Taekwondo World Pattern Reshuffle - Interview with the coach of the Chinese Taekwondo Team

Xinhua News Agency, Tokyo, July 29 Title: Taekwondo World Pattern Reshuffle

——Interview with the coach of the Chinese taekwondo team

Xinhua News Agency reporters Zhou Chang and Zhu Hong

With a bronze medal, the Chinese taekwondo team regrettably ended the competition for the Tokyo Olympics. What happened to the Taekwondo Project? After the game, the reporter interviewed Kong Fantao, the coach of the Chinese taekwondo team.

(Subtitle) "Fight stifling" can not find feelings

Summarizing the performance of the Chinese taekwondo team at the Tokyo Olympic Games, Kong Fantao admitted that the overall performance was not good, "The whole competition, what we expected and the current result is indeed the opposite."

The Chinese taekwondo team only has a bronze medal for Zhao Shuai, and in the face of such results, the taekwondo team is reflecting on it. "I've never played such a suffocating game, and I can't find anything on the pitch." Kong Fantao said that because of the impact of the epidemic, athletes have not played a game for a year and a half, and when they get on the field, they want to be excited but their strength is always unable to lift, and the adaptability on the field is obviously poor.

In the team training, the actual battle is normalized, and the corresponding plan is made in the face of various types of players, "but the rhythm on the field is still obviously different." For example, Asians and Europeans and Americans, even if they are also tall and long-legged, the lines and rhythms of the blows are still different. We let the sparring athletes do a lot of imitation, but it still feels different on the field. ”

"In the early stage of preparation, the physical ability of our athletes is well trained, and there is no shortage of confrontational strength. When looking for the reason after the game, some team members reported that they had not really played with foreign athletes for too long, and it took time to adjust on the field to really fight. But Kong Fantao said that none of this can be the reason for this defeat, the key is to find the reason from his own body and summarize the shortcomings of this game.

Taekwondo world pattern reshuffled

Of the eight taekwondo events at the Tokyo Olympics, none of the Rio champions at all levels have completed the defense of their titles. In Kong Fantao's view, the world pattern of taekwondo has changed and is facing a reshuffle.

"The postponement of the Tokyo Olympics this year has changed a lot, and the athletes who performed mediocrely in 2019 and have not even met have rushed out of this competition, and many are 'post-00s'." Kong Fantao said that looking at the outstanding players at each level, such as South Korea's famous Lee Daxun and Indoch dun, Wu Jingyu's old rival, Serbia's Bogdanovic, Britain's Jones, Bianka Walkerden, and Turkey's Tatar, most of the results have "dropped".

From the perspective of the team, the representative teams of South Korea, Turkey, China, Iran and other representative teams with strong overall strength in the past have performed abnormally in this Olympic Games, resulting in a situation of "multi-point flowering". "Except for the two men's grand division champions, both Russian athletes, the gold medals in each other class are from different countries. There is no country that can win the gold medal, all the blood changes, and the cards are reshuffled. Kong Fantao said.

Summarize the lessons and regroup

Looking back on the preparation before the game, Kong Fantao once burst into tears. "In fact, we athletes should not be at this level, the past achievements are all punched and kicked by them." Kong Fantao said that the country has invested a lot in the team, there are also a lot of sparring and sacrifices, the head coach has also paid a lot of effort for this project, playing like this, the whole team is really sad, such a result no one wants to see.

"It's really not easy to fight so many points, and during the normal time in 2018 and 2019, they really improved very fast and were in good shape." But Kong Fantao feels that this is competitive sports, always let everyone reflect on themselves, summarize themselves, and fall down to get up and fight again.

"Because the points of taekwondo are rolling, in the face of the epidemic environment, we must also find ways to overcome and continue to accumulate points." Kong Fantao said that when we go back, we must seriously reflect on it, find the reasons for losing the game from ourselves, sum up the lessons, increase the difficulty of training, improve the resilience of athletes in the face of difficulties, and devote ourselves to later training. (End)