We had our meeting with Mr. Sun this morning; it was really more of a debriefing than anything else. He suggested that on our next trip, we would work with only Olympic champions. The problem that poses is that there are so many Olympic and World champions walking around this place. Its unbelievable! Our meeting lasted about two hours and when we finished the meeting, it was time for lunch and another meeting with the director of all the National teams. Today they took us to a Japanese steak house where they cooked on the table. I was excited at first until I saw some of the food coming out to be cooked.
They did serve us Kobe beef, which is very expensive. I believe the cost of the meat was around like 30 yen per ounce. It was really good and I enjoyed it. This lunch lasted a couple of hours and when we were through, I headed over to the training center for my 2:00 session with the high jumper. I started him off with a resistance dynamic warm up which consisted of me having him wear a belt and I hooked two cords to him to speed up the process. I then had him do the same exercises with the shackles that I had done with him a couple of days earlier. We then went into a lateral resistance movement drill, working on the push off and drive phase of his jumping. I then hooked him up with a make shift vertimax that I have developed to be taken on the road. I had him do different types of jumping, fast explosive jumps, quarter jumps, negatives, and fast bouncing and explosive jumps. We always finish with a set of contrast jumps. He LOVED it!
His coach and a couple of track athletes had come to watch and film. I asked them if it made sense to them and they all said, “absolutely!” Again, my problem can be adapted for any sport or movement in that sport.
His session lasted about an hour and a half and he was drenched. We finished his session with a long cool down stretch. Next time I’m back in China, his coach wants me to work with all his jumpers and throwers. I can’t wait!
I finished off my day by working with the men’s weightlifting team. I love all the athletes that I get to work with however, the weightlifters have a special place in my heart. I have been doing strength training since I was a very young man and have followed the strong men from Paul Anderson to the current world and Olympic champions. The Chinese head coach has trained more Olympic champions than any weightlifting coach alive today and it was really an honor to get to hang out and work with his team!
I showed him and some of his lifters some eccentric loading of the quads to strengthen and stabilize the hip region. Dr. Bob had identified some areas that needed to be addressed. The strength athletes were eager to add these exercises to their training regiments.
We spent about three hours working with multiple athletes and I had so much fun hanging out and interacting with the weightlifters. They reminded me of our NFL players with there pushing, shoving, flicking, joking, and generally having fun with each other. I felt right at home.
We had dinner and said our goodbyes to all the staff, I can’t believe it’s already time to go home. My flight will leave at 4:00 pm from Beijing and get into Chicago at 5:00 pm on the same day and then I’ve got a two hour flight back to Atlanta. I guess I’ll head off to bed. Good night!
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