technique deficiencies over the next few training sessions," Dai Li said slowly.

Upon hearing Dai Li’s words, the athletes had different ideas in their mind.

As a coach who is only a few years older than us, it is unlikely that he has more sprinting knowledge. How could he solve our technique deficiencies?"

He is bragging. As a young coach, how many athletes could he have trained? Even our post-graduate assistant coaches from the Sports Department might be better than him!

Alas, I hope this young coach has some real skills, and can at least arrange the training reasonably. Otherwise, our technique will only get worse, not improve.

Although the athletes did not show any unhappiness in their faces, their hearts were filled with negative feelings towards Dai Li.

Dai Li began to call roll directly. "Liang Du, step forward!"

Liang Du stepped out of the line. Then Dai Li said, "Your major problem is landing. When you land, the hip thrusting of your leg and the active push back of your feet are problematic. The contraction of your hip and ankle muscles happens too early. Because of this, your strength cannot be transferred to the ground rapidly and sufficiently.

"Your premature contraction of your hip and ankle muscles not only influences the instant push back speed and force exertion during the rear support stage of your hip joint, but also the high tension in your knee joint before landing.

Dai Li tried his best to speak slowly and clearly. He wanted Liang Du to understand him. His slow pace could also give Liang Du more time to think about whether Dai Li’s words were accurate or not. Another important reason was to have all the athletes hear him, that way he could show off his knowledge.

As Dai Li spoke, he watched Liang Du. Liang Du’s expression was becoming more and more serious. When Dai Li finished speaking, Liang Du was completely shocked.

What he said is completely correct! He really discovered all my technique deficiencies!