At the Tokyo Olympics, the Chinese track and field team won 2 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze, and made breakthroughs in many events. Looking back at the road of preparation for the Tokyo cycle, which lasted 5 years and encountered multiple challenges, Chinese track and field people still face difficulties and forge ahead.
Recently, the Chinese athletics team specially launched a series of columns "The Road to Breakthrough", telling the story of scientific preparation and scientific and technological preparation of many outstanding athletes and the team behind them, and revealing the key way for the development of Chinese athletics. Looking forward to the Paris Olympics, we look forward to a new chapter in Chinese athletics.
Zhu Yaming: The Tokyo Olympics are the first steps on the world stage
The famous entrepreneur Clement Stone once said: "From the beginning, if you run to the moon, even if you fail, you may be able to harvest a star." At the 2021 Tokyo New National Stadium, Olympic "recruit" Zhu Yaming won the silver medal and won his first star on the triple jump world stage. In the summer of 27 years old, Zhu Yaming's dream road set sail again.
Confidence and self-discipline
"If I hadn't jumped out of the fifth jump, I think I would have had a sixth jump. At that time, I had a strong confidence to show my achievements. Nine months later, Zhu Yaming still remembers many moments in the Olympic Arena.
▲ Zhu Yaming at the Tokyo Olympic Games
In August last year, in the men's triple jump final at the Tokyo Olympics, Zhu Yaming jumped 17.41 meters in the second round, setting a new personal best after two years. But this is not the end, he continued to play bravely in the fifth round, winning a valuable silver medal for the Chinese track and field team with a time of 17.57 meters. All this is like a dream for Zhu Yaming, who was a college student 7 years ago.
In 2015, Zhu Yaming, a junior at Shenyang Sports Institute, made an important decision: to give up the studies he would complete in one year, start from scratch, and embark on the path of professional athletes. This choice seemed "inconceivable" to many people around him. But at that time, Zhu Yaming was firm in his own thoughts, "People must have dreams, and dreams must be chased." Like the saying goes, run to the moon, at least you can pick a star and come back. ”
With this belief in pursuing dreams, Zhu Yaming came to the Liaoning Athletics Team and started his new career. After less than two years of professional training, he made his debut at the 2017 Tianjin National Games, finishing second in the men's triple jump with a time of 17.23 meters.
▲ Zhu Yaming in the 2019 indoor competition
In the spring of 2019, Zhu Yaming jumped 17.35 meters in the indoor race, showing good competitive form. However, Zhu Yaming, who is full of expectations for the new season, encountered a bottleneck in the outdoor competition afterwards, failing to open the 17-meter mark in many consecutive games.
During the trough period, Zhu Yaming ushered in the IAAF World Challenge in Finland. In this race, Zhu Yaming skipped 17 meters in the last three rounds and finally won the championship with a score of 17.36 meters. At this moment, Zhu Yaming's confidence returned.
▲ Zhu Yaming and foreign teacher Neilo in Tokyo
What increased Zhu Yaming's confidence was also "joining a new team". In July 2019, Zhu Yaming entered the foreign coaching group and trained with head coach Nelio Moura. The world-famous coach from Brazil has brought out the 2008 Beijing Olympics men's and women's long jump champions, and has trained a number of outstanding triple jumpers. Neilo's team pays more attention to "scientific and efficient training", and the training concept and methods of Zhu Yaming and his teammates are updated here. At the same time, they are more on the international stage, competing with the world's famous players, looking for gaps and improving themselves.
In the eyes of coaches, team leaders and researchers, Zhu Yaming is a very focused athlete, and "self-discipline" is another significant label on him. Liu Jianbo, the coach above the jump group, did not hesitate to praise him in the interview, "Yaming is characterized by great self-discipline and dedication to training. His ability to reach the level of 17 meters 57 is directly related to his years of accumulation, self-control, and unlimited pursuit of training. I was never afraid of him practicing less, but I was afraid that he practiced more. ”
In Zhu Yaming's view, self-discipline is an indispensable part of excellent athletes. During the epidemic period, Zhu Yaming still demanded himself with high standards in closed training and sprinted towards the Olympic dream.
Change the technology to make up for the shortcomings
▲ Zhu Yaming conducts daily training
In the winter training of 2019, Zhu Yaming communicated with the team and put forward his new ideas in training - to improve the swing arm technology, changing the "one-arm pendulum" to "double arm pendulum". Previously, Zhu Yaming's use of the "one-arm pendulum" has reached a competitive level of 17.35 meters, but he still feels that this set of techniques is not smooth enough and is eager to seek more breakthroughs.
According to Liu Jianbo, as far as the current trend of world development is concerned, "double arm swing" is the most advanced technology at present, which is more reasonable than "one-arm pendulum" and is conducive to athletes to play a special level. Liu Jianbo believes that Zhu Yaming's choice to use the "double arm swing" technique is the embodiment of high "competitive INTELLIGENCE".
After nearly two years of training, competition, and continuous practice, Zhu Yaming's "double arm swing" technology has become more and more sophisticated, which has also become an important part of his performance progress.
▲2020 Zhu Yaming prepares for the Olympics in Zhanjiang
In the Tokyo Olympic preparation cycle, in order to implement the spirit of the instructions of the State General Administration of Sport to strengthen basic physical training and make up for physical shortcomings, Zhu Yaming and the team have also made great efforts in physical fitness, improving special abilities and improving the level of competition through physical training assistance.
Zhu Changyu, a physical fitness teacher in the jumping group, told reporters that as a triple jumper, Zhu Yaming's problem is that the basic strength of the lower limbs is relatively poor and the explosive force is insufficient. In response to this shortcoming of Zhu Yaming, the physical fitness team made special improvements to him under the premise of following the overall preparation plan.
In the periodic systematic physical training, Zhu Yaming's squat and jump action completion quality continued to be optimized, and now even if the training difficulty is increased and the weight is increased, his power sequence and movements are still smooth and powerful. The liding long jump was once a weak project of Zhu Yaming, and after a long period of training, he constantly refreshed the PB. Another obvious benefit brought by making up for the shortcomings is the overall improvement of physical fitness, and now Zhu Yaming's high flip weight has also increased from 130 kg to 135 kg.
Changing the swing arm technique and continuously strengthening physical fitness have laid the foundation for Zhu Yaming to make a leap forward at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Synergy and security
Yang Zhongmin, director of the JumpIng Department, witnessed the breakthrough of Zhu Yaming's silver medal at the scene in Tokyo and was deeply proud of him. "It was a very perfect and outstanding performance." Yang Zhongmin recalled, "I think the key factor in Yaming's ability to achieve this result is the guarantee and synergy of the whole team. ”
▲Zhu Yaming's team photo
In the last year and a half of closed preparations, the team composed of team leader Hu Yachuan, foreign coach Neilo, Chinese coach Liu Jianbo, translator Tang Yanlan, physical fitness teacher Zhu Changyu, and researcher Han Pengpeng gave Zhu Yaming great help.
Neilo brought new concepts and methods to the team, so that the overall training realized from "empirical guidance" to a new stage of "data monitoring feedback", using data to describe the training results in more detail and technical support.
During the epidemic, Chinese coach Liu Jianbo played an important role in "control training", and he ensured that Zhu Yaming had systematically trained without major injuries and illnesses in the past two years, and completed the plan formulated by foreign teachers with high quality and efficiency. At the same time, Liu Jianbo also maintained good remote communication with Neilo, exchanged training opinions, and made suggestions for the progress of athletes.
▲ Zhu Yaming in training
The scientific research and physical fitness team conducts comparative analysis with the "champion model" and "important international opponent data model" through the collection of athlete training and competition data, accurately locates and looks for gaps. The use of advanced equipment and means such as gymAware speed-power monitoring equipment and 1080 sprint trainers have enabled Zhu Yaming to improve his ability in many aspects.
Monofilament does not form a line, and a single tree does not become a forest. In Tokyo, these forces came together to make Zhu Yaming jump out of the most perfect arc on the triple jump stage.
"After the Tokyo Olympics, my competitive path has only just begun on the world stage." Winning the silver medal, Zhu Yaming did not stop his footsteps in pursuing his dreams, "I think that on the road of athletics, a higher meaning is to "surpass myself", and in Paris, I hope to surpass myself. ”
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