Small goals, first to be the world's first [Competition]

Everyone gathered in front of the two small mobile phones, and pricked up their ears attentively.

"Do you know that Wu Qingbai can be regarded as Su Haizhong's senior brother, and of course he is also my senior brother."

"Eh?" Su Yuan's eyes widened in surprise.

"Wu Qingbai is only three years older than head coach Su Haizhong." Xu Lixin quietly leaned into Su Yuan's ear and whispered to him.

ah?Is he only three years older than his father? It doesn't look like it.

Mu Xiangming also heard what Xu Lixin said, and when he turned his head, he saw a flash of surprise in Su Yuan's eyes. He shrugged and smiled, "Do you think Wu Qingbai looks like he's about to retire? Haha, Maybe it's because I worried too much that my hair turned gray."

"Ahem." Two coughs came from the phone.

When Su Yuan and the others heard this, they immediately sat upright, stopped digressing, and put on an appearance of listening carefully.

The story Xu Yuanwei told was not long, and he intentionally omitted many unnecessary parts, but even so, everyone could still feel the turbulent undercurrent from his calm tone.

Ten years ago, national table tennis was still in its heyday. What was the heyday like? ——That was a victorious general who won all the medals.

In the past, communication technology was not as developed as it is now, but the reason why Guoping is called Guoping is because he is strong enough in everyone's impression.

In the 96 Olympic Games, the 00 Olympic Games, and the 04 Olympic Games, Guoping used its strong strength to raise three red flags belonging to China on the Olympic table tennis podium again and again.

Every Olympic Games is a grand event with a high degree of participation by the whole people. At the moment when the flag of the whole country of China floated above the venue during the table tennis award ceremony, the sport of table tennis has also deeply penetrated into the people who have never paid attention to it before. in the audience's mind.

Guoping is the best, and it is impossible to lose, that's what people thought at the time.

Next is the main event.

The 08 Olympic Games was held in front of our house. It was the first time that Huaguo contracted for the Olympic Games. Under the eyes of all kinds of eyes from all over the world, Huaguo delivered a perfect answer to the world with a perfect ceremony.

What is the strongest in China?Everyone knows that table tennis is the strongest, everyone is looking forward to the table tennis competition, and many people have even started to celebrate in advance.

And when the whole country is celebrating and the whole people are carnival, no one knows that a change is quietly brewing.

Maybe the National Table Tennis is too popular every time in the Olympic Games. Maybe it is because the National Table Tennis has monopolized various table tennis trophies for a long time, which has caused other countries to reduce their enthusiasm for participating in the competition, which is not conducive to the development of table tennis events.

In short, the ITTF realized that it could not go on like this, so they started reforms, not small ones, but drastic ones.

The ITTF has also made tentative reforms before, but it only changed the game point system, from 21 points per game to 11 points. This time, the ITTF has made changes in all aspects, enough to Show how determined they are.

The first is to change from small balls to large balls. The table tennis balls used in table tennis competitions have been changed from small balls with a diameter of 38 mm to large balls with a diameter of 40 mm.

Don't underestimate the invisible two millimeters. Ordinary people may not feel the difference, but for professional athletes, especially for top players who have played for more than ten years, this seemingly inconspicuous two millimeters is very important for They are almost deadly.

A ball with a large diameter has weaker speed and spin than a ball with a small diameter. The requirements for athletes are more "explosive" and "vigorous". Compared with European countries, Chinese athletes tend to use skills and strategies to Winning the game, so the small ball was changed to play, which actually weakened the advantage of Hua Guo athletes in receiving and serving.

This is the most important part of the ITTF reform, but not just this one place has been changed.

Second, promote unobstructed serving. When serving, the body, hands, arms and clothes that throw the ball cannot be used to block the opponent's sight.

Third, implement the "Banning Glue Order". The use of toxic volatile organic glue is prohibited in the game, and inorganic glue is used instead, which further reduces the elasticity and hitting speed of the racket.

The second and third points are understandable for the fairness of the game and the consideration of the athletes' health, but it is undeniable that the ITTF's set of tricks has almost ruined many players at once. years of hard work.

Table tennis is an extremely delicate sport. Which part of the racket touches which part of the table tennis ball drives the racket in which direction will drive the ball to rotate, and the result will be different if there is a slight angle.

What is the effect of different rubbers on the speed and spin of the ball?How can we use the short-term contact between the racket and the ball to make more exciting and tricky spins?

Every athlete has summed up his own valuable experience through more than ten years of blood and tears.

They are instinctively familiar with the previous set of rules, rackets that use organic glue, and 38mm table tennis balls.

And the ITTF has made such drastic changes. For these athletes, it is no less than the iron rice bowl for eating is directly dried up, and the spiritual treasure they possess seems to be directly turned into a pile of loess and dissipated in the torrent of time.

I don't know whether it was intentional or unintentional by the ITTF. The time to announce these reforms and implement them was just a few months before the Olympic Games that year.

The Olympic Games are held every four years. The ITTF announced the reform in April of the Olympic year, and the Olympic Games started in August.

As soon as these reform rules came out, a group of experienced and strong veterans announced their retirement directly, and they didn't even stay as coaches. At the age of retirement, no one blames them.

Following the retirement of the veteran, there are also a group of players in the middle and upper reaches of the national team who are about to retire. Among them is Wu Qingbai, who was 29 years old at the time. After retiring, he chose to stay in the national team as a coach.

So there were no seniors to top the sky, and the teenagers had to force their way to the top. Fortunately, the first brother of the national team at the time did not choose to retire, that is, Su Haizhong, who was 26 years old at the time. Difficult but not that worried.

But only three months away from the Olympic Games?After changing so many rules, there is no time to practice again!

However, this Olympic Games is held in front of the doorstep, so much attention is paid to it. The audience is still looking forward to seeing the grand occasion of three red flags flying at the highest point again. The players of the national team have to bite the bullet no matter what.

But everyone knows the final result. In the singles, Su Haizhong struggled to win the championship. The strength of the Chinese team in the team competition is similar to that of the women's team.

The impact of the temporary change of the ball on the Chinese team was too great, and the European countries in the Olympics were even more aggressive. In the end, the German team won the runner-up in the singles and the first place in the team competition, and became famous in one fell swoop.

"Don't look at me like that. Those things are already in the past. I don't care anymore. I just explained a background. The point is just to say that Wu Qingbai started to be a coach at that time."

Xu Yuanwei rejected everyone's worried looks at him with disgust, especially the pitiful tearful expression of a certain little ha.

But everyone present was a table tennis player, or a former table tennis player. The older ones had already remembered the incident. Although they were young, they were very impressed by the turmoil at that time, let alone The person involved, Xu Yuanwei, who was called the "sinner", was unable to imagine what kind of storm he experienced at that time.

"Don't think about it, those are not important." Xu Yuanwei could tell what they were thinking just by looking at their expressions. As the person involved, he became the person who comforted others at this time. He smiled: "Just keep listening to me."

"I retired after the Olympic Games that year. My strength was not bad. In addition, many old people retired and did not stay as coaches. It happened that the head coach of the previous coaching team was about to retire and look for the next successor. The coaching team was very short. man, so I stayed."

The lack of people in the coaching team is also the reason why Wu Qingbai was able to retire at an upper-middle level but was able to stay as a coach. He is not strong, but his ambition is very strong.

Xu Yuanwei and Su Haizhong used to be called the twin stars. The young and frivolous Xu Yuanwei was actually quite arrogant at the time. He had never noticed Wu Qingbai before, and he really noticed this "colleague" only after joining the coaching staff.

At that time, they were not very old. Although they had already retired in the sports circle, they could still be regarded as young people in the society, and they had not yet reached the level of proficiency in hiding their emotions.

Wu Qingbai was easy-going and was very close to the team members. He was a person with high prestige and popularity among the newly recruited coaches, but Xu Yuanwei did not miss the vigorous ambition that occasionally flashed in his eyes.

Originally, his ambition had nothing to do with Xu Yuanwei. He didn't care what happened to others. To be honest, he stayed as a coach because of the head coach's persuasion. Hai weighed himself heavily.

Although he only verbally and others put some eye drops to imply that Su Haizhong's strength is no longer good, and Su Haizhong's personality is not suitable for being a coach, but this is enough to make Xu Yuanwei angry.

The reform of table tennis had a great impact on Su Haizhong. He was originally a skilled player. After changing the ball, in order to adapt to the new big ball and to maintain the glory of national table tennis, he practiced desperately and changed himself. It is inevitable that his strength will be weakened, but he still tried his best to maintain the glory of national table tennis, at least the national table tennis singles, during his service.

The desperate training left Su Haizhong no time to discover the undercurrent of the coaching staff, and it also put a lot of load on his body, and the injuries inevitably aggravated. One year later, Su Haizhong's body at that time could not support it. He didn't play high-load games anymore, so he chose to retire.

"That guy Su Haizhong, table tennis is his life, so of course, he also stayed in the national team as a coach after retiring."

Xu Yuanwei took a sip of water to moisten his throat, paused, and then continued.

"In the first year he became a coach, the head coach happened to be retiring for a new term. There were three candidates, me, Wu Qingbai, and Su Haizhong who had just retired and joined the coaching staff."

The author has something to say:

The reform measures are indeed changed like this in reality, but I made some changes in the text in time, for the logic of the plot~