Chapter 289: Chapter 289

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

An athlete with no shortcomings would be a great challenge for his or her coach.

Ordinary physical exercise would keep a person healthy, but professional sports training was a more targeted enhancement to a person's specific physical condition. For example, a man who was weak might need a strength enhancement routine, while another one who was slow might need a speed regimen. In other words, strong purposes guide professional sports training.

But the training for an athlete without shortcomings would lack direction or purpose, which would pose a great challenge for the coach.

An athlete like Anshan Wang had reached perfection in every aspect. What was the most important for him, and thus his coach's task, was to maintain his current state.

Sports training was like sailing against the current. Improper training would lead to a decline of the athlete's performance, which would be especially obvious for high-level athletes.

Therefore, Dai Li started thinking about the training plan for Anshan Wang after they met.

And Zhizhong Gu continued to introduce Dai Li to other athletes.

"Over there is Pengfei Cui, whom you might know. He is the most popular player on our National Table Tennis Team, having a lot of female fans," Gu said.

Pengfei Cui was also a Grand Slam champion in table tennis. As a top world-class player, he was of course technically perfect, and what's more, he played very aggressively. Thanks to his aggressiveness, he even out-achieved Anshan Wang several years ago.

Dai Li detected Cui at once.

His talent is Level S, a little lower than Anshan Wang's, but his Skill Points are 905, far less than Wang's. Oh, it's because of injuries!

Detection showed that Pengfei Cui's weakness didn't lie in technical skill. His shortcomings came from injuries on his shoulders, waist, knees, and ankles. At that moment, Cui was engulfed by injuries, both minor and severe.

Such results didn't surprise Dai Li at all. It had been reported long ago that Pengfei Cui was injured. And taking Cui's extreme aggressiveness in playing into consideration, it was not surprising that he was injured.

In table tennis, players who played aggressively were more likely to get hurt, and they usually had relatively shorter career life. Athletes of Pengfei Cui's kind often made difficult technical movements, which physically made games worth watching, but they paid for such games with their own physical injuries.

Therefore, Pengfei Cui out-achieved Anshan Wang four or five years ago. He could won championships in almost every game he attended. At that time, Anshan Wang was said to be "second to Cui forever." But in recent years, Pengfei Cui could not sustain his aggressive style of play because of his injuries. His competitive state was also rapidly declining.

"Here is Xiangxian Zuo," said Zhizhong Gu, "the only left-hand penhold player on our team."

Zuo, also a world champion, once topped the world rankings and currently ranked third in the world.

Being a left-handed penhold player, it was easier for him to cooperate with doubles. So, he took part in more doubles matches than singles. And he won more championships in doubles.

There were few penhold table tennis players nowadays. Penhold was more flexible in receiving and dealt better with on-table situations. And it had more advantages in the first three strokes. However, with the change of the rules of table tennis, the advantages of penhold had been weakened, since penhold's abilities could also be performed through shake-hand grip.

The trend of professional table tennis over the last two years was to strengthen the backhand way of playing. It was obvious that shake-hand grip worked better with backhand than penhold.

And since the skill of Penhold Backhand appeared, it had become a necessary skill for penhold players. But Penhold Backhand's requirements for the player's wrist were very high, and it was very difficult to learn. What's more, even a mastery of Penhold Backhand might not equal Shake-hand Grip Backhand in terms of force. Since the benefits of penhold were not great, fewer athletes chose to use it.

Dai Li detected Xiangxian Zuo. He found that Zuo's talent was also Level S with Skill Points of 937, and Zuo was suffering from shoulder and back problems, too.

Zhizhong Gu pointed to the fourth athlete. "Shuang Pang, the genius of our team."

Dai Li knew that with everything going well, this Pang would be the next leading player in the National Men's Team after Anshan Wang's era.

Shuang Pang was the youngest genius in the National Table Tennis Team. When he was 14 years old, he already could defeat most of the players in the National Team Two. At the age of 15, Shuang Pang entered the National Team One. During the next year, he went through all the stages of in-team competitions and won the opportunity to take part in the WTTC. That year also saw him to the championships of the Table Tennis Opens in Germany and Poland in succession.

Shuang Pang was only 19 when Dai Li saw him, but he had already been crowned with a dozen world championships. He was second only to Anshan Wang in the world. And the gap between Wang and him in strength was not so big.

S+! Shuang Pang's talent is also S+! My prediction is right that every leading player of the National Table Tennis Team is Level S+. However, he has some shortcomings, unlike Anshan Wang, who is perfect. But Pang is only 19 now. All he needs to reach Wang's level is a bit more time, Dai Li thought.

The four main players in the National Men's Table Tennis Team—Anshan Wang, Pengfei Cui, Xiangxian Zuo and Shuang Pang—were all Level S athletes, and two of them were a breathtaking S+. That was enough to show the strength of the National Team.

And then Zhizhong Gu introduced other players in the National Team One. There were no more Level S, but they all had Level A talent. The worst of them ranked Level A-. No Level B.

Such a result made Dai Li worried about Feng Zhu. Feng Zhu was just Level B+. It seemed that he could hardly enter the Team One.

Then Zhizhong Gu took Dai Li to the National Women's Table Tennis Team.

There were two S+ players of similar age. And there was only one Level S player on the Women's Team.

But there were three S- and five A+ athletes on the team. The worst in the National Women's Team One was Level A. No Level A- existed in the team. It could be inferred that the competition in the Women's Team was fiercer than that in the Men's Team.

Gu and Li's next destination was the National Table Tennis Team Two. They met with the Chief Coach Feihong Liu of Team Two there.

Players of Team Two were indeed not as skillful as their counterparts in Team One.

The women's situation was better than the men's. Level S players in the Women's Team were newly joined, so they hadn't achieved anything yet. The Men's Team, however, didn't have young Level S players. Most of the players in the team were Level A. The B+ talent of Feng Zhu was only ranked lower than the average.

After he introduced every player on the team, Zhizhong Gu said, "Dai Li, you just came here, so I will not give you training tasks. Your major task, for now, is to get familiar with the environment. You are a fitness coach. Please make a physical training plan for every player on our team. There are 78 players on our Teams One and Two. You have one month to make as many physical training plans as possible."

"No problem!" Dai Li nodded at once, knowing that working out training plans was Zhizhong Gu's "test before posting" for him.

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