"Come on! Don't give up! Hurry up! Hurry up a little faster..." At the Qixing Primary School in Huadong Town, Huadu District, Guangzhou, Lai Xuanzhi's loud voice was not heard, he always held a large bucket in his left hand and a wooden stick in his right hand, "roaring" while banging, and the sound of the rope slapping the ground with high frequency "whizzing" was the best response to him.
The picture of a 1.83-meter-tall physical education teacher and a group of elementary school students getting along seems to be very discordant, but they have worked together to create the famous Chinese jump rope "Dream Team" at home and abroad.
Lai Xuanzhi led the seven-star jump rope team to Norway to participate in the 2019 WJR Jump Rope World Cup.
The "problem boy" who counterattacked
Believe that sport can change lives
Lai Xuanzhi, a 35-year-old rural physical education teacher, is a native of Guangdong. His parents were too busy with their livelihood to discipline, and he was also "a teenager who didn't know the taste of sorrow", allowing the good "green onions" to grow wildly, "If it weren't for god's appreciation of food and a good physique, I would have become a sports student, and I might not have been able to go to a better high school."
Earlier, Lai Xuanzhi did not cherish the luck of this "God rewards food and eating", in the eyes of teachers, classmates and parents, he was directly labeled as a "problem teenager". The rebellion of adolescence was vividly reflected in the body of the teenager Lai Xuanzhi, "In junior high school, I was dissuaded from fighting and forced to transfer schools, and at that time I did not think about going to college in the future."
The past is hard to look back on, but two small things that happened in high school make Lai Xuanzhi still remember it vividly. "Because I lived in the school for a long time, I didn't see my mother for a long time, and one day she came to see me at the school, and I suddenly found that during the days when I left home, my mother grew a lot of white hair." After that, Lai Xuanzhi thought of his mother's piercing white hair from time to time, he tried to change himself, but he could not start, "At that time, the grades were too poor, the English test was only seven or eight points, there was a heart to work hard, but there was no direction."
By chance, Lai Xuanzhi played basketball as a substitute player, and he scored two points in surprise, which was applauded by the whole audience, and even the coach who has always been strict gave him a thumbs up and praised him as "good"! The shy big boy hid the joy in his heart, but he was more determined to work hard, "The feeling of being publicly recognized and praised by the poor student, although I became a teacher, is still indescribable, but I especially understand."
Since then, Lai Xuanzhi has gotten up an hour early every day, and he habitually leaves from the dormitory over the wall, but no longer for the sake of greed. "Run like Forrest Gump, run to the point of being tired of crying and vomiting." With the innate superior conditions and the diligent practice of the day after tomorrow, Lai Xuanzhi's physical fitness improved rapidly, and he was promoted from an obscure substitute member of the basketball team to a dazzling scoring player in the arena, and as a captain, he led the whole team to win the championship trophy of the municipal competition. However, embarrassing cultural class results are still "stumbling blocks" on the road to the college entrance examination. In order to make training and learning not delay, Lai Xuanzhi began to memorize English words while running, "Others run are shouting one-two-one, I use English words to cheer myself up."
The early morning playground records the trajectory of the teenager Lai Xuanzhi's circle of struggle and counterattack, and he tastes the taste of sweat mixed with tears, making this inspirational breakfast a spiritual food enough to enjoy a lifetime.
In 2006, Lai Xuanzhi successfully received an acceptance letter from Wuhan University of Physical Education. The "problem teenager" who never thought about going to college began to dream of becoming a people's teacher, "I hope to be able to become a person like my basketball coach, I believe that sports can change lives!" ”
A physical education teacher who can't jump rope
"You can teach the jump rope champion, and the sows will go up the tree"
In 2010, Lai Xuanzhi became the first physical education teacher since the establishment of Qixing Primary School in Huadong Town, Huadu District, Guangzhou, and the first undergraduate staff of the school. Having just left the ivory tower, he was quickly poured cold water by reality, "The principal pulled me by the car, and I asked all the way ' how long is it going to be', and he always replied ' Fast, fast'". Passing through rice fields and vegetable fields, passing through many mountain villages, and gradually drifting away from the bustling city. Lai Xuanzhi said bluntly: "At the beginning, there were really countless times when I carried my bag and turned around and left! ”
Seven Star Rock, known as the "First Wonder of Lingnan", has been written into local language teaching materials. "I didn't even think about it, so I applied for Seven Star Elementary School because I thought it must be a very beautiful place." However, the real Seven Star Primary School, despite being in a first-tier city, is a typical "village in the city", with more than 50 years of establishment, only an old single-family building, no professional sports facilities, and even a flat site.
"This is the first undergraduate graduate of our school", on the first day of employment, the director of teaching introduced Lai Xuanzhi to the teachers of the whole school, and the conversation turned sharply, and he said regretfully, "Unfortunately, he teaches physical education." The first meeting with colleagues gave Lai Xuanzhi a not very good experience, but the first sight of the children reminded him of himself when he was a child, and instantly stimulated the professionalism of this newcomer in the workplace, "I want to be a teacher's belief is to firmly believe that sports can change lives, if I give up this group of children, then what faith is there?" Don't give up, that's what sports teach me."
As a physical education teacher, Lai Xuanzhi gave full play to his physical strengths, self-reliant, carried a hoe and leveled a piece of land on campus as an athletic field, and made simple sports equipment from local materials. At the beginning, he tried to use his professional advantages to start teaching work from athletics, basketball and other aspects, trapped in the limitations of venues, funds, equipment, etc., and it was difficult to promote the implementation of the training mode of modern sports in the countryside, "for example, I want to take my children to run, not to mention professional running shoes, and some children do not even have shoes to wear for daily school."
In 2012, Seven Star Primary School built a new teaching building on the basis of the original school site, and the scope of venues for sports activities was again reduced. At a time when there was no way out, a local jump rope performance event made Lai Xuanzhi Mao Sai open.
Previously, in the skipping rope exam organized by the local education bureau, Lai Xuanzhi took the exam 3 times before barely passing. Therefore, a colleague quipped to him: "If you can teach a jump rope champion, the sow will be on the tree." ”
The tall physique has become the shortcoming of the jump rope movement, but this does not hinder Lai Xuanzhi's enthusiasm for teaching. He found a variety of ropes, made handles out of wood and bamboo, opened the first jump rope lesson under the big banyan tree on campus, and selected more than 50 "seed players" from a professional perspective by observing the students' interests.
The venue is spacious, well-equipped, and the players are in place, but the parents of the students are the first to stand up and oppose, "I ask the children to start training an hour and a half in advance in the morning, and continue to practice for an hour or two after school in the afternoon. In the most intense of times, Lai Xuanzhi was surrounded by a group of parents at the school gate to accuse, not long after, half of the students withdrew from training, a year later, less than 10 people were left in the jump rope team.
The Seven Stars Jump Rope Team participated in the National Jump Rope Competition for the first time, and Lai Xuanzhi took a group photo with the team members after the game.
Physical education teachers make home visits more diligently than homeroom teachers
"To engage in education in rural areas, we must first get parents."
In the face of the newly established "Seven-Star Jump rope team", the parents of local students believe that this is "not doing their jobs", and they will take their children home as soon as school is over, while the parents of students from other places are "ignored", preferring that their children help with housework in their spare time.
Parents did not support, Lai Xuanzhi rode a motorcycle deep into the countryside to make home visits, "the most one household ran more than 20 times." Physical education teachers do home visits faster than the class teacher, and the whole semester strives to be "full attendance", resolutely do not give Chinese, mathematics, English teachers a chance to "substitute lessons", colleagues feel difficult to understand, at the beginning there are people who ridicule him "went to the student's home to rub rice again", saw him every three forks and five with the jump rope team to add meals "open a small stove", at his own expense to supplement the children's nutrition, these bad voices gradually disappeared.
In the face of such a "attentive" physical education teacher, parents could not resist, and finally, some parents began to acquiesce to their children to continue to participate in jump rope training with Lai Xuanzhi, but no one expected that this unpromising team, "into a group" in the first year of the jump out of a blockbuster.
In June 2013, Lai Xuanzhi led the children to "test the waters" of the local competition, and the seven-star jump rope team crushed the previous champion with high scores and won the top spot of Huadu. The following year, he tossed the brake line in his hand to the national jump rope competition, and in Hefei, Anhui Province, the team won more than 30 events and swept more than 40 medals.
Whenever the children won awards, trophies and medals in major events, he encouraged the principal to hold a school-wide parent-teacher meeting, "so that the parents of the winning children can personally come to the scene to receive the award, and let the parents who are not optimistic about the jump rope team observe our highlight moments." However, the flashy fame and fortune is not enough for people to get substantial satisfaction, and some parents block Lai Xuanzhi at the school gate and ask in a voice: "You take your children to compete to get gold medals, on TV recording programs, why do you sometimes give money and sometimes don't give?" Did you steal it? These negative voices made him feel deeply chilled several times, but he still turned all kinds of grievances into a passion for blood, continued to fight for sponsorship for the jump rope team, and then distributed to students in the name of bursaries, nutrition expenses, living allowances, etc.
When Lai Xuanzhi first arrived at the school, there were less than 150 teachers and students in Qixing Primary School, most of whom were left-behind children and children of migrant workers. Among them, more than 60% of the students come from Guangxi, Guizhou, Sichuan and other places, most of their parents in the suburbs of the city to grow vegetables for a living, "summer in the south, winter to go to the north", children are like migratory birds, with the change of seasons with their parents' career "migration", "many people do not have a fixed school registration, such as just finished the first grade in Beijing, transfer to Guangzhou and then find a school to continue to re-read the first grade, some parents also think that making money is more important than going to school, completely did not consider the negative impact of this mobile school model on their children." 。 Speaking of this, Lai Xuanzhi recalled a student named Li Xiaohua (pseudonym) with great emotion.
At a time when most parents were guarding against the jump rope team like plague gods, Li Xiaohua and her brothers were the few remaining uninhabited students on the team, and their parents almost never showed up at school. Out of concern, Lai Xuanzhi, who was keen on home visits, once "followed" the two of them all the way home, and found that the sisters and brothers actually lived in an ancestral hall, and when they opened the door, there was a coffin, and there were tablets enshrined inside! In the face of the two children who were calmly writing homework at home, this seven-foot boy felt great shock and pain. In the end, because of her parents' preference for sons and daughters, Li Xiaohua was forced to drop out of school, which also became the difficulty of Lai Xuanzhi's teaching career.
"Frankly speaking, I chose to work in Guangzhou, but also hoped to improve my life, as a teacher in a first-tier city, I think the ideal and rice bowl should be able to keep, but I did not expect that I could not keep my students' student status." Lai Xuanzhi, who was born from a bitter child, knows well that "poverty alleviation comes first to help wisdom", he grasped the life-saving straw of sports to achieve the counterattack of life, and also hoped that the children of the jump rope team could firmly hold the rope of life in their hands.
The Seven Star Jump Rope Team went to Norway to participate in the 2019 WJR Jump Rope World Cup, and the team members took a group photo after the game.
Exploring the "Integration of Sports and Education"
Rural primary schools jumped out of 33 world champions
Every echo on the training ground is like a knock from fate, inspiring Lai Xuanzhi to lead the team to strive to shoot a successful model of sports and education integration in rural schools.
In the early days, there was no large-scale promotion of jump rope sports in China, and there were not many experiences that could be used for reference, so Lai Xuanzhi watched a large number of video tutorials around the world, studied winning techniques, and created the original "half-squat jumping method". In addition, he also frantically searched for various ropes, pondered the improvement of equipment, and broke into the finals with a brake line and two bamboo handles. In addition, Lai Xuanzhi also combined professional knowledge to set up a scientific physical training plan for the jump rope team members, exercised arm and leg strength, improved reaction sensitivity, and successfully cultivated the "seven stars without shadow feet" in the field of jump rope.
For the first time in the national competition, the Seven Star Jump Rope Team launched its own brand. Two years later, they won the first team championship in the history of the Chinese jump rope team at the World Championships in Sweden, breaking 5 world records. In the 2019 "Skipping Rope World Cup", 17 seven-star students won 37 consecutive individual championships, won 6 medals in all-around events, and broke a number of event records again.
Up to now, this rural primary school has produced a total of 33 world champions, broken 11 world records, won more than 800 medals, and the fastest jump rope performance of students is as high as 7.5 times per second. With the blessing of the champion's aura, the scale of teachers and students in Seven Star Primary School has increased by nearly 20 times in 11 years. Skipping rope culture permeates every corner of the campus, and the newly renovated teaching building has become the most beautiful building in the local area, and teachers and students come to exchange and learn. The glittering medals illuminated the path of Lai Xuanzhi's integration of sports and education, and also lit up the dawn of children's lives.
"Temptation is harder to bear than to suffer!" Around 2016, the Seven Star Jump Rope Team won many battles, and Lai Xuanzhi also encountered new problems in his life, and many colleges and universities came to "dig the wall", saying that they would provide him with a bigger platform and higher salary. At the fork in the road of their careers, the children of the jump rope team retained Lai Xuanzhi's original intention with a set of clothes and a cake. Before receiving this special birthday gift, he continued to play the image of Yan Shi for more than a month. "During that time, the students' physical fitness was obviously unable to keep up, and they were facing to go abroad to compete, I was anxious and angry, and my temper was very bad, and later I learned that they had not eaten breakfast for two months, just to save money to celebrate my birthday." In fact, the date on the ID card is not Lai Xuanzhi's birthday, but the cake that was eaten with tears made him stay in this rural primary school forever.
In his teaching career, this tall, thick-voiced physical education teacher has more than once shed tears because of the children's words and actions. Cen Xiaolin from Guizhou, 10 years old only into the first grade of primary school, the early language number English three courses cumulative score of less than 50 points, after participating in the jump rope competition and breaking the world record many times, the academic performance also jumped to the top three in the class; the girl Zhang Maoxue, who joined the team for two years without saying a word to the teacher, won 10 gold medals in the first national competition, and her personality became lively and cheerful. Hearing Cen Xiaolin say that he wanted to go to university as a teacher, he saw Zhang Maoxue deliver an acceptance speech in public... Every time I revisit these pictures with the media, I can easily touch Lai Xuanzhi's tears.
For ordinary people, the threshold for jumping rope is very low, but in Lai Xuanzhi's training ground, many children have since jumped to a new height in life. After 11 years of teaching, he has won honorary titles such as "National Outstanding Teacher", "National Youth Job Expert", "National May Day Labor Medal" and so on. In 2020, the film "A Little Starlight", based on Lai Xuanzhi and his students, was widely acclaimed and won the Best Children's Film Award at the 33rd Golden Rooster Awards of Chinese Cinema. In 2021, the movie "My Pedition Teacher" once again focused the lens on the seven-star jump rope team.
(Reporter He Juan, People's Weekly, No. 19, 2021)