Almighty Coach

As the Swedish Open was approaching, the national table tennis team began to make preparations accordingly. They cancelled their two-day rest each week, and instead, rested for one day every two weeks. Also, the daily training time was extended by two hours.

At six o’clock in the morning, Dai Li reached the training ground and found that all the members of the first team had been there doing warm-ups already. That day, the first team had a practice match with the other team.

The match was in the form of a round robin, and should be finished in one day. The winner of each game would win 1 point, while the loser would get none. The ranking would be made according to the score points each team totally won.

The first team consisted of 26 players, equal numbers of which were male players and female players. Everyone had to face 12 rivals and thus, needed to have 12 matches in all. Assuming that one match would take one hour, 12 matches would take 12 hours, which meant it would last from the morning to the evening.

Playing 12 matches in a day was a great test of the athletes’ staminas. There were no weak chickens in the first team. Everyone in the team was competent enough to earn the global champion status. So, they all had to treat their matches seriously.

Being a young athlete was advantageous for such intense matches, because they had youth and energy on their sides. For those elder athletes, the matches might be harder, due to the fact that they had less stamina and more injuries.

They knew each other well. So, in this team practice, the coaches in charge would not give any instruction. They would just let the athletes adjust their own strategies for themselves.

The practice match was finally over. Though tired, the athletes did not forget to check their results.

"Anshan Wang won 12 matches in a row! He must be in excellent condition!"

"Xiangxian Zuo earned 11 points. His only loss was the match against Anshan Wang!"

"Doesn’t he have a waist injury? Days ago, he had to do this training with waist support. I thought he might lose a few matches!"

"When I was fighting with him, he played fiercely in the match, as if he had no injury at all. His pen-hold style was so hard to defeat. You would lose if you could not defeat him in the first three turns."

"What you just said reminded me of that. I met him in my 11th match."

"That was close to the end. If he was still that good then, his injury must have healed."

While everyone else was busy discussing the results, Pengfei Cui’s face looked a bit unnatural. He had earned only 6 points in these matches, winning 6 matches and losing 6 of the other 6 matches. He was obviously unsatisfied with his results.

As the grand slam winner in table tennis, he had been the number one in the national team some years ago. But now, due to his injuries, he had lost his position in the team and often got defeated by younger players in the team.

Xiangxian Zuo was also troubled by injuries. Both of them shared this same miserable fate. However, today’s matches had shown that Zuo was not much influenced or impaired by that.

"I have fallen behind!" Cui clenched his fists tightly. His own pride chastised him not to be a drag.

...

In the dining room, there were obviously many more dishes on Xiangxian Zuo’s plate. Thanks to the easing of his injury, he had been in a much lighter mood these days. The recent increase of training had also increased his appetite.

Having hesitated for a few seconds, Cui finally came to Zuo’s place and sat down. They had been teammates for several years, and trained together all-day long. So, Cui felt comfortable in asking Zuo directly, "How’s your waist?"

"Better. It won’t affect me during the games, as long as I pay more attention to my waist and not letting myself get too tired. How about you?" Zuo asked.

"Always the same," Cui stopped and then said, "but it may be a bit worse than before."

Xiangxian Zuo seemed to understand where Cui was coming for. He wanted to ask him how his waist got healed.

Then he gave a shiny smile and told Cui, "You can seek help from Coach Li. He does have something to offer in regards to rehabilitation training."

"Coach Li? That newcomer Li?" Cui asked in confusion.

"Yeah, it’s him," Zuo nodded seriously.

"He should be about the same age as us," Cui showed his distrust on his face.

Xiangxian Zuo had expected that Cui would have such a response. Pengfei Cui feared nothing, and obeyed no one. Many experienced coaches of the team couldn’t tame him. Hence, how could a young coach like Dai Li gain his trust?

"Let me tell you, bro. Although Li is young, he really is capable. My waist injury used to be no better than yours. But it has gotten better now. That was all thanks to him." He paused for a moment, and then said, "Please don’t let your temper run wild, when you go to him!"

...

Hearing the knock, Dai Li stood up and opened the door, seeing Pengfei Cui standing at the door.

"Pengfei Cui, what’s up?" he asked without thinking.

Cui nodded. Dai Li asked him to enter the room, "Come in!"

Cui was a straightforward man. He walked into Li’s room and said without pleasantries, "Coach Li, I want you to help me with my rehabilitation training."

With no change in facial expression, Li thought, "Finally, he comes."

Pengfei Cui had the strongest personality among the members of national table tennis team. If one wanted to be a professional athlete under the national sports system, one had to obey his coach. A man as arrogant as him would normally be weeded out at juvenile sports school. But Cui’s father was the coach of table tennis at the sports school. That’s why he could still play table tennis, as he could not disobey his own father, or run his temper wild.

He was chosen to be a member of the national team at the age of 14. Then, he was recruited into the team one from the team two in just 10 months. His ascent of success was as fast as a rocket rising into the air.

However, one year later, he was dismissed from the national team, due to breach of discipline. He was just 15 years old then.

His talent was never buried. After 2 years in the provincial team, he got back to the national team. Yet no one dared coach him, as they all knew he was hard to manage.

He was a well-known troublemaker in the national team, yet a troublemaker with great strength and achievements. His achievement as a grand slam winner of table tennis provided him an umbrella against all criticism, and allowed him to do as he liked, without being bothered.

His complicated character and issues were reported by the press many times. Li knew of these things of him, even before Li came to work with the national team.

Dai Li had never believed he possessed any dominant power that could make such a rebellious athlete like Pengfei Cui follow his instructions. As a result, he tried to avoid too much contact with Cui during the training, because he knew he would have had to be more arrogant and indifferent in order to earn the trust of such a man.

His rehabilitation massage was, of course, of great help for the recovery of Cui. But he didn’t give a helping hand immediately. Instead, he waited for Cui to seek his help on his own initiative. Then, he could do what he could to help him and earn his trust.

If he made the first move to offer Cui his rehabilitation treatment, he would have been rejected and despised, since Cui was so arrogant and unyielding. Li knew all too well that the failure of establishing authority meant a bad outcome of training.

Then Cui came in person to ask for his help, finally. If possible, Dai Li even hoped to throw him into utter desperation. Then, his help would bring an even better result, as offering help to someone in need is always more likely to gain one’s gratefulness than merely providing extra aids.