Almighty Coach

"Dai Li!" Zhizhong Gu repeated the name again.

Bin Wang beside him said, "A physical coach can contribute so much to a table tennis team. Incredible!"

"But it’s true! Ping Wang didn’t need to lie to us about this," Zhizhong Gu said. "Table tennis today is different than it was the past. The rules changed, and if you want to win a competition, you should focus on speed and rotation. A physical coach will become more and more important."

"You are right. We have basically developed table tennis skills to their limit. And under the current rules of table tennis, it is difficult to develop new technical styles. Therefore, we can only explore the potential in other aspects of the game to enhance player abilities," Bin Wang said. "Should I check Dai Li? I heard that he stayed in the national team before, and I might find out some new information."

Zhizhong Gu nodded. "Go and check it out. Talent is hard to come by. If he is really a talent, we can’t let him in another team. After all, our team needs new coaches this year."

...

After Zhizhong Gu and Bin Wang left, Tao Lin came to Ping Wang.

"Coach, why do I think you will sell Dai Li? If Zhizhong Gu wants Dai Li, he must poach him! I know Zhizhong Gu. He is a doer," Tao Lin said.

Ping Wang stared at Tao Lin and said, "Zhizhong Gu is the chief coach of a national team. Did you think I could cover up that he came and asked about Dai Li? Besides, we can’t keep him here."

"After all, he is in the track and field team..." Tao Lin whispered.

"That’s why I’m letting Zhizhong Gu poach Dai Li." Ping Wang lowered his voice and said, "If Dai Li is poached to the national team, he will be a table tennis coach rather than a track coach. Afterwards, in the National Championship or the National Games or whatever, the national coach will be called back to provincial teams, then Dai Li will be our table tennis coach!"

Tao Lin understood this at once, and gave a thumbs up involuntarily. "Coach, you are really thoughtful!"

...

Meanwhile, Bin Wang found out some information about Dai Li.

"Coach Gu, all his information is here," he said, handing the file to Zhizhong Gu. "He is indeed a talent. He taught an Asian Games champion. A champion coach for the Asian Games under thirty. What’s more, he is the last disciple of Li Xue. Such talent is hard to poach!"

Looking at Dai Li’s curriculum vitae, Zhizhong Gu sighed with emotion. "According to his curriculum vitae, he really is a great guy. With his experience, it would be no problem for him to be our physical coach."

"Coach Gu, did you hear what I said just now? He is the last disciple of Li Xue and also a champion coach of the Asian Games. He is so outstanding, and the national track and field team will let him go! After all, Li Xue has been a coach all his life. He is so qualified that even if he had no achievements, he would be put in a lot of sweats. It’s not good to poach someone from him, right?" Bin Wang asked with concern.

"What’s wrong with that?" After staring at Bin Wang, Zhizhong Gu continued. "In our team, there is no top-ranking physical coach now. Now here comes a very qualified person. How can I let him go?"

"I’m just worried that the track and field team will not let him go easily," Bin Wang said.

"Your file says that the organizational affiliation of Dai Li is still in the Hanbei Sport Bureau. We will directly give him an official position in the national team and poach him from the Hanbei sports team. This is a promotion! Hanbei sports team won’t have any hesitation for that, let alone refuse it, right?" Zhizhong Gu’s mouth turned upward as he spoke.

"Promotion should be based on mutual agreement. If Dai Li isn’t willing to come?" Bin Wang asked.

"That’s why I am going to do it in person!" Zhizhong Gu continued, "At the end of this national championship, I’ll go to Qingcheng and pretend to be a sports inspector. Feng Zhu performed pretty well, so I’ll go to inspect him."

Bin Wang understood him immediately and said, "I see. You want to manage it secretly!"

Zhizhong Gu nodded. Though he still seemed to be sleepy, he said with a determined expression, "Poaching should be done secretly and quickly. We should handle it all before Li Xue and the track and field team realize it! Get his organizational affiliation here, and after he comes to our team, others won’t be able to take him away."

...

Because of the characteristics of track and field sports, it was certainly more than enough for a track coach to double as a physical coach, since an excellent track coach would certainly be excellent in physical training. Therefore, it wouldn’t be a problem for Dai Li to be a physical coach in the national team.

The national table tennis team didn’t have any lack of excellent coaches, because top national players with many world championships would work as coaches in their national team after retirement. Those former world champions were world-class not only in the skills and experience of table tennis, but also in their understanding of table tennis. It couldn’t be more suitable for them to be professional table tennis coaches.

However, these coaches were not good at physical training. They were proficient in technical skills, not really intelligent heroes but agile ones. They couldn’t do strength-type work. They couldn’t resist damage but could cause it.

In fact, the domestic training system focused on technical skill much more than physical training. Therefore, in some sports, not divided by weight class but requiring high technical skills, the national team always occupied a relatively strong position, like gymnastics, diving, shooting and so on. The national team could always get some gold medals in big competitions.

In some sports divided by weight, Chinese players also had advantages in lightweight competitions. Especially in resistance sports, like boxing, judo, taekwondo, wrestling and so on, men under 70kg and women under 60kg, Chinese players were the best in the world.

Nevertheless, in heavyweight sports such as heavyweight boxing and heavyweight judo, Chinese national players were ranked significantly lower than others. The most fundamental reason was their lack of physical training. Heavyweight competitions required stronger bodies, and while Chinese players were rich in technical skills, they were poor in physical strength. They couldn’t defeat their opponents quickly or outlast them. Losing the competition was just a matter of time, since they had no weapons to fight with.

However, in western countries, physical training was highly valued and the position of physical coach was pretty important. Professional physical training centers were everywhere, and excellent physical coaches could earn two to three hundred thousand dollars annually, the same as some doctors.

Until some changes in recent years, table tennis had always been a technical sport. Foreign players couldn’t defeat Chinese players on stage, but they could change the rules and equipment. The rules beneficial to national players were weakened and the equipment suitable to them was changed.

As the chief coach of the national table tennis team, Zhizhong Gu had realized this long ago, so he was eagerly searching for excellent physical coaches.

However, under domestic systems, it was really hard to find a good physical coach.

There were good physical coaches abroad, but the national team could not hire one. Table tennis was the national ball sport, and the Chinese team was number one in the galaxy; if even one foreign coach was hired, Chinese coaches would feel embarrassed.

Beyond that, money was another factor. It would cost much to hire a foreign coach. Taking European physical coaches as example, even a physical coach of Eredivisie could get three hundred thousand dollars a year, let alone of the Premier League or La Liga. And they would have to be paid even more to get them to work in Asia, far from their homes.

Coaches from Eredivisie couldn’t satisfy our national players at all. Thus, American physical coaches would have to be hired, which would mean a higher price for their value.

The national table tennis team indeed had money for plenty of advertising sponsors. But that was public money, and it would be audited once used. Taking hundreds of thousands of dollars to hire a foreign coach definitely would not pass the audit. The person who signed it would be responsible for it.

Therefore, when they heard of Dai Li, they wanted to poach him for the national team. It would only take an official position for Zhizhong Gu to poach Dai Li, rather than plenty of dollars. Even though Dai Li couldn’t be compared with those foreign physical coaches, Zhizhong Gu would be satisfied if Dai Li was better than domestic coaches.

Anyway, something was better than nothing!

...

The National Table Tennis Championship ended. Hanbei provincial table tennis won the bronze medals for both male and female group competitions, and won nothing in singles or doubles.

Yet, Ping Wang was really satisfied with these results. They had no national players so they couldn’t get any prize in single and doubles. However, they were still an unexpected winner by getting two group competition bronze medals without any national players.

Later, Ping Wang was informed that the chief coach of the national table tennis Zhizhong Gu was going to inspect Hanbei’s table tennis players.

It was not something unexpected, since their players performed well and got the attention of the national coach. It was quite normal for them to inspect their players in person. But this time the inspector was the chief coach Zhizhong Gu, much more important than other coaches in the national team.

All the players of the Hanbei table tennis team were extremely excited, including Feng Zhu. For provincial athletes, the only way upward was to enter the national team, which was the goal of every player in the provincial teams.

Everything seemed to be so normal that nobody realized that Zhizhong Gu’s real purpose was not the athletes but Dai Li!