The Su God of the Reopening of the Sports Arena

Chapter 2480 A Completely Different Eight to Seven! This moment really does resemble him.

The hustle and bustle of the "Bird's Nest" stadium suddenly froze at the sound of the "set" command.

On the eight red lanes, the top athletes of the men's 110-meter hurdles have all taken their positions.

From Lagarde in lane one to McLeod in lane eight, every figure in each lane carried the desire to win the championship.

The suspense of this duel was ignited from the very start – Xie Wenjun, David Oliver, and Aris Merritt, three top athletes, will engage in a head-to-head battle using their signature "seven-step hurdle" technique, aiming for the lead at the first hurdle.

set.

The starter's voice was penetrating, and the eight figures instantly adjusted their postures. Xie Wenjun's arms were pressed tightly against his body, Oliver's low center of gravity was like a beast poised to pounce, Merritt's dynamic balance exuded the composure of a champion, and the other athletes also locked onto their optimal power-generating postures.

The breaths of the spectators were in sync with the pulse of the racetrack; everyone was waiting for the decisive gunshot.

Bang——————

A crisp gunshot pierced the sky like a thunderclap. In an instant, eight figures simultaneously launched from the starting blocks.

Eight shooting stars seemed to streak across the fiery red track.

The dull thuds of the starting blocks hitting the ground mingled together.

David Oliver's start was explosive, like that of a "beast." As a representative of power-type athletes, his start wasn't as delicate as Xie Wenjun's, but it possessed the purest impact.

The moment the gunshot rang out, his leg muscles erupted like a volcano, his front knee fully extended, and his thigh muscles contracted violently, propelling his body forward.

The force of the hind legs pushing off the ground is enough to make the body spring up instantly, and the whole body leans forward with an extremely low center of gravity, with the torso leaning forward at an angle of nearly 30 degrees, as if it is about to fly close to the ground.

His "seven-step hurdles" move is full of power, with each step being steady and powerful. Although the pace is fast, it is not out of rhythm, and the swing of his arms is extremely wide.

Like wings, they provide extra thrust to the body.

It demonstrated overwhelming propulsion efficiency within just a few meters.

However, it's still a matter of age. He's getting a bit old. If it were during his peak years, he wouldn't be at this level at all.

Of course, if it's his peak period, then there's no need for these people to compare with him; they should just give him a gold medal.

He was one of the gods of the old era.

Aris Merritt's start was noticeably less composed and in control than it had been a few years ago.

The London Olympic silver medalist did not rush to unleash her full potential, but instead started with a "dynamic balance" rhythm.

He maintained a moderate level of tension in his core muscles, supporting his balance while avoiding excessive tension that could lead to energy loss. His leg movements were fluid and elastic.

The front leg pushes off the ground using a "rolling" motion, gradually transferring power from the heel to the ball of the foot and then to the toes. The back leg swings smoothly like a pendulum, maintaining a stable stride frequency, and each step lands precisely under the center of gravity.

Merritt's "seven-step hurdles" rhythm is like a precision instrument, with the stride and frequency perfectly coordinated, without the slightest panic, as if he were conducting a routine training session.

Throughout the history of Europe and America, the only person who could rival Liu Xiang in terms of rhythm was Merritt.
At least without Liu Xiang, Merritt's sense of rhythm is terrifyingly amazing.

His biggest problem is that he sometimes loses his rhythm when fighting against people of the same level and strength.

It's a pity he'll never see it again after 12 years.

His whole body feels heavy right now.

If it were him back then, he would have already taken the lead.

This was the guy who put immense pressure on Liu Xiang back then.

But now I can clearly feel my body is heavy, very heavy.

This is especially true for hurdling, a sport that combines speed and agility.

It has obvious disadvantages.

His first step out was actually a bit of a drag, completely different from his peak rhythm.

Although still
Unbeknownst to them, they had already surged to the forefront alongside Oliver.

But this is more about his slalom technique.

Currently, only a small number of people have mastered the technique of using the seven-step hurdle technique.

He now relies more on technical skills to suppress his opponents than on his own abilities and talents.

Only three people in this competition possessed the seven-step hurdle technique.

Who is the other one?

Apart from Oliver and Merritt.

Of course, it's Xie Wenjun, a contestant from our country.

Xie Wenjun's start is a textbook example of the "seven-step hurdle approach" technique in the men's 110-meter hurdles, with every detail reflecting an ultimate understanding of sprint mechanics and hurdle rhythm.

The gunshot rang out in 0.133 seconds—a time window close to the limit of his reaction time.

moment.

His body had completed a perfect transition from stillness to explosive power.

The core muscles contract suddenly with an ultra-short cycle of "eccentric-concentric". The rectus abdominis and erector spinae muscles are like steel cables tightened in both directions, instantly fixing the torso into a rigid support structure, which not only offsets the risk of a high center of gravity caused by a height of 1.90 meters.

Furthermore, it rapidly shifts the body's center of mass forward in the horizontal direction, avoiding ineffective work in the vertical direction.

He uses a forward leg extension motion, demonstrating precise biomechanical control.

In other words, the hip, knee, and ankle joints work together in a “sequential extension” sequence, with the hip joint initiating the movement before the knee joint, and the knee joint then driving the ankle joint to complete the “push-off”.

This allows the entire process to form a smooth "power chain" conduction.

The calf muscles and gastrocnemius muscles use an explosive isometric contraction pattern to efficiently convert the vertical component of the ground reaction force into horizontal propulsion force, with the push-off angle stabilizing at around 42 degrees. This angle is recognized as the "golden push-off angle" for the current stage of sprinting, ensuring both power efficiency and preventing the body from leaning backward due to an excessive angle.

The movement of the hind leg is like a fully charged spiral spring, with the hamstrings and gluteus maximus having completed maximum elastic energy storage during the pre-squat phase before the start.

The moment the gunshot rang out, it was released rapidly in "hyperisochronous contraction" mode.

The toes engage the starting blocks in a continuous "grip-push-off" motion.

The time spent pushing off the ground is less than 0.08 seconds.

However, it can generate ground reaction force far exceeding its own body weight.

It provides the core power for initial velocity.

More importantly, he meticulously controlled the stride frequency and stride length of his "seven-step hurdle approach": the first step landed 0.82 meters from the starting blocks, and the stride length was strictly controlled at 43% of his own height, ensuring the stability of the initial propulsion and laying the foundation for the rhythm of the following six steps. Each subsequent step had a stable stride frequency, and the stride length increased evenly in a gradient of 0.03-0.05 meters, forming a progressive stride length curve of "short-medium-long".

It perfectly aligns with the core logic of the seven-step upper section: "the first four steps accelerate, and the last three steps adjust."

This gradual increase in stride length is not about blindly expanding the stride, but rather about dynamically matching the forward movement speed of the body's center of mass, thus avoiding rhythm disruption caused by sudden changes in stride length.

Scientific training models, training methods, and calculation methods.

That's what has led to everything we see now.

This is an advantage that is absolutely incomparable to the traditional empirical training model.

At the start, the control of body posture is also extremely precise, with the torso leaning forward at a stable angle of about 25 degrees. This angle can both increase the propulsion efficiency by increasing the horizontal component of gravity and reserve adjustment space for the "center of gravity rise" before the first hurdle.

Keep your head in a neutral position, tuck your chin slightly, and focus your gaze on a ground marker 3 meters in front of you, rather than staring directly at the fence. This visual anchoring method can effectively stabilize the vestibular system and prevent the body from swaying due to visual interference.

The swinging of the arms is synchronized with the leg movements in a 1:1 ratio. The elbow bend angle is fixed at 92 degrees, which minimizes the rotational inertia when swinging the arms. At the same time, the scapula drives the arm swing with a high-frequency rhythm of "contraction-abduction". When swinging forward, the arm trajectory is close to the sides of the torso, and when swinging backward, it is fully opened with the shoulder joint as the axis.

This approach balances the torque exerted on both sides of the body and provides additional propulsion assistance to the body through the angular momentum of the swing arm.

Sun Haiping made these adjustments because, from a biomechanical perspective, Xie Wenjun's core advantage in his starting motion lies in "precise force transmission" and "minimal energy loss"—there is no unnecessary limb swaying, no deviation in the timing of force exertion, and the contraction of every muscle serves the core objective of "quickly approaching the first hurdle and accurately controlling the starting point."

This quality of start not only reflects Xie Wenjun's muscle memory developed over many years of training, but also demonstrates that he has never slacked off, especially in the last two years.

This also demonstrates his profound understanding of the "starting rhythm" principle in the 110-meter hurdles.

This laid an unshakable foundation for accurately stepping onto the first starting point of the next seven steps and achieving a "zero-adjustment start and jump".

Making a change is never an easy thing.

Anyone familiar with the "seven-step hurdles" technique knows that while Mi Jiu's height is considered tall among ordinary people and not short among athletes, it's still...

You want to use this technology.

It doesn't seem tall enough.

Because the founder of this technology was originally an athlete who was over two meters tall.

You need to have the body proportions of a Black athlete to make it easier to perform effectively within a height of 1.9 meters.

This is why Robles was the one who popularized this technology in the first place.

Therefore, Xie Wenjun's height of 1.90 meters is not "too tall" in the "seven-step hurdle" technique system of the 110-meter hurdles. On the contrary, because this technique is designed for athletes who are around 2 meters tall and have better lower limb proportions, coupled with the fact that Asian athletes generally have a lower limb proportion than European and American athletes, he faces the dual challenge of "insufficient height adaptation + limited limb proportions".

This means that he lacks both the natural stride length required for a seven-step hurdle approach and the advantage of long lower limbs in taking off and clearing hurdles. Instead, he has to contend with the core challenges of "insufficient stride length requiring brute force and difficulty in controlling rhythm requiring emphasis." This is highly similar to the predicament Liu Xiang faced when he switched from an "eight-step hurdle approach" to a "seven-step hurdle approach."

Without his own differentiated adjustments and scientific distribution, and without Liu Xiang's extraordinary talent and self-understanding ability, he would not succeed.

Doing things based on emotions is just asking for trouble.

However, Sun Haiping's attitude here is different from his original one when facing Liu Xiang's desire to make significant technical changes. At that time, he disagreed and opposed it, but now he is encouraging Xie Wenjun to do so.

This also marks Sun Haiping's transformation into a head coach.

From a technical perspective, the core logic of the "seven-step hurdle" is to reduce the number of steps between hurdles by taking a longer stride, thereby shortening the overall time. Its original design was intended to suit athletes who are about 2 meters tall. These athletes, with their extra-long lower limbs, can easily complete the distance to the hurdle in seven steps without having to deliberately increase their stride. Moreover, they have more room to open their hips when clearing the hurdle, making it easier to control the height and rhythm of the hurdle.

Xie Wenjun's height of 1.90 meters, combined with the Asian proportion of "longer torso and shorter lower limbs", naturally results in a lower upper limit for stride than that of tall athletes whose technique is originally suited. If she were to copy the original "seven-step hurdle approach" technique, she would inevitably encounter problems such as "insufficient stride, making it difficult to reach the hurdle in seven steps" or "forcibly increasing stride, leading to rhythm disorder and loss of center of gravity control", which is exactly the same dilemma that Liu Xiang faced back then.

Liu Xiang is 1.89 meters tall and also faces the problem of his lower body proportions not being as good as those of taller European and American athletes. The core challenge when he switched to the seven-step method is "how to achieve accurate coverage of the hurdle with seven steps under limited height and stride, while maintaining a stable rhythm between hurdles".

However, Xie Wenjun's technical adjustment direction differed significantly from Liu Xiang's, with the core difference being the "different logic for addressing weaknesses": Liu Xiang's adjustments back then were more focused on "compensating for explosive power".

Xie Wenjun, on the other hand, focused on "refining the rhythm and optimizing the efficiency of exertion".

When Liu Xiang switched to the seven-step sprint, facing limitations in height and stride length, he chose to focus on "enhancing leg explosiveness" as his core breakthrough point. This involved strengthening the explosive power of his calf muscles and gluteus maximus to increase the propulsive force during the push-off, forcibly expanding the stride length of each step, and compensating for his height deficiency by "extra explosive power for stride length." His starting push-off angle was steeper, approximately 45 degrees, resulting in a more powerful release of explosive force during leg extension. His first stride length could reach more than 45% of his own height, with even greater increases in subsequent strides, allowing him to complete the hurdle distance within seven steps.

The advantage of this adjustment is that the stride coverage is fast, but the disadvantage is that it is highly dependent on explosive power, and forcibly increasing the stride can easily lead to fluctuations in the rhythm before the hurdle, requiring stronger core control to stabilize the body when clearing the hurdle.

Xie Wenjun's adjustments avoided addressing the relative weakness of Asian athletes in explosive power compared to European and American athletes, instead focusing on refining his rhythm to suit his own physical attributes. He didn't force a longer stride, but instead maximized the efficiency of his limited stride by compressing stride frequency fluctuations and optimizing the timing of power exertion.
The first step length is controlled at 43% of one's own height (0.82 meters), which is more conservative than Liu Xiang's first step length back then. The purpose is to quickly establish a stable rhythm and avoid the center of gravity swaying due to forcibly expanding the stride.

His subsequent stride length increases in very small increments of 0.03-0.05 meters, rather than with the large jumps typical of Liu Xiang. This "gradual increase" not only suits the fact that his lower limbs are relatively small, but also keeps his stride frequency stable.

This method ensures precise stepping onto the starting point after seven steps by using "small stride frequency fluctuations + high stride accuracy". The core logic of this adjustment is "not to fight against one's own proportions, but to make up for insufficient stride length with rhythm stability", thus avoiding the risks of fatigue and rhythm loss caused by relying on explosive power.

The differences between the two athletes became even more pronounced in their adjustments to their take-off and hurdle-clearing techniques. After Liu Xiang switched to the seven-step method, to compensate for the shorter take-off point caused by insufficient lower limb length, he opted for a strategy of "moving the take-off point forward and enhancing take-off explosiveness"—the take-off point was only about 1.1 meters from the hurdle, 0.1-0.2 meters closer than taller European and American athletes. This allowed him to use stronger leg extension explosiveness to quickly launch his body into the air over a short distance, forcefully opening his hips during the hurdle clearance, thus "trading explosive power for height and distance in the air" and avoiding contact with the hurdle. While this method solved the hurdle-clearing problem, it placed extremely high demands on the explosiveness of the take-off leg and the knee's resilience, contributing to Liu Xiang's later injury problems.

Based on her experience and the differences, Sun Haiping consulted with Ralph Mann and decided to optimize Xie Wenjun's take-off timing and body posture rather than enhance explosive power, taking into account Xie Wenjun's characteristics of "insufficient height and short lower limbs".

He precisely controlled his stride point at 1.2 meters, neither deliberately moving it forward like Liu Xiang nor blindly pursuing the stride point of over 1.3 meters used by tall European and American athletes. This distance was just right for his lower limb length. When taking the stride, he did not rely on explosive power to forcefully extend, but instead replaced Liu Xiang's "knee-ankle dominant force" by "simultaneous force exertion of the hip-knee-ankle joints". This fully mobilized the power efficiency of the hip muscles, allowing his limited leg length to exert the maximum extension effect when taking the stride.

When clearing hurdles, he did not forcefully open his hips like Liu Xiang, but instead adopted a "compact hurdle clearing" method—with a smaller bend angle in his legs and a lower center of gravity when clearing hurdles, reducing the height and time of takeoff. This not only avoided insufficient hurdle clearing due to short lower limbs, but also shortened the hurdle clearing cycle, making up for the time loss caused by insufficient stride.

This adjustment places greater emphasis on "efficiency and sustainability," which is fundamentally different from Liu Xiang's "explosive power-driven" hurdling logic.

The difference between the two in controlling the rhythm between hurdles also stems from their different logics in addressing weaknesses.

After Liu Xiang changed to the seven-step method, the rhythm between hurdles showed a "fast-slow-fast" fluctuation. This was because the forced increase in stride length caused an unstable stride frequency between hurdles. The first step was fast, the middle stride length was slow during adjustment, and the last step accelerated again before the stride took off. This fluctuation required strong core strength and rhythm control ability to compensate for it.

Xie Wenjun, on the other hand, pursues a "uniform and stable" rhythm between hurdles. His stride frequency remains constant from the start to the stride without significant fluctuations. This is because he does not force his stride to increase, but rather allows it to gradually increase within his own comfortable range, reducing the difficulty of rhythm adjustment.

The advantage of this stable rhythm is that it does not require as much energy as Liu Xiang to regulate the rhythm, allowing more energy to be used for propulsion and hurdle clearing, which is more suitable for the core strength and rhythm control ability of Asian athletes.

In addition, Xie Wenjun made targeted optimizations in detail to address the issue of insufficient lower limb proportions among Asian athletes: for example, he compensated for insufficient stride length by "shortening the push-off time" and reducing ground contact time, using "high frequency and short contact" instead of Liu Xiang's logic of "extending the push-off time and increasing the push-off force".

When swinging his arms, he fixed the elbow bend angle at 92 degrees, which is more compact than Liu Xiang's 95 degrees. The purpose is to shorten the arm swing radius and increase the arm swing frequency. The high frequency of the upper limb arm swing drives the lower limb step frequency, which indirectly makes up for the propulsion efficiency problem caused by insufficient stride.

Etc., etc.

Sun Haiping's active cooperation and dedication this time also gave Xie Wenjun a lot of comfort.

Of course, the main reason is that he wasn't under as much pressure as Liu Xiang.

It didn't get that much attention.

They also lacked the determination to make a triumphant return after their injury.

He will be more relaxed.

There will also be more time and energy to prepare.

In addition, there was a two-year gap.

In addition, I've been training here since 08.

Everything gave him a chance.

This way, he wouldn't need to be as eager for quick success as Liu Xiang.

Moreover, all the experience and trial-and-error methods left by Liu Xiang reduced his learning costs.

This will finally allow him to do so this year.

Showcase this technology at the Bird's Nest.

This was originally what Liu Xiang wanted to do back then.

According to the original plan, given Liu Xiang's athletic ability, he should be able to compete with the athletes of 2015 and maintain a certain level of competitiveness.

As a Chinese athlete, who wouldn't want to run twice at the Bird's Nest during their career?
They left their two highlight moments at the Bird's Nest.

It's just a pity.

That wasn't done.

So Sun Haiping herself actually has this regret.

Therefore, when Wenjun wanted to make such a change, he only hesitated for a moment before making his decision.

We fully support it.

And that's how we ended up with what you see now.

Although Xie Wenjun is still somewhat outmatched by David Oliver and Merritt, who also employ this technology.

But this technology also puts him in the top three.

The success of this technology prevented him from being separated from the two people in front of him, and the three of them were in the same sequence.

Being able to be in the top three at the start puts him in the same tier as Oliver Merritt and two other top players.

It has already started perfectly.

leftover.

It all depends on how I repay the hard work of the past two years.

Upon seeing this, Liu Xiang immediately blurted out:

"Seven steps to the hurdle! Keep up, don't fall behind!"

I was happy at the same time, but also a little worried.

Such intensity.

The difficulty of this technology.

How can I, as the junior disciple, maintain a balance and make adjustments?
If you force it, you may make things worse and it could even shorten your career.

However, Liu Xiang soon discovered...

You're overthinking it.

What he left behind was not meaningless.

Bang bang bang bang bang bang bang.

Seven-step jump.

Xie Wenjun entered the top three from the very beginning of the competition.

"The race begins! Xie Wenjun starts—good!"

"He'll be on the first team directly alongside Oliver Merritt!"

It's a good start.

remain.

I'll have to fix these damn ten hurdles myself...

We have to take it down.

Meanwhile, Sun Haiping was watching from the side.

Suddenly, I felt the lights flicker.

That figure seemed to have become the one he knew best.

at least.

There are several similarities.

(End of this chapter)