61 The Battle of the Genders
◎The coaching staff is signing! Signing!!◎
Chairman Ren is going to hold a gender war within the team during the New Year's Day week?
The national team had organized it before, but the players felt that it was basically just male players playing alongside female players, which was boring so they cancelled it.
I don't know why it started again now.
The national team has always only had the Spring Festival holiday, and we are used to not having a break on New Year's Day, but this competition is indeed a bit fresh.
It’s not like there haven’t been fights between men and women before, but it’s never been so formal.
There will also be on-site draws and on-site matches.
Everyone put down their rackets and ran over to ask.
"Is it the men's and women's singles? Why?"
Ah Shui said, "To elect the roster for the entire mixed table tennis team."
"Why does the roster selection have to be a battle of the sexes? Aside from mixed doubles where women might play against men, there aren't any other opportunities for men and women to take turns playing against each other, right?"
Everyone seemed to understand each other tacitly.
I think the mixed doubles must be the Qilin combination.
No one is more suitable for mixed doubles than these two.
But having just one suitable mixed doubles pairing is not enough for the coaches.
Because one of the mixed doubles candidates played in the first men's doubles or the second women's doubles, he or she will not be able to participate in the fifth mixed doubles.
Ren Xinhua plans to train another mixed doubles substitute combination, preferably one that can be on par with the Qilin combination.
Of course, that's one aspect.
During the regular meeting on Monday, it was confirmed that the Battle of the Genders would take place in seven days.
Ren Xinhua held a small meeting with the female table tennis players separately.
"Those little bastards always think that letting us girls practice ball is a waste of time and complain that the quality of our balls is low. I know you get angry when you see them, so I specially organized this battle of the genders so that you can 'deal with' them reasonably and legally!" Ren Xinhua looked at the girls with a smile.
The girls cheered and clapped.
But I'm also a little worried.
There is indeed a physical gap between men and women. Apart from the top female players who can fight back and forth with the top players of the opposing team, the female players in the second tier of the team do find it difficult to fight against the male players of the opposing team.
Can it really be… “cleaned up”?
Buddha chimed in, "You've all heard the story of the tortoise and the hare, right? Don't assume that because the men's table tennis team is so physically fit, you'll definitely lose if you play against them. Didn't Bao Bao also play well in the mixed doubles in Tokyo? Who of Korea's Han Taeyang or Russia's pineapple-headed player can catch Bao Bao's ball? Table tennis isn't a sport where you rely solely on physique to win; you need to use your brain to play. The badminton team next door also had a battle of the sexes. That... Sunshine Team, two girls in women's doubles, beat the two boys in men's doubles. You can do it, too!"
"yes!"
The girls also knew that the boys’ team always thought that girls were easier to play against, and when they heard about a battle of the sexes, they just treated it as fun and didn’t take it seriously.
But the boys didn't know that after Zhu Qi and Maomao sorted out and analyzed the information, the girls had already started to carry out various special targeted training for each of them.
This is exactly the effect Ren Xinhua wants.
After the Zhuhai-Hong Kong Table Tennis Championships ended, the men's team felt that they had won the championship again and began to relax their vigilance.
She wanted to make the men's team fail completely, so that they would examine themselves carefully and always stay vigilant.
We should also use the boys' team as a stepping stone to build confidence in the girls' team, so that all the girls on the girls' team can have the same fighting spirit as Baobao.
The women's teams, having decided to fight hard in next week's battle of the sexes, immediately took to their full potential.
Ren Xinhua secretly made a one-week series of training plans for the girls through Master Fo, and they all started secret training in the women's team area of the training hall as if they had been injected with chicken blood.
A few boys came over to peek in, wanting to see what the girls were doing and why they were practicing all day long. As soon as they approached, they were immediately chased away by the Buddha.
Even Qin Xiaoba, who was known as a non-staff member of the women's team, was unable to obtain any information through his sister.
However, Qin Xiaoba had a keen intuition. Two days before the battle of the sexes, he noticed something was wrong and whispered with a few boys.
"It's broken. I feel like I'm going to get hammered."
/
Ren Xinhua invited the old man of the Bayi team to come to the scene, watch the internal competition of the national table tennis team and give some suggestions for follow-up training. The old man agreed and walked into Tiantan East Road where he once struggled, fanning himself.
I heard that the old commander of the Bayi team came to the national table tennis team, and I also heard that an interesting battle between men and women was organized within the national table tennis team.
CCTV5 heard the news and the station director called Ren Xinhua overnight to ask if they could make a special column to record the game.
Ren Xinhua had originally only intended to organize an internal event, not to publicize it externally, so he politely declined. "This is an internal competition for the national table tennis team, to select candidates for the entire mixed team. If too many reporters come, I'm worried they won't perform well..."
Seeing the head coach didn't agree, the CCTV5 director reassured him, "We'll show you the tape after we finish recording it. If there are any tactical leaks or inappropriate parts, we'll delete them. We'll only have four reporters and three cameras, and we guarantee it won't affect the game..."
Ren Xinhua thought about it and said, "Okay."
The CCTV5 director kept his word and called in a few reporters wearing national team jerseys they'd scavenged from somewhere, minus the names printed on the back. Standing among the players, they looked like they were hardly reporters.
Among them was reporter Sen, who had interviewed Zhu Qi many times before.
He stood at the entrance of the table tennis training hall, facing the camera with a dignified smile. "...Hello everyone in front of the screen. I'm Sen Qiaobei, a reporter from CCTV Sports Channel. I'm here at the national table tennis team's training. I heard they've organized a lively and interesting men's and women's competition. ... Participating in this competition are Zhu Qi, the highly anticipated star player on the women's team who recently won the 'Miriam' Cup at the Zhuhai-Hong Kong Table Tennis Championships; and Zu Tianjiao, the current captain of the women's team who has returned to the national team after a year-long absence due to injury following the Tokyo World Games... Commander Shi, the head coach of the Bayi team, is also here. We'll be discussing and learning from him later..."
Knowing that the old man was coming, Zhu Qi and Daxiong put down their training and went to the coaching room to greet their master.
The old man was sitting opposite Ren Xinhua drinking tea. Reporter Sen was also there. He had just set up the camera when he saw two children stand in front of him and salute.
"Master." The two children said in unison.
The old man looked at Zhu Qi, smiling and waving his fan. "You played well this time. But there are a few things I want to tell you. In the third game against South Korea's An Zhihui, you hesitated on the sixth ball. If you had played her short, you would have definitely scored. And in the second game of the final against Xi Ling'en, there was a detail you didn't handle well..."
Reporter Mori next to him was surprised that the old man was so serious about the game.
Almost two months have passed since the National Table Tennis Championships in November!
But the old man still remembers every game and every ball!
He even thought about why his players lost points in such detail!
He always thought that Ren Xinhua, as the current head coach, was very attentive to the players on the team.
But when I looked at the old commander again, I felt that Chairman Ren could only be described as...learning and improving?
No wonder table tennis has become the national sport.
It’s because of these great coaches!
Reporter Sen was in awe.
But at the same time, reporter Sen was worried about Zhu Qi.
At such a young age, only 18 years old, he is second only to Ren Xinhua who won the "Miriam" Cup at the age of 17. This achievement makes him a very outstanding young player.
But the old man still has such high standards and high demands... He mentioned so many "shortcomings" of Zhu Qi, but in the eyes of reporter Mori, these problems are very insignificant.
People.
How can there be no mistakes?
But when the old commander evaluated Daxiong, reporter Mori realized that the old commander's evaluation of Zhu Qi was simply... too gentle.
The old man told the whole story of Big Bear from the inside out, from 64 to 32, 32 to 16 to the final bronze medal match!
The words weren't particularly harsh, but they went on for a long time, until Big Bear's eyes were red and his heart was broken. But in the end, he didn't cry. Instead, he stood straight and memorized every word.
Afterwards, reporter Mori asked Daxiong, "Is your master usually this strict with the Bayi players?"
Da Xiong wiped the sweat off his face, rubbed his red eyes, and said with a smile, "You must be a little stricter with boys, because they really don't have the self-discipline of girls..."
/
See the reporters from CCTV5 are here.
The boys realized how important this competition was.
Shi Ge also guessed Ren Xinhua's plan, so he could only sit calmly in the front row of the men's team on the right, watching the boys behind him realize it one by one, and sighed.
The women's team sits on the left and the men's team sits on the right.
Ren Xinhua and the old man sat in the middle to watch the game.
Reporter Mori sat in the second row in the middle.
Both teams will not assign coaches to provide off-field guidance, but players can provide off-field guidance to other players.
Reporter Mori was very curious and asked Ren Xinhua in front of him, "Chairman Ren, why do you want players to give each other off-field coaching?"
"The national team has a rule that if a match breaks out at the world or Asian level, neither team will have an off-court coach," Ren Xinhua said with a smile. "In these situations, the players need to be their own off-court coaches, playing both roles during the match. Cultivating the players' coaching awareness from now on is also about developing their multifaceted skills."
It can also select future coaching reserves. Chang Hongxia and Xu Dong have developed very well after changing from players to coaches.
"I see." Reporter Mori suddenly understood.
Just have fun anyway.
The men's team coaches sat happily in the second row, not knowing what awaited them...
Ren Xinhua winked at Fo Ye and Shi Ge beside him, and the two of them understood and walked to the two boxes in the middle.
Inside the box are the names of the absolute main players of the men's and women's teams.
In this battle between men and women, only the absolute main players will participate, and the sparring partners and second-team players are only responsible for creating an atmosphere.
The Buddha put his hand in first, pulled out a piece of paper, and after opening it, it said...
"Zhu Qi." The Buddha called out.
The women's team began to applaud and cheer.
Zhu Qi took his racket and walked towards the court.
Shi Ge also reached into the men's team's box and pulled out a name.
"Qin Shang."
Qin Xiaoba's eyes went dark again and again: "It's over."
Grass.
He has never won against his sister since he was a child!
The boys laughed and cheered: "Hey! Why are your legs still weak?"
"Shut up! You're the ones who will die soon!" Qin Xiaoba picked up his racket, walked around the audience chairs and the baffle, and became more certain when he came to the table.
This is a black signature!
The coaching staff must have done it on purpose!
What a coincidence!
There were eight men on the men's team, and I was the one picked?!
Qin Xiaoba shouted in his heart, "Coaching staff, sign! Sign!!"
Ah Shui held his hands to his mouth and shouted loudly: "Come on, Bao Bao!"
"Come on!!" the girls shouted!
"Come on, Xiao Ba!" Fat Tiger also shouted from the right.
"Come on!!" the boys shouted!
Qin Xiaoba stood by the table, watching his sister opposite him waving her arms, adjusting her form, and doing simple warm-ups. He closed his eyes.
Add a hammer.
Toss a coin, choose a side, choose a serve, and the referee sits upright on a high place.
Everything was carried out in accordance with the normal competition.
Best of seven games, no handicap, full 11 points.
The whistle blew and the game began.
Qin Shang serves.
He took a deep breath, thinking that it was a dead end anyway, so he got into position and served a baseline shot.
At least my skills in the first three shots have improved a lot during this period, so I can get more points in my serve games.
The ball came flying over with a deceptive backspin.
Zhu Qi stretched out his hand and picked up the ball, predicting the landing point and rotation of the ball in advance.
After hitting back easily, Qin Xiaoba tried to sneak in, but Zhu Qi quickly went around to the right and fought back!
Snap, da, bang!
The ball hit the net three times and landed behind Qin Xiaoba.
Zhu Qi's counterattack was so fast! He scored directly on the third board!
[Small score, Zhu Qi 1:0 Qin Shang]
"Good shot!" the girls shouted.
Qin Xiaoba winked at the sister opposite him.
Be gentle! Don't take it so seriously! We're just kidding! It's a warm-up match! Not a formal competition, not the World Games! Ahhhhhhh!!!
Zhu Qi pretended not to see and stood by the table waiting for the next serve.
“…” Qin Xiaoba.
The second ball almost completely replicates the results of the first ball.
The serve was hit from the baseline, Zhu Qi lobbed the ball, Qin Xiaoba made a long pass, and Zhu Qi scored a counter-attack.
[Small score, Zhu Qi 2:0 Qin Shang]
Zhu Qi served and quickly scored two points.
Zhu Qi 4:0 Qin Shang
Zhu Qi 7:3 Qin Shang
Zhu Qi 9:5 Qin Shang
Zhu Qi 11:5 Qin Shang...
[First game score: Zhu Qi 1:0 Qin Shang]
Halftime break.
Maomao and Ah Shui stood at the coaching table, one handing water to Zhu Qi, the other explaining tactics to Zhu Qi, the three girls chatting animatedly...
On the other side of the men's team, Song Linzhou looked at Qin Xiaoba's absent-minded appearance with a puzzled look and said with a smile: "You can't be that serious, right? Are you still asleep? Open your eyes!"
"You don't know," Qin Xiaoba said bitterly. "From childhood to adulthood, I've never been able to beat her. You don't understand..."
"But you have been in the national team for so long, you must have improved compared to before..." said Daxiong.
Qin Xiaoba put down his water cup with a sad face and prepared to play the second game.
He practiced all his techniques and tactics with Zhu Qi.
He practiced the same way Zhu Qi practiced, and many of his serves were taught by Zhu Qi himself.
There's no way to fight this, Zhu Qi knows him too well.
Before he hit the ball, Zhu Qi was already waiting at the landing point.
[Small score, Zhu Qi 11:4 Qin Shang]
[First game score: Zhu Qi 2:0 Qin Shang]
The men's team also sensed the smell of gunpowder around them. The women's team was unexpectedly serious about this battle of the genders, and each of them sat up straight.
The landing point of Zhu Qi's loop ball is very strange. Sometimes it looks like it is flying to the left but lands on the right; sometimes it goes to the right but bounces up on the left.
She also secretly added weight, and Qin Xiaobay knocked it away as soon as he received it.
[Small score, Zhu Qi 10:6 Qin Shang]...
Qin Xiaoba gritted his teeth and thought that if nothing worked, he would just rely on brute force.
So he deliberately hit the ball at an angle, trying to leave space for himself to burst forward, but when he really used his legs to drive his waist and swung the racket hard to the left, the ball hit Zhu Qi's racket automatically as if it had been activated by radar!
Zhu Qi predicted that Qin Xiaoba wanted to make a sudden charge, so he deliberately gave him a chance and added some spin to the ball. The silly boy was really fooled.
Zhu Qi hit the ball with his bat, and it landed on Qin Xiaoba's right hand area, where Qin Xiaoba had no time to defend himself.
[Small score, Zhu Qi 11:7 Qin Shang]
[First game score: Zhu Qi 3:0 Qin Shang]
Qin Shang held the racket and screamed to the sky: "Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!"
Why can’t I catch it!
Fat Tiger yelled, "What's the point of just yelling? It's three to zero!"
Before the fourth game started, Big Bear was dumbfounded: "You can't be that bad? Can't win a single game?"
"Be serious," Fat Tiger said.
Qin Xiaoba had a lot of grievances, he started to take it seriously from the second ball of the first game.
but……
Qin Xiaoba also practiced the "jumping pile step" since he was a child, practiced right-handed horizontal racket, double-sided anti-glue, and practiced the topspin backhand system...
But he is not as smart as his sister.
Fat Tiger poked Song Linzhou with his arm and said, "You and Baobao are partners. You must know Baobao's weaknesses. Give Xiaoba some advice."
Song Linzhou was also helpless. It was obvious that Qin Xiaoba's problem wasn't that his technology was behind, but that his brain wasn't as good as his sister's. He knew that the other person was trying to show off, but he foolishly fell for it.
Ren Xinhua and the old man sat in the middle, talking and laughing, and a few words came over.
"Well, that shot just now was good, and the prediction was very accurate."
"He's also very good at changing lanes at large angles..."
Qin Xiaoba knew that his sister had used him to practice basketball again.
When he returned to the table, Qin Xiaoba looked pitifully at Chairman Ren and his master who were sitting in the middle.
The old man glanced at him, fanned himself, and let out a "tsk" sound.
Qin Xiaoba understood what this meant.
Translated, it means: "You're really bad at fighting."
Qin Xiaoba's eyes went dark again. He played badly in the fourth game and was beaten by Zhu Qi with a score of [1:11].
The women's team cheered.
There was applause.
Zhu Qi reached out and grabbed his slightly wet hair, shook off the sweat on his hands, waved to the women's team and prepared to go back to change clothes.
Qin Xiaoba also went to change clothes and muttered softly, "You don't even know how to save some face for me."
This sentence ignited Zhu Qi. She pinched Qin Xiaoba's ear and yelled at him.
"Did you know that the national team is in a period of transition? Did you know that foreign associations are targeting China? Did you know that the International Table Tennis Federation has changed a lot of rules to target China? You don't know anything and just sleep around all day!"
"You're always obsessed with face, but face isn't something you ask for; it's something you earn through your own skill! I don't even know what you're doing. Don't you use your brain when playing? You're told to just charge, and you just charge, without even checking to see if the ball has been weighted? You gave up straight away in the fourth game. If you get to the world competition or the national table tennis championships and can't beat Japan and South Korea, are you going to give up too?"
"The coaching staff is pulling you along, your teammates are pulling you along, everyone wants to see you improve, yet you're still playing so poorly. Can you even play basketball anymore? You've been staring at the sky for so long, and you've only grown taller, not smarter."
"I'm telling you, I'm an athlete for this country first, and your sister second. If someone comes to the second-tier men's team who's better at fighting, more responsible, more motivated, and more hardworking than you, I'll teach him step by step how to beat you. You know what's going on..."
The more Zhu Qi spoke, the lower Qin Xiaoba lowered his head.
Daxiong and Song Linzhou pulled the dejected Qin Xiaoba back while saying, "It's not that serious, it's still developing, he's still young, he's still young."
Qin Xiaoba was very depressed.
Who is almost 18 and still gets zero points from his sister?
Oh, it's me.
In the second game, Maomao played against Shanghe, a member of the men's team Bayi.
The fighting had already started when Zhu Qi returned.
It's only been two months since Maomao returned from Los Angeles.
From the slow recovery training at the beginning to two training sessions a day in the second month, the coaching staff did not let Maomao keep up with the training volume of other players on the women's team, hoping that Maomao could slowly return to his previous three training sessions a day.
But unexpectedly, Maomao got into hot form right from the start. After losing points in the first game, he kept chasing points in the second game and beat Shanghe [4:2].
Ren Xinhua looked on with great satisfaction.
Maomao has been practicing ball since childhood and it is not easy to lose the skills he has learned.
I guess he was practicing while recovering from his illness in Los Angeles and never relaxed, so he was able to regain 70% of his previous strength after two months of recovery after returning.
The women's team scored two points in a row.
Next came A Shui and Fat Tiger. Fat Tiger, who wanted to avenge the men's table tennis team, took the lead right from the start.
After taking a multiple-point lead with his skilled first three-board technique, the situation completely turned around from the third game onwards.
Since being transferred to Sister Xia's team, A Shui started practicing playing with his right hand.
It’s not really focused training, but I’ll set aside an hour every day to practice juggling the ball.
Now he can catch some low-quality balls. Although the rate of hitting the table is not high, it gives A Shui hope for improvement.
In the third game with Fat Tiger, A Shui released his true nature.
He used both hands to coordinate his attack, and his right hand directly grabbed the bottom and hit Fat Tiger hard, stunning him.
After that, Fat Tiger could never catch up with A Shui's points.
Was defeated by A Shui [4:3].
Ren Xinhua knew that Ah Shui was a player with a good touch, and as long as he was in good shape, he could still perform well.
This type of player has a low lower limit and a high upper limit, but his performance is unstable.
The men's team lost three games in a row.
The boys started to panic. How could this happen?
After that, a few more kids came on. Only Song Linzhou won one game. Daxiong hadn't played yet, and all the other boys lost.
Why are the women's team suddenly... so fierce?
When it was their turn to draw lots, the boys all lowered their heads, fearing that they would be embarrassed if they were chosen.
The girls became more and more excited, and their screams became louder and louder as they fought.
Some people played two games in a row, and some didn't even want to go to the bathroom for fear of missing any exciting games.
The women's team and the men's team were completely at odds with each other. As soon as the game started, whichever team scored, their "support team" would jump on the table and shout.
Among them, the ones who shouted the loudest were A Shui and Qin Xiaoba.
"Zozo just hit him! Yes! Hit the little triangle!"
"Monk, why are you so soft-hearted?! I'm embarrassed to hit the little girl! Use your strength!"
"Lao Qin! You're a newbie, and you're giving people instructions!"
"Who are you calling a dish?!"
"It's you, it's you!"
"Say it again!"
"You are such a loser, you are such a loser, you are such a loser!"
The two of them got more and more angry as they shouted, and in the end they started shouting at each other.
This game is over again.
Ren Xinhua looked at the two noisy children behind him and gave another look to the Buddha.
The Buddha reached out and grabbed a name, saying, "Fang Miao."
On the other side, Shi Ge unfolded the paper he had grabbed and said, "Qin Shang."
The two people whose names were called stood up immediately, eager to try and rubbing their hands.
Qin Xiaoba's face was still covered with beads of sweat, and he gritted his teeth: "Don't cry if you lose later."
Ah Shui, who had just defeated Fat Tiger, was full of confidence and imitated Zhu Qi's tone of sarcasm: "Oh, I don't know who was crying so hard just now, you are just a tall guy with no brains."
Zhu Qi and Maomao sat in the first row of coaching seats and looked at each other, feeling helpless.
【Author’s words】
Twenty years later, fans' archaeological comments:
[Two parents watching two children quarrel.jpg]
[The first signs of the three cowards of the national table tennis team]
Who is so desperate to have a second child?
[Family planning is good~Family planning is impossible~So many worries~The eldest cries~The second quarrels~The third catches chickens and the fourth catches cats~ (red text)]
How did the scarlet letter start to sing?
[My sister is so worried that her face is puffed up.jpg]
[Where's the next episode?! Why does the uploader have to pre-order a documentary?!]
Next chapter will be updated at 12 o'clock~
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