On the 40-day countdown to the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, the Chinese women's hockey national training team ended nearly five months of foreign training in Russia on December 26 and returned to China to prepare for the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Wang Xuan, head of the leading group for the preparation of the ice hockey project of the Beijing Winter Olympics, summed up that in the past five months, the training team has faced difficulties, made all-out preparations, and worked hard to improve the level of competition and actual combat ability, fully demonstrating the Chinese sportsmanship, sports strength and sports responsibility, and achieved remarkable results; the coaching team has created a defensive counterattack tactical system suitable for the team's style, led the team to achieve significant improvement in all aspects, and successfully completed the task of preparing for the "external training and external competition".
The Chinese Women's Hockey National Training Team participated in the regular season of the 2021-2022 Russian Women's Ice Hockey League under the name of Shenzhen Kunlun Hongxing Vanke Sunshine, and the league is currently entering an off-season of more than two months, and on February 23 and 24, 2022, the team will challenge Neva Dinamo back-to-back on the road. After 22 rounds of league matches in the first stage, the Chinese women's hockey national training team ranked fourth in the league with 15 wins, 7 losses and 44 points, and head coach Brian Idarski revealed that the team's success rate in the first stage was the first in the league. Most of the top three teams in the league are played by members of the Russian women's national hockey team, and their strength should not be underestimated, "Before I went, I thought to myself, the first small goal is not to count down, aiming to enter the playoffs." Step by step, after all, we need to run in. Captain Yu Baiwei said with a smile, "For a team like ours that has just been formed, the current results are still quite ideal." ”
"The team has improved over the last few months, there has been a good performance in terms of executing the tactical system, being able to be a whole on the pitch to execute tactics, and I'm happy for the improvement and improvement of the team as a whole and the individual players. Of course, we still have a long way to go and need to get nervous. China women's hockey national training team coach Brian Idarski said.
Russian ice hockey is strong, and at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, The Russian men's ice won the championship, and the women's ice reached the semifinals. On December 21 and 22, the Chinese women's ice hockey national training team played two warm-up matches with the Russian U18 women's ice hockey national team, with the Chinese team winning 2-1 first and then losing 0-3. "Although the opponent is only a player under the age of 18, the two teams are equal in strength and it is an opportunity for the team to improve their strength. These two games are also in preparation for the Winter Olympics, and the coach is adjusting the tactical system of the team's front grab, which can better cooperate with the team. Vice captain Zhang Mengying said.
Looking back on the nearly 5 months of training in Russia, Yu Baiwei described that "time passes in the blink of an eye". "Before we came, we were almost a newly formed team, a lot of previous habits needed to be broken and then re-formed, and against new players with new playing styles, we had too many places to run into, so we were immersed in training and competition every day, and I felt that it was not easy for us to execute the coach's arrangement or playing style in a short time. I am very grateful to Russia, the Chinese Embassy in Russia, and China's sincerity and strength to undertake the service guarantee of the training team in Russia, for creating this opportunity for us. ”
At present, there are less than 40 days before the Beijing Winter Olympics, Yu Baiwei said: "In the past 5 months, I feel that it will pass quickly, and it may be faster to go back to 40 days, so I and the team have a sense of urgency and seize the time to improve the quality of each day." ”