Chapter 9 3. The "transfer students" in the basement of the national team

In 2000, our players in the 1983 age group began to accept selection for the national team.However, I was not included in the first selection list. Thinking about it now, it's so easy to understand.Because the impression I left on the coaches of the national team was not particularly good—very naughty, selfish, unmanageable, and not very obedient.So, a lot of coaches don't like me at all.For such a situation, I was not mentally prepared, and I felt quite sad.It wasn't until this point that I really started to worry.I missed the opportunity to enter the national team this time, and I will have to compete with a smaller group of players when I wait until the next selection.To put it bluntly, it means "after passing this village, there will be no such shop".Director Gao Lujiang of the Bayi team was also very anxious. At that time, he said that no matter what, he had to take the "last bus" and he must send me there.

After that, another backup notice came, saying that I could go to the national team again.In fact, I am the only person on the list in this notification.Therefore, I am a "transfer student" of that batch of national teams. In May 2000, I went all the way north, thinking that I must fight for myself and Director Gao.Two months later, the Asian Youth Championship started in Japan, and I won the men's team and men's singles championships.These two championships are like a reassurance, which made me and Director Gao feel a little relieved.If I didn't play well that time, others will definitely think that I, a "transfer student", entered the national team through connections.Luckily, I beat back the gossip with my champion.

In this way, I gradually stabilized in the national team.After we first arrived in Beijing, for almost a year, our dormitory was in the basement of the apartment.This basement no longer exists.At that time, the first team of the national team lived in the dormitory building, and the second team lived in the basement.Relegation competitions are held regularly in the national team. The second team with good performance is promoted to the first team, and the first team with poor performance is returned to the second team. The quality of the performance is directly linked to the salary. Qiu Bohui, who reported to the national team on the same day as me, still lives in the same dormitory as me.The basement is dark and damp, four people share a room, and the bathroom is shared, and you have to walk a long way to get out.It's all right.The most difficult thing is the kind of depression that just arrived in the national team.

Because I came in through the "back door", I was eager to perform well, and I was afraid that the coach would not pay attention to me. This is the biggest pressure I face every day.In front of me was either the world champion or the Olympic champion. When I was eating in the cafeteria, I didn’t dare to look up. I just stared at my lunch box and pulled it twice, and left after eating as fast as possible. And after coming to the national team, the kind of intensive training has never been experienced in the youth team and Bayi team before.At that time, after practicing every day, I just wanted to go back to the room, lie on the bed and watch TV, and didn't want to do anything.At that time, our ability was not as good as that of the seniors, but the amount of daily training was the same as that of the seniors, so I felt very strenuous and very tired.

What impressed me the most about the basement was that there was no mobile phone signal.When I first went to Beijing, I hadn't bought a mobile phone yet.Before leaving, the coach of the Bayi team reminded me again and again: "When you get there, train hard, don't drink alcohol, and don't use your mobile phone. You just remember these two things." So, for about half a year, I didn't have a mobile phone. By the end of 2000, the World Youth Championship was over. In that World Youth Championship, although we won the men’s team championship and I was the first in singles, I lost to Xiao Bao in the singles semi-finals. Xiao Bao defeated Sony in the final and won the men’s singles championship of the World Youth Championship. Among the players of our age, he broke through the siege all at once and became the "tall, handsome and rich" among us.

When I bought the first mobile phone, I have forgotten, but I remember it was a Sony mobile phone, and the number at that time has been used until now, and has never been changed.At that time, there were relatively few brands to choose from when buying a mobile phone, and it didn’t have a color screen, and it cost more than 3,000 yuan.Therefore, the mobile phone can be regarded as my relatively valuable property at that time. In the basement, mobile phones often have no signal.If you want to make a phone call or send a text message, you have to stand on the bed, raise your hand high, wait for the text message to be sent, and then put it down.

However, the days in the basement were not only depressing, but also something that made me happy, that is, I no longer have to soak my hands in ice water to wash clothes in winter, but use a washing machine.When I was a child in the Bayi team, I had to wash not only my own clothes, but also those of the big players.After eating, they also pushed the bowl in front of me.Although everyone is a child, it is good to experience this kind of thing, but this kind of "bullying the small" is really not a hero. After the national team, everyone is a young man of seventeen or eighteen, and no one will bully the other.We have been in the national team for 12 years, and our daily necessities are often sponsored.I bought toothpaste, toothbrush, shampoo, shower gel, etc., but washing powder. I haven’t bought a bag of washing powder in Beijing for 12 years. This is really a record.For example, if the washing powder in a dormitory is used up today, then I will put the dirty clothes aside first, and wash them when there is more washing powder again.As a result, the washing powder will definitely be replenished within two days.The washing powder of the national team seems to never run out.

In this way, I stayed in the national team for a year and a half. In the next year, the National Games was held in Guangdong, and I played on behalf of the Bayi team.The Bayi team's collective strength is not strong, so let's just play game by game anyway.In the men's singles competition, I entered the final like a satellite, and my opponent was Luo Yigang from Hunan.At this time, many leaders of the Nanjing Military Region flew to Guangdong to watch my game. At that time, even director Gao Lujiang of the Bayi team didn't think that I could make it to the finals, and even won the first game.Although I lost 1-2 later, I was already very happy.In retrospect, such a result is also normal.You have to experience these things before they can become your own wealth.At least at the National Games in 2001, I was the one in the same age group who gained the most, whether it was achievements, praise, or self-confidence.

With the men's singles silver medal in the National Games, I moved upstairs from the basement.And my career, like riding a roller coaster, began to climb to the highest point.