82 Moscow Direct

◎How awesome must that player be?◎

June 1 to June 30, 1998.

A one-month direct tournament, a large-scale cycle within the team.

This is Zhu Qi's second time participating in the direct-qualifying tournament after joining the national team.

With the experience of the first Tokyo Qualifying Tournament, Zhu Qi felt much more comfortable the second time around and knew exactly what preparations he should make before the competition.

Anyway, the score in every game and every round is important.

Reporters from CCTV5 still came to record the whole process. With the experience of the last Tokyo direct tournament, Ren Xinhua and the CCTV5 reporters agreed that in order to prevent the exposure of tactics and training routines, they had to wait until the end of August after the Moscow World Games before sending out the documentary of the direct tournament.

Looking at the cameras set up in all directions again, Qin Xiaoba said something that made everyone realize it later.

"Hey, that reporter Mori's brother is in the Hong Kong team. Should we be a little more careful?"

Ah Shui shrugged, sitting on the ground and stretching his legs. "This isn't the first time Reporter Mori has dealt with us. If they wanted to leak our tactics, they would have done so long ago. Why wait until now? Don't judge a gentleman by your own standards."

Maomao was also puzzled. Ever since the last time the Hong Kong team came to Beijing for an exchange program, Qin Xiaoba hadn't liked them. After all, Fat Tiger was also on the Hong Kong team, and they had all been teammates before... Oh, no, it seemed Qin Xiaoba just disliked the captain of the Hong Kong men's team.

"Do you have any conflicts with him?" Maomao asked curiously.

Zhu Qi thought about it carefully and it seemed that this was indeed possible.

If the captain of the Hong Kong team was originally from Beijing, he must have played in youth competitions in the country. Maybe he really met him when Qin Xiaoba was still in the Jianghuai Provincial Team.

But Qin Xiaoba didn't mention the previous incident. He just said, "That's not the case. I just simply think he will be our rival in the future."

Qin Xiaoba couldn't hide his feelings; his likes and dislikes were all clearly visible on his face. Ah Shui guessed, "Could it be that you're holding a grudge against someone because they beat you in the World Cup quarterfinals?"

A Shui felt that it might be because Qin Xiaoba lost the game that he was banned, and then quarreled with his sister, leading to a series of subsequent chain reactions.

Qin Xiaoba vented his anger on the other party.

Qin Xiaoba yelled, "How is that possible? How could I be so petty? I simply don't get along with this person."

"Psycho." Ah Shui cursed in a low voice.

But then again, Maomao recalled her match with Jiajia at the World Championship Cup and said, "Huang Jiajia's chopping skills are truly extraordinary. I'd say she's top three in the world. During a match, I once hit her with a powerful topspin shot, and she was able to chop it back. She's on par with the veteran Athens player, Hamster."

But it's a pity.

Jiajia was in Maomao's area at the time, and Zhu Qi couldn't meet her.

You can only take a quick look at it later based on the game video at that time.

"If the Hong Kong team participates in the World Games, Jia Jia will definitely play in mixed doubles and women's singles, right?" Ah Shui thought, resting his chin on his hand. "I wonder how the coaching staff will arrange the roster for this World Games..."

Zhu Qi poked her head and said, "The qualifying tournament isn't even over yet, and you're already thinking about the roster? Isn't that too early?"

This is also A Shui's second time participating in the direct-pass competition.

Four years later, Ah Shui looked up at the blackboard at the entrance to the training hall. The familiar ranking list was already written on it, and he began to reminisce. "The last time I played in the direct tournament, Sister Xia and Sister Shushu were there... Jin Lili was there too. I never thought that in just four years, Sister Xia would become a coach, and Sister Shushu would return to the provincial team..."

At that time, A Shui was also very young. Although he made a comeback and entered the top six, he did not get a chance to play.

No matter what this time, even if it's a women's team, she must be able to stand on the World Games field!

Throughout June, except for the sparring partners of the National Team II and National Team I who went out to play some Asian-level qualifying and feeder matches, all the absolute main players and main players stayed to play the round-robin tournament.

Each person has two competitions a day, finishing in the morning and continuing in the afternoon.

Not to mention the players, even the coaches and referees were so tired that their eyelids were spinning and their retinas were about to detach from watching the game.

The training hall was in full swing. Outside the hall, the kids from the second national team gathered outside the barrier to watch the main players fighting desperately for the spot of the "strongest twelve players". Their young and childish faces showed admiration and praise, and they would say a few words from time to time.

"Wow, that's a great shot! I can never catch that angled shot."

"The only capable people on the team are the captain and Sister Bao Bao... Is there any need for them to compete in the direct tournament?"

"Of course. This is also to give other team members a chance. After all, there are only a few overseas competitions, and there is only one champion. If it's always the same few people, the coaches will feel that it's not enough. They definitely hope that there will be a few more dark horses in the direct tournament."

"Once we make the first team, we'll be able to participate in the direct tournament, right? Even if we can't participate in the World Games, being a mixed team p-card will be fine."

"Come on, you? There's a threshold for the direct tournament, okay? Each coach only has one or two spots, so you have to have good relationships with the coaches. So, our fate is in the hands of the coaches, don't you think? Lin Yan?"

Xiao Lingling stood outside the partition, looking at the nearest table. A young girl in a light yellow sports T-shirt was swinging the racket back and forth. Her swing posture was standard to the extreme and her understanding of the ball speed was skillful. She was like a female warrior holding a long sword and swinging at the table.

The little girl was like a student eager to learn. She looked carefully at every swing of the other person's racket and every detail of the ball receiving, and didn't hear clearly what the person next to her was saying.

When someone called her, Xiao Lingdang reacted half a beat late and said, "Sister Baobao said that as long as there are results and strength, the coach has to listen to the players."

The other girls from Team 2 took a breath and looked at each other with an expression of "Is this true?"

I've only ever heard of players listening to their coaches, but isn't this going against the grain?

And…even if there really is a coach who listens to his players.

That player must be...how awesome is that?

At least it has to start with a Grand Slam, right?

When you reach the level of a Grand Slam, you won’t care whether you have a spot in the direct qualifying tournament or not, right?

It's the last ball on the field.

Zhu Qi raised his arms high, and when he raised the racket, his entire shoulders tensed like a stick. The girl on the opposite side saw this and immediately began to retreat, preparing to use the top racket to receive the smash.

As a result, the girl had just retreated to the vicinity of the baffle when she saw Zhu Qi gently hit the ball with the rubber.

The white ball "da da da da" crossed the net and danced happily on the opposite table.

It's actually a short ball!

"Ahhhhhhhhhh! Sister Baobao, you lied to me again!" The girl opposite sat down on the ground, beating her chest and stamping her feet.

Little Bell thought to himself: "That's amazing! How does this work?"

Under normal circumstances, if the opponent sends a high-quality ball, it is difficult to hit it back with a short shot, because the short shot has almost no friction on the ball, making it easy to catch the ball and fly.

But Zhu Qi can use short sucking to add spin to the ball, so he can usually get on the table successfully.

This only shows that her skills are very good.

At this time, she liked to use fake smash moves to deceive people, and she always worked.

Zhu Qi finished fighting.

She was ahead in the score.

The second place is Maomao, with a difference of 12 points between the two.

The third one is Ah Shui...

The roster for the men's team is similar, with Daxiong, Song Linzhou, and Qin Xiaoba also on it.

After Zhu Qi finished the game early, he went to watch the men's team for a while.

Since returning from France, Qin Xiaoba has developed a bit more of the European spirit of playing basketball.

This momentum is not an improvement in skills or tactics, but a style of play.

Many balls that I didn’t dare to catch before are now at least catchingable, and offensive methods that I didn’t want to try before can now be boldly pursued.

Even if the opponent used a large-angle ball to maneuver, Qin Xiaoba put all his strength into it and pounced on it with a "hiss", like a little wolf growing from adolescence, pouncing on the white ball and biting it into pieces with his sharp teeth.

The soles of my shoes crushed the sweat dripping onto the floor mat.

As the ball shuttled back and forth, it made extremely heavy hitting sounds.

Zhu Qi stood aside, folding his arms and saying nothing.

But Ah Shui clearly felt the expression on Zhu Qi's face - quite satisfied?

The coaches standing nearby also began to comment: "This kid has really improved since his trip to France."

The last point was won.

Qin Xiaoba rolled on the ground in excitement.

He also finished in the top six on the men's team.

The direct qualifying lists for the men's and women's teams have also been released. According to the normal process, these 12 selected people will undergo a one-year special training to prepare for the Moscow World Games in August next year.

The people selected were all within expectations.

But Ren Xinhua did not look that happy. Instead, he carefully looked through every score of the direct-to-contest, and then asked the head coaches of the men's and women's teams to bring the videotape of the game to his office.

The most common items in Ren Xinhua's office were videotapes, densely packed across three large bookshelves, even filling the top shelf. Each tape was labeled with its date, and when Foye glanced over, he noticed there were even videos from 1988.

Ren Xinhua sat at the table, pointing to the scores on the roster and said, "The third and fourth place scores for both the men's and women's teams are nearly thirty points apart. What does this mean?"

Both head coaches sighed.

This shows that the bottom three players of the men's and women's teams do not have the strength to compete in the World Games.

From the end of the direct qualifying tournament to the World Games in August next year, it is said that 12 people will be trained and selected, but in fact the coaches have already decided on the candidates, and this year they are just conducting intensive and intensive training for these people.

You can sharpen steel into a knife, but you can't make steel from scrap iron.

The scores of the last three players are similar to those of the other players, which means that except for Zhu Qi, Maomao and A Shui, the levels of the other girls are similar.

This is a difficult situation.

Last year, there were more people than places, and there were only so many spots available, but there were many people who could get in.

But this year there is more work than craftsmen.

You can't let players really compete in four events, play for four consecutive weeks, and complete the entire World Games cycle, right?

"That's definitely not possible. It's too exhausting." Shi Ge shook his head, but he felt it would be difficult to assign a roster. "Playing games is not only physically tiring, but also mentally taxing."

The World Games is the most important of all competitions.

Every time the list of participants for the World Games is submitted, it is a test for the coaches.

Selecting players, using players, and how to pair up doubles players all require some skills.

At the last Tokyo World Games, neither the men's singles nor the men's doubles won a single title.

This time I must get it back no matter what!

After the three coaches discussed it, they all decided to criticize one thing.

That’s it – military training for all the national table tennis team!

Anyway, there will be no large-scale world-class or Asian-class competitions in the next year, only the domestic table tennis league.

"Qin Shang's biggest problem before was his lack of responsibility and the drive to fight for the country. After returning from France, I also realized the importance of deepening red education, so I think the current national team is already of good level, but it still lacks a little ideological education. Bao Bao, needless to say, is a very positive person. After Da Xiong joined the Bayi team, his overall level in all aspects has greatly improved, so military training is necessary. If closed military training is confirmed, then all members, including coaches, will eat and live in the military management center, completely simulating the annual training life of the Bayi team."

Buddha had no objection, and Shi Ge also thought it was okay, but he still asked, "How long will it take?"

Ren Xinhua thought about it and decided to do it, so he might as well do it to the extreme!

"Three months!"

/

Ren Xinhua contacted Mr. Shi, hoping to use his connections to find a larger military control center to serve as a training ground for the children in the team.

Starting in July and coming back at the end of September.

The entire summer vacation will be spent in the military detention center.

The players of the Bayi team have become accustomed to the fact that Zhu Qi has to stay in the military control center for a month every year, but this time the time is a little longer.

But upon hearing this, Ah Shui felt like the sky was falling. He leaned over to the door of Zhu Qi's room and asked, "No way! Why would you be gone for so long? Three months! And it's the hottest and sunniest time of the year! Oh my god, I'm allergic to ultraviolet rays!"

"It's not that serious. Military training only requires us to stand outside for a while every day. Most of the time we will be practicing indoors." Zhu Qi began to pack his things for military training. He first sorted out the rubbers and stuffed them into his luggage bag, then started to get the glue and expanding oil.

"The three of us only need to bring a bottle of glue and a bottle of expanding oil. We won't use a whole bottle in three months. It's tiring to carry them." Maomao's voice floated over from the opposite room.

Zhu Qi said "OK" and put his glue and oil back.

Ah Shui lay half-dead at the door, complaining, "Isn't it just military training? Why do we have to go so far? We're usually in a completely enclosed area at the management center. The worst that can happen is we just put on camouflage uniforms. The coaches are really good, making such a fuss..."

The three girls were packing up in the room. No one noticed that Ren Xinhua appeared at the door at some point, reached out and knocked on A Shui's head, and scolded her with a smile.

"Who are you talking about?"

Ah Shui was frightened and quickly said, "No, no, no, I didn't say anything! Hey, I'll go pack my things..."

"Even students with advanced degrees have to undergo military training in high school and college. Sending you to the military detention center is to completely tear you away from your comfort zone and immerse yourself in military training. You spend every day on the national team, playing cards and mahjong whenever you have time... How can you possibly commit to it?"

Zhu Qi felt that Ren Xinhua was right.

Playing mahjong is very common in the men's team. Several times when Zhu Qi got up at night to go to the public toilet, he found that the sound of mahjong being rubbed could be heard from the men's dormitory next door from time to time.

Not many people play cards in the women's team... because the market has been dominated by various romance novels and magazines.

Who says sports students are easier to teach than academic students?

The coaches of physical education students have the same worries as the teachers of cultural students.

Furthermore.

The millennium is almost here.

Various electronic products began to emerge in large numbers.

He Qianlu bought a mobile phone for Zhu Qi five years ago. Due to heavy training, he really didn't need the phone and always forgot to charge it. Every time before using it, he found that he couldn't turn on the phone and had to find a place to charge it.

Zhu Qi had previously gone to the electronics mall to get his cell phone repaired while out and discovered that all sorts of PSPs, Nintendos, Wenquxing electronic pets, and various game consoles were already on the shelves for sale.

In another year, I will probably be able to see an Internet cafe every three steps.

Taking players directly to a brand new environment will allow for better immersive training.

In July, more than half of the Children's Table Tennis and Badminton Management Center was empty again.

When reporters from CCTV5 heard that the national table tennis team, including the children from the national second team, totaling more than 50 people, were going to participate in military training together, they rushed over. The video equipment that had not been taken away for the recording of the direct-entry competition was simply transported to the military management center along with the equipment.

The location of this military control center is near the Southeast Sea.

A Shui felt that the coaching staff were really... too cruel.

Do you want to burn everyone to death by choosing the hottest time and the hottest area?

After a long journey, almost a whole day's journey.

As soon as the players landed on the ground, they sat down and started wiping their sweat.

After sitting for a while, I found that the ground where my butt was touching was still very hot, so I crawled up and stood up to find some cool shade.

After dropping off the people, the three buses stepped on the accelerator and left, leaving behind a large cloud of black exhaust fumes and a sky full of yellow sand.

Zhu Qi looked around.

It was discovered to be an abandoned air defense base.

The barbed wire fences on all sides have been washed by time, their edges rusted with dark red spots. Everywhere has a sense of the vicissitudes of the 1960s, and looking at it is very... challenging.

When I joined the Bayi Team, the military management center chosen by my father had a relatively good environment. It was a large unit with many serving soldiers.

But this time, it was obvious that Ren Xinhua deliberately chose a place with a not-so-good environment to make the players of the national table tennis team have a few days of hardship.

The three Soviet-style tube-shaped buildings are arranged in a triangular shape. On the wall opposite the door, there are still some remaining iron sheets of slogans. Because it has been so long, many cracked fragments have fallen off, leaving only a few simple words.

Judging from the remaining marks, the most likely reason is "stop the civil war and unite against foreign enemies."

This sentence is surprisingly appropriate even now.

"Oh my god, could this place be left over from the Anti-Japanese War?" Ah Shui also saw it. He walked to the slogan and wanted to touch the words on the wall. He found that it was written directly with a large brush dipped in some kind of paint.

With a light touch of the finger, the words fell off along with the wall.

Zhu Qi considered it and nodded, "It's very likely. It might be older than our Chairman."

The coaches all changed into camouflage uniforms and handed the dormitory assignment buildings to the two captains, asking the captains to take their players to the dormitories.

The women's team lives on the single floor and the men's team lives on the double floor.

The first floor is the coaches' rooms.

A total of six people will live in each room, with bunk beds.

Because of the limited number of people, teams one and two can live together.

The reason why we called the kids from the second team here this time was to serve as sparring partners for the 12 players in the direct-to-tournament competition.

Zhu Qi greeted Maomao, and apart from the three of them and A Shui, the other three seats in the room were given to Zuo Zuo, You You and Xiao Lingling.

Although from the outside, this military control has the air of a weathered old man.

But once we came in, we found that the interior of the accommodation building had been completely renovated. Not only did each floor have a separate public bathroom and toilet, but there was also a large balcony at the end of both sides for drying clothes.

The bed in the room was also new, and the bedding and pillowcases all smelled of sunshine. I guess they were specially washed and delivered to me.

Each room is even equipped with a refrigerator and air conditioning.

The Buddha held a loud speaker and shouted from the floor, "Everyone! Change into military uniforms! Uniform green short-sleeved shirts, camouflage pants, military shoes, and white socks! No makeup, no jewelry! Take off all watches, necklaces, and bracelets! Just bring the people here! Gather on the first floor in ten minutes—everyone! Change into military uniforms! Uniform green short-sleeved shirts…"

"What?! It started right after we arrived?! We just arrived, can't we take a break?! I'm not used to the climate! Coach!"

The whole building was filled with noisy complaints, but no one dared to say a word. They immediately changed everything according to the Buddha's instructions and ran downstairs.

Ten minutes later.

The entrance of the military control center was filled with more than fifty "little soldiers" wearing pure green short-sleeved shirts, camouflage pants, black belts around their waists, and black shoes.

The asphalt road was cracked by the scorching sun, like a big mouth.

When Zhu Qi looked down, she saw some unknown little grass growing out of the cracks, standing next to her military boots and swaying in the wind, as if saying to her, "Hey, are you here?"

The players have assembled.

As the coaches, also wearing camouflage uniforms, walked out one after another, Ren Xinhua stood at the front, holding a large loudspeaker in his hand.

The trumpet mouth faces everyone and the sound flows out from it.

"As everyone knows, next year is the year of the 'three major tournaments.' In addition to the World Games in August, the World Championships in October and the National Table Tennis Championships in November are our top priorities!"

"Although the direct-entry candidates have been announced, players who haven't been selected must not relax! Because the World Championship Cup and the National Table Tennis Championships are also competitions where you must fight hard!"

"The big team is preparing for the competition, and the little team members are just sparring partners, but this is also a rare opportunity for you to train and learn with the big team!"

"I declare! The 90-day collective military training camp begins now!"

As a military training gift, Ren Xinhua also prepared a big gift for these children.

Another car slowly appeared in the distance.

The children turned their heads and watched the van stop at the gate of the military control center.

The car door opened and a group of faces that could often be seen in sports newspapers got out.

Zhu Qi heard Qin Xiaoba shout in the crowd: "Fuck!"