Chengdu, October 16 (Xinhua) -- At the age of 30, Shao Ting made an important decision: to leave the Beijing team that carried her previous seven-year career and come to Sichuan, a place that played an important role in her basketball advancement.
The picture shows Shao Ting being interviewed by Xinhua News Agency. Offered by Speed Eagle Sports
"It's more of a challenge, and I'm honored and happy to accept it." The Captain of the Chinese Women's Basketball Team said in an exclusive interview with Xinhua News Agency.
Meet the challenge with gratitude
Shao Ting is an athlete trained by the Sichuan Provincial Sports Bureau and the School of Physical Education and Sports of Beijing Normal University using the integration of sports and education. "Don't forget your original intention, learn to be grateful." After joining the Sichuan team in the offseason, Shao Ting wrote such a sentence on social media.
"The Sichuan women's basketball team is particularly energetic, and being able to join the Sichuan women's basketball team, develop with them, and lead them to improve themselves is also a process of promotion for me." I am honored and happy to accept such a challenge. Shao Ting said.
Last season, the extremely young Sichuan team continued to attract reinforcements in the offseason, the team was coached by the former Guangdong women's basketball head coach Pan Wei, and another national player, Gao Song, also came from Beijing, and they also added Zhang Wanglai, Huang Pinzhen and other players, and their strength was greatly improved. After the first five rounds of the new season, Sichuan's record is 4 wins and 1 loss, and it is still pulling down the traditional powerhouse Xinjiang team in the opening game.
The picture shows Sichuan player Shen Binbin (front left) fighting with Xinjiang player Wang Lili in a match on October 1. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Kun
"It was a good start." Shao Ting said that the Sichuan team is a brand new team, and the run-in time is only a full month in September, and there are still many problems in the process. Although I won the game, I found that there were still many shortcomings in it.
Shao Ting said that the atmosphere in the team is very good, everyone is positive and wants to achieve better results for the team. "We also communicate a lot in the usual training process, understand some of the advantages of our peers, and complement each other and make progress together."
Talking about head coach Pan Wei, Shao Ting said: "Pan Dao is actually my predecessor, she is an old women's basketball team, and she embodies the spirit of the old women's basketball team. In the process of teaching us, she will teach us the spirit or techniques that they had at that time, and constantly tell us how to do it. ”
Shao Ting said that the most important thing for her joining the Sichuan team is to pass on her energy to more people, as for the goal is not so much, at least it should break through the 12th place last season.
"Because it is a brand new team, we did not set a particularly clear goal, but hoped to continue to run through the competition and become a more mature team. Through the competition to drive training, through training to improve the performance of the game, so that the continuous cycle, hoping to break through the sichuan team's previous achievements. ”
Living in isolation is a kind of practice
After nine months of standing on the league stage again, Shao Ting bluntly said that she was "very excited and excited."
"The league can resume, every women's basketball player is particularly grateful, the hosting of this competition and the epidemic prevention and control measures have done a particularly good job, so that we have the opportunity to return to the field, and everyone is particularly cherished." Shao Ting said that the intensity of the competition is higher than before, indicating that everyone has made sufficient preparations for the game and making up for the regret of not completing the league last season. Many young players continue to emerge, which is a particularly good phenomenon for the overall development of the Chinese women's basketball team.
Pictured here is Sichuan player Shao Ting (right) waiting for an opportunity to lay down under the defense of Xinjiang player Wang Siyu on October 1. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Kun
"With no foreign support in the league this year, there are more opportunities for local players to be trained, especially young players. The strength of each team has improved, the degree of competition is more intense than ever, and there is no absolute weak team or strong team like before. Shao Ting said.
Under the normalization of epidemic prevention and control, the league adopts closed management, and all sports teams eat and live together, which Shao Ting feels is a fresh experience. In her opinion, although it will be a little boring as the competition progresses, the league organizers and hotels are constantly adjusting, enriching the entertainment life of the athletes, providing good logistical support, so that the athletes can enjoy the game in a closed environment more relaxed.
Training, watching videos, watching on the sidelines, treating, despite less travel, athletes' schedules during the race will still be full. Occasionally, Shao Ting likes to read books, and recently she has been reading Goffman's "Self-Presentation in Daily Life". As a doctoral student at Beijing Normal University, she still has two papers to complete, and she needs to make full use of her spare time to read books and find materials.
"Although time is very fragmentary, I hope to make full use of this fragmented time and make life more fulfilling." Shao Ting said that the closed life during this time is a kind of cultivation for the self, and it is also a process of exercising oneself to calm down and calm down.
Shao Ting is also happy to see more and more college players stepping onto the professional field, "There are many paths to train basketball players, and we need to explore a better combination model to introduce more basketball talents." Only by laying the foundation more steadily and with more talent, we have a better chance of choosing better players. ”
Prepare yourself for the unknown
The Chinese women's basketball team won all three olympic qualification games in February and won the ticket to the Tokyo Olympic Games, which boosted the morale of the people of the whole country in the fight against the epidemic. Eight months later, recalling that special experience, Shao Ting confessed, "I will never forget it in my life." ”
"In that period, our Chinese women's basketball team was able to stand up and defeat the opponent, which not only inspired the domestic fans, but also improved our confidence, making us realize that the potential is unlimited, as long as we continue to pay and fight." After going through such a big competition, everyone has come this way, what obstacles can not be overcome? ”
Shao Ting believes that getting the Olympic ticket is a great encouragement to every team member, especially the young players, so that they see the possibility, as long as they train down-to-earth, they have the hope to break through themselves and have the opportunity to enter the Olympic arena. "Only by doing a good job of yourself and doing a good job of every day of training can you have such a process of surpassing or improving yourself."
'We're still in good shape this year and if we can continue into July, I'm sure we can have a good performance." Speaking of the Postponed Tokyo Olympic Games due to the epidemic, Shao Ting said that how to maintain a good competitive state puts forward higher requirements for each team member, and needs to treat daily life and training more professionally.
"The unknown of next year's Olympic Games is even greater, there is no international event, we don't know other teams, we can only start from ourselves and solve our own problems, so that no matter what kind of opponents we encounter in the Olympic games, we can deal with it well."
Whether in the Beijing team or the national team, Shao Ting has had a lot of cooperation with Xu Limin, the current head coach of the Chinese women's basketball team. Shao Ting said that Xu Zhi put all his attention on basketball, this persistent spirit is worth learning from every basketball person, and it has also brought great improvements in the management of team style, making this team more cohesive.
The picture shows Chinese team coach Xu Limin guiding Shao Ting (first from the left) training (data map). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xiao Yijiu
"He not only wants to lead the Chinese women's basketball team to achieve better results, but also focuses more on the cultivation of young players. Because playing basketball cannot rely on only these few people, but it requires a process of continuous accumulation and slow improvement, and the 'back wave' needs to continue to move forward. ”
Compared with debuting on the Olympic stage in Rio, Shao Ting said that the biggest change in her four years is her mentality. "Participating in the Olympic Games for the first time is very exciting, and the moment I really stepped on the Olympic arena, I was actually a little nervous inside, after all, it was the highest stage in the world. At that time, I was more focused on how to make myself enjoy the process and play my own characteristics. But next year's Olympic Games, I am a veteran player and a captain, and I feel a greater responsibility, not only to play well myself, but also to lead young players to better adapt to large-scale competitions such as the Olympic Games. ”
Shao Ting said that when she was younger, she paid more attention to the technical and tactical level, and as she grew older, she would see a bigger situation, leadership on the court, and more consideration of how Chinese basketball should develop in the future.
"Having experienced big and small games, the horizon is getting wider and wider, and I have seen how other countries can cultivate basketball players, and there are many places worth learning from." I hope that after I retire, I can continue to work in basketball, and I will implement some of the experiences or good cases I have seen over the years in some aspects. ”
"Only by constantly going abroad and playing against higher-level teams can you gain more experience. We should go out to see more, and then combine our own characteristics to develop a basketball system that suits us, so that the future development will be better. Shao Ting said.
Text Editor: Liu Yang
New Media Editor: Lu Yuchen
Issued: Peng Dong
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