Chapter 301: Have Some Music!
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
It took Dai Li several days to finally perform the whole series of Warming-Up Square Dance well. At the time when the main force of National Ping-Pong Team came back from Sweden, Dai Li had already mastered the Warming-Up Square Dance.
The next key point was, how to persuade those world-top ping-pong players to accept this square dance. Early morning, at five o'clock, the sun hadn't rose yet, and coldness filled in the air. Dai Li had arrived at the training field. At that time, some early bird athletes had already been doing morning exercises for a while.
When the workload was small, the national ping-pong team players usually arrived at the training field after six o'clock in the morning to start training. Coaches arrived half an hour later. Usually, head coaches all arrived at around seven. Fitness coaches could come to the training center after breakfast.
But, in a group, there was always someone who worked harder. So, even at the super early time when Dai Li arrived, somebody had already began training.
Similar as when one was studying at school, there must be one or two students, who went to the classroom early for morning reading. They might not be the best students in the class, but they were surely the most hardworking ones. Whenever you turned to them, they were focusing on studying.
Among students, few were willing to study from dawn to night everyday. The majority were satisfied with having classes right on time. But among professional athletes, especially those who reached a high level, like those national ping-pong players, hard work and diligence were required qualities.
It had become a part of the daily routine for many professionals to train at five, before sunrise. And if some days, they lingered in bed till seven or eight o'clock, they would feel uncomfortable. Especially athletes who had outstanding competence and high talents, as well as diligence, such as Anshan Wang.
Anshan Wang didn't play the peacock, as he dominated the rank of first place in the world for a long time. On the contrary, he was more hardworking and diligent than most athletes. Such was the case today, as when Dai Li arrived at the training center around five, Wang was already there.
I'm quite early today, but didn't expect to see Anshan Wang having already begun training. Well, athletes' performances are indeed closely associated with their efforts. Anshan Wang is worthy of being the world's No.1!
Dai Li looked at the sky, and sighed in his heart.
As a person with S+ talent, who was willing to put forth more efforts, Wang's achievements were obviously not obtained simply by luck and coincidence.
"Coach Li, you are early today!" Anshan Wang noticed Dai Li's arrival.
As a fitness coach, it was not necessary for Dai Li to arrive early at the training center, like head coaches did. Hence, Dai Li's early arrival surprised Anshan Wang.
Dai Li hesitated, then asked, "Have you warmed up yet?"
"I just exercised a little bit, but haven't started my formal warm-up yet," said Anshan Wang.
"Then shall we?" asked Dai Li.
"Sure!" Anshan Wang answered without hesitation. With the assistance from a professional fitness coach, the warm-up would be more effective than if he did it just by himself. Moreover, Dai Li's coaching ability had already convinced Anshan Wang.
"We do some simple exercises first, and have basic warm-up practice." Dai Li glanced at Anshan Wang diffidently, and asked, "Shall we do it together?"
Anshan Wang nodded. He didn't think much of it, after all, as it was familiar to see coaches guiding athletes to warm up.
"Alright then, follow me!" Dai Li stood in front of Anshan Wang, and began to perform the Warm-Up Square Dance.
Although they were doing square dance movements, Dai Li still shouted out normal beats.
"One two three four, five six seven eight. Two two three four, five six seven eight..."
...
Anshan Wang began to play ping-pong when he was a child, after being a professional athlete for years, from sport school to provincial team to the national team, so he couldn't be more familiar with warming up exercises. But today, Anshan Wang noticed, Dai Li's "Warming Up Exercise" was completely different from what he had ever done before.
What's this? I have never done such an exercise before. It looks strange....
Anshan Wang followed Dai Li's actions, filled with confusion. Since Anshan Wang had never experienced Square Dance before, nor did he pay attention to things other than ping-pong, due to his tight schedules of training and competitions, he didn't realize that Dai Li was actually taking him to do a square dance.
Regular warm-ups contained many muscle-stretch actions, such as stretching the thigh muscle, crus muscle, and backside muscle, which all had high probabilities of being hurt during highly intensive training. Besides muscle stretching, the rest was about activating joints, such as shoulder joints, hip joints, knee joints, ankle joints, etc.
However, Dai Li's square dance looked like the body was exercising, but the actions were totally different from regular warm-ups. Luckily, Anshan Wang was a modest and reserved person, which meant that he always did as coaches said. So, even though he was filled with questions, he didn't say anything or pause for a second, but kept following Dai Li's actions. If Wang had been a more outgoing athlete, with individuality, like Pengfei Cui, he might have already stopped and figured it out with Dai Li.
...
At this moment, Dai Li felt the actions didn't go smoothly. Square Dance was a coherent dance, so if it was performed with regular beats, like "one two three four, five six seven eight", the original sequencing movements would be broken into loosely divided fragments, which often caused some problems on overall coordination. That was why those grannies danced with stirring music, rather than dancing with digital beats, like doing broadcasting gymnastics.
This can't work, as I have no feelings for it. Square dance must be performed with music. Now, Dai Li finally understood why those square dancers always danced with loud music. Square dance without music was no longer square dance.
Dai Li stopped, then turned to Anshan Wang while he took out his phone. "We just got up, and we are both still a little bit sleepy, so let me play some energetic music to wake us up."
The background music was ready in his phone. Anshan Wang nodded indifferently. Based on his trust of Dai Li, he didn't think much on this.
...
Dai Li and Anshan Wang's square dance startled the other athletes. As the "big brother" in the national ping-pong team, Anshan Wang's every move was under much scrutiny.
"What are Coach Li and Anshan Wang doing?"
"They are warming up, aren't they?"
"The actions are strange. I have never seen such warm-up exercises before, have you?"
"Neither have I. Why does it look like square dance?"
"Square dance? How could it be possible?! Coach Li is a professional fitness coach, and we are professional athletes, so why would he teach us square dance?"
Hardly had his voice faded away, when Dai Li pressed the "play" button.
The music started out loud!
"This does sound like Square Dance music!" someone suddenly said.
A few athletes stared speechless at each other...