Sports Medicine Master System

Inside the sports academy, many people were running toward the basketball arena.

Near the dormitories, Sun Haiping, who was wearing a red and white tracksuit under a black cotton jacket and was slightly balding, called out to a few acquaintances rushing past.

"Old Lin, where are you all headed?" Sun Haiping asked.

A middle-aged man turned his head to look at Sun Haiping but didn’t break stride. He called out, "Old Sun, are you free? Hurry to the basketball arena. An expert from the United States is here talking about American training methods. Dean Yao told us all to go. You should take the opportunity to listen in."

"An expert from the United States?" Sun Haiping paused for a moment, then immediately fell in behind them.

The group jogged toward the basketball arena. As they ran, Old Lin said, "By the way, how’s your star pupil, Liu Xiang, recovering from his injury? This expert from the United States isn’t just a training specialist; he’s also one of the world’s top doctors. Why don’t you talk to Director Yao and see if he can take a look at Liu Xiang?"

"He’s a doctor, too?" Sun Haiping was taken aback.

He had a star pupil, Liu Xiang, who had only joined the National Team in the last two years. He was exceptionally talented and had even won the first track and field gold medal at last year’s University Games. He had been preparing for this year’s Switzerland Athletics Grand Prix, but an unexpected injury, coupled with the upcoming New Year, brought him back to his hometown of Shanghai to recuperate.

"He’s fine, it’s nothing serious," Sun Haiping said, but inwardly, he was starting to have his doubts.

While on the National Team, an orthopedic surgeon from the National Sports Administration had examined Liu Xiang and said that the calcaneus bones in both his feet were more prominent than a normal person’s.

Liu Xiang was a hurdler. The starting motion already puts immense pressure on the area where the Achilles tendon connects to the calcaneus. Because of his prominent heel bones, his Achilles tendons were stretched further, subjecting them to even greater pressure. The doctor had also said that if his training intensity was too high, his Achilles tendons would definitely develop problems.

Unfortunately, the condition was congenital. It couldn’t be cured, only managed.

The facts proved the doctor right. Although Liu Xiang was still young, only 19 this year, he had started to experience frequent minor issues with heel pain over the past two years.

So when he heard that the visitor was a world-class doctor, Sun Haiping couldn’t help but think, ’I wonder if he has a way to deal with this underlying risk.’

Lost in thought, the group arrived at the basketball arena.

A large crowd had already gathered, forming tight circles three deep and completely mobbing the area.

Sun Haiping and the others managed to squeeze their way to the front just in time to hear Li Yaoming translating for Chen Yu.

"According to our research and experience, we can confirm that while basketball players have low requirements for aerobic exercise during training and games, their need for anaerobic exercise is much higher. However, their gas metabolism during training and games shows characteristics typical of aerobic exercise."

"This can easily lead to deviations in physical conditioning. In our view, the ratio of anaerobic to aerobic exercise should be 70/30, with a greater emphasis on anaerobic exercise that primarily trains static strength, explosiveness, and muscle power. Your training regimen, however, clearly has a higher proportion of aerobic exercise."

Chen Yu looked toward Li Quping. He had seen their training program and noticed this immediately.

The Eastern Team did far too much aerobic training, focused on running. They were constantly doing long-distance endurance runs, which made up a very high proportion of their conditioning.

Li Quping frowned thoughtfully. This was how it had always been done in China.

In Li Quping’s mind, a basketball game was long, with players running countless meters back and forth. To build stamina, you obviously had to practice running and endurance to become faster and run longer.

He never expected that someone like Chen Yu would argue for a lower proportion of aerobic training.

’Those NBA players on TV can really run, too.’

Suppressing his doubts, Li Quping didn’t ask any questions and continued to listen.

Chen Yu continued, "Next is the training cycle. The physical conditioning plans for the off-season and the in-season should be completely different. During the season, the focus should be on three phases: conditioning conversion, maintenance, and recovery. In the off-season, the priority should be on improving physical attributes based on the player’s condition and position."

"Furthermore, your training methods are too uniform. As I said earlier, rehabilitation should be tailored to the individual. The same goes for training."

"You should implement different training based on the player’s position. For example, an inside center should focus on strength and explosive power training. Forwards, who do a lot of quick stops and starts, should focus on eccentric and plyometric muscle exercises to improve their explosiveness."

"Finally, there are the perimeter guards. In addition to needing explosiveness, they should also focus on body composition, flexibility, and training in the coronal plane. In other words, the training emphasis should differ for each position on the court. In this respect, you haven’t made enough of a distinction."

Yao Songping nodded repeatedly as he listened. He glanced at an assistant coach next to him and asked if he was recording everything.

The assistant coach, holding a small DV camera, nodded vigorously.

"Old Li, what do you think?" another assistant coach asked Li Quping in a low voice.

Li Quping’s expression was serious. He said in a deep voice, "He’s very impressive. He really knows his stuff. And their research in this area is much more thorough than ours."

In China, the understanding was simple: training was just training. They hadn’t thought about it so deeply or conducted any systematic research.

Just then, Chen Yu spoke again. "And now for the last problem, which is also the biggest problem: your training intensity is too low."

As soon as he said this, Li Quping’s expression changed slightly.

’Low training intensity?’

’Is he kidding?’ Among coaches in China, Li Quping considered himself one of the strictest. Many times, he truly trained his players to death, to the point where they complained endlessly and acted like they were going to die.

Yet here in front of Chen Yu, he was being told his training intensity was low.

"Dr. Chen, I think our training intensity is quite high," Li Quping ventured, trying to rebut. "A lot of times, they can’t even get up after practice is over."

Chen Yu shook his head. "No, the intensity is still too low. As for not being able to get up after training, that’s more an indication of incorrect training methods. You’re not using their limited energy on the right exercises. In our view, even when doing high-intensity limit training, a player should feel very tired and that their energy has been depleted, but they should also clearly feel the effects of the training. They should never be in a state where they’re collapsed on the floor, unable to get up."

The training intensity in the NBA is by no means low.

Like last year with the Magic, Pleasance trained Monty and the others to death, but you never saw them so tired after practice that they couldn’t move.

The correct way to push physical limits is to repeatedly test the edge of those limits, eventually leading to a breakthrough and improvement.

Li Quping didn’t speak, lost in thought.

After finishing his translation, Li Yaoming thought for a moment and said, "Coach Li, I think Dr. Chen might be right. I remember when Bartel went to the United States for a tryout last year, the media reported that he couldn’t keep up with their training intensity at all. Isn’t that the gap right there?"

Yao Songping also said thoughtfully, "I think what he means is that our so-called ’high intensity’ only looks high. In reality, our effort is misdirected and not being applied to the right places."

You only have so much energy. If you just run blindly until you’re about to collapse, while they are able to train many different areas in a targeted way, the results on the court will still be inferior to theirs.

Li Quping also had a realization. "To put it bluntly, it’s a problem with our training methods."

The training methods of a provincial team and the National Team are on completely different levels. A lot of the time, they were just training blindly, with limited improvement in performance.

Chen Yu didn’t know what they were discussing. He said, "I’m sure you’ll say there are differences between ethnicities, but I believe that even if there are differences, they aren’t that significant. With scientific training and sufficient nutritional support, everyone should be able to achieve ideal training results."

"How about this? I’ll give you a practical demonstration."

Although Chen Yu wasn’t directly in charge of the team’s training, he monitored the entire process. His level of expertise was truly no lower than that of Nelson and the others.

"That would be for the best," Li Quping said eagerly.

Talk was cheap. He’d have to see the actual results for himself.

"You," Chen Yu said, pointing to a player on the court wearing a number 6 jersey.

He was about 2 meters tall, a standard build for a small forward.

And a small forward’s training incorporates both the strength training of a center and the flexibility of a perimeter guard.

The number 6 player was named Shan Weiguo. Suddenly being called out by Chen Yu, he walked forward nervously.

Li Quping made a point of reminding him to listen carefully to the instructions and train seriously.

Chen Yu glanced at the equipment on site and said, "Normally, a training session should last about two hours. Our arrangement would typically be about one hour of individual training, followed by one hour of tactical training. I’ll talk about the individual training now."

As he spoke, Chen Yu directed Shan Weiguo to pick up a jump rope for a 30-second warm-up.

"In a one-hour session, we might schedule thirty to forty different exercises targeting different training goals."

Shan Weiguo barely felt anything after the 30-second jump rope warm-up. Then, under Chen Yu’s direction, he did a set of 10 resistance band squats, followed by resistance band arm exercises, 10 reps on each side.

Just as Shan Weiguo thought it was just going to be these simple exercises, Chen Yu suddenly had him do three-point shooting drills from the corner.

After taking 10 shots, he was back to jumping rope for 30 seconds, followed by more resistance band work: lateral squats with the band. Chen Yu was using a single resistance band in all sorts of creative ways.

After finishing two resistance band exercises, he moved on to three-point shooting drills from the 45-degree angle. Then it seemed like the cycle repeated, and he was back to jumping rope again.

But this time, the difficulty of the jump rope exercise was increased: he had to walk while jumping.

Next was more resistance band work, but it shifted from the initial full-body exercises to isolated single-leg and arm exercises.

The duration of each exercise wasn’t long, but there were many of them. At first, Shan Weiguo found it easy, but as he continued, he immediately began to feel the strain.

So many people were crowded around the court, most of them coaches from various sports. As they watched intently, they all began to notice what was happening.

"The training is so detailed," Li Quping murmured.

The assistant coach beside him nodded in deep agreement. "And it’s not just detailed. The intensity is constantly increasing, moving from general to specific, and it’s interspersed with skill training. It’s all very targeted."

This type of training continued for about half an hour, then transitioned from static to dynamic. He began various spot-up shooting drills from different positions, with skills mixed in—from jump shots to hooks on both sides and turn-around shots. He practiced almost every technique a small forward needed, with free-throw practice interspersed throughout.

Most importantly, there were almost no rest periods between exercises. As a result, toward the end, Shan Weiguo’s form started to break down, and he was panting heavily.

He felt that this was even more exhausting than one of his normal training sessions.

"Exactly one hour." When the training ended and Chen Yu instructed Shan Weiguo to stop and then taught him how to cool down, Li Quping glanced at his watch. One hour and three minutes. It was, for all intents and purposes, a one-hour workout.

But within that hour, he had counted clearly: Chen Yu had led him through a full 38 training segments.

"Impressive."

Li Quping couldn’t help but exclaim. He had seen it clearly. The intensity of each individual segment wasn’t high, but when combined with almost no rest, the overall training intensity skyrocketed.

No wonder Chen Yu said their training intensity was low.

"By the way, how do you handle your players’ diets?" Chen Yu stopped and asked the group.

Physical conditioning is inseparable from energy support.

In other words, diet.

Only by eating well and eating right can one have the energy to train and improve.