China's biathlon is a "weak sport", but the team has one of the best winter Olympic champions "husband and wife" - Bjordalen, who won 8 gold in the Winter Olympics, and Domlacheva, who won 4 gold in the Winter Olympics. Under the leadership of this winter Olympic champion couple, the Chinese 20thlon team at the Beijing Winter Olympics won a total of 8 qualifications for 4 men and 4 women, which is the second time after 30 years that China has won 8 seats in the winter Olympic field of the project. In the women's sprint race, Tang Jialin finished in 35th place, setting a new personal best record at the Winter Olympics in this event. In the women's 15 km individual event, Chu Yuanmeng finished in 35th place, the best result in the history of Chinese athletes. In the men's pursuit, Cheng Fangming finished with a 22nd place result, setting a new record for the Chinese team in the history of the Winter Olympics in this event. Although there is still a clear gap with players from high-level countries, China's biathlon progress is obvious.
Photo courtesy of Xinhua News Agency
The gold medal couple was invited to coach
Biathlon originated in Northern Europe and is a sport that combines cross-country skiing and shooting. Insert two or four shots in intense skiing competitions and divide into standing and lying positions to test the athlete's ability to switch between movement and static. The so-called "moving like a rabbit, quiet as a virgin" is the most vivid description of this project.
In order to let the athletes of this project catch up with the world level as soon as possible, in September 2019, Bjordalen and his wife Domraceva were invited to coach the Chinese biathlon national team, the first team he coached after retiring. At the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Bjør Darren alone won all four gold medals except for the mixed relay, winning a total of 8 Winter Olympic gold medals and 20 world championship gold medals throughout his career. Domlacheva was a leading figure in biathlon in Belarus and won four Winter Olympic gold medals. The couple, who have 12 Winter Olympic gold medals, accept the challenge of coaching the Chinese team.
Many of Bjordaron's coaching philosophies come from practical combat experience, and he believes that the most important thing is to train hard, "to practice smartly, to practice hard, to learn to use the brain." The role of the coach is to make the athletes accept and understand the training content of the day, so that they can maintain a clearer and smarter mind during training and competition. Bjordalen brought advanced training methods and concepts, and he also used his personal resources to help the team contact Europe for training competitions, so that Chinese biathlon could go out, broaden their horizons, and connect with the world level. Bjödalen's extensive experience in the selection of biathlon talents and the development of young athletes also played a crucial role. When Bjør Darren and Domlacheva came to China, they ate and lived with the team. Bjør Darren said: "My wife has more time to spend with the players as the coach of the women's team, and as the head coach of the whole team, the work content will be more and more complicated. ”
Schedule technical analysis daily
In the women's sprint event of the Beijing Winter Olympics, Tang Jialin created her best ranking in the Winter Olympics, and after the game, the three-dynasty elder revealed that because the 7.5 kilometers were skated three times in total, his past short distance results were not outstanding, so there was still a little pressure before the game, thinking that the opening could not be left behind, and he tried his best. The pressure of the disciples, Bjør Darren is very aware, every night, the team will arrange a summary meeting, through training and video analysis of the game, let the team members know which technical details need to be adjusted. Tang Jialin said that such summary meetings will be arranged every day before the game, "the coach said that if you just show you the video on the day of the game, the content of the summary may be forgotten." ”
For example, Tang Jialin gave an example that in the long-distance project, her ability to go uphill was poor, and the coach told her to slide heavier when going downhill, "but I patronized the technical requirements of going downhill in my head, and I forgot about going uphill." In the short distance competition, Tang Jialin took into account the uphill and downhill techniques and played her own level.
Meng Fanqi is participating in the Winter Olympics for the first time, and her feeling is that the coach corrected some of her concepts of competitions - such as minimizing warm-up activities before the game, storing physical strength, "There is a slow process in the first lap or two of the long distance, 7.5 kilometers from the first lap to 100% hard, until the end." ”
Pulling the trigger is like playing the piano
After completing a very physically demanding uphill and downhill ski, the contestants immediately enter the shooting zone and pick up a rifle and aim at the target. The contestant fired a total of 10 bullets twice, and once he lost his target, he was fined an additional 150 meters of sliding distance. But at this time, because of the strenuous exercise, the heartbeat is very fast, not to mention shooting the bullseye, even if the bullet is shot on the target, it is not easy to do.
Tang Jialin said that shooting used to be the weakness of Chinese players, and as soon as they entered the shooting range, they were nervous, and although they tried their best to control themselves, they did not relax at all. As a result, the coach taught her another method: "You think of shooting as playing the piano, and your fingers pull the trigger like keys." "Judging from the course of this short distance race, the Chinese players have performed well in shooting. Tang Jialin and Meng Fanqi only missed the target once in the lying shot link, and Yan Xingyuan only lost one shot.
Meng Fanqi learned from the coach how to distinguish the wind direction, "The wind direction changes when shooting, and before each game, the coach will tell us how to see the wind direction and how to adjust when shooting." According to the instructions of the coach, she let her breathing become regular, "usually practice, lie down at night, close your eyes and imagine that you are shooting." ”
There are also many small techniques that the players are now more delicate to handle. "Before we only focused on the shooting rate, now we have to do a good job of a quick pedal when entering the shooting range. Just look at the data, we know that the overall shooting speed of our team members is much higher than in the previous two years. Tang Jialin explained that shooting takes less time, and there is an opportunity to further improve the performance.
Counseling is more relaxed
Outside of technology, Bjordalen's team has psychologically built a more relaxed environment for Chinese athletes, and as the most successful athlete in the history of biathlon, his rich experience is unmatched. Yan Xingyuan said: "When we coach as athletes, the psychologist is himself, including pre-game adjustments, he thinks that athletes know them best, and he will pass on some suggestions that he thinks are better." For example, at this Winter Olympics, he told me to focus on my own skating and not to be influenced by other opponents. Just be yourself. ”
Under the influence of Bjordalen, the players are more relaxed and confident, meng Fanqi also wore a Chinese knot on the holster, hoping to bring himself good luck, "I think girls shoot cool, I still like it." Anyway, the feeling of moving the body and then going to shoot is very exciting, it is very interesting. ”
Tang Jialin believes that in the past, there may have been an athlete who improved greatly, but the whole team is not on a horizontal line, and now everyone is slowly improving, and the overall level is going up, "The team is like the group of players born in 99 and 00 years, and now the shooting hit rate is quite high." I think the level of gliding can be practiced. Coaches always say that biathlon is two sub-events, and you can take turns improving one by one and gradually making up for it. The next batch of young players has great potential. ”
Bjør Darren believes that in this Winter Olympics, the players sometimes played erratically, but overall, the performance now is significantly better than before. In the same competition with the world's best players, the players can learn more directly and recognize the gap. Bjør Darren said: "I am very honored to participate in the Winter Olympics again, the Beijing Winter Olympics provide athletes with excellent venues and event organization services, this is a simple, safe and wonderful Winter Olympic Games. I love biathlon and am willing to help the development of biathlon in China. ”