Chapter 25 i love my teacher

For a long time, Zhang Lian regarded me as his eldest son and honored me as "Elder Young Master", while his own son Zhang Lei was called the youngest son by them, "Little Young Master".He always jokingly said that his task is to "serve" us two "young masters".For me, why not regard him as my own father? After the disqualification of the national team happened, my confession pushed coach Zhang Ting to the fore. "How much influence does Zhang Ting have on you?" "What position does he occupy in your life orientation?" This is the sentence I am often asked the most!

I don't want to make any comments on the coach. What I want to say is that apart from my parents, Zhang Ting and his wife Tan Min are the two people who have the deepest influence on me.They regard me as their own. During the most important stage of my growth, they influenced me in all aspects, whether it was life, training or life. Without them, Tian Liang would not be where I am today! One word of thanks is not enough to express my gratitude and affection to them. What a long 14 years! The first time I saw Zhang Lian was in 1991, when I was 11 years old and entered the Shaanxi diving team for the first time.I have a sense of mystery and awe in the face of this man who will have such an impact on my life.The mystery is because who is the coach who trained the Asian champion Rao Lang and other famous players?Why did he choose me, who is not outstanding among many young players?What am I worthy of affirmation?These are questions I can't answer, but I am grateful to him for making my dream of entering a professional team come true.The awe is because the players of the Sichuan Zigong team led by him are all at a great level, at least I have never won against them.

With a restless heart, my life opened a new chapter. Since the Shaanxi team does not have a training venue, our initial training can only be carried out at the Zigong Amateur Sports School.On the morning of the first day of training, with such a big man watching by his side, the lack of self-confidence in my heart was magnified to the extreme.Which movement will I fail to do well, will he still practice me?Punish me? The more you think about it, the result often backfires. In the howling cold wind, I walked up to him with a flushed face and tears in my eyes, thinking that I would definitely be reprimanded.But his words dispelled all my nervousness and inferiority complex: "Tian Liang is not bad, he is so small, but his chest is strong enough!"

Amidst everyone's laughter, the day's training is over. Jokes aside, due to "congenital defects", I still have a lot of basic things to solve in training: due to irregular basic movements, I am a typical "hoe foot", my toes are not straight, and my knees are always bent.This is the most fatal flaw in diving-meaning you can't hold back the splash.In order to get rid of this problem of mine, starting from the first winter training when I joined the team, under the strict guidance of Zhang Lian, in addition to hundreds of exercises every day, I also insisted on pressing joints and insteps for up to 2 hours ; Before going to bed every day, I have to sit on my knees and press my ankles

Platform jumpers must master good handstand techniques, but I was "poor and white" at that time, and I couldn't do handstands at all.For this reason, Zhang Lian gave me an order: I must learn to stand on my head within two weeks, otherwise I will not be able to eat.After every morning exercise, he would leave me to do handstands for three seconds, five or ten sets of handstands.For that sweet meal, I gritted my teeth and learned the technique of handstand very quickly. After I won 15 world championships including the World Championships and the World Cup, many people thought they could breathe a sigh of relief, but Zhang Lian and his wife, Coach Tan, felt a sense of urgency that they had never felt before.After studying the latest developments in international diving, they thought that according to my characteristics, they arranged 6 sets of innovative handstand movements for me.Among them, the 626B and 207B two high-difficulty movements increased the difficulty coefficient by 0.6 points, surpassing the famous Russian general Sautin.In the Sydney Olympic Games, it was this 207B with a difficulty coefficient of 3.6 that I got a very rare high score in the world diving competition - 101.52 points, which established the victory for the championship.

Thinking about it now, without his strict urging, I would not have mastered the "winning weapon" so quickly, nor would I have been able to perform difficult moves in the best state so quickly! It is true that details determine success or failure. During the training, what Zhang Lian emphasized the most was the steady flow of water.He said that the success of a team member is a long-term process.And his training does not mean how much you practice in a day, but your long-term persistence.In order to stick to his philosophy, he always leads by example, whether it is in the provincial team or the national team, whether it is morning exercise or evening practice, he insists on training with us.Usually, what we look forward to the most is to hope that he will get sick. This is not a mantra, but we hope that our tense nerves and aching body can get a little rest and sleep late.

But even when he was sick, he would knock on the door on time and tell us to do morning exercises! With such a reference of "Mr. Perfect", we couldn't find a reason to ask for leave anyway. After training, I never took time off due to personal injury.Sometimes, even if my body is not feeling well or I have a problem, I try to overcome it: if I can’t practice water, I practice land, and if my leg hurts, I practice my waist.If everyone else is training and I Personally staying in the dormitory, I would feel empty and bored, and have an unprecedented sense of guilt. After I joined the national team with Zhang Lian, he made stricter demands on me.He is the new coach and I am a small player.It quickly integrated into the training method and rhythm of the national team.With Zhang Lian here, I feel that everything can be tolerated.Our plan is, ranging from skills and scores to long-term goals, what kind of results we want to achieve. The first goal is to qualify for the first-tier competition as soon as possible; and then to match the difficulty of outstanding athletes.Once the difficulty is reached, improve the quality and stability of the movements, overcome the difficult movements one by one, and tap your potential step by step.

Although coaches Zhang Lian and Tan are strict, they always set different goals according to the actual situation and development of the players.As I grew older, Zhang Lian also found that I like reasoning, so he always introduced all the situations to me and let me judge.After I won my first national championship in 1994, he began to communicate with me and set short-term and long-term goals for me. I will also move forward according to his goals and live a full and fulfilling life every day. But I know how difficult it was for him to persist at the beginning.In the past, due to repeated setbacks, I developed the mentality of "small wealth and peace", and I was self-satisfied with some achievements and progress.Zhang Lian and his wife are like a pair of rational parents, always guiding, stimulating and pushing me to a higher goal.

Coach Tan also instilled in me a "step theory": first win the national championship, and then strive to participate in the World Cup and win the world championship.Then, we will go to another level and strive for the championship of the World Swimming Championships, and the ultimate goal is the Olympic gold medal. I know that diving has taken up a lot of my life.For us children, boring training may lead to good grades and a bright future.But for them, it means saying goodbye to warmth and stability, and embarking on a wandering road of no return.If it's a bet, they've put their heart and soul into it, and it's paid off.

As soon as I talked about the poor life in the "early stage of entrepreneurship", I especially admired the courage and determination of Zhang Lian and Tan Lian. In 1990, Zhang Ting and his wife Tan Min gave up their superior living environment and came to Shaanxi from Zigong Amateur Sports School in Sichuan.When they first arrived, they saw a dilapidated bungalow in the Lintong swimming pool, without any diving facilities, not even a mat for land training.All around are fields.In order to realize the dream of world champions in their hearts, they embarked on a career of going out for training:

In the first few years, although the relevant departments gave support in all aspects, due to limited funds, the life of the Shaanxi diving team was always in trouble. When we were in Jinan, 12 of us squeezed into two rented rooms, which were so small that we could only fit a bed.The team members haven't watched TV for several months, and eat at other people's cooking stoves. If they are late, they will have nothing to eat.When he left Jinan, Zhang Lian had only a few hundred yuan left to buy the train ticket, and led us on an "early morning escape". He didn't dare to explain the situation to the local sports committee in time, and owed more than 3,000 yuan for hotel accommodation and training fee. After arriving in Beijing, they couldn't afford to rent a house with better conditions, so they lived in a few bungalows with linoleum roofs; the food expenses of the athletes were only 10 yuan a day, so they had to work as coaches and cooks at the same time.Every morning after training, we would buy some food and semi-finished products on the way home.Training continued in the afternoon. After training, Zhang Ting bought vegetables, Tan Lian was in charge of cooking, and our group of children took bowls and set chopsticks. Zhang Lian's best dish is braised chicken wings, which I still can't forget.They used the limited money to adjust the meals of our team members, and often used their own money to make turnover. During the Spring Festival in Beijing in the first year, they didn't even have any money on hand. It happened that the mother of the younger brother Li Zongze came to visit the child; Zhang Lian didn't care about the embarrassment, so he borrowed some money from her and took us out for a meal of dumplings. The living conditions of the houses are also very difficult.In summer, it often leaks rain, so we can only move the bed to a place where the rain does not leak, and use rice bowls to pick up other places.When I rented a room on the fifth floor of the guest house of Beijing Erti School, it was too hot to sleep in summer. I had no money to buy air conditioners and fans, and I was not allowed to start a business, so I had to rent another private house to use as a kitchen.I have to go back and forth several times a day from the residence to the training place, and then to the place to eat. Back then, we kids would fight over a bag of beef jerky and get along pretty quickly, and argue for an hour about whether or not the bike was fully pumped.Sometimes chatting for an hour, I often sit up excitedly while chatting, while other team members have already fallen asleep.At that time, we have endless energy to squander, and it will not affect the next day's training.But for them, the hardship of starting a business means paying, and it may even outweigh the gains.Because they were young at that time and had no experience in raising children, and they had to take care of our ignorant children in all aspects.They will also suffer from the cold eyes of others during training, and they will not see a future.In addition, their son Zhang Lei is still young and needs someone to take care of him. What impressed me the most was that Coach Tan often couldn't help crying when talking about the hardships of the year. But even in such a difficult situation, they still make us feel happy and positive, and pay special attention to cultivating our optimistic and enterprising spirit.Although they have no money, the two of them cook delicious food every time. On the way to and from training, the "big team members" line up on bicycles, and the "small team members" line up and sing songs, often attracting passers-by. Stop and marvel. As a coach, he still has a kind of atmosphere that is rare in a man.He told me to do my best no matter what I do.This is Zhang Lian's principle of life. Every detail in his life directly affects me. And Tan Lian taught me how to abide by the rules and set a good example. Sydney in 2000 It can be said that without the training of Zhang Lian and Tan Lian, there would be no Tian Liang today!And what they say to me most often now is: "You think about the path you will take in the future, and don't worry about us." Zhang Ting: I have been an athlete myself, and my best result is the runner-up in the Asian Games, which is not as brilliant as Tian Liang's record.But in the past 30 years from his career as an athlete to his coaching career, Tian Liang is definitely a genius!This is not me boasting about my disciples, it is the truth. From the first time I saw Tian Liang, he gave me the impression that he is strong, smart, sensible, strong in comprehension, superior in self-control, and has extraordinary physical fitness.To this day, he has won so many world championships, and these excellent qualities have not changed. In 1988, the Sichuan Provincial Youth Competition was the first time I knew Tian Liang.My feeling is that he has no technical advantages except for his ability to press water and a little brute force, and he is far from being an opponent of my players.The reason why I have a special impression of such an ordinary kid is purely because of his positivity, initiative and time concept in the pre-match training. A group of children lined up on the platform, waiting for the moment to jump off the platform.When it was the other children's turn, they always dawdled in front of the stage, looking around for the coach.Only Tian Liang could clearly tell that he was concentrating on contemplating and reciting technical essentials silently while waiting. Once it was his turn, he moved very quickly.I thought at the time that this kid has a sense of time and pays attention to efficiency. I can see that his physical fitness is good, the movements are very powerful, and the water splash is not bad, but the overall movement quality is not high and delicate.Originally, the youth competition was just a contest of basic skills, and Tian Liang's advantages were not displayed at all. No wonder he was always rejected by the Sichuan provincial team.After he became my student, I realized this point: the more difficult the movement, the easier and more beautiful he was to complete it. Tian Liang's physical fitness has always been surprisingly good.With the same amount of exercise, other children are too tired to practice, but he has no physical response and can continue to maintain high-quality training.Therefore, he has always exercised more than others. In the first few years when he joined the national team, the prizes for outstanding individuals were almost all won by him alone.To this day, most of his peers have retired, but he is still tumbling every day, tirelessly. Now that he has become a celebrity, he has more social activities, but his self-control ability is very strong: he does not smoke or drink, rests when it is time to rest, rarely stays up late, devotes himself to training once he trains, and completes tasks with high quality. Free from activity and outside influences.Even when he was injured, he actively cooperated with the doctor, took medicine and treatment on time, and never shirked. After training, we, master and apprentice, often chat together. We used to play video games together, but now we talk about NBA, football and social news, no different from ordinary father and son.For training and competition, he also has his own opinions and opinions, and often communicates with me.Many times, I will respect his feelings and adjust the training plan, because I know that he will not be lazy. Tan Min: Although Tian Liang is now a celebrity and a handsome guy in everyone's eyes, in my mind, he was cuter when he was crying when he was a child! Tian Liang is always smiling now, but when he was a child, he was very crying, crying every now and then.As long as it is not well trained, or When the other team members were criticized, he would look at you with tears in his eyes, his face flushed with self-blame and shame, which made me and Zhang Ting very angry at first, but when we saw him, we couldn’t help it. So sad, I can't bear to criticize him anymore.He loves to cry because he is so strong. The last time he cried was in the first half of 1995, during a training session before he left for the Canadian and American grand prix.At that time, he probably felt that he was not in good condition, and that no matter how he danced, he couldn't meet Zhang Ting's requirements, so he sat down by the pool and sulked, and couldn't get up for a long time.Zhang Ting asked him what was wrong and urged him to continue training, but he didn't even raise his head, just sat there motionless, silent, "playing cool".Zhang Ting was furious all of a sudden, rushed over and slapped him while talking: "You kid has not become the world champion yet, you are starting to put on airs?! What's so great about going abroad to participate in Canadian and American competitions? You don't practice every now and then. Did you?!" After being slapped in public, Tian Liang was stunned, raised his head and looked at Zhang Ting in surprise, tears welled up in his eyes.The coaches next to him "helped": "Well played! It's time to teach this kid a lesson, he will lose his temper before he gets results..." I don't know how Tian Liang figured it out.That night, Tian Liang found Zhang Ting and apologized solemnly, saying that he didn't mean to put on airs, but he just couldn't figure out why he couldn't dance well, and was sulking at himself.Zhang Ting also regrets his impulsiveness on the training ground, he has never played a player.Once the master and apprentice communicated in this way, everything was fine immediately.However, Tian Liang admitted later that thanks to Zhang Ting, he stopped his "arrogance" in time, otherwise he might develop the bad habit of "playing big names". On the eve of the Sydney Olympic Games, the Diving Grand Prix was held in Xi'an, Shaanxi.In the big and small competitions that year, Tian Liang almost never failed in the single platform, but he lost to Hu Jia for the first time at the gate of Xi'an.This made him very unconvinced.After the farewell party, I asked him to go back to his room on time to rest and prepare for his performance in Hong Kong the next day.But when I did a random check, I found that he was not in the room at all, and the other team members were also "missing".I was very angry. Before the Olympics, Tian Liang couldn't bear the loss in such a small competition. How could he become a big player if he didn't take care of his body and pay attention to rest? !Later, I heard that he went outside to play pool with other teammates.He went to perform in Hong Kong the next day, and I didn't see him.Still, he knew he was wrong, and he knew I was mad at him for not taking time off and discipline.He doesn't have a mobile phone (Zhang Ting and I have never agreed to let him buy a mobile phone, for fear that he would be distracted), so he called my mobile phone and home number in the hotel where he stayed in Hong Kong, and all the places where long-distance calls were available, trying to confess to me.He made hundreds of phone calls, but I deliberately refused to answer them at first, letting him reflect on himself.In the end, my son couldn't stand it anymore, so he interceded for him: "Mom, you can answer Brother Tian Liang's call, everyone knows he was wrong, so give him a chance." These two incidents may be the only two special "education" for Tian Liang by our wife, or the only two "rebellious behaviors" in his adolescence. Other boys experienced smoking, drinking, staying up late playing video games, contradicting The elders never happened to him.He is very sensible, strong, and disciplined, and we don't need to say much.After becoming famous, Tian Liang never "puts on airs". Whether it is outsiders, children in the team, or partners who grew up together, he is always polite.