Chapter 98 Is it not good enough for her to take charge?
Not long after returning to China, Xia Yuezi led the adult group of athletes to compete in a B-level competition. In the meantime, she was also sent out to conduct short-term exchanges with other countries.
After Beijing won the right to host the Olympics, Li Tan was frequently called to meetings. If the meeting was about future strategic arrangements, he would also bring along several provincial team coaches, including Xia Yuezi, since they knew the athletes better than the leaders.
Simply put, he hasn't had a single day of peace.
Yan Rui was not idle during this period. He won a bronze medal in the sub-station competition by taking advantage of other players' mistakes, but he was also quite stimulated and probably did not want to hand over the initiative to others again.
If the coach is too busy at the beginning of the season, she will train with her senior on weekends. Yang Yiyan is recovering from 3F+3lo, so she can also pass on her experience of jumping 3lo to her.
After all, there are many examples of senior students mentoring junior students, both domestically and internationally. During this time, Xia Yuezi had also heard Meng Xin mention this matter. Currently, she has a pile of reports to write and can only occasionally take time to review the group's training sessions to ensure that no major problems arise.
It wasn't until Yan Rui's second leg of the competition began, and Xia Yuezi, who was watching from Canada across the time difference, realized how much progress Yan Rui had made.
While not quite as technically proficient as Yang Yiyan at 3LO, and even with some challenging transitions, Yan Rui at least mastered the entry jump, maintaining a stable axis. He avoided the situation where he trained well but couldn't execute the jump in competition.
Although Xia Yuezi had never had any major problems teaching students to jump the Lo, after going through Yang Yiyan's hands, Yan Rui was able to maintain the jump steadily in the free skate, which inevitably made Xia Yuezi doubt whether her teaching skills were good enough.
After returning, Xia Yuezi went directly to the teacher for an answer to this question. Yang Yiyan, who had dark circles under her eyes from being tormented by the senior year of high school, yawned and scratched her head while standing on the ice.
"Xiao Rui, it's not that she can't jump, it's just that she wants to jump well too much, so her success rate in training has always been very good. But once it's related to a competition, she will feel anxious about the jump, just like I did when I modified LZ Blade."
She's probably been hanging out with Feng Simai for too long and picked up this arrogance trick; she didn't forget to praise herself at the end.
"Of course, I also went through a lot of ups and downs back then and I was able to adjust my mindset, but Xiao Rui probably lacks this kind of experience, coupled with her personality flaws. Just talk to her and she'll be fine."
Xia Yuezi opened her mouth, but no words came out.
This is probably a psychological contradiction unique to Yan Rui: on one hand, he has the ambition of an athlete, wanting to climb higher, and on the other hand, he feels that he is not good enough and cannot maintain the jump.
She hid her anxiety very well, so well that many people had gotten used to her quiet and reserved nature.
Even Xia Yuezi almost forgot that when people are anxious or disappointed, they will hide their feelings and keep them hidden in their daily lives, which means reducing communication with others during this period.
Coach Xia rubbed his throbbing temples, realizing he might need to take some time to talk to Yan Rui. He also began to reflect on whether he had been neglecting his students recently. After finishing his important tasks, he spent more time watching and teaching at the ice rink.
If your boss suddenly starts showing concern for you, the first thing you might feel isn't care, but rather whether you've done something wrong again.
The contestants in the summer group felt this way, especially some of the younger ones, who seemed to feel that they hadn't yet escaped the shadow of their homeroom teacher standing by the window in school.
This situation continued until the start of the China leg of the tournament, when things began to improve.
After the news of the successful bid for the Olympics was released, brands that had been waiting and seeing decided to renew their contracts with athletes in winter sports, which resulted in more sponsors for the China leg of the Games this year than in previous years.
But once the money is paid, sponsors naturally hope to see a return. They can't just have their brand name written on the ice rink barriers when the attendance is low and the number of viewers for the live stream is small.
In this situation, the Skating Federation approached its popular athletes, hoping they would host one of the Grand Prix events in their home country.
None of the contestants in Xia Yuezi's group had any objections, and Yang Yiyan and Feng Simai even took this opportunity to schedule both of their events for the same competition.
Yang Yiyan finished fifth in last season's World Championships. The person pictured above is Nina from the United States. She said she didn't want to travel more than ten hours across time zones to compete in China, especially since the US and China legs of this year's tournament are very close in time.
Feng Simai did not make it into the top six at last season's World Championships, so he was not eligible to select a stop. Apart from the China stop, he could only wait for an invitation from the organizer for the other stop.
However, he did not expect to receive offers from both Japan and Canada. After discussing it with his coach, he accepted the invitation to the Japanese leg of the competition, which would also reduce his jet lag.
In the men's singles, the situation is similar. Lin Ye ranked third in the World Championships last season, so he can only choose from what others have left.
He went to discuss it with Wayne and Anthony, and to his surprise, both of them had a game scheduled in their home arena and were happy to give him the game in China.
Anthony immediately added a few complaints, saying that he had already had enough of the ice in France during the domestic competitions every season.
Upon arriving at the hotel, Lin Ye very disloyally recounted the incident, and Xia Yuezi, who had overheard it, couldn't help but chuckle.
It turns out that not only other athletes, but even the native French people couldn't adapt to their ice.
On the day of the competition, the stadium was almost full of people, and everywhere you looked there were red flags fluttering in the wind, with fans holding up signs supporting the athletes.
Xia Yuezi glanced around and saw that there weren't any particularly strong players among the competitors in this tournament. The only one she needed to be wary of was Claire. Claire's seniority was undoubtedly that of a top player among active women's singles players, and her achievements were also impressive. She finished third in last season's World Championships and was forced to participate in this tournament.
As for the men's singles, you can count the number of athletes who can do a quadruple jump on one hand. As long as the two Chinese athletes don't falter, getting on the podium shouldn't be a problem.
The women's singles competition is the second match in the afternoon, with only two groups of players. The order of appearance is determined by world rankings. Li Shiyu will play first, while Zhang Mengyi and Yang Yiyan will play in the second group.
Meng Xin was backstage warming up with the two skaters when Xia Yuezi returned. She asked, "Was Shiyu's performance alright? I could hear the screams from the fans."
Xia Yuezi nodded: "It's pretty good, the second half went smoothly in threes."
Li Shiyu has passed the prime age for attempting new difficult challenges, and given that her talent isn't particularly high, the risk of attempting new challenges is too great. Right now, she can only try to maintain her physical condition, refine her skateboard, and stabilize her current form.
Meng Xin put one hand on her hip, twisted her aching neck, and whispered, "This year, no Chinese referees were assigned to the Chinese station, and the technical judges are a Russian and a Canadian. There's going to be a good show later."
These two judges represent the Russian and American camps respectively, and coincidentally, two contestants are from these two countries. These judges are capable of anything to promote their own people.
Xia Yuezi waved her hand, whether she was not afraid at all or had already gotten used to it: "Even if they want to pressure, they have to find problems in the technique. Our players are clean, it's just that they are afraid that the referees have no integrity."
Although they are no longer considered to have any moral character by ice skating fans.
That's the advantage of playing at home; the mere sight of your own country's athletes on the field is enough to awe you with their screams.
Before Yang Yiyan's performance, both Chinese contestants withstood the pressure and cleaned their programs. The highest score so far is 66.91 points for the Russian contestant.
As the last Chinese skater stood in the middle of the ice, the entire arena gradually quieted down, and the ice skating fans waited patiently for the program.
Before the season started, Yang Yiyan announced her music choices on her social media account. She wanted to keep things fresh with the judges and changed both of her programs. However, since fans loved last season's "Black Swan," she didn't create a new exhibition skater and simply used that program.
Her short song was "I'm A Survivor," a song from an album by American country music legend Reba McIntyre in the early 2000s, which was also chosen by the contestant herself.
Xia Yuezi opened the song that Yang Yiyan had recommended on her phone. Her first reaction was that it was suitable for timing, but the rhythm of the whole song was very slow. It was a typical, story-driven, lyrical piece of music, which would be difficult for a dancer like Yang Yiyan to perform, and it would be hard to find a suitable dance style to match it.
Before she could even prepare her words of polite refusal, the Skating Association called her out of the province for a meeting. When she returned, Yang Yiyan had already finalized the direction with the choreographer, and even the general melody had been adapted.
Overall, it is still mainly in 4/4 time, but the rhythm of the lyrical part is slowed down, the time interval between the first half and the chorus is extended, and the chorus is emphasized.
It neither disrupts the original narrative and nostalgia of the piece, but also uses key moments to drive physical performance and capture the audience's attention.
Xia Yuezi's original words were: "Now that we have the music, what dance style are you planning to use?"
Yang Yiyan chuckled and led the instructor to the dance studio. As soon as the adapted music started, the girl in the middle began to dance a modern dance.
Modern dance is a branch of ballroom dancing, which can be further subdivided into five different dance styles. The reason for using a general term is that Yang Yiyan used different dance styles in the program.
The preceding lyrical movements were relatively relaxed and gentle, with body movements similar to a waltz. However, as the climax approached, her steps gradually quickened, carrying a hint of tension, transforming into a quickstep. Here, the choreographer probably intended to insert a follow-up step, making the transition exceptionally abrupt.
This dance is a work in progress, with many gaps in the middle, but you can see that Yang Yiyan's movements have improved.
She only performed the choreographed part, then blinked and leaned closer to Xia Yuezi, looking for feedback.
"May I?"
Xia Yuezi immediately laughed in anger. She had no idea that this girl had such big ideas now. She had set up the framework for everything and was showing it to her. Did she still have a chance to say no?
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