Chapter 35: Special Training Abroad
Early in the morning, the large classroom of the National Winter Management Center was bustling with activity.
When He Hui arrived, there were already quite a few people seated. She knew some of them, but had no impression of some of them.
Come to think of it, this is not just a meeting for the figure skating team.
Bian Jing saw her and waved to her. He came early and firmly occupied a seat in the corner of the last row, which was very inconspicuous.
A middle-aged man stood on the stage. He held up a microphone and pointed to the first row of seats. "Everyone, please sit in the front. Those who came from behind, please sit here."
He Hui was forced to stop just as he was about to find a corner to sit down.
"He Hui, come and sit here." The middle-aged man seemed to recognize her and called her out directly, cutting off her other thoughts.
He Hui resigned himself to his fate and walked to the first row, choosing a seat in the corner with his last bit of stubbornness to sit down.
With five minutes left before the meeting started, another wave of athletes who were scouting out the venue were moved to the front row.
"Feng Liying, you come and sit in the first row too." The middle-aged man called out the name again. A girl with short hair touched the back of her head, trotted to the front row, and sat down next to He Hui.
Feng Liying is very outgoing and took the initiative to greet people: "Hello, my name is Feng Liying, and I skate short track."
"I'm He Hui, from the figure skating team."
"Today should be the group training for the Youth Training Camp for Overseas Students, right?" Feng Liying looked around. "I also saw people skiing, both single and double skiers."
It seems that Feng Liying is an outgoing girl who is well-informed.
"Where is your figure skating team going for training?" Feng Liying asked curiously, "We are going to Hungary."
He Hui: "Russia."
"Wow, is it going to be cold? It's springtime in Hungary and I want to sneak out and play."
"It's not too cold, but it's not spring either, right?" He Hui answered, digging out memories of traveling there in his previous life.
"That's not bad, otherwise I would have frozen to death!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the middle-aged man's voice came from the microphone, "Good morning, everyone. Welcome to our pre-departure meeting. I believe that the friends who can come here must be very outstanding."
Feng Liying sat in the first row and dared to slack off. She turned her head and whispered to He Hui: "You are really famous! Your winning program in the World Junior Championships was so good! Our entire short track speed skating team's group chat exploded that day."
This sounds a bit exaggerated!
He Hui leaned close to Feng Liying's ear and whispered thanks, "It's really my honor."
The distance between the two was shortened because of Feng Liying's initiative. Although they didn't listen much to the content of the conference, they added each other on WeChat. Feng Liying even felt that He Hui spoke too formally on the chat software, so she kindly shared many cute and nonsensical emoticons.
He Hui: "Bow and thank you.jpg"
Later, He Hui searched the name Feng Liying on the Internet and found out that she was the double champion of the 500m and 1000m in the World Youth Short Track Speed Skating Championships.
He Hui was quite happy, as if he was getting to know more and more athlete friends!
*
Moscow, May.
This time, I was training with the famous Russian coach Natasha's team. The specific training time for each individual event was different, so they were just separate exercises.
In addition to Anna Victoria, who is most familiar to He Hui, Coach Natasha also has Tours Maria, who is currently the strongest in the adult group, as well as many rising players in the youth group who are waiting to emerge.
——They have a good reserve of difficulty, and any member of the junior group can easily handle the advanced level 33.
So much so that on the first day the group arrived at the venue, they were stunned by the scene before them.
Some children were practicing on the ice. The whole venue was very quiet and the only sound was the swish of the ice skates hitting the ice.
As they stood at the edge of the ice rink, they saw a girl who looked only eleven or twelve years old skating past them, completing a series of jumps with her hands raised in a clean and neat pull-up style.
"Is this a rippon 3Lz+3T?" Lu Nanfeng opened his mouth wide, "It doesn't even feel like it's accelerating?"
Lu Nanfeng was a player selected from Province J, and she was 14 years old this year. Last season, she happened to miss the two races with He Hui, so He Hui had never seen her before.
"Too strong! This player hasn't even been promoted to the youth group yet." Cheng Ran on the other side also joined the group in exclaiming.
She is the representative of H Province, barely got 3T+3T, and only got one race last season. Compared with Lu Nanfeng's exaggerated and extroverted personality, she is very quiet most of the time.
Three female singles youth representatives from China just stood blankly at the edge of the ice rink, listening to the incessant rustling sounds.
"Are you also scared by the difficulty of their exams?" Lu Nanfeng looked at He Hui who was lost in thought, a little unbelievable, "This shouldn't be the case? You already got 3A!"
What He Hui envied was naturally not their difficulty, but the good seedlings that were springing up like mushrooms after a rain.
The brutal competition for individuals has led to the maintenance of advantages for a country and a project across generations.
"What are you doing here?" This time the team leader was Zhu Jianyong. He had achieved good results in the 12th Winter Games and seemed to be close to promotion.
"Let me introduce you all. This is Coach Natasha. She will be guiding you all for the next two weeks."
Standing on Zhu Jianyong's right was a middle-aged woman with smart clothes and short blond hair.
She held two pieces of paper in her right hand, nodded slightly, and said in slightly accented English: "Hello everyone! I hope we can have a good cooperation in the next two weeks."
The corners of Natasha's mouth curled up, but when her sharp and powerful eyes swept across everyone, people still straightened their backs unconsciously.
From time to time, players on the field cast curious glances at them.
"Our group's training started relatively early, so you may have to work harder. In addition to the events on the ice, there are also many land physical fitness and ballet classes to attend." Natasha introduced some details, and talked for about five minutes before letting everyone warm up.
She didn’t know if it was He Hui’s illusion, but she always felt that Natasha’s gaze drifted to her several times.
"Is this early?" Lu Nanfeng put his right hand on his forehead while running, feeling like he was going to faint in the next second. "I have to go to the classroom at 6 o'clock in the morning, so it must be dark on the way here!"
He Hui pursed his lips, but still told Lu Nanfeng the bad news: "According to the latitude of Moscow, it should be dawn at five in May, and the sun will not set until eight in the evening."
Lu Nanfeng: ...
"That's really... a perfect training plan." Lu Nanfeng took a long time to squeeze out a comment from between his teeth.
*
The intensity of the first day of the training camp was quite high. After completing the warm-up and land training, Lu Nanfeng slumped down on the bench, supporting himself with his hands and gasping for breath.
Although Cheng Ran was better than her, he was also so tired that he leaned against the wall and didn't speak.
"No, I haven't even been on the ice yet?" Lu Nanfeng had already begun to doubt his life.
She looked up at He Hui who was stretching as if nothing had happened and said, "Your physical strength is amazing!"
He Hui smiled and said, "After two weeks, I believe you will become stronger."
The corner of Lu Nanfeng's mouth twitched, "Alas."
The ice training for the three of them was scheduled in the afternoon, with the focus of the training being on improving proficiency in the advanced three weeks.
Cheng Ran is the only one among the three who has not yet completed the Advanced Level 33, but he has to endure the pressure and forge ahead with the difficulty.
Snap——
When she fell for the seventh time on her second jump, He Hui and Lu Nanfeng both took a breath of cold air.
The whole place was dead silent.
"Congratulations, you've made it full week this time!" Natasha took the lead in applauding at this moment, and the awkward atmosphere instantly disappeared completely.
Cheng Ran slowly climbed up from the ice, his eyes shining, "Then I'll try twice more."
As she spoke, she seemed to not feel the pain from the fall, and she started to accelerate from the step. After a long preparation, she entered with the outside edge, suddenly jumped off the ice, and did a 3Lz.
He Hui and Lu Nanfeng stopped and looked at Cheng Ran intently.
The people on the field clicked the ice again.
One circle, two circles, three circles, the number of turns was no problem, only the final landing was left. Before this, Cheng Ran almost always made mistakes here.
Swoosh——
The ice knife carved a deep mark, Cheng Ran opened his arms to keep balance, it worked!
Lu Nanfeng jumped up on the spot on the ice, "Cheng Ran, you did it! You did it!!"
Cheng Ran touched the back of his head, a little bit unbelieving, "It worked?"
"It's done!" He Hui also gave an affirmative look.
Although Cheng Ran hardly succeeded in the next half hour, but having achieved success the first time, was he afraid that there wouldn't be a second time?
He Hui thought that Natasha must have her own unique method of teaching jumping. Lu Nanfeng's success rate in Advanced Three Three today also improved under her guidance.
"You have to keep practicing and don't slack off." Natasha saw that Lu Nanfeng's biggest shortcoming was his laziness, and even pointed it out to him in person.
Lu Nanfeng: ...
She was just about to slip away to rest for a while when she was pulled back onto the field.
He Hui was on the field, meticulously completing the advanced triple-three moves. Except for a few imperfect landings, every move was successful.
Natasha approached He Hui and asked, "Do you want to try a more difficult way of entering, with a shorter preparation time?"
He Hui's current hook entry is a relatively simple change of edge. If it is difficult, it is usually changed to choctaw or mohawk. A difficult entry is one of the conditions for the goe bonus and is also a way to increase the viewing experience of the show.
Both Choctaw and Mohawk change their feet, the difference between the two is whether the blade changes. The former changes the blade, and the S is cut off in the middle, while the latter does not change the blade, and the C is cut off in the middle.
He Hui nodded: "Okay."
After all, she was the one who had been drawing patterns continuously since the first day on the ice, so she understood as soon as Natasha said it.
The progress was not very smooth at the beginning. He Hui was not used to using two steps as a jump, and there was always a bit of jam in the connection.
He Hui shook his head, not intending to give up easily.
Especially with Lu Nanfeng, a professional from the atmosphere group, next to them.
"He Hui, you look so handsome with this Mohawk!" "Well, Choctaw's entrance is also pretty!"
In short, after trying more times with encouragement, He Hui slowly found two new techniques to enter.
......
Before leaving, He Hui couldn't help but blurt out the question in his mind to Natasha, "I thought you thought I was the biggest competitor of your team members?"
Natasha did not deny it. She answered frankly: "You are indeed the biggest competitor. But since you are here, I will treat you equally."
He Hui raised the corner of his mouth, which showed that Natasha had enough confidence in herself and her students.
"What's more, I just made a small suggestion that Lin Xiaoman would also notice." Natasha continued.
After a busy day, He Hui felt a little tired when he took off his shoes.
When she looked up again, there was another person in front of her, leaning against the fence waiting for her.
This is... Tours?!
When Tours saw He Hui finally look up, he expressed his admiration without hesitation: "I watched your video of the World Youth Championship. The double 3A set was so beautiful!"
Tours has already put on her skates, and it looks like it will be her time to use the ice court alone.
"Thank you." He Hui recalled what Tours said to her at the dinner that day, and continued with a faint smile, "I have fulfilled the agreement of the double 3A."
Tours exclaimed: "Yeah, it's amazing..."
"Thanks."
"I'm looking forward to playing against you in the future." These were the last words Tours said before he went on the court, which made He Hui more determined to play in double AAA.
"Me too." He Hui smiled.
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