Taking root, Shandong water balloons are sprouting

On January 8, the first water polo training in Shandong's history ended. On January 9, 16 players selected from the first 20 players began the second training camp, based on them, shandong's first water polo team will be formed.

"From a major sports province to a strong sports province, basic events and collective projects are important performances. From the fourteenth games, Shandong's basic major events and ball projects still have room for improvement, and water polo is the combination of swimming and big balls, so we chose to open this project to make our own contribution to Shandong's sports strong province strategy. Song Baocheng, director of the Shandong Provincial Swimming Management Center, said.

From the establishment of the project to the formation of the team, it took only one month for the Shandong water polo team to take root from scratch, and Shandong swimming added new strength.

Just do it, 20 days of material selection to see results

At the 2021 Shaanxi National Games, the Shandong delegation achieved four consecutive National Games championships with 58 gold medals, and Shandong sports reached a new level.

As a basic event, Shandong swimming also achieved a breakthrough in the 14th Games cycle, marathon swimmer Xin Xin won Shandong's first single world championship, Yang Junxuan won Shandong's first swimming Olympic championship, and at the 14th Games, Shandong swimming won 8 gold medals, the best in history.

But water polo is still a new thing for Shandong.

Water polo is a permanent sport of the Olympic Games and the Asian Games, and last year's Fourteen Games, with 8 women's teams participating, was not widely available in China.

At the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the Chinese women's water polo team won the fifth place, creating the best record of the Chinese Women's Water Olympic Games. In the 2010 World Cup, the Chinese team won the third place, and in the 2011 Swimming World Championships, the Chinese team won the second place. At the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, the Chinese women's water polo team finished eighth.

"China's women's water polo has achieved good results, and after the establishment of the Shandong water polo team, it hopes to send more talents to the national team." Shandong has many swimming talents, opens water polo projects, selects some athletes to transfer, and it is relatively easy to produce results, while also improving their sports life. Song Baocheng said.

After the end of the 14th Games, Shandong decided to prepare for the construction of a water polo team, and in early December 2021, the Shandong Provincial Aquatics Center held a preparatory meeting for the water polo team, after which the coaching team went to various places to select talents.

Because all localities are preparing for the 2022 Provincial Games, the selection of materials has been affected to a certain extent.

Huang Xiaotong, the leader of the water polo team, is the swimming champion of the Ten Games and assistant coach Xu Haiquan, who has coached in the Shandong swimming team for many years, and the two turned to water polo and quickly adapted to the rhythm. After preliminary screening, the training list of 22 people was determined, and on December 26, 20 athletes registered and began training on the 27th.

"In 20 days, our team traveled all over the province, selecting team members, introducing water polo to coaches and players, hoping that more people would understand the project and participate in this project." For this team, everyone has paid a lot. Gu Xiaolin, deputy director of the Provincial Aquatics Center, said.

Shandong is a big swimming province, and there are relatively sufficient reserve talents, but because it is necessary to prepare for the provincial games and there are no water polo projects in various places, it is difficult to find basic talents. But the formation of the team can not be delayed, winter training is imminent, the selection of personnel is only 20 days, the trial training is only ten days, in just one month, this team will be formed, the difficulty is great, the efficiency is high, you can imagine.

From scratch, the Gold Medal Coach took office

In the swimming pool of the provincial sports center, the young players were meticulous about the requirements of the coach, and added ball training on the basis of the original swimming, and they were both excited and a little busy.

The first batch of training team members, from the provincial swimming team, provincial sports schools and 10 prefecture-level cities, the oldest is 22 years old, the youngest is only 12 years old, has a certain swimming foundation, but has never been exposed to water polo.

"There were only two weeks of trial training and the players worked very hard." Dai Weiqing, head coach of the Shandong water polo team, said.

Dai Weiqing was once a member of the Hunan team of the strong domestic water polo province, and was selected for the national water polo team for many times. After retiring from the army, Dai Weiqing used to coach in hunan team, and also served as the assistant coach of the Chinese team for many times, with many years of coaching experience. In 2013, as the coach of the national team, Dai Weiqing led the national youth women's team to win the Asian Championship, and in 2018, Dai Weiqing once again led the women's youth to win the Asian Championship.

In 2019, as the head coach, Dai Weiqing led the Fujian team to win the women's water polo U15 group championship at the Youth Games, and at the 2021 Shaanxi National Games, Dai Weiqing led the Fujian team to win the sixth place.

After the end of the 14th Games, Shandong prepared to build a water polo team, and Dai Weiqing was hired as the first head coach.

"The gold medal coach can bring out the gold medal team, although the water polo team is the first time to form a team, but from the head coach to the team leader, assistant coach, team doctor, our team formation is of high standards." Gu Xiaolin said.

"Shandong is a big sports province, the National Games have won four consecutive championships, the whole province attaches great importance to sports, and the atmosphere of entrepreneurship is very good." Dai Weiqing said of why he chose Shandong and started from scratch.

"Shandong's swimming foundation is very good, the team members are relatively tall, and for the confrontational project of water polo, the figure is very important." Water polo must first be able to swim, Shandong swimming talent is a lot, although the cities are preparing for the provincial games, such a short period of time can also select more than twenty team members, which shows that everyone pays attention to the new project of water polo. ”

The water polo tournament is played by 7 players per team, including one goalkeeper and 6 substitutes, and the official match has 13 players per team.

In order to ensure the normal training of Shandong's first water polo team, the first training camp eventually left 16 team members, who will become the first batch of "seeds" of Shandong water polo.

A blank piece of paper, drawing a blueprint together

When I practice water polo, I have old players to bring, when I am a coach, the team members also have a certain foundation, and this time I came to Shandong to lead the team, which is completely a blank piece of paper.

"We are now practicing three times a day, practicing in the water and on land during the day, and watching videos at night to introduce the rules of the game to the players, learn about the history of water polo, and enhance their team awareness and patriotism." Dai Weiqing said.

The start was smooth, but moving forward was not easy.

"Time is too short, some players have a better understanding of water polo, and some are not fully started. In general, the team members have a good swimming foundation, but there is still a big gap in the feeling of the ball. The team members are very hard, and the required actions can be completed carefully. Water polo is a collective project, and people who have never practiced before are unlikely to see results in a short period of time, so take your time. Although there are only ten days, Dai Weiqing has already had a general understanding of this group of team members.

According to the law of water polo training, a player takes about three years to take shape, and it takes six to eight years to produce results, but for a start-up team, the progress must be accelerated.

It is understood that in order to accelerate the development of Water Polo in Shandong, the Provincial Aquatics Center has docked with the national team many times, learned and learned from the advanced concepts and training modes of the national team, strived for high-quality resources, and shortened the talent cycle as much as possible.

At present, the domestic women's water polo is relatively good provinces and cities are Tianjin, Shanghai, Hunan, Fujian, Sichuan, Guangxi, etc., in order to prepare for the next National Games, Guangdong is also forming a water polo team, Shandong team to catch up, in addition to strengthening the selection and training of personnel, but also to provide a strong external guarantee.

"Our goal is to form a team within this year, strive to participate in national competitions, and strive to have Shandong players in the Chinese women's water polo team at the Paris Olympic Games." Gu Xiaolin said.

Next, the water polo team will select more swimmers suitable for water polo on the basis of existing talents, and at the same time increase the intensity of cross-border selection to attract athletes to join in handball and other sports.

"In order to promote the development of water polo, we plan to open a water polo program at the next provincial games. At the same time, we must also actively introduce Shandong athletes who are currently in other places, build a good team as soon as possible, and strive to achieve good results in one or two cycles. Song Baocheng said.