Preamble:
Table tennis, a seemingly entertaining sport, has profoundly influenced all aspects of Chinese sports.
What will be the story of those figures running between the green tables?
It is ridiculous that a battle for the world championship can crush the wings of a famous general, and sadly, the grace of a teaching cannot save the fate of a teacher.
Her name is He Zhili, a dazzling new star in the Chinese table tennis scene in the early 80s, and she is Sun Meiying, an old national player with a group of children, and she accepted a person as an apprentice in her later years - this is a story of a master and apprentice who embarked on a tragic road.
Studying under famous generals is determined to prove
In the early 80s, Chinese table tennis was in the first golden age, and many rising stars were trained from Shandong Sports School and Shanghai Sports School.
He Zhili was born in Shanghai Youth Sports School and has loved table tennis since she was a child.
Due to her excellent physical condition, she performed well after being selected for the junior sports school and soon entered the Shanghai team.
Born in Shanghai in 1964, the girl made her debut in 1982 with a racket in her right hand and a combination of arcs and fast attacks.
At the 1985 World Table Tennis Championships, who just turned 20 years old, He Zhili became famous.
At that time, the Chinese team did not send a veteran like Team Mei, but started with her tall and thin singles.
In the final, He Zhili defeated North Korean star Lee Fan-hee and became the biggest contributor to winning the championship.
This year, she also participated in the doubles competition of the 10th Games, and teamed up with her teammates to win the championship again.
However, the good times did not last long, and He Zhili suffered Waterloo in the next battle.
In 1986, against the Hungarian veteran, she was defeated without any resistance, and she couldn't help but be extremely frustrated.
Fortunately, Ho Zhili's performance at the Asian Games in the same year ended the slump.
She beat two Koreans in a row to reach the final, and finally won the runner-up for handicaping.
After the game, she and Jiao Zhimin, two teammates who were also arranged to concede the ball, cried together in the locker room.
At that time, the Chinese team focused on team honor, and singles players needed to obey the collective interest handicap.
This is really difficult to accept for young people who are ambitious and want to create their own brilliance.
He Zhili conceded the ball one after another in two major tournaments, and she was depressed and embarrassed.
Determined to prove herself as a World Champion, she found a respectable senior to learn more from her.
At this time, in the G training team, there was an old-timer named Sun Meiying.
In 1964, when He Zhili was not yet born, she had already represented China in the 25th World Table Tennis Championships.
Sun Meiying, who has superb ball skills, has participated in the World Championships 6 times and won the third place in women's doubles and women's singles.
It's just that in her life since then, she has experienced too many sad encounters.
Sun Meiying married Jiang Yongning, who was also a table tennis master, but witnessed her husband hang himself in 1968.
With her two daughters, she struggled to survive, but fortunately got the help of Ge Caiyun.
After getting married, she gave birth to another son, and Sun Meiying cheered up and coached again.
When she received He Zhili's request for apprenticeship, she couldn't help but think of her own suffering experience, and happily agreed to guide this potential star.
Straightforward guidance to sharpen your skills
Since then, Sun Meiying began to conduct private training for He Zhili.
She found that He Zhili, who is 168cm tall, has a guts that are extremely incommensurate with her height, and she also has many technical flaws.
This is different from the systematic training she received at the Shanghai Sports School when she was younger, and her coach believed that He Zhili was "crooked" in the national team.
Sun Meiying fiercely criticized He Zhili for not even reaching the level of a college student, and sometimes it was still a primary school student.
In the face of her teacher's criticism, Ho Zhili didn't mind and begged her to be more strict.
So, Sun Meiying put on sportswear to play with her to stimulate her potential.
In order to mobilize Ho Zhili's dexterity, she never let her use the full tee, shouting to correct Ho's details.
Sometimes bouncing to change the way of the ball, bouncing fast attack, mobilizing and running, and sometimes shouting at He Zhili for "wrist force", "this ball is slow", "this ball can be used to make a little more mistakes".
The intense training made Ho Zhili sweat profusely and exhausted, and tortured her adaptability and quality stability.
The arm strength playing style she developed in the national team is wrong in Sun Meiying's eyes and must be corrected.
Sun Meiying emphasized the need to use wrist strength to drive the racket, and He Zhili's arm strength style of play limited the ball sense and change.
For this reason, she specially placed a chair next to the table, and if He Zhili dared to play with her arms, she would let the chair trip her and force her to correct.
Sun Meiying is direct-spoken, short-tempered, and sometimes extremely intense.
She even angrily scolded He Zhili for being "stupid like a pig", and threatened her to let the stool trip her if she didn't dare to attack again and only knew how to retreat.
But behind the harsh criticism, it is Sun Meiying's infinite expectation and love for her disciples.
Under her tutelage, He Zhili's ball skills have improved by leaps and bounds, and there has been a qualitative leap.
stubbornly gave way to win the championship in the end
In 1987, He Zhili ushered in an important turning point in her life and career.
This year, she was only selected by the national team for the women's singles list of the World Table Tennis Championships, and even the women's doubles and mixed doubles were not selected.
Because the coaching staff decided that she was disobedient and refused to concede the ball like the rest of the team.
Before leaving, Sun Meiying specially told not to rely on other players to handicap the ball, but to rely on their own strength.
"You are first and foremost an upright Chinese", this sentence greatly increased He Zhili's confidence.
As a result, she broke into the women's singles final of the World Table Tennis Championships in one fell swoop, but was conceded again in the semifinals.
Facing teammate Guan Jianhua, He Zhili refused to concede the ball and won 3:0.
In an instant, the faces of her teammates became extremely ugly, and He Zhili hid in the bathroom in sadness and cried bitterly.
At the critical moment, it was her mentor Sun Meiying who repeatedly supported her decision on the phone.
In the early morning of the next day, He Zhili insisted on playing despite not falling asleep, and only wanted to prove herself.
In the end, she defeated South Korea's Yang Youngzi 3-0 to win the women's singles world championship.
However, the Chinese team did not buy it, because in the semi-finals, He Zhili accepted the handicap from teammate Chen Jing.
Under the persuasion of her mentor, He Zhili did not bow her head to the coaching staff to write an inspection.
This incident not only made He Zhili subject to public opinion, but also completely broke her relationship with the coaching staff.
Although she was supposed to compete in the Seoul Olympics as a world champion, she was eventually dropped by the national team.
He Zhili was even more distressed about this matter, and accompanied by her mentor Sun Meiying, she tearfully wrote a letter to resign from the national team.
A few months later, Ho left the national team and began playing in the Japanese league.
At first, knowing her Japanese boyfriend, Hideyuki Koyama, was the main reason for her to go to Japan.
However, compared with China, the environment of the Japanese league has greatly reduced the training intensity and salary package, and He Zhili gradually realized that she had made the wrong decision to leave her home country.
Fortunately, she still retains her Chinese nationality and has not completely left the Chinese team.
Teachers help each other, and it is difficult to save them
In 1990, Ho Zhili, who had been working hard in Japan for several years, wanted to find a better in-house coach.
She immediately thought of Sun Meiying, her teacher.
When Sun Meiying was invited to Japan to coach, the club owner expressed doubts about her ability: "She is in her 60s, can she still teach?"
In order to prove it, He Zhili asked the boss to come to Shanghai to observe.
After seeing Sun Meiying's strength with his own eyes, the boss immediately decided to hire her for 1 year.
So, Sun Meiying left her home in Beijing and came to Japan despite her son-in-law's dissuasion.
The reunion with He Zhili made the two excited, and the master and apprentice immediately began training.
However, her heart was also full of contradictions - she did not want He Zhili to represent the Japanese team to defeat the Chinese player, which made her feel very painful.
At the 1991 World Table Tennis Championships, she was supposed to sit in the Japanese coach's seat, but she went to the Chinese team to cheer for her children.
In the end, Sun Meiying decided to terminate the contract early and return to China.
He Zhili repeatedly requested, but she politely refused on the grounds of family and children.
In 1993, Sun Meiying died of a sudden cerebral hemorrhage while playing mahjong at the age of 64.
The news of her death also ended the last contact with Ho Chi-li, leaving the latter grief-stricken.
Marriage and life changes followed, highlighting her loneliness and helplessness in a foreign land.
Postscript: Two flashbacks to reminisce
Now, time has passed, and the girl who broke through tradition and fought for herself has entered her twilight years.
She is a former world champion who has been in Japan for six years.
Throughout her life, her fate flickered like her mentor, and finally it was difficult to escape a tragic end.
As the proverb goes, life must be full of joy, don't make the gold bottle empty to the moon.