| I was a child who grew up in Shanghai in the 1980s! Since my parents sent me to the swimming academy, 2 hours of training every day tied me to the Dahushan Road swimming pool! Whether spring, summer, autumn or winter, windy or rainy, my father would always accompany me to take the No. 70 bus back and forth! I remember one time my dad broke his leg. For my daily training, as he didn’t trust me to ride the bus alone, he bought a mat cover and wrapped the whole leg tightly to accompany me to the swimming pool! I remember the first time the coach told me that you can’t swim off the track, you must swim on the center line! I was very nervous at the time, and I kept my eyes open while swimming to check the line under the water. That time I got the last place! In order to train my sense in the pool, the coach forced me to train with my eyes closed. At that time, I many times blamed my father for sending me to the swimming class! But at the second competition, when I saw that I got the third place, I hugged the coach with my happiness and smiled! In the pair swim, the coach would do targeted training according to personal characteristics. My advantage is physical fitness, standard posture, suitable for freestyle swimming, so on weekends and winter and summer vacations, you’d often see me running from home to the designated place 10 kilometers away to do physical training and my dad was always cheering for me on his worn out bike! After continuous competitions and awards, I was selected from local players to Shanghai city players, I also changed from the Dahushan Road swimming pool to the Second Army University swimming pool! However, the daily training had also changed from just swimming to various things. Constantly diving back and forth, stretching the muscles and bones had become a daily course! I remember at that time, the coach would put a long bamboo pole in the diving area. You must jump over the bamboo pole to be considered qualified, then you would not get hit on your ankle! After being elected to the national team again, due to my lack of height and short arms, I was eliminated and forced to retire! Rather painful experience, but good memories! |
