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Chapter 625: World’s Best
The Men’s 400m Sprint Final
Although the compet.i.tion had not yet started, there was no doubt who would win. Everyone knew that the gold medal of the Men’s 400m Sprint belonged to the new sprinting king, Nick Zouma.
In terms of strength, Zouma was certainly ahead of the others by a significant margin.
None of the other seven contestants could finish the race within 44 seconds. Their historical best results were longer than 44 seconds. Zouma did not even need to exert his full strength to run it within 44 seconds.
If Zouma ran without restraining himself, he would obtain a lead of more than one second. This sort of gap in this event signified that he was at a much higher level than the other athletes.
This was the finals in the Olympics, the highest level of compet.i.tion in the world. The fact he was significantly better than his compet.i.tion was proof of Zouma’s might.
The focus of the match was not on who would win, it was on how fast Zouma could run. Could he surpa.s.s the previous king, Irwin? That was the question of the match.
The moment Zouma walked onto the track, he could not help but get excited. He could feel his heart beating faster and his head feeling clearer. It was like he had just taken stimulants.
Of course, Zouma did not ingest any stimulants. He had always been the type of player who relished compet.i.tions. As long as he stood at the starting line, his blood would boil.
In truth, all sprinters became crazy when compet.i.tions began. As long as there was a race, sprinters would be extremely excited.
Athletes didn’t have time to find their form in short-distance sprints. A 100m sprint was only a total of ten seconds. How could an athlete take any of that time to find their form? Everyone needed to get their body and mind excited before the match started. Only athletes who felt a rush before the race even started could win!
When the gunshot rang out, Zouma transformed into a cheetah and shot straight forward.
Did he have a professional 400m sprinting method? He didn’t need one.
Did he have a tactic to disrupt the rhythm of the opponents? That also was not needed.
Did he use a special technique to distribute stamina? That was needed even less.
Zouma was stronger than the rest of the contestants. His ability alone was enough to crush his opponents, so there was no need to consider tactics or techniques.
Zouma only needed to run freely, as fast as he possibly could!
To his opponents, Zouma was fast enough. They would never be able to run that fast in their life.
To Zouma, he was not yet fast enough. Based on his current speed, he could not surpa.s.s the current world record!
Perhaps this is my only chance, I have to go faster! Resolve appeared in Zouma’s gaze.
Zouma was definitely at the peak age for sprinters. He would soon start to deteriorate. Perhaps he would still be able to remain the best, but his speed would slowly decrease.
No one could win the battle against time, especially sprinters. Their peaks lasted three to four years. As soon as they were out of their prime, all their bodily functions started to weaken. The distance between them and the world record only increased.
Zouma could not help but reminisce about the past six months of training.
In January, Zouma had arrived at Dai Li’s training center. He had given up on his vacation, a huge amount of commercial activities, and focused solely on training.
He was a South African athlete, so he did not need to partic.i.p.ate in Olympic qualifiers like American athletes. As the current best 400m sprinter in the world, South Africa would give him a spot in the Olympics.
Due to this, he did not partic.i.p.ate in any compet.i.tion before the Olympic, including the Grand Prix organized by the International Track and Field a.s.sociation. Just two days before the Olympic opening ceremony, he was still in Dai Li’s training center.
For an athlete at Zouma’s level, compet.i.tions could no longer improve his overall strength. He no longer had any opponents; the other athletes were far weaker than him.
A high-level chess player would rather study chess scripts than play against lower-level chess players. If the player continued to play against weaker players, his own skills would also gradually deteriorate.
If one looked at digital games, when a high-level professional player played a few days’ worths of casual games, he always won, but his skills and awareness of the game would also gradually deteriorate.
On the contrary, if one were to continuously compete against opponents who were stronger, even if one lost, one would learn a lot of things in the process. One would slowly improve.
It was the same in sports. Athletes need to continuously challenge stronger opponents, only then were they able to move forward. If a player failed to find a stronger opponent, then competing against athletes of similar levels also helped to maintain one’s form. The scariest thing was to destroy weaklings. As the saying went, “Study is like sailing against the current; either you keep forging ahead, or you keep falling behind.”
Zouma was in this sort of situation. He was already the best. In a compet.i.tion, no matter who his opponent was, Zouma would achieve victory easily. For Zouma, compet.i.tions no longer improved his game. That was why he put all his time and focus on training.
Perhaps it was more appropriate to say that Zouma bet on Dai Li’s training.
He has the world’s best physical fitness training center. He’s the world’s greatest physical fitness coach. Maybe he will be able to help me get better!
Zouma spent six months in Los Angeles. He trained a lot every day and even added extra training himself.
He showed absolute discipline. He slept and woke early, he avoided nightclubs, and completely cut himself off from the entertainment districts. Even if a world-cla.s.s beauty voluntarily jumped into his arms, Zouma would not hesitate to reject her.
After a few months, he genuinely felt that he had increased his strength. He was not certain, however, that he had improved enough to break the 400m sprint world record.
Only by breaking the 400m sprinting world record would Zouma truly feel that he had overcome the huge mountain that stood before him and become the true 400m sprint king!
Zouma got closer and closer to the finish line, and Zouma was also counting down in his mind.
He had started counting down from 43. It was because the current world record was 43.18 seconds. He had to ignore the 0.18 seconds.
If he were to get past the finish line before he reached zero, it would mean that there was a chance that he had broken the 400m sprinting world record. On the contrary, if he were to reach zero before he reached the finish line, then the world record would have nothing to do with him.
19, 18, 17, 16… As Zouma counted down in his mind, his opponents gradually disappeared from his field of vision.
They were in the second bend and sprinters placed in the outer tracts would be comparably behind in terms of their position.
Nine, eight, seven, six… Zouma started the last of the countdown. He already reached the last stretch of straight track. He had also obtained a lead that completely sent his opponents into despair.
Zouma was the furthest in front. He could not see his opponents and it was exactly because he could not see the positions of his opponents that Zouma did not know just how fast he was running. He also did not know just what kind of lead he had. The only thing he could do was run as fast as possible.
Going into the last 50 meters, Zouma’s speed did not decrease. At that moment, the cheers and shouts of the crowd reached their peak.
For people who were familiar with the 400m sprint, Zouma’s performance was simply incredible!
By the time athletes reached the last 50 meters, their bodies were in an anaerobic state and their speed gradually decreased. It was biological.
Zouma was different that day. As he entered the last 50 meters, his speed did not decrease in the slightest, he still maintained his quick movements. He was in the process of breaking through the human biological limit!
Three, two, one…
The moment Zouma counted down to zero, he rushed past the finish line.
Did I break the world record? Zouma immediately looked up to the timer.
43.03 seconds!
He was 0.15 seconds faster than the world record of 43.18 seconds!
“Yes! I’ve succeeded in breaking the world record!” Zouma raised both his arms into the air in excitement. Before he could celebrate, however, he felt a sense of breathlessness rise from his chest. Then, he collapsed on the ground.
To surpa.s.s the human biological limit, one had to pay the price!
After the human body experiences extreme amounts of anaerobic exercise, symptoms that arise include shortness of breath, tachycardia and other symptoms, which cause alkali and electrolytes to go into disarray. Some might even experience myocardial deficiency. Zouma was currently faced with exactly that situation.
It was a good thing paramedics were placed on the scene of every Olympic event. After some basic first aid, Zouma returned to normal.
…
Los Angeles.
In the parking lot of Dai Li’s training center, there was a huge row of posters. They created a large curve facing the road.
On every poster was the photograph of an athlete and on the upper-left corner of the posters were numbers.
These were the athletes who won gold medals during the Olympic, and they were all Dai Li’s clients.
The newest poster was just put up, and on it was a photograph of Zouma holding his gold medal. On the top-left corner, the number was 50.
A car drove past the training center and the driver saw Zouma’s giant poster as well as the very obvious number 50 on the upper-left corner.
“I remember it was 43 yesterday, now they’ve won 50 Olympic gold medals! I never would have thought that a training center would be able to produce so many Olympic champions. It’s already more than the U.S. team!” The driver lamented.
American athletes were still the majority of Dai Li’s clients, so many among the 50 gold medals were obtained by Americans. If one did not consider the repeats and just compared the number of gold medals, the U.S. Olympic representatives definitely could not defeat Dai Li’s training center in terms of how many medals they won.
After the 21st century, only the U.S. and China had the ability to obtain more than 50 gold medals during an Olympic. Although Russia was also a gold medal hauler the sporting level of Russia had gone downhill substantially in recent years. On the summer Olympic stage, compared to China and the U.S., Russia was more of “niche.” The events they were capable of winning gold medals in were fixed, and they could not get 50.
The Olympics had not yet ended. There were still more than a hundred gold medals yet to be won. That meant it was possible for Dai Li to win much more than 50 gold medals!
…
When the Olympics ended, a total of 85 large posters stood outside Dai Li’s training center.
He had won 85 gold medals. That was the achievement of Dai Li for this Olympic. These 85 gold medals were the result of Dai Li’s training camp.
In truth, during the last Olympics, when Dai Li led the track and field team to victory, every sportsman and woman knew that Dai Li’s physical fitness training center was world-cla.s.s. It was also due to this that when Dai Li started the Olympic training camp, so many athletes came from so far away.
When the number 85 appeared, entire sporting world was still shocked!
He had earned 85 gold medals in one Olympics. What did that mean? A lot of people probably did not understand it because, throughout history, no single country won 85 gold medals in one single Olympic outing.
Only four countries had ever succeeded in winning 50 gold medals. Among them were the U.S. had done it twice, the Soviet Union thrice, and the U.K. and China once each.
As for a country winning 80 gold medals in one Olympic, only the U.S. and the Soviet Union had done it, but only when the other had not taken part.
During the 1980 Moscow Olympics, when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, the U.S. decided to protest. During that time, the International Olympic Committee recognized 147 countries and regions, and only 80 partic.i.p.ated. It decreased the value of the gold medals of that Olympics and under, such circ.u.mstances, the Soviet Union managed to win 80 gold medals.
After that, during the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic, the Soviet Union wanted to take revenge and decided to protest against that particular Olympic games. In the end, 19 countries did not take part. During this Olympics, the U.S. won 83 gold medals.
These superpowers had had huge advantages when they had won their 80 gold medals. When they both competed in the same Olympics, it was impossible for them to get 80 gold medals. One could say that this number was over the limit of what a global superpower could achieve in the Olympics.
Dai Li’s training center, however, managed to win 85 gold medals. He had reached beyond the limits of a global superpower!
A physical fitness training center’s Olympic training camp had reached the maximum limits of a global superpower. Dai Li was finally considered world-famous.
The world’s best physical fitness training center. This was without question!
The world’s number one best. This was also undeniable!
No one could be unconvinced.
In truth, during every Olympic games, the international world-cla.s.s training centers would get some gold medals into their account. Among all the world’s greatest coaches, which one of them had never coached an Olympic gold medalist before?
Under normal circ.u.mstances, to train one or two Olympic gold medalists would be considered world-cla.s.s. If one were to produce five to six Olympic gold medalists, then one was definitely worthy of being called a legendary coach.
Compared to Dai Li, this was nothing. Other coaches could produce five or six gold medalists in their entire lifetime while Dai Li created 85 gold medalists by organizing one training camp for a single Olympic outing. Dai Li’s Olympic training camp could use the signature slogan, “Olympic Gold Medal Supplier!”
The saddest people should be the silver and bronze medalists of the Olympic. If they had only gone to Dai Li’s training camp, they might have won.
…
The Olympics ended, but Dai Li’s busy life had just begun. Due to the shocking result of this Olympics, Dai Li’s training center received a huge amount of visitors. There were groups as well as individuals.
Among them were specialized sports researchers, professional coaches from world-cla.s.s universities, and superstars. As long as a person with some weight came to visit, Dai Li had to personally receive them. The large amount of reception work made Dai Li feel annoyed.
As the saying went, “fame portends trouble for men just as fattening does for pigs.” Whether it was local or international, as soon as one became famous, there would be annoyances waiting for you. If a particular corporation were to be featured on CCTV news, what came after would be unending site visits and learning. If someone were to be posted as the national model laborer then, in the next few years, he no longer needed to do anything else because he’d be too busy touring the country.
Dai Li was exactly in this situation right now. A training camp with 85 gold medalists had indeed attracted the attention of sportspersons from all over the world. There were even many professional sports research center that came in the hopes of working with Dai Li.
Of course, there were many visitors who came with impure intentions. Some arrived specifically to ride on coattails, such as some unknown and obscure training centers that hoped to be a.s.sociated with Dai Li and increase their reputation.
Some were there just so they could be involved. For example, big Hollywood stars arrived specifically to take pictures with Dai Li in front of sporting equipment while wearing sports attire. Then, they would post it online on social media, gaining some likes from their fans.
There were also those that were there to gather information. To achieve such outstanding results, one definitely had to have some unique training methods. Many people came as visitors but, in truth, were actually “spies.”
To deal with the ever-increasing amount of visitors, Dai Li could not help but set up a public relations department and hire a public relations manager to specifically deal with visitors. It was a good thing they were in Los Angeles, the center of entertainment in the U.S. Hollywood was located there and it was natural for there to be loads of gossips going around with so many big stars around. The place did not lack professional public relations talent.
After solving the problem of dealing with visitors, Dai Li went straight to New York.
While the training center’s reputation was sky high, Dai Li planned to expand the training center’s business to the east coast of the U.S., that meant that he would open a new branch.
One would naturally select a big city when opening a new branch. The largest city of the U.S. was New York, so Dai Li decided to open the branch in New York.
In truth, before this, Dai Li also considered Boston, since when talking about sports atmosphere, Boston was much better than New York and Los Angeles.
Boston had teams in all four of the major sports leagues in North America. They were all strong teams.
In MLB, the Boston Red Socks had won the world series seven times. In the NFL, the New England Patriots won the Superbowl five times and, in the NBA, the Boston Celtics won the NBA champions.h.i.+p 17 times. In the NHL, the Boston Bruins won the Stanley Cup six times.
A good sports atmosphere did not mean a huge number of athletes. Dai Li’s clients were still mainly professional athletes and the number of professional athletes in New York was higher than Boston, so Dai Li still decided to lock the address of his new branch in New York.
Manhattan was the highlight of New York, but to Dai Li, it was too expensive. Land prices made earth as valuable as gold so Dai Li avoided it. If he were to open his training center in Manhattan, the cost would be too high.
Dai Li could only go back a step and choose the second best option. He set the address of his training center in Queens.
Queens was separated from Manhattan by just a river, but the property prices were like heaven and earth. In areas of Queens, where security was good, a fully furnished condominium only cost around 10,000 dollars. Of course, compared to agrarian states where one could buy a huge mansion with just 200,000 or 300,000 dollars, the property price of Queens was also sky high.
Before going to New York, the real estate middleman had already found several locations suitable for setting up a training center and waited for Dai Li to choose.
If one were to correctly address the real estate middleman, one could call him a real estate agent. He was the best among the other real estate agents. He graduated from a reputable university, had a Master’s degree, and even pa.s.sed the New York Bar exam, obtaining his law license. He was the kind of real estate agent with multiple personal a.s.sistants.
A real estate agent like this naturally cost more. He only dealt with huge deals, but when it came to professionalism and service levels, he was top-cla.s.s. He definitely put his clients first in everything he did. Dai Li did not worry that this agent would trick him. After all, a real estate agent of this level relied on his reputation acc.u.mulated throughout the years, he would not risk his entire brand just for one simple deal.
…
In the end, Dai Li chose a three-story old factory. The factory was built during the 70s of the previous century.
Similar buildings were abundant in New York. Large cities like New York completed all their basic infrastructure several decades ago. Using Manhattan as an example, there were many century-old buildings around. Queens and Brooklyn welcomed their peak of infrastructure construction after the second world war.
The old factory initially had several warehouses behind it, but they were destroyed by Hurricane Sandy. At the same time, it also destroyed the electric supply of the factory. The owner of the factory thought that it was too expensive to purchase a new industrial electric supply system, so he just went and shut down the factory and put the land on sale.
After Dai Li bought the land and factory, he spent another sum renovating it. The renovation took around half a year. It was only in the summer of the following year that the New York branch began operation.
It was also during the summer that Dai Li started a new business deal, to provide fitness training to two NFL teams.
…
There were four major sports leagues in the U.S. The one that ranked first was naturally the NFL. American football was the most popular sport in the U.S.
Los Angeles had two NFL teams. Both of them had moved there three years ago. That meant that three years ago, the second largest city of the U.S. did not have its own NFL team. For a top-cla.s.s city like Los Angeles, it was an incredible thing.
Of course, Los Angeles had once had their own NFL team. The Rams, the Chargers, and the Raiders, had been there but they had all moved away.
The Rams and the Chargers, however, had now returned.
A large city like Los Angeles was a temptation for teams. Every team hoped to go to Los Angeles, and Los Angeles was definitely able to accommodate two NFL teams.
NFL team owners, however, did not want other teams to move to Los Angeles. Everyone knew that Los Angeles was a big piece of meat. If one could not eat it himself, it was best if others could not eat it as well.
To return to Los Angeles, the owner of the Rams spent a huge amount of money investing a stadium that could accommodate 20,000 people in Los Angeles. That shut the mouth of the other owners. At the same time, the Rams found an ally, the Chargers.
The Chargers were initially in San Diego. They were only 100 miles away from Los Angeles. The Chargers had been drooling over Los Angeles for a long time. They applied multiple times to return to Los Angeles, but they were denied by the NFL every time.
The Rams and Chargers allied with each other. To do that, they signed a 20-year lease for the use of the stadium. The new stadium built by the Rams would also be used as the home stadium of the Chargers.
Although Los Angeles was a big city, to conquer the fans of Los Angeles was a difficult task. The sports fans in Los Angeles still belonged to the Lakers. The Clippers arrived at Los Angeles in 1984 and had their roots in Los Angeles for over 30 years, but fans in Los Angeles still treated the Clippers as outsiders.
In the eye of the fans, only the Lakers could represent Los Angeles!
As such, the market was awful for a year after the Rams and Chargers moved back to Los Angeles.
Back then, the new stadium had not been completed. The Rams had used the Los Angeles Memorial Stadium as their home stadium. It was the main stadium of the Olympics in Los Angeles in 1932 and 1984. It was also the only stadium in the world that hosted two Olympics. The stadium could accommodate over 90,000 people. The field of an American football game was different from a track and field venue. As a result, when an American football match was going on, the stadium could only accommodate around 80,000 people.
When the Rams played their first game in the stadium, the occupancy rate did not even reach 30%. When the University of South California hlad played there, the stadium was full! That meant that in the eyes of sports fans in Los Angeles, the NFL Rams were not comparable to the NCAA University of South California.
The Chargers were in an even worse situation. As the Los Angeles Memorial stadium needed to host the games for both the Rams and USC, the venue was fully booked. The Chargers could only use the Los Angeles StubHub Center. This was the home stadium of the MLS Los Angeles Galaxy. The stadium had around 30,000 seats, and when it was changed for an American football game, it could only hold 27,000 people. Even then, around one-third of the seats remained empty.
One had to remember that this was Los Angeles. This was football. It was the most popular sport in the U.S., but they could not even fill a stadium that accommodated 30,000 people. It was very sad.
It was a good thing both the teams were good.
The Rams managed 13 wins and three losses in the previous season while the Chargers managed 12 wins and four losses. Their win percentage was at 75%.
In any professional sports league, a team with a 75% win rate was good. It didn’t matter if you were talking about the NBA or the English Premier League, it was a good record.
Victories always attracted the attention of fans. Wins helped fill the seats of both stadiums quickly. By the end of the season, the two teams no longer had to worry about the occupancy rate of their games. With their results, they could move to a new stadium that accommodated 120,000 people and still fill the seats.
This only meant that they could stand their ground in Los Angeles. It was still a far cry away from conquering the fans in Los Angeles!
Fans in big cities were pickier compared to small cities.
In small cities, there were less professional teams and fans did not have that many choices. The loyalty of the fan was relatively higher. For example, the Green Bay Packers had the most loyal fanbase in the U.S. Since 1960, all the home games of the Packers had been sold out. Even if the Packers played badly, the fans still supported them like crazy.
In average cities, if the results of a team were still pa.s.sable, the fans would be satisfied. For example, Denver had several professional teams: the Denver Nuggets in the NBA, the Denver Broncos in the NFL, the Colorado Rockies in the MLB. In recent years, their results were always mediocre, not the best and not the worst. The fans still supported them.
The fans of some cities were more pragmatic. They favored whoever had the better results. In Houston, during the years when the Rockets did not play that well, the occupancy rate was average. In recent years, after they improved, the occupancy rate increased. Apart from the Rockets, there was also the Houston Astros in the MLB and the Houston Texans in the NFL. When the Astros had bad results, the stadiums could not be filled, but when they won the champions.h.i.+p, the stadium was filled. The Texans were in the same boat.
Then there were some cities where fans supported their city’s teams unconditionally. The most cla.s.sic examples were Boston and Philadelphia. No matter how good the teams were, fans would still support them like crazy. For example, the Boston Red Socks had never once won the World Series, yet the fans in Boston never once discarded the Red Socks. Bostonians had been fans of the Red Socks for generations.
As for cities like New York or Los Angeles, it was impossible to conquer the fans just through good results alone. The fans were too picky, one could only conquer them by winning the champions.h.i.+p!
That was why the Lakers were the overlords of Los Angeles. They were able to win champions.h.i.+ps. Even when the Lakers weren’t doing great, the fans still supported them like crazy. The Clippers, who had been in Los Angeles for almost 40 years were still treated as outsiders until they won the NBA champions.h.i.+p.
In New York, the Nets were treated like the son of the concubine, because they had never won the champions.h.i.+p before.
In the same city of New York, the 1969 miracle of the New York Mets was still discussed by New Yorkers. The top team in MLB, the New York Yankees, had countless die-hard fans.
New York and Los Angeles only recognized champions. To conquer them one needed to win a champions.h.i.+p!
If the Rams and the Chargers really wanted to put down their roots in Los Angeles, good results were not enough. Even if they had a 75% win rate every year, it was still not enough. They needed to win a Superbowl for Los Angeles. Only then would they truly be regarded by Los Angeles as one of their own.
To win the Superbowl, the management team of the Rams found Dai Li. They hoped Dai Li could provide fitness training to the Rams players.
As a professional team, they had their own fitness coaches. It was like in soccer. The head coach had his own team and, within it, there was a special team that focused on fitness training.
To abandon their own fitness coached and go with Dai Li was a gamble. It was the equivalent of rejecting their own fitness coaches. If met with a narrow-minded head coach, he might just quit his job since the management did not have faith in him.
But, for the Superbowl, the management of the Rams really went all in. After all, Dai Li had earned 85gold medals in one Olympics.
It was the NFL after all, there were many strong opponents and many miracles. Perhap. there were weaklings in the NFL, but there would never be an absolutely dominant team. In the NFL, there were many teams one could know would lose, but there were no teams that would definitely win.
To the management of the Rams, the compet.i.tion for the Superbowl was too fierce. How could one win it without making a gamble?
The Chargers were currently allied with the Rams, so they could only move with the Rams and place everything they had on Dai Li.
It is worth mentioning tha,t although the Rams and Chargers were both in Los Angeles, they could not be considered rivals.
The NFL was not the same as the NBA. The NBA was split into the East and the West. Two teams being in the same city, even the same state, were rivals. For example, every year the three teams in Texas spilled blood as they fought for a place in the playoffs. When other teams came to Texas to play, it was a given that they would lose some skin. It was normal for defending champions to lose to the Spurs, Mavericks, and Rockets.
The NFL was divided by the American League and the National League, not East and the West. The American League and National League each divided into East, West, South, and North. Each of those regions had four teams.
The Houston Texans belonged to the southern part of the American League. The Dallas Cowboys, also in Texas, were in the Eastern Conference of the National League.
The regular NFL season only had 16 matches. According to conventional fixture arrangements, in the regular season, teams in the American League and the National League only faced off once every three or four years. During the playoffs, teams from the different leagues only played against each other in the Superbowl.
The Rams belonged to the National League and the Chargers belonged to the American League. The two teams only faced each other every few years and the result did not really affect the other team’s rank, so they were not rivals. There was no direct compet.i.tion between the teams, so they could sit down and work together honestly.
Dai Li took on this job not because of the money, but because he thought it was an interesting challenge.
After all, American football was without a doubt one of the most physical sports. It was due to the physicality of the sport that athletes had to wear helmets and protective gear in the game.
One needed a strong body to play football. Even a quarterback was constantly the target of the defensive linebackers. Try and imagine a big guy rus.h.i.+ng towards you. If you did not have a strong body, you would not survive very long.
The physical demands of the sport was high.
It was different from when he joined the Clippers. This time, Dai Li was not the head coach. He did not have full authority of the team and his fitness training had to cater to the tactics of the head coach.
Any training could not deviate from the tactical system, this included fitness training. Back when Dai Li was the fitness coach of Dingtian Football Club, he experienced this. All of the fitness coaching staff were there to help the head coach meet his tactical needs. Whatever tactic the head coach decided to use in the next match, the fitness coach had to create specific training plans for the players to match it.
Even in the Chinese Super League, fitness training had to cater to the tactical arrangements of the head coach. In higher-level leagues like the English Premier League, the Spanish La Liga, and other world-cla.s.s football leagues, every time the team faced a different opponent, they would need to change their training methods. It was a common phenomena.
As for the physical demands of the NFL, it was clearly higher than the other professional leagues. The team was a single unit and the coaching staff was also a single unit. Dai Li was not part of the coaching staff, however. Not only did he have to provide the world’s greatest fitness training, but he also had to adhere perfectly to the tactical system of the head coach. It was a difficulty Dai Li had never been exposed to before. One could even say that no other coach in the world had experienced it before.
It was like ordering the world’s highest-spec extreme ultraviolet lithography machine from Holland’s ASML Holdings and then sending the machine over to another factory to upgrade one of its parts and asking for the upgraded ultraviolet lithography machine to be better than the original. It was an impossible task.
The Rams and Chargers were among the best teams in the NFL. Among NFL teams, they were comparable to the ultraviolet lithography machines by ASML. Dai Li was the “other factory” tasked with upgrading the machine.
The task was too challenging! It was practically impossible!
Dai Li had created too many miracles, though. For Dai Li, this type of impossible task was the kind of work he hoped to get. It was the only way to stir up his pa.s.sion and enthusiasm!