In the early morning of June 28th, Beijing time, the women's 110-meter platform final of the World Swimming Championships in Budapest ended in an exciting and suspenseful competition. The most popular Tokyo Olympics champion Quan Hongchan lost to her good sister Chen Yuxi with an almost slightest disadvantage of 0.3 points. The two people's rankings at the Olympics were reversed. Together with the preliminaries, semi-finals and the two team test matches before going to Hungary, Chen Yuxi, who seemed to have a clear gap with Quan Hongchan at last year's Olympics and National Games, won five consecutive duels between the two. , this is no accident.
In addition to Chen Yuxi's rich competition experience, calm personality, increasingly mature and stable performance, Quan Hongchan's somersault ability, especially the slight decline in backward somersault ability, is also one of the reasons. In diving competitions, especially women's platform competitions, the impact of athletes' development on movements is relatively significant. This is an objective fact. Only by treating this issue with great self-discipline and correctly and scientifically can diving girls stay at their peak for a longer period of time.
Let’s talk about this issue from a scientific perspective. Diving is a technical event that places high demands on athletes' body composition. The weight control of women's diving, especially platform athletes, has always been a major concern for coaches and athletes themselves. Body weight is the total weight of body composition, including body fat (fat body mass) and lean body mass (lean body mass). Lean body mass is positively correlated with physical strength, aerobic capacity and maximum oxygen uptake, so athletes should try to lose fat and maintain lean body mass.
However, when girls develop during puberty, fat will increase. If it is not controlled, it will be difficult not only to improve their performance, but also to stabilize it. Since diving is very short compared to other sports, more emphasis is placed on the combination of speed, strength and coordination, especially the jumping ability of the lower limbs and the waist and abdomen ability. Adolescence is a sensitive period for the development of sports quality. There are differences between men and women, and the difference becomes more obvious after the age of 13. Factors such as genetics, nutrition, and exercise training will affect the process of puberty. The development of motor systems such as muscles and bones has a great impact on physical fitness, especially strength. Then there is the confusion caused by height growth. Just imagine, if Quan Hongchan and a women's basketball athlete are asked to somersault down from the platform, who will have more somersault cycles, a smaller somersault radius, and a lighter body some? The answer is obvious.
Therefore, the increase in height will have a negative impact on essential scoring factors such as somersaults, turns, aerial postures, and water entry. Chinese female platform jumpers all become famous early, and many are around 13 or 14 years old. Next They will inevitably encounter development and growth problems.
Compared with the Tokyo Olympics and Shaanxi National Games, Quan Hongchan's height has increased significantly. Although there is no exact data, according to reports and predictions by several domestic media reporters, there is an increase of 5-8 centimeters. Why can Quan Hongchan and Chen Yuxi pair up in the World Championships? In addition to technical factors, the two are far ahead, and the reason is that their sizes are becoming more consistent and well-matched, and they appear to be more in sync with each other. Last year, Quan Hongchan looked significantly smaller than Chen Yuxi, Zhang Jiaqi, and .
Height growth is an objective reality that cannot and cannot be suppressed deliberately. The amount of training is also relatively scientifically allocated. It is not advisable to blindly increase the amount of training to inhibit physical development. Then reasonable control of diet, especially the intake of high-energy snacks, is inevitable. In fact, Quan Hongchan has done very well in this area because she has an experienced coach in this area - Chen Ruolin . Women's platform athletes can be said to be the fastest-changing among all diving events. "Springboard Queen" Guo Jingjing can dominate in two Olympic cycles, Wu Minxia can insist on winning medals and gold medals in three Olympic Games, but women's platform athletes insist Two or three Olympic Games, especially those who can defend the title in the Olympics are really rare.
Chen Ruolin is the only one. She jumped from Beijing in 2008 to Rio in 2016, winning 5 Olympic gold medals. The secret of Chen Ruolin's keeping in shape lies in her ability to strictly control her diet. The story of "not eating dinner for a year" is widely circulated, and it does exist. With a large amount of training, she can still control her diet, use scientific methods to replenish energy, and overcome the temptation of snacks for girls. Under the supervision of her own coach, Ren Shaofen from Beijing, Chen Ruolin has really succeeded under her strict self-discipline. Just did it. Now, Chen Ruolin will also pass on her experience to Quan Hongchan. "Chan Bao" is an obedient girl, and I believe she can do the same. At first she could resist even the temptation of hot strips. Now that she is one year older and understands many things better, she has no problem.
Chen Yuxi has done a better job in this regard. After more than a year, the important milestone from 16 to 17 years old has passed, and the body shape has basically not changed. Zhang Jiaqi is 18, an adult, and her movements are obviously not as good as when she first became famous, so she can only compete in non-Olympic events at the World Championships besides Quan Hongchan and Chen Yuxi. This is the objective result of development.
It is not easy to know that Zhang Jiaqi is really a representative who was born at the wrong time. This little girl from Beijing was born in 2004 and was too young when she competed in the Rio Olympics. She had already dominated the domestic women's platform at the 2017 World Championships. However, due to FINA regulations, she was unable to participate in the World Championships at the age of 13. That year, she won two women's platform gold medals in the National Games in a row, and was also the champion at the 2018 World Cup. Zhang Jiaqi's coach is also Ren Shaofen. When she won the World Cup, she calmly analyzed the situation to a reporter from Beiqing Daily and was worried about Xiao Jiaqi's development problems. She also clearly pointed out that it would be good for her to participate in the Olympics by then. Sure enough, what Ren Shaofen said came true.
Turning to the 2019 Gwangju World Championships, 14-year-old Chen Yuxi has already begun to replace Zhang Jiaqi's main position. Of course, if the Olympic Games were not postponed, Zhang Jiaqi would also compete on the single women's platform and compete with Chen Yuxi for the championship. As a result, a year late, another talented Quan Hongchan appeared, and Zhang Jiaqi could only participate in the doubles competition. Good prospects emerge one after another in the field of women's diving. The large number of diving talents in China is one of the reasons. The adverse impact of growth on athletes is also an important factor. Compactness and lightness are always the unique advantages of female Taiwanese athletes. The Chinese diving team also pays great attention to the selection of materials and has been pursuing these.
Therefore, while training hard and diligently during the development period, it is equally important to control physical growth and diet. Judging from the development of Chinese diving, especially women's platform diving, it is inevitable that everyone loves Quan Hongchan and Chen Yuxi, but there are still two years until the Paris Olympics. If another talented girl emerges in the meantime, , replacing one of them is definitely not a big accident. The Chinese diving team must first ensure that it is based on the best level and the best athletes participating in the world competition. If Quan Hongchan and Chen Yuxi want to "remain young forever," they must work hard and have self-discipline that is difficult for ordinary people to achieve.
text/Beiqing Sports Liu Ailin
