Chapter 80: Lose Weight First, Then Refine Your Technique
Following the Olympics, a wave of retirements swept the world, and the General Administration of Sport of China processed a number of retirement applications from veteran athletes.
Prior to this, the leaders had also held an internal discussion on the issues raised by Xia Yuezi, and ultimately decided to add this handling method this year.
Some adult athletes suffered greatly during their careers. Upon hearing the word "referee," their expressions immediately became quite interesting, indicating that they only wanted to go back to school or find a stable job. Only a small number of athletes were willing to try to obtain a referee certificate.
This situation was also expected by the General Administration of Sport. They saw hope for the rise of figure skating at the Sochi Winter Olympics, and many provincial team head coaches applied for additional funding to send athletes abroad for training. At the same time, the General Administration of Sport also specially approved a sum of money to train referees, with Zhao Shuhua as the lead person.
Xia Yuezi heard about these things from Li Tan. Since the start of summer vacation, she had been extremely busy.
Feng Simai was the first to resume training during the off-season. Right after the college entrance examination, his family went on a week-long trip. When he returned, before he even received his college entrance examination results, his mother packed him up and sent him back to the provincial team for training.
His college entrance exam score was 613, ranking him over 8,000th. Even among 211 universities, he would have some options, but it's clear that he would only choose universities in Beijing.
During the Sochi Winter Olympics, the country intensified its promotion of winter sports. In any field, those with striking good looks are always the most likely to gain widespread recognition, and figure skating athletes, both domestically and internationally, are generally very attractive. Coupled with the impressive performance of Chinese athletes, this directly boosted the sport's popularity several times over, leading to a surge in the number of people practicing figure skating.
Not only are there more students in the domestic coaching team than in previous years, but there are also more commercial endorsements for domestic figure skaters, and the economic conditions of several provincial teams have become visibly better.
As soon as Yan Rui arrived, he saw Yang Yiyan perform a 3A jump on the ice, then fall and roll several times.
Her new coach stood on the ice rink, his hands clasped in front of his chest, seemingly somewhat dissatisfied with his senior's performance.
"Xiao Yan, how much do you weigh now?"
Yang Yiyan propped herself up on her knees, her black training uniform covered in frost: "I weighed myself this morning, 44.37 kilograms."
Yang Yiyan's height gradually stabilized, but her body fat percentage continued to rise, entering the most dangerous stage of development. After recovering during the off-season, her 3A stability began to decline.
Xia Yuezi frowned slightly: "Add half an hour of aerobic exercise to the land training. Even if we're on vacation, we can't relax our morning runs every day. We need to take advantage of the time left at the beginning of the season and reduce our body fat as soon as possible."
Yang Yiyan bit her lip and nodded, a hint of sadness flashing in her eyes.
Yan Rui stood by and watched for a while before starting to warm up; her training task for today was jumping.
Among the new female singles players recruited by the Summer Group this year, Yan Rui has the highest technical difficulty. She has already mastered the 5-3 combination and has the advanced 3-3 combination jump of 3F+3T. She ranked sixth in the adult group of the National Championships last season and won two junior group Grand Prix events, but her 3lo was all by guessing.
Even if you jump well, you can only land the jump; don't even talk about high jumps. If you jump poorly, missing the jump, falling, or not being able to jump at all are common occurrences.
When Xia Yuezi first coached her, she immediately noticed something amiss. Yan Rui's LO jump relied entirely on her waist strength to pull herself up, unlike ice skating where she could use a bit of finesse. In addition, her center of gravity was also off, making her LO jump look like a twisted rope in the air.
Yang Yiyan excels at the LO jump, not only because of her strong core strength, but also because she is adept at using the gliding speed generated by the large arc before the jump, and then using her left leg to propel her body forward.
Given her situation, Xia Yuezi could only increase her core training volume and help her find the right time to jump.
Not long after, Yang Yiyan followed Meng Xin for strength training. Yan Rui greeted them and slowly slid over to Xia Yuezi's side.
Xia Yuezi asked, "Did you try to find your center of gravity after you went back?"
"Yes, I've practiced lifting my legs while holding onto a wall."
The center of gravity for the LO jump is placed on the hip on the gliding side. Training time on the ice rink is precious and cannot be used to correct mistakes all the time. Yan Rui can only go home, lean against the wall, and lift his left leg to practice center of gravity.
Xia Yuezi raised her chin, gesturing for her to try it on the ice.
Yan Rui took a deep breath, found a quiet open space where few people were, kept both feet on the same outward arc, bent his knees slightly, and then lifted his left leg and pulled it up.
When Yan Rui landed on the ice after the jump, he leaned backward. As soon as his body started to sway, he put his other foot on the ice to help him regain his balance. Even so, the inertia caused his body to turn into a triple twist.
"It's a little better, but the center of gravity hasn't shifted completely to the gliding side, and the shoulders opened a bit too early when taking off, so the axis was too far back."
Yan Rui, with one hand on her waist, watched as she raised her left leg, which together with her right leg formed an "H" shape. He listened carefully to her slow explanation and finally jumped 2lo on the ice.
It's not that Xia Yuezi doesn't want to do the 3L, but rather that she can't do it right now. As a coach, she firmly believes that only by experiencing it herself can she find the flaws in her students' movements, and only by being able to do the move herself can she help her students better understand it based on her own experience.
"Do you understand now? Your problem is that you just put your right foot behind you as a normal take-off, which means you can't use the momentum from the arc and can only rely on your waist to generate power. If you jump down the way you did, the impact on your right foot will be greater."
Xia Yuezi glided to Yan Rui's side, helped her get into position for the jump, lifted her left leg with one hand and stabilized her upper body with the other, using human power to help her feel the position of the center of gravity for the jump.
Yan Rui returned to normal, looking down thoughtfully, and then practiced his jumping posture repeatedly, beads of sweat appearing on his forehead.
After the first half of the training session ended, the two skated back to the sidelines and picked up the thermos cups that were placed on the barrier.
Xia Yuezi glanced at her and then said, "The World Junior Championships last season required a LO jump, which means that if you can qualify for the World Junior Championships for two consecutive years, you don't have to deal with this jump, which is actually a good thing. But if you don't really master this jump, it will be difficult to choose your free skate setup."
In the free skate, a skater can repeat a maximum of two different triple jumps. Without a triple A, the most appropriate choice for a female singles skater is to choose between double triple lz and double triple F, and then add double triple T. However, Yan Rui's triple lo is unstable, so when considering the configuration, the worst-case scenario must be taken into account. Therefore, double triple lz and double triple F would be more suitable for her.
In addition, since the A jump must occupy one single jump slot, the remaining single jump and combined jump options are very limited.
Xia Yuezi continued, "If you can stabilize the 3LO, even if it's just used as a single jump, your technical score can increase by at least one point, and you'll be more flexible in choosing your setup later."
Even though it was still summer, the temperature inside the ice rink was lower than outside. The rising steam from the thermos blurred Yan Rui's view. She blinked, took a sip of water, and pondered what the coach had said.
Xia Yuezi didn't rush to reply. She simply explained the pros and cons to the child, giving her a warning first.
Next was the barre training. Yan Rui's free skate program had already been choreographed, and they had made two preparations in terms of program configuration.
Yan Rui can only perform 3F+3T and 3T+3T in a triple T combination jump. He hasn't even mastered 2A+3T, let alone 3LZ+3T.
If she can't stabilize her 2A+3T routine before the competition starts, she'll only be able to use 3S+2T in the free skate. Although the base scores for the two programs are the same without considering the bonus points in the second half, there will be slight differences in difficulty.
After the ice training ended, Xia Yuezi took her to the cafeteria, where Meng Xin had already sat down with Yang Yiyan and waved to them.
Yan Rui sat obediently next to Yang Yiyan, staring at the small, unappetizing plate in front of her.
When Xia Yuezi returned with two plates, she saw Meng Xin peeling taro for Yang Yiyan, muttering, "You really need to reduce your body fat, but before that, you need to lose weight first."
Although Yang Yiyan's food portions were not large, compared to the usual dieting for women's singles, it was enough to make her feel half full, so she wouldn't have to train hungry.
"Coach Meng is right. Although you have jumped 3A, your technique is still biased towards rotation. First, lose weight to reduce the burden on your joints, then work on your power generation skills to make your technique more mature. Later, convert body fat into muscle, and you will jump more easily."
Yang Yiyan took a sip of dragon fruit juice in a sullen voice, glanced at Yan Rui's plate, then looked away and picked up a piece of beef and put it in her mouth.
If you didn't know the inside story, just looking at the girl's expression, you would think she was eating something disgusting. Xia Yuezi knew what her chief disciple was thinking with just one glance, and her voice was also a bit teasing.
"She hasn't reached puberty yet, she needs to eat more to build up her muscles. Besides, Xiao Rui is about as tall as a partition now, what are you comparing her to?"
Yan Rui listened, silently ate a bite of rice, and secretly glanced at the athlete who had just won the Olympic bronze medal.
Compared to the plate in front of her, Yang Yiyan's food was pitifully monotonous. There was no rice, the only staple food was taro, and the rest was broccoli with vinegar and stewed beef.
Meng Xin placed the peeled taro into Yang Yiyan's plate, then took out a tissue to wipe her hands, her voice so gentle it sounded like a mother coaxing her child.
"Listen to me, lose weight first. The less strain you put on your jumps, the better your technique will become. Xiao Rui, you should eat more too. You can't afford to not get enough nutrition when you're growing and building muscle."
In fact, with Zhang Mengyi's example as a precedent, many girls' singles coaches have changed their training methods, for fear that their own students might accidentally sink into the lake and not be able to climb out.
Yan Rui swallowed the food in his mouth, responded, and obediently finished the food on his plate.
-----------------------
Author's note: To clarify, the partition I remember is about 1.3 meters long.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
