Win or Lose, Each Experience Is Important
By Conrad Ho, Hong Kong, July 22, 2017
It was evening on 22nd July 2017. The Chinese woman volleyball team faced her long-time rival the Russian team in the FIVB World Grand Prix 2017 in Hongkong. China was at a disadvantage going into the 4th game, losing 1:2 for the time being. Most of the players in the Chinese team was relatively new in the international arena. With attacks not quite on the spot and defence not too solid, the Chinese lost several points in a row, bringing the total scores to the dangerous zone of 19:21. The captain and main spiker Zhu Ting was originally sitting with other back-up team members, but was too anxious to sit by while the Russian team was approaching the game point. She asked to be sent in. Still, the Chinese team was defeated at 1:3. This story was brilliant not because of the drama of the result, but the psychological qualities and the different perspectives of the coach and the player.
Since the last Olympic Games, the Chinese team had many new faces. The head coach Lang Ping was ill and would not be able to function for the short term. The substitute coach An Jiajie was in charge this time in Hong Kong. China would be the host of the final round of matches and the Chinese team would automatically have a place in it, so the result in Hong Kong did not matter. His strategy was obviously to use the Hongkong matches as a training ground for all players to accumulate as much experience of international competitions as possible. Besides, he had sub-divided the team into national A and B teams. He would like to observe who was best to partner up with whom and who would be assigned into which sub-team as the key players and backups.
The Chinese A team competed in the first two matches and prevailed despite challenges. It was the Chinese B team’s turn to face the Russian team and it was another story. Although the experienced spiker Liu Xiaotong played upto expectation, the newcomer spiker Qian Jingwen made frequent mistakes. The newcomer bumper Gao Yi was hesitant in her actions and the newcomer setter Yao Di showed inadequate precision. The overall performance of the national B team was so unstable that it eventually lost to the Russians in two games though it was originally in the lead. In the 4th game, clinging on to the set strategy, the coach Mr. An stayed calm. He just sent in Li Jing to pair up with Liu Xiaotong to see how the quality of the attacks would change and sent in Yuan Xinyue to see if blocking would improve. I speculated that Mr. An’s purpose was to let the national B team recognize how strong or weak they were, even at the cost of losing the match.
When it came to the inferior position of 19:21, the experienced spiker Zhu Ting asked to be sent in, in her fierce thirst for victory. Maybe Mr. An was not willing to dampen this “fire” in her heart and let her in. Anyway, the game was lost. In her good intention, Zhu Ting had done harm instead, in the sense that the newcomers had an incomplete learning experience due to her unnecessary intervention.
My interpretation was that Zhu Ting put emphasis on the immediate result, but Coach An paid more attention to the players’ long-term development; Zhu focused all her attention on the match, but An was planning for the coming final round of competitions and the Olympic Games in three years. My point was not criticizing Zhu. As a player, she needed to do just that, doing her best to win each match. My point was my admiration of Mr. An’s: 1) inner peace and calmness while implementing his strategy in adversity. This was a very precious quality which only a few can successfully cultivate; 2) breadth of mind, using international competitions as great training tools for players to improve themselves, including their psychological quality.
Parents as life coaches of your children, what have you learned from the best of these professional sports coaches?
