Quan Hongchan in the competition
In the early morning of June 28th, Beijing time, the women's 210-meter platform final of the Budapest World Swimming Championships ended in an exciting and suspenseful competition. Quan Hongchan, the most popular Tokyo Olympic champion, lost to her teammate Chen Yuxi with the slimmest disadvantage of 0.3 points. Their 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.
Adolescence is a sensitive period for the development of female divers
In addition to Chen Yuxi’s rich competition experience, calm personality, increasingly mature and stable performance, Quan Hongchan’s somersault ability, especially her backward somersault ability, has slightly declined. one. In diving competitions, especially women's platform competitions, the development of athletes has a significant impact on their movements. Only by treating this issue with great self-discipline and correctly and scientifically can female diving athletes stay at their peak for longer.
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, their 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 coordination 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 athletic quality. There are differences between men and women, and the differences are more obvious after the age of 13. Factors such as genetics, nutrition and exercise training will affect the process of puberty. The development of the motor system such as muscles and bones has a great impact on physical fitness, especially strength. There is also 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 do more somersaults, a smaller somersault radius, and a lighter body ? The answer is obvious.
Therefore, the increase in height will have a negative impact on indispensable scoring factors such as somersaults, turns, aerial postures, and water entry. Chinese female platform jumpers all become famous early, and many are around thirteen or fourteen years old. Next, they Development and growth problems will inevitably be encountered.
Quan Hongchan's height has increased significantly by 5 to 8 centimeters
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 from several frontline domestic media reporters, it is predicted that the increase will be 5 to 8 centimeters. 8 cm is available. Why can Quan Hongchan and Chen Yuxi pair up in the World Championships? In addition to the 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 and Zhang Jiaqi.
Height growth is an objective reality and cannot be suppressed deliberately. The amount of training is also scientifically allocated. It is not advisable to blindly increase the amount of training to inhibit physical growth. Then reasonable control of diet, especially the intake of high-energy snacks, is inevitable. Quan Hongchan has done a good job in this area because she has an experienced coach in this area - Chen Ruolin . Women's platform athletes can be said to have the fastest turnover 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 can pass on her successful experience to her junior sisters
Only Chen Ruolin has done it. She jumped from Beijing in 2008 to Rio in 2016, winning 5 Olympic gold medals.The secret of Chen Ruolin's keeping in shape is to strictly control her diet. The story of "not eating dinner for a year" is widely circulated, and it does exist. She trained a lot and was able to control her diet like this, use scientific methods to replenish energy, and overcome the temptation of snacks for girls. Chen Ruolin really did it under the supervision of her coach Ren Shaofen and her own strict self-discipline. Now, Chen Ruolin will pass on her experience to Quan Hongchan.
Chen Yuxi did a better job in this regard. From the important point of 16 to 17 years old, his body shape basically did not change. Zhang Jiaqi is 18 years old, 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. Zhang Jiaqi is a representative who was born at the wrong time. This little girl from Beijing was born in 2004 and was too young at the Rio Olympics. She dominated the domestic women's diving platform at the 2017 World Championships. However, due to the regulations of FINA, she was 13 years old. She was unable to participate in the World Championships. That year, she won consecutive gold medals in the singles and doubles women's platform at the National Games, and was the 2018 World Cup champion. Zhang Jiaqi's coach is also Ren Shaofen. When she won the World Cup, she calmly analyzed it to a reporter from Beiqing Daily, worried about Xiao Jiaqi's development problems, and made it clear that it would be good for her to participate in the Olympics by then. Sure enough, what Ren Shaofen said came true.
In the 2019 Gwangju World Championships, 14-year-old Chen Yuxi replaced Zhang Jiaqi's main position. If the Olympic Games were not postponed, Zhang Jiaqi would compete on the single women's platform and compete with Chen Yuxi for the championship. As a result, a year later, the talented Quan Hongchan came out of the blue, 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 pays great attention to the selection of talents.
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 an accident. The Chinese diving team must first ensure that it sends the highest level athletes to participate in the world competition as a benchmark. If Quan Hongchan and Chen Yuxi want to "remain young forever", they must work hard and achieve self-discipline that is difficult for ordinary people to achieve.
