Chapter 45 A Welcome Change
Time, time, time.
What they need most now is time, but the spring season is imminent, and what they lack most is time.
This is life—what is most needed is often the most lacking, and it is difficult to tell for a moment whether it is lacking because it is needed, or it is needed because of lack.
Martin kept reminding himself that he needed to be patient in training young players and that he must not force their growth. Even though a new season was just around the corner, he could not sacrifice the future for short-term gains. Therefore, no matter how anxious or irritable he was, he still needed to keep his own pace.
Now, or in the future? If possible, he would of course greedily want both; but if he had to make a choice, he would choose the latter without hesitation. Compared with a championship trophy, the lives of these children are more important. There are many things in life that are more important than tennis and championships.
After all, the NCAA is not a professional sport. Students come first and players come second, and this positioning will never change.
However, the most passionate and exciting part of competitive sports is to constantly challenge one's own limits. Martin has absolutely no intention of surrendering.
The championship is still his goal.
The question now is, how should he make full use of the cards in his hand to compete for the championship?
He walked from the dormitory to the stadium, trying to sort out his thoughts, but the complicated situation could not be figured out in a short time. Martin just calmed his anxiety and worries a little, and regained his usual composure, at least not exposing himself when appearing in front of the players.
Bang! Bang! Martin's footsteps reached the entrance of the court, and the crisp sound of hitting the ball came out through the wall. It was not a round of hitting, but a monotonous hitting with a certain rhythm. If I guessed correctly, it should be a serve practice, with a certain gap between serves.
Who? He looked down at his watch. There were still twenty minutes until the training gathering time at nine o'clock. Apparently someone had started a new day of training early.
According to NCAA regulations, weekly winter training time must be strictly controlled within nine hours and must not affect the final exams. Once a violation is discovered, the most severe punishment is to directly deprive the student of the qualification to participate in the spring season. This also means that coaches have to restrain themselves from increasing training.
However, the NCAA tacitly allows students to train individually as long as it does not affect their final exams.
Martin will not encourage players to practice outside of class, but if students take the initiative to practice, it will definitely be welcomed.
The prerequisite is reasonable scientific training, protecting yourself well, avoiding injuries, and avoiding failing courses. Because if you fail a course, the credits will not meet the NCAA requirements and the player will be disqualified from the competition. This is also a wrong example where the loss outweighs the gain.
Martin did not enter the court directly, but stood outside and observed quietly for a moment.
Gawain, it was Gawain who was practicing serving at this moment.
To be honest, Martin was not surprised. Gao Wen has shown a promising performance since the start of winter training.
Not only is he focused and devoted, he also doesn't just bury his head in training. Instead, he combines work and rest while always observing and thinking, which is very important in the sport of tennis. Gao Wencai is only a freshman, and it is rare for him to possess such wisdom at the age of 18.
During the training process, Gao Wen has been paying attention to the details of the technical movements, the entire force principle and the training methods; at the same time, he is also trying to understand the ins and outs of the entire technology, from principles to context to effects. These have initially risen to the professional level of competitive sports and have a comprehensive view of the overall situation from a theoretical perspective.
Many times, competitive sports really cannot be achieved by just burying your head in hard training. Only by deeply understanding the principles and context behind them, knowing both the whys and the whys, can one reach new heights.
Although Gawain has only scratched the surface now, this wisdom of the overall perspective is the most precious.
His performance against Kyrgios in the charity exhibition match was the best proof of this.
More importantly, Gao Wen has tenacity.
Thinking of the training in the past few days, the smile in Martin's eyes became more and more intense, and the brows that were tightly knotted not long ago were completely relaxed.
The day after defeating Kyrgios, Gawain had a mini-showdown with Thompson.
Thompson and Kyrgios are somewhat similar, both use power-based playing styles and have obvious innate advantages.
If you just look at the final score, "3:0", Thompson won completely, and Gawain couldn't even win a single serve game, the onlookers might think that this was an overwhelming victory; but people who actually watched the entire mini duel know that it was not the case at all.
“3:0”.
In fact, it was two Thompson's serve games and then one Gawain's serve game. The nature of the mini duel meant that there was not much room for maneuver. Gawain failed to keep his serve and was eliminated.
However, the practice match went on very tensely, with each game taking an average of nine minutes. Each service game experienced multiple deuces and leads, and the back-and-forth tug-of-war was extremely stalemate, with no overwhelming advantage as the score seemed.
Thompson repeatedly wanted to end the game quickly, but Gawain repeatedly seized the opportunity to counterattack and made many brilliant counterattacks. If Thompson had not been in the best condition and was always able to turn the tide through serving at critical moments, and if Thompson had not had the upper hand in the power confrontation, the direction of the game might have been different.
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Although Thompson won three games in a row to win the mini-match, the game took a total of 28 minutes, and the ups and downs of the process were very exciting.
After the duel, Thompson looked like he was fished out of the water - Thompson was a big guy, five centimeters taller than Gawain, but there was a huge gap in mobility, and he was far inferior to Gawain. Such an intense and close game consumed a lot of energy for Thompson.
It was originally thought that Gawain would be frustrated after losing to Thompson with a score of 0:3 - after all, the game was very, very close, and Gawain tried his best, but the final score was one-sided, and it seemed as if all his efforts were in vain. This must have been a heavy blow to the young player.
In addition, he had just defeated Kyrgios and his confidence reached a new high, and then he was sniped by Thompson. It is normal that it is difficult for him to adjust his mentality.
But unexpectedly, Gao Wen was not discouraged, but was eager to continue to send out invitations, hoping to continue practicing matches with Thompson.
Not only Thompson, during this period, Gao Wen also actively invited every teammate to play, just like an internal team tour, playing every opponent once, and even playing more than one game with masters like Jilong and Thompson, and he was very active in practice games.
Such enthusiasm, such tenacity, and more importantly, such dedication, the atmosphere of the entire Bruins team was boosted.
As the head coach, Martin saw it all.
(End of this chapter)