Chapter 284: Dai Li’s Yoga Class
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Da Liu was in a bad mood.
In the day training, Da Liu practiced with Feng Zhu. Although Feng Zhu gave him five points in every game, Da Liu still didn't win after several games.
Da Liu knew that he was not as excellent as Feng Zhu, but he didn't expect that the gap between them was so huge.
As an athlete, Da Liu naturally knew that effort and achievement were inseparable. Everyone knew that Feng Zhu trained overtime every day, so everyone expected him to achieve good results.
Da Liu wanted to make progress as well. He decided to learn from Feng Zhu, and he hoped Feng Zhu could teach him something after training.
Therefore, after supper, Da Liu took a bath, put on clean sportswear, and came to the training room.
The light is on. Definitely someone is in it. It must be Feng Zhu training inside. Da Liu stretched up his neck and looked into the room.
However, Da Liu was surprised to see Dai Li and Feng Zhu lying on the ground and slowly making strange motions.
What are they doing? Da Liu looked at them in surprising, with his eyes wide open.
It seems they are doing yoga! Those two are doing yoga! Two men are practicing yoga! Da Liu concluded, after watching for a while.
The two men were doing yoga on the floor. They seemed to be so uncoordinated!
Standing outside the door for several minutes, he didn't enter.
Suddenly, someone behind patted Da Liu on the shoulder.
"Da Liu, what are you looking at?" Da Liu was familiar with the voice. It was just his teammate Xiaolong Gao.
"Hiss, keep quiet!" Da Liu gestured with a finger across his lips, and then pointed Dai Li and Feng Zhu inside.
"Coach Li and Feng Zhu! They are doing... yoga! Am I seeing it wrong? They are doing yoga, right?" Xiaolong Gao was in great shock.
"It's yoga." Da Liu nodded.
"Why do they practice yoga? Two men!" Xiaolong Gao asked.
"How should I know?" Da Liu shook his head.
They both knew that yoga had nearly zero effect on high-level professional players. Therefore, they didn't understand why Dai Li and Feng Zhu practiced yoga.
Minutes later, another three athletes came over to practice. But when they saw Dai Li and Feng Zhu in the training room, they all stopped before the door simultaneously, looking at them in surprise.
It was weird enough for high-level professional athletes to take yoga as training, not to mention two men doing this.
A dozen minutes later, Dai Li and Feng Zhu ended their yoga only to find five people standing at the door already.
"Da Liu? Xiaolong Gao? Are you here for overtime training? Why don't you come in?" Feng Zhu asked.
"We..." Looking at each other, Da Liu and Xiaolong Gao didn't what to say for a while.
But Feng Zhu started to explain it anyway. "Coach Li is leading me in doing yoga! It can improve body flexibility. Will you have a try?"
"It's yoga indeed!" They were standing at the door and looking at each other with shocked expressions once again.
"Da Liu, even if yoga could improve the flexibility of your body, it should not be as effective as regular training for professional athletes, right?" someone asked in a low voice.
"It should be so." Da Liu nodded slightly.
"Why is Feng Zhu still doing yoga? Isn't that a waste of time?" that person asked again.
"It works more or less," Da Liu went on not-so-confidently. "Coach Li is a high-level coach. I don't think he can teach something useless. His teaching must be effective."
"Let's try it too!" a young guy behind said eagerly.
This proposal attracted many people's interest. After all, Feng Zhu was a good example.
As the strongest player on the ping pong team of Hanbei Province, Feng Zhu definitely could be a representative. His willingness to practice yoga worked like an invisible advertisement.
"I'll have a try." Da Liu nodded.
"You go and try it. I'll not. Yoga is for common people. There exists no effect on us athletes at all." Xiaolong Gao shook his head.
"I think so. We are professional athletes. There are so many targeted training projects! We needn't yoga at all!" another person said, agreeing with Xiaolong Gao.
...
Da Liu and other two athletes joined the yoga training.
After a week of training, Dai Li's yoga actions were much more skillful, and he was not like a beginner anymore. At least, Da Liu didn't doubt it through his actions.
However, Da Liu was still skeptical about the effect of yoga. As a professional athlete, he didn't think yoga was effective at all. Had it not been for Feng Zhu's leading role, Da Liu would not have tried yoga.
The next morning, Da Liu encountered the same situation with Feng Zhu.
"Da Liu, if it hurts, it would be better to just call it out. You don't need to put up with it," the coach said, as his stretching action loosened slightly.
"Doesn't hurt. Just a little sore at the beginning," Da Liu answered.
"Just a little sore?" the coach asked, surprised. "Ordinarily, if you were stretched this far, you would have streamed out in pain. Now I will tear harder."
Da Liu became aware of the change when the coach reminded him.
It can't be the yoga worked! Da Liu thought incredulously.
...
When Feng Zhu entered the training room, he found the three players who joined the training last night already waiting there. Apparently, they had tasted the benefits of yoga.
"Da Liu, you came earlier than me!" Feng Zhu said.
"Well..." Da Liu felt embarrassed and asked, "When will Coach Li come?"
"Maybe in 20 minutes," Feng Zhu said. He got close to Da Liu and asked, "Yoga worked, right?"
Da Liu nodded seriously, "If I hadn't experienced it myself, I wouldn't believe yoga could have such an effect on professional athletes."
"Coach Li said his yoga was specially designed for athletes. Other people's yoga may not be so effective! You are just beginning to practice now. You can feel how great Coach Li is when you train longer," Feng Zhu said confidently.
...
Three days later.
"Bang!"
Da Liu managed to score one point by an extreme retrieve.
"Nice!" Xiaolong Gao, his opponent, complimented him involuntarily.
"Da Liu, you are so vigorous these days. These two days, we have practiced for dozens of games and I lost them all," Xiaolong Gao said, a little unsatisfied.
"Who told you not to do yoga!" Da Liu pursed his lips.
"Yoga? You wouldn't tell me that you became so vigorous because you practiced yoga, right?" Xiaolong Gao said jokingly.
However, Da Liu didn't mean to joke and he nodded seriously. "Of course it's because of yoga! I wouldn't practice it every day if it didn't work. Since I began practicing yoga, my skills have been more coordinated than before. I can achieve hard skills without distorting them."
Xiaolong Gao still didn't believe him. In his subconsciousness, he still felt that yoga with such little exercise had no effect on professional athletes at all.
Although Xiaolong Gao didn't believe in yoga, others did.
Some athletes chose to join the training when they found out that Feng Zhu, Da Liu, and other athletes trained yoga every night. When they felt the effects of yoga on their flexibility and vigor, they came to the training and did yoga every day.
After all, humans are social animals with group psychology. Especially under the domestic system, professional athletes were always in groups, such as in sports schools when they were young and in sports teams when they grew up. Even a person with unique individuality would be ironed out and form to the habits of the community.
It was like in a university dormitory. If three of four people in a dormitory were playing one type of game, the last one would definitely play it soon. Similarly, if three of them went out to play basketball on weekends, the last one would serve as a stopgap even if he didn't play well.
Therefore, others chose to join the yoga training when more and more people joined it. Even Xiaolong Gao, who didn't believe in the effects of yoga, also joined the training at last.
When they felt the effects, they would never quit. Dai Li's yoga class was gradually expanding.
...
"Coach Li!"
"Coach Li, there you are!"
"Coach Li, when will we start straining?"
As soon as Dai Li entered the training room, he was surrounded by his students immediately.
Nowadays, Dai Li's yoga class had attracted all the athletes on the ping pong team. Every night, dozens of athletes did yoga following Dai Li. It was spectacular. Someone walking by might think it was a yoga class.
Dai Li felt a sense of achievement when he saw so many athletes already waiting for him in the training room.
As a coach, it was obviously a sign of success to be admired by athletes. Additionally, the entire team had been attracted here, which made him feel complacent.
As a coach, I should be satisfied with what I have achieved! Dai Li smiled involuntarily. However, he always felt something was missing.
Yes, the results. It would be perfect if we could achieve a championship! Looking at these athletes in front of him longingly, he knew that this goal was not far away, because the National Table Tennis Championship was coming soon!