Ping Pong Life

Chapter 56 The Heavy Crown

The one who fell behind was naturally Luo Jiu.

There are five main players in national table tennis. Four players participated in this table tennis World Cup. In the end, three of them made it to the semi-finals. The only one who didn't make it was Luo Jiu.

"What happened to the dragon team?" Wang Chao couldn't help asking the question in his heart.

He Jingping smiled wryly: "What else can I do? I'm getting older."

The honor and injuries of the Dragon Team can be said to go hand in hand. He was a late bloomer and did not win his first world championship until the age of 24. Then he stepped into the realm of invincibility step by step. Before he knew it, seven years had passed.

During these seven years, he reached the finals of all the major competitions he participated in and eventually won the championship.

Not once.

There is only one possibility for others to win the championship: the dragon team did not sign up.

Fortunately, the Dragon team is getting older and has more injuries. They have given up many games, especially the ITTF World Tour with the largest number and the lowest gold content. This has given others a lot of opportunities.

But few people noticed that during the seven long years, more than half of the opponents the Dragons faced when they reached the final were foreigners.

So, if the dragon team does not participate, will the other players from Huaguo be able to reach the final?
This question is actually difficult to answer.

Whether it is the older Lin Li, Luo Jiu, or the rising Bai Feng, they all lost more or less against foreign players.

It's just that even if they lose, the Dragons will be behind to ensure that the championship will not fall into the hands of other countries.

So all of their mistakes over the years were easily forgiven by the audience.

The audience is like that, they only look at the result, if the champion is not lost, then everything is forgivable.

Even if you are not young anymore, if you lose a game that does not affect the overall situation, the audience will say "be patient, give him some time."

Even if you are very young, as long as you dare to lose a game that affects the overall situation, the audience will scold you to death.

Regardless of whether the Chinese table tennis world in the previous life or the Huaguo table tennis world in this life, it is actually the same. Only winning the championship is the greatest correctness.

The biggest difference between the World Table Tennis Championships in October last year and the World Cup in July this year is that the dragon team has a problem.

When he has a problem, all the problems are exposed.

Because when he can't hold on, the other team members can't stand up and take over the banner, but will be affected by his loss instead.

Last year's World Table Tennis Championships, Xiao Fei, another main player of the national table tennis team who participated with him, lost to European players in the quarter-finals and failed to meet the Dragons in the final.

In this year's World Cup, when the dragon team lost power, Bai Feng and Lin Li also lost consecutively to Hans Bayer.

"Sun Tianlong is too difficult, even our coaches feel distressed when they look at it."

He Jingping sighed softly: "He has been forced to play closed more than once on the eve of the game because of a relapse of injury... But the entire coaching staff, no one has ever asked him to give up."

He waited for Wang Chao to ask "why", but Wang Chao didn't ask.

Because Wang Chao knew the reason.

The glory of Huaguo table tennis for decades has become a crown that weighs too heavily on the entire Huaguo table tennis world. Huaguo table tennis players cannot lose, are not allowed to lose, will not lose, and cannot afford to lose.

As long as you don't win the championship, it's wrong.

The runner-up is to be reviewed.

When our advantage is small, when the opponent is aggressive, when everyone expects you to win the championship, when everyone takes it for granted that "of course we will win", the pressure is unimaginable to outsiders.

Everyone knows how much physical damage to athletes is caused by playing closed games, but if the dragon team does not play, can it really guarantee that the gold medal will not be taken away by others?
The national table tennis coaching staff dare not gamble.

The so-called "No. 60.00 in the world" in Huaguo table tennis, under normal circumstances, its accurate definition should be "we have a winning rate of more than [-]% when facing any foreign player."

But this does not meet the expectations of the audience.

When you have been undefeated for more than ten or twenty years, the audience hopes that you can achieve a 20% winning rate.

Table tennis is almost the smallest and lightest ball in all ball games in the world.

The smaller and lighter it is, the faster the speed, the lower the stability, the stronger the chance, and the greater the fluctuation of the state.

Over the years, in the world table tennis world, I don't know how many top ten masters have been beaten violently by unknown players ranked two hundred or less in the competition.

How difficult it is to achieve a 100% winning rate!
"Sun Tianlong is a very delicate person. He knows the difficulties of the coaching staff and our worries, so he doesn't want us to speak up, and every time he takes the initiative to ask for closure."

He Jingping said softly: "Only this time, he thinks that there should be no surprises. After all, Bayer is old and has failed in major competitions for three years. What's more, the entire coaching staff believes that no matter Both Bai Feng and Lin Li can beat Bayer, so he wants to save himself from being sealed off once and hurt his body less."

Wang Chao was finally stunned when he heard this.

No wonder when he watched the game yesterday, he felt something was wrong with the dragon team's actions.

Others may not be able to see it, but he can see that some balls can be rescued, but the Dragons gave up.

Some balls can be rushed with force, but the Dragons also gave up.

These details are very subtle, and it is also the first time for Wang Chao to watch Sun Tianlong play in a real sense.

But he still feels that if Sun Tianlong is really number one in the world, then his handling of these balls must be flawed.

Now he knows the truth.

It turns out... Sun Tianlong should have relapsed from his injury yesterday.

In a sense, the game in the semi-finals was due to the well-intentioned dragon team, hoping to use one of their losses to send their fellow juniors to the summit and take over the banner in their hands.

It's a pity... Sun Tianlong was still disappointed after all.

"In recent years, the world's table tennis world has been surging, especially for men's table tennis. With the adjustment of the diameter of the standard table tennis ball to 40mm, the style of play in the era of small balls has gradually become obsolete, and loop balls have become popular. This is for European players. Just as expected, a large number of rookies emerged, and many veterans also had a second spring."

"The kimchi country has a tough style of play and has always emphasized the strength of physical fitness. After changing the big ball, it also benefits."

"As for the Cherry Blossom Country, the whole country has attached great importance to table tennis these years. After several years of reform, women's table tennis has steadily ranked second in the world, and men's table tennis has also produced a few good seedlings. The results of the Asian Youth Championship are even higher than ours. fine."

He Jingping was a little worried: "On the contrary, it is Huaping, some of them are not picking up. Even the coaching staff has begun to have ideological differences. Some coaches think that more young players should be allowed to train in the world arena and play on tour to gain experience. , while another part of the coaches believes that we should continue to maintain the original policy unchanged. As for the current predicament, it is just an occasional fluctuation under the overall stability, and it will take a year or two at most."

Chao Wang nodded in understanding.

The so-called original policy of Huaping, to put it bluntly, has only one sentence: "If a rising star wants to take the lead, he should grab the class and seize power by himself, and don't wait for the old players to make way."

This is different from most other countries.

In other countries, the main players are not strong enough, so they will give young players a lot of opportunities to compete, but the main players of Huaping are too strong. If the young players want to get the chance to compete, they must first kill their seniors in the internal competition.

Back then, Sun Tianlong was also a young genius. He joined the national first team when he was underage, but he was suppressed by his predecessors for seven years. The first world champion.

Later Xiao Fei, Lin Li, and Luo Jiu were all like this.

Only Bai Feng is a small exception. He successfully entered the national first team because of the national table tennis’s consistent support policy for straight players, but after entering the first team, he and his head coach created a straight horizontal Technology, which exploded rapidly and rose like lightning, also proved itself worthy of this support.

The harder the pressure is, the stronger the rebound will be. This is almost the consensus of the coaching staff of the entire national team.If there hadn't been seven years of hard pressure, how could Sun Tianlong have been tirelessly polishing his skills, and finally became the perfect hexagonal warrior now?
If there is no high pressure for many years, how can the young players who have succeeded in the position cherish the hard-won opportunities so much, and show the extreme resilience that foreign players admire in the competition?
Didn't you see that Lin Li managed to win the game abruptly under the situation where his tactics and mentality were completely deformed?
Of course, over the years, there have been many small players in the national team who have been directly crushed under heavy pressure. Others who can withstand the pressure stand out and carry the burden.

It's just that in recent years, the small players of the national team have generally been somewhat unsatisfactory.

The lineup of the second national team has expanded from seven or eight members to twelve or three, and then expanded to 18 members. Every year, they are given enough opportunities to challenge the first team, but no one has ever been able to break through the barriers and grab one from the five main players. Top chair.

In fact, the second team is more like the training partner, substitute and reserve team of the first team. When the second team never stands up, the five main players of the first team can only continue, even if there are actually four of the five main players. Neither is strong enough.

"We can't declare to the outside world that there is only one main force, right? So the other four are actually made up. Sun Tianlong is in the first position, the four of them are in the same position, and the others are in the same position. This is the real situation of Huaping today."

He Jingping leaned back, and let out a long breath: "If the situation is not so critical, and there is such an urgent need for someone who can succeed Sun Tianlong, how could I be ashamed to be so ashamed after wasting Luo Jiu's talent?" Where is it? I really... feel ashamed of Hua Ping!"

　Thanks to "King's Song of Triumph" and "Son of Archeology" for their rewards.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)