Almighty Coach

Philip's tone became much more modest. He was like a transfer student who had just entered a new school, and he introduced himself: "The main event I practice is the 100-meter sprint, and occasionally I also practice the 200-meter sprint. I need to run 100 meters now. It took 13.35 seconds, and I hope that through training, I can improve this result to less than 13 seconds."

"According to your T43 level, if you can run under 13 seconds, you have a chance to participate in the international competition." Dai Li said.

Running 100 meters in 13 seconds is not even considered as a third-level athlete in China. Many middle school students run faster than him, but for a disabled athlete who has both feet amputated, the speed of 100 meters in less than 13 seconds is already an international disability. The level of the People's Games. In the T43 class, the 100-meter world record is only 12.20 seconds.

"Let me see how talented he is first." Dai Li detected Philip.

"For 100 meters, the talent is A-, for 200 meters, the talent is A, for 400 meters, the talent is A+!" Dai Li gasped suddenly, the result was beyond his expectation.

"A-level talent, world champion talent! It's a pity that a disabled person should be A-level talent. He has such a good sprint talent, but he has no feet!" Dai Li thought with great regret.

The few disabled athletes who came earlier were generally D-level talents, not even a C-level talent.

After all, the American athlete selection and training system is different from that in China. Domestic athletes are selected one in a hundred. Sports schools, city teams, provincial teams, and national teams are trained and selected layer by layer. In the end, those who stand out must be outstanding talents. Those who cannot be selected should change careers as soon as possible, so don't waste time. Therefore, those who can become athletes in China must have some athletic talent.

American athletes rely on their own money to train, and the coaches don’t care if you are talented or not, and provide training services after receiving the money. Therefore, although there are many people engaged in sports in the United States, the proportion of people who are really talented is not many. There are only a small number of people who are really suitable for athletes.

A-level sprinting talent is rare among American athletes, but this Philip in front of him, although he has A-level sprinting talent, has lost his feet.

Dai Li's eyes showed disappointment and regret. He was sure that if Philip was a normal person, then he could train Philip to become a world champion!

Philip didn't pay attention to Dai Li's expression, he took out a pair of semi-curved black sheets from his backpack.

"Is this a sports prosthesis?" Dai Li recognized it.

"The leopard-style blade prosthesis is also the most advanced sports prosthesis in the world. It weighs 8 pounds. There are 80 layers of carbon fiber in the thickest part of the prosthesis, and there are running shoe soles at the bottom. I specially ordered it from an equipment company for the disabled in Iceland. , It cost me a total of 25,000 US dollars, and more than half of the disability compensation I received from the insurance company was spent on prosthetics." Philip said.

"Then why did you lose your feet?" Dai Li paused, and then said: "Don't get me wrong, I'm not inquiring about your privacy, I need to evaluate your situation in detail, and then formulate specific training plan."

Philip nodded and introduced his own experience: "I have liked various sports since I was a child, such as rugby, basketball, tennis, boxing, golf, and I also like riding motorcycles. My previous ambition was to be a rugby player. I I was also the main force of proofreading in high school, but after graduating from high school, no university was willing to provide me with a scholarship. For my family conditions, the university tuition was too expensive, so I chose to join the army instead of going to university. Because I can apply for a tuition subsidy after joining the army, with this part of the subsidy, I can afford to go to college after I retire.”

"However, one year after I joined the army, I was sent to Iraq. You know, in Iraq, we were not popular with the locals. Even if we stayed in the 'green zone', we had to worry about flying over our heads. I was more unlucky and stepped on a mine during an operation. Fortunately, it was a homemade mine, not a professional anti-personnel mine, otherwise, I would not only lose my feet, but I would have died .”

"Then I returned to the United States. I received disability insurance from the insurance company, and the government also gave me monthly subsidies for disabled soldiers. I used the disability insurance money to buy a set of ordinary prostheses, and then trained to walk. At that time, I naively thought that as long as I could walk like a normal person, I could live a life like a normal person."

"But when I was able to walk normally, I still couldn't find a formal job. I didn't go to college, and people who didn't go to college can only do some physical work, but as a disabled person, I couldn't do it. Doing heavy manual labor, even if I want to, employers will not hire me. Employers will worry that labor protection organizations and disability protection organizations will accuse them of abusing disabled people. They don’t want to ask for trouble, so I can only fight Odd jobs."

"I joined the army for a better life. I didn't want to be at the bottom of society. However, when I lost my feet and left the army, I realized that I was still at the bottom of society. I didn't have a job and relied on odd jobs and collars. Living on relief money. At that time, I was very decadent. I thought that my whole life would be like this, until one day, I met Johnny."

"Johnny was my first officer in Iraq, an army sergeant. He was burned by a petrol bomb. During treatment, the doctor gave him morphine, and he became addicted to drugs and began to drink heavily, so when I When I saw him, he had already become homeless, sleeping on the street, and he bought alcohol for the disabled military subsidies provided by the government, and he only lived by going to charity organizations to receive food every day. Really very It's hard to imagine that the heroic sergeant on the battlefield turned into a drug addict and drunk!"

"The moment I saw Johnny, I kind of saw my future, and I started to get scared, I was afraid that I would be Johnny too, a homeless drunk, so I thought, I absolutely can't Losing myself, I should do something meaningful. I planned to try to be an amateur athlete, so I made a special trip to Iceland and ordered this set of leopard blade prosthetics."

"At first, I planned to play rugby. I joined a rugby club, but the confrontational nature of this sport didn't seem to be suitable for people like me who have lost both feet. My sports prosthetics are very hard and it is easy for people Injuries, including myself, in a game, I was injured and twisted my knee, I started running to recover, at that time, the coach of the club thought I had a talent for sprinting, so he suggested me to take part in track and field training, and then I started to try Practice sprinting."

Dai Li nodded silently. He felt a little sympathetic to what happened to Philip. If it wasn't for the war, Philip might be able to complete his military service safely, get that special tuition fee, and then go to a university and find a decent job after graduation. Work.

After adjusting his mood, Dai Li said, "The difference between you and ordinary athletes is that your legs and ankles are all amputated, which means you don't have feet. Feet are the most important weight-bearing and supporting organs of the human body. Feet can also adjust the balance of the human body, I think your prosthetics can't replace your feet anyway."

"And as a sprinter, you still lack a very important organ, that is the Achilles tendon! For a sprinter, the explosive power of kicking the ground mainly comes from the Achilles tendon, so without the Achilles tendon, your explosive power will be lower. Severely affected. If I'm not mistaken, your start will be very slow. I don't know if this leopard blade prosthesis of yours will give you extra elasticity, but it is not part of your body after all, so What I can be sure of is that after you start running, you have to spend 20 to 30 meters to find an adapted running rhythm."

"Next, let's talk about other aspects. First, let's talk about the calf. When you walk, the force on the calf is also different..."

"And your thighs, when you're walking..."

"Arm swing should be your main way of maintaining balance, but..."

Dai Li went on to describe Philip's shortcomings one by one. Philip's expression gradually became serious, then surprised, and finally admiring.

"Coach Li got it all right. He can deduce so many things just by seeing my prosthetic limb! No wonder even Aaron Hampton came to him for training."

At this time, Philip had no contempt for Dai Li at all. All the points-reducing items of Chinese in sports were all thrown aside by Philip, and Philip wished to enter training immediately.

...

Philip started training, but soon he discovered that Dai Li's training not only involved physical fitness, but also included some training content of sprinting skills, and Li Dai's training skills in sprinting were no less than that of professional track and field coaches .

"My student once won the 100m and 200m champions in the Asian Games." Dai Li explained in a slightly ostentatious tone.

Among the sports games on all continents in the world, the track and field events of the Asian Games should be the lowest level. Compared with Europe, America and even Africa, the gold content of the Asian Games sprint champion is obviously the lowest.

But in a place like the United States, it is easy to find a job if you have a skill. The more talented you are, the more precious you are. Coaches with a little achievement will be sought after by athletes. Enough to call yourself a high-level coach.

"Coach Li turned out to be the champion coach of the Asian Games. It seems that I really earned it!" Thinking of this, Philip tentatively asked: "Your coach, can you be my coach? I mean, not only In terms of physical training, there is also sprinting.”

"No problem, but I don't have a long enough runway here." Dai Li thought for a while, and then said, "If you don't mind, you can draw a temporary runway in the open space outside the training hall."

"Great!" Philip immediately looked excited, but the next second, he suddenly remembered something else.

"Well, Coach Li, there is another problem. I am still receiving relief subsidies, so I still have no money to pay you." Philip said with an embarrassed face.

"I didn't intend to charge you either!" Dai Li laughed as he said.

However, Philip shook his head: "Coach Li, why don't I owe it first, and when I have a sponsor, I will definitely return the money to you with interest!"

...

After all, Philip has an A-level sprint talent. Although he lost his legs, when the training started, his performance began to improve rapidly.

two weeks later.

On the temporary track outside the training hall, Dai Li looked at the electronic timer in his hand with a blank expression on his face.

"11 seconds 99, he broke through the 12-second barrier, did I remember wrong!" Dai Li muttered to himself.

Manual timing is about 0.2 seconds faster than electronic timing, so if the manual timing of 11 seconds 99 is replaced by electronic timing, it is equivalent to 12 seconds 19. Although the 0.2-second error between manual timing and electronic timing is not absolutely accurate, the error is not too large.

However, Dai Li knew that in Philip's T43 class, the 100-meter world record is only 12.20 seconds, which means that after just two weeks of training, Philip is capable of breaking the world record of the disabled T43 class!

"I used to think that training disabled athletes for free was a loss-making business, but now it seems that I have found a treasure!" Dai Li sighed softly in his heart.