Data map: Chinese Badminton Super League players are preparing for physical examination.
Photo courtesy of the Chinese Badminton Association
On the morning of the 10th, the People’s Daily Sports released the latest statement on physical testing by Li Jianming, deputy director of the State Sports General Administration, on its Weibo account.
Li Jianming said that physical testing is only a measure to urge athletes to strengthen their basic physical fitness, and will not affect the selection of high-level athletes in international competitions such as the Olympics.
This made the physical measurement issues that caused many discussions some time ago once again come into the public eye, and it also made many netizens who worried about the athletes a little bit of a snack.
In fact, the information content of these remarks is far more than this, and even the "prescription" to calm this "physical test" is contained in the official response.
However, if we want to savour it carefully, we have to trace the source of related events.
Some time ago, various national sports teams intensively carried out physical fitness tests and used them as a topic for measuring competition results, which aroused public attention and heated discussions among netizens, and continued to appear high in the hot search.
For example, at the National Swimming Championships held in Qingdao at the end of September, five athletes, including Fu Yuanhui, Wang Jian Jiahe, and Yu Hexin, who ranked first in the preliminaries, all missed the final because of low physical test scores.
It is worth mentioning that Wang Jian Jiahe also broke the women's 1500m Asian record with a time of 15 minutes 45.59 in the competition.
Data map: In the final of the women's 400m freestyle swimming in the Jakarta Asian Games, Chinese player Wang Jian Jiahe won the championship.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Wang Dongming
Such a "strange" phenomenon occurred because of the new regulations issued by the Swimming Center of the State General Administration of Sports for this event-this event includes physical fitness competitions and swimming competitions.
The top 16 athletes in the preliminaries are ranked according to their physical fitness scores, and the top 8 athletes in the physical competition enter the final.
This rule means that only players who meet the top 8 physical test rankings and the top 16 preliminaries can enter the finals.
If the physical test scores do not rank in the top 8, you can only accept the eliminated result.
A more embarrassing scene appeared at the National Gymnastics Championships.
Too many athletes were eliminated because the physical fitness test did not meet the standards. In the final of the women's vaulting competition, only 5 people were left to participate (normally 8 people).
In the final of the National Gymnastics Championships, the difficulty coefficient was only 2.0.
This allowed the bottom-to-last player in the qualifying round to be "added" to the final due to his outstanding performance in the physical fitness test.
As a result, the level of competition in the finals was greatly reduced, and some athletes even chose ultra-simple moves with a difficulty coefficient of only 2.0, and ranked fifth in the country.
In the National Fencing Championships, none of the women's heavy team champions in the 2019 World Championships made the top 8 finalists. Among them, Sun Yiwen and Lin Sheng stopped in the top 16 due to physical fitness tests.
So many celebrities were blocked out of the finals due to physical tests, causing intense discussions on the Internet.
Some netizens fiercely accused the physical test system of being unreasonable, some believed that physical fitness test was indeed the basis for performance, and some worried that high-level athletes would lose their Olympic qualifications.
Screenshot of Weibo.
Screenshot of Weibo.
Screenshot of Weibo.
Screenshot of Weibo.
In response to physical testing issues, many people in the sports industry have recently expressed their views.
Zhou Jihong, Chairman of the Chinese Swimming Association, said in an interview with the media: “In order for Chinese swimming to fully reach a higher level, it must be basic and specialized. Therefore, the purpose of adding basic physical fitness tests in this national competition is to make up for the shortcomings of Chinese athletes. To improve the competitiveness of Chinese swimmers in the world."
The Tianjin Women's Volleyball Team won the championship for the sixth time in the 2020 National Women's Volleyball Championship. Head coach Wang Baoquan also talked about physical testing after the game.
He said: “Some of the items in the physical fitness test are helpful to the improvement of specific skills. I think that physical fitness training should be carried out scientifically, and physical training content that helps to improve the specific skills can be added. We will also try our best to improve the physical fitness training. The work is done well."
Data map: Tianjin Women's Volleyball Team.
Photo by Tian Bochuan, China News Network reporter
In response to different voices on the Internet about physical testing, Li Jianming, deputy director of the State Sports General Administration, responded.
According to the People’s Daily Sports News, Li Jianming also stated in the interview that day, “Physical testing has caused heated discussions, and there are many rational and objective opinions that are worthy of us to absorb. I will also use this opportunity to share with friends who care about and support the development of sports in China. Express thankfulness."
Li Jianming pointed out that in the training of high-level Chinese competitive sports athletes, lack of basic physical fitness is a relatively common problem. Strengthening and strengthening basic physical fitness has become a consensus within and outside the sports world.
In fact, before the Golden Week, Liu Guoyong, Director of the Sports Department of the General Administration of Sports, had a similar statement in an interview with the media.
It can be seen that the examination of basic physical fitness from an official perspective has reached a new level.
"I see that netizens did not say that strengthening basic physical fitness is wrong. Strengthening basic physical fitness is right, and it must be persisted for a long time. In the future, it will be thoroughly implemented in all links and procedures of training. We are concerned about the physical fitness test in sports training and competition. How to better measure the effect requires seeking truth from facts and scientific guidance." Li Jianming said.
Data map: Yu Hexin.
In the National Swimming Championships, he ranked first in the preliminaries, but because of lower physical test scores, he missed the final.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Du Yang
Li Jianming introduced that physical testing is just a reversing mechanism, not a fundamental change to the rules of the event, and it will not affect the selection of high-level athletes in the Olympics and the chances of participating in international events such as the Olympics. It just forces athletes to pay attention to measures to strengthen basic physical training. Of course These measures must be more scientific, more targeted, and closer to the reality of each project.
Li Jianming said that the State Sports General Administration has asked each project center to summarize the experience and lessons of physical fitness testing and further improve relevant measures to make physical testing more scientific and closer to the actual project.
This statement is actually a further confirmation and emphasis on the above "seeking truth from facts, scientific guidance".
In fact, it was in the controversial national swimming championship that the men’s and women’s 4×100m medley broke the world record. Players including Xu Jiayu, Zhang Yufei and others are all top players in physical fitness. They also used good results to prove their basic physical fitness. The meaning of training.
In Li Jianming's statement, the words "experiences and lessons" were also objectively mentioned, which means that he has realized that in this wave of attempts, there are both positive gains and certain problems.
Data map: Xu Jiayu.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Han Haidan
Although the starting point is good, if it is turned into a one-size-fits-all approach, it may not necessarily achieve good results, and it may also trigger a rebound.
As Li Jianming said, "These measures should be more scientific, more targeted, and closer to the reality of each project."
Perhaps in the future, the strengthening of basic physical fitness should be more tailored to local conditions, project conditions, and individual conditions, and the training content and assessment mechanism should be set more scientifically.
After all, from sports authorities, athletes, and even netizens, our starting point and purpose are the same, that is, we all expect Chinese athletes to achieve good results.
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