Chapter 20 May in Seoul (in a convenience store freezer...)
May in Seoul swells in the mist of convenience store freezers. In every corner of the Seongbuk Club, athletes train, their sharp whistles shaking down a new leaf. Around the club, the aromas of coffee and spicy rice cakes mingle in the exhaust fans of newly opened shops, while waves of heat surge in with each opening and closing of the convenience store's automatic doors.
Summer training passed by day by day, drenched in sweat. It's now mid-June. For athletes in winter sports, summer training is a crucial phase, and generally, its core objectives are divided into four aspects.
The first is physical conditioning, which is crucial. This focuses on enhancing endurance, explosive power, core strength, and flexibility. The second aspect is technical refinement, primarily optimizing skating posture, cornering technique, starting speed, and overtaking skills. The third and fourth aspects mainly involve improving mental fortitude and injury prevention, including resilience, focus, and strategic awareness during races. Scientific training helps reduce the risk of sports injuries.
If summer training is done well, athletes' abilities can really experience an explosive increase.
"The foundation period (6-8 weeks) focuses on improving physical fitness and basic techniques. The intensive period (4-6 weeks) mainly increases the intensity of specific activities and simulates competition scenarios. The final adjustment period (2 weeks) reduces the load and focuses on psychological adjustment and recovery."
Ren Xiyao's basic training period in South Korea is almost over. She has recovered to near-peak physical condition in terms of both physical fitness and fundamental techniques. After the basic training period ends, there will be an intra-group scrimmage scheduled for the end of June, which is next week.
Right now, they're doing rope training in pairs at the land training hall. This training serves two purposes: one is to practice basic cornering postures, and the other is to practice side push-offs on the ice.
Li Enjing and Ren Xiyao are in the same group. Li Enjing pulls Ren Xiyao along, while Ren Xiyao maintains the basic posture of short track speed skating.
"Shift your body weight horizontally to the left, supporting your body with the outside of your left foot and placing your right foot slightly bent on the inside, creating a left-leaning posture. This training is mainly to help athletes adapt to the body tilt angle when gliding on curves." Generally speaking, traction training can be used to improve an athlete's speed, strength, and endurance.
During this type of training, the coach will arrange different intensity and duration training sets based on the athlete's actual situation. Generally, one training set involves about 15 to 20 meters of traction exercises on a curved track, basically from one end of the training hall to the other.
When it was time for Ren Xiyao to finish, she stood up and said, "It's your turn."
Li Enjing nodded without saying much and began. The rhythm of the various sets of resistance band training was roughly the same. The air in the entire training hall was heavy and tense.
That's probably the benefit of training abroad. Seeing athletes you don't particularly like training so hard makes you grit your teeth and persevere. For example, Lin Shan was just about to catch his breath when he saw that neither the athletes he didn't like from the Lan Hai Club nor another South Korean athlete he'd clashed with in a previous match had stopped training. So Lin Shan gritted his teeth and kept going.
The daily training was monotonous and boring. Nothing new, the routine was pretty much the same every day. Even the simplest exercises took at least half an hour. With each repetition, I felt the leg and core muscles working. Through each exertion, I learned to understand and master my body.
The whistle blew, and the training switched to the next group.
This time, the training shifted to side-push exercises using resistance bands. This included right and left side push-offs. The main focus was on practicing the basic gliding posture under the traction of the resistance bands.
"Shift your body weight to the left, support your body with the outside of your left foot, and push off the ground with the inside of your right foot, then pull back directly with your knee first."
Li Enjing, standing beside Ren Xiyao, counted the reps. 200 reps per group, then they switched. Under such intense training, no one even had the energy to complain. All they had was focused concentration, even their breathing was being controlled to a precise frequency. Sweat streamed down their foreheads and into their eyes, stinging. But actually, they didn't feel much, because their whole bodies were burning and aching.
The morning's training session temporarily ended when the head coach blew his whistle. Ren Xiyao finished her last two vaulting box drills and plopped down on the ground. Rita got off the power bike and handed her a bottle of water and a towel, then sat down next to her. Li Enjing went to help Lin Shan, who was lying on the ground some distance away. Lin Shan waved her hand, saying she was going to rest for a while. Everyone remained seated or lying down; apart from the coaches, almost no one left the room. The sound of panting still echoed in the training hall.
After a while, people gradually stood up and left in groups. Amidst the rising and falling conversations, everyone was talking about next week's training matches. Ren Xiyao and the others were no exception. Lin Shan, panting, asked, "I'm not registering for the 1500 this time. Do you all have a specific focus for the training matches, or are you competing in all three?" Li Enjing took a sip of water and said, "I'm not competing in the 500 this time; I'm focusing on long distances."
Rita wiped her sweat and said, "I'll sign up for all three and give it a try." Ren Xiyao nodded and made a three-finger gesture. The four of them slowly got up and walked towards the cafeteria.
The cafeteria's large screen was broadcasting updates on preparations for the Incheon Asian Games, from the progress of the venues to the situation of the South Korean team. Lin Shan, standing nearby, said, "We'll still be here during the Asian Games. Shall we go watch some events? Do you have any that you like?"
Ren Xiyao took a bite of rice and said, "Swimming? Diving? Table tennis? Tickets must be hard to get, right?"
Lee Eun-jung nodded and said, "I really like fencing, and I'm quite interested in the opening or closing ceremony. It's really interesting. I'll see if I can get tickets, and I'll watch whichever one I get."
The four of them chatted casually. Summer training usually avoids the midday heat, so training sessions are generally held around 3 PM. There's also plenty of rest time at noon.
This afternoon's training focused primarily on ice skating. The entire Chinese team training in South Korea totaled nearly forty people, even with men and women separated. Ren Xiyao's training center sent six people. Besides Lin Shan and Ren Xiyao, who were on the women's team, the remaining four were male. The Lanhai Club was more direct, sending three men and three women. The Canadian team sent six female athletes. Including the original South Korean athletes, the women's training team had nearly 40 people, though their specialties varied slightly.
The ice skating techniques in short track speed skating can be simply broken down into nine parts: straights, curves, entering a curve, exiting a curve, arm swing, single-leg arc skating (mostly used in curves), curve zigzag skating, starting, and relay.
In short track speed skating training, these aspects are often trained separately. For example, the start is crucial for short-distance events like the 500m. Athletes specializing in short distances practice their starts repeatedly to minimize their reaction time.
As the name suggests, the start is the process of moving from a standstill to a high speed in the shortest possible time. The quality of the start directly affects the speed of the entire gliding race, especially in short-distance events. An ideal start is one that is quick and can reach a high speed in an instant.
Therefore, agility ladder and rope ladder training, which improve step frequency, coordination, and starting reaction speed, are essential in daily training.
Starting from the start, after reaching maximum speed on the straight, continue to glide directly into the curve at the end of the straight, and finally exit the curve. This completes one training session.
Throughout the afternoon, the starting whistle rang out repeatedly across the stadium. Each athlete had a fixed number of sets, and after reaching that number, they would begin cornering training.
The posture on the curve is lower than on the straight, especially when entering the curve, the body posture drops rapidly, which creates the prerequisite for completing a powerful push-off motion.
"When skating on a curve, the thigh, calf, and outer side of the blade form an angled inclination towards the □□ during the leg support phase. The angle of inclination is large. During fast skating, the angle of inclination is less than 30°. The force of the push-off is great, the push-off speed is fast, the rhythm is strong, the leg recovery path is short, the movement is active and relaxed, and the speed on the curve is high."
To achieve such textbook-perfect form requires immense dedication and hard work in daily training. Ren Xiyao still vividly remembers her captain's training sessions with the curve ropes, running a full lap of the 400m track. She gritted her teeth and persevered, only to find her back teeth shattered and she spat out blood when she straightened up. This scene deeply impacted her, who was then training in figure skating. Every event is challenging, and there are no miracles; it's always about enduring unimaginable pain behind the scenes. She has always held herself to this standard. Therefore, in every training session, every set and every drill is performed with complete focus and concentration on every exertion of force.
As the sunset painted the sky crimson, light shone through the glass windows onto the ice rink. The orange-red sunset and the bright white ice surface intertwined, creating an incredibly dreamlike scene. And so, the day slowly came to an end.
The coach finished his debriefing. In the locker room after everyone had left, Ren Xiyao pulled out her training notebook, summarizing her feelings about the entire day's training. The leather cover of the notebook was worn smooth, showing how frequently it had been used.
Rita and Lee Eun-jung were cleaning the ice rink today, and even they couldn't help but admire Ren Xiyao's tenacity as an athlete. She never slacked off for a moment. She performed every tedious and boring training session with utmost seriousness and complete focus. Those around Ren Xiyao were also infected by her dedication to training.
Rita took a deep breath and said, "Sometimes you really have to admire people. Those who can take even the most tedious and boring training extremely seriously will succeed at anything."
Lee Eun-jung, collecting the markers on the ice, said, "That's right. Actually, in South Korea, we're taught to maintain perfect form from a very young age. We practice each movement repeatedly, so even the most patient person will inevitably lose focus during training. Even now that we're in the top tier of athletes, there are still times when we slack off during training. It's hard to imagine someone being completely focused from beginning to end."
Rita, carrying a bucket and patching up an ice hole nearby, said, "That's right. She was already famous when she was practicing figure skating. Her results were quite good back then, and after switching to short track, she achieved results in the junior division within a few years. She was very famous in the junior division; she was the all-around champion in the junior division. At that time, coaches from all teams listed her as a key candidate for observation. The ice and snow forums also said that she was some kind of rising star, but after seeing her in person, you realize how hard she really works! You still have to follow her lead, otherwise you'll be left behind sooner or later."
Li Enjing, carrying a watering can, nodded in agreement upon hearing this.
For athletes, it wasn't four years; it was a full 1460 days, with every single minute and second counted. Only in this way could they possibly get close to that coveted gold medal.
A note from the author:
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The information is referenced from Baidu Wenku and CNKI.
A Study on the Starting Methods of Elite Short Track Speed Skators
Monitoring of Exercise Load and Biochemical Indicators of Elite Male Short Track Speed Skating Athletes During Summer Training
The Implications of South Korea's Successful Short Track Speed Skating Technology for the Training of Chinese Youth
Training Methods for Short Track Speed Skating
An Introduction to Short Track Speed Skating
Five basic movements for short track speed skating training
Short Track Speed Skating Techniques and Training Methods
An Analysis of Land-Based Training Methods for Young Short Track Speed Skating Athletes in South Korea
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