From Tibet "seed rider" to Chongqing champion coach-Yuhong's equestrian life

Yuhong's equestrian life is based on the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, switching between two identities in his equestrian career.

In the first two decades, he was a first-rate domestic rider who won gold and silver on the field; in the following years, he was an equestrian coach who retired in Chongqing. He has been brilliant and lost. Today, Yuhong has passed the peak of competitive level, focusing on preaching and teaching. And in this, he also realized another true meaning of equestrianism.

"The No. 1 Seed Rider" missed the Olympic Games

In 1986, under the advocacy and support of the 10th Panchen Lama Erdeni Chokyi Gyantsen, and approved by the Tibet Autonomous Region Government, it belongs to the Sports Bureau of the Tibet Autonomous Region The former Tibetan Equestrian Team, the predecessor of the traditional social and ethnic sports guidance and management center of China, was formally established. Since then, this nation on horseback has professional equestrian talents. In 1990, the Tibetan Equestrian Team went to Yuhong’s birthplace in Nedong County, Shannan, Tibet. The 16-year-old Yuhong was selected because of his physical strength. He first went to Inner Mongolia and then to the training base in Beijing. Yuhong and the current head coach of the Tibet team Shan Zeng and team leader Cuo Dong are in the equestrian team. Shan Zeng specializes in triathlons, Cuo Dong specializes in dance steps, and he focuses on obstacles. "At that time we were training step by step, and after training we participated in the competition." Yuhong recalled. A few years later, he became the best member of the Tibet team. He won the National Equestrian Classic Championship and the FEI East Asian Equestrian Jumping Championship in 1999 and 2000 respectively. He also competed with his horse "Toywo "Special" partner, leading the ranking of domestic equestrian athletes for many years.

A group photo of the Tibetan team members where Yuhong was in that year

Soon, Yuhong had an opportunity to participate in the Beijing Olympic Jumping. In 2007, the State Sports General Administration stated at a meeting that “I hope that a Tibetan rider wearing a Tibetan gown will enter the Olympic venue.” As the “No. 1 seed rider” at the time, Yuhong was placed high hopes. He was full of ambition and felt that "As an athlete, playing the Olympics is the highest goal, not to mention the Olympics at my doorstep. I will fight for it anyway." So he and his colleagues went to France to prepare for the qualifying tournament and started Pick a horse."We went to several places in France, but found that Matthew was too expensive to buy, and then they went back first," Yuhong recalled, "I said, I don't go back, you give me the money." He said "money" This is the 300,000 horse fund that the Tibet Equestrian Team can raise. The cost of buying an Olympic-level obstacle race horse at the time was less than three or four million yuan, and the cost of renting a horse of this kind was about 1 million yuan, and the cost of 300,000 yuan was only enough to cover a few months. Preparation training.

In 2007, when Yuhong was preparing for the Olympic Games in France, he watched the Fontainebleau stadium

"I am waiting for the opportunity over there, waiting for the support of the team, or corporate sponsorship, I am looking forward to this." As the time is approaching the deadline for registration of horses for the Olympic Games, Yuhong is eagerly looking forward to the funding while playing the qualifying competition. "I played dozens of games, and the more I played, the better. The French side also thought,'You are now fully capable of playing the Olympics, so go and raise funds now.' Later, the French said that you can't afford it. Let’s find a way.” The French also really want to push Yuhong to the Olympics because he uses French teaching, French coaches, and French horses. If Yuhong achieves results, it will be good for the promotion of horses to China. . So the French thought of the cheapest solution: rent a 2005 French Championship champion horse-but it requires more than 1 million horse rental fees, Yuhong still can't afford it. Hope was shattered and he could only miss the Olympics.

Yuhong participated in the Bird's Nest International Equestrian Masters

After returning to Beijing, Yuhong was a bit discouraged. He described his mood at that time as "very disappointed." "After I came back, I didn’t have any good horses in my hands. I slowly became a coach and took the players to class games. I rarely participated in the competition. Also because my family is so far away, the team is very There are strict restrictions, so I proposed to withdraw from the team." Yuhong even wanted to change his career and not engage in equestrianism. At this moment, the father of a student came to the door, hoping to find a rider with professional ability and teaching experience as a coach for the child. After several invitations, Yuhong agreed to the father, which also opened his equestrian teaching career in Chongqing.

"Because a student,I came to Chongqing"

"I came to Chongqing because of Jiajia. "Yuhong said with a smile. After retiring from the Tibet team, Yuhong received cooperation invitations from multiple clubs. Because his daughter was going to Chongqing to go to school and there was a need for students, he moved to Chongqing to concentrate on teaching. But professional As a team coach, he quickly discovered that the quality of teaching in the Southwest was not satisfactory.

Photo of Jiajia participating in an equestrian competition

"After I came, I watched how they teach. I saw that the child was playing right away, and when he was tired, he would come down to drink water. After that, he would not go on horse for a long time and only chat. I didn't understand why the teaching progress was so slow. "Yu Hong said, after he learned that slow teaching progress may be a way to retain students, but this method is not a long-term solution for club operations. "If the students always fail to make progress, they lose interest. And the more you let the students create some honors with the club, the more fans can be attracted. After all, equestrianism is for competition and achievement. This goal cannot be lost. _P1p

Under the leadership of Yuhong, the student Jia Jia has made great progress from stagnating his riding level to entering the regional finals in three months. And other outstanding students also emerged one by one. Speaking of his proud disciple, Yuhong’s tone is very proud. “I’m bringing a little rider named Zhang Xinran. Now she is only 12 years old and she has won many championships. The record is basically in the top three, with the second Jia Like Jia, another one was brought out. After her, there will be many young students. I plan to form an equestrian team of horse owners and the club plans to restart the Youth Games. "Yu Hong said that the first half of his rider’s sense of accomplishment came from playing competitions and getting medals, but now it comes from newcomers, trainees playing competitions, and getting results. This feeling is even more happy than winning a prize.

Little rider Zhang Xinran and Yuhong coach

Equestrianism in the southwest region has sprung up in recent years, and clubs have recruited troops to build competitions. After Yuhong came to Chongqing, he learned about the historical problems of competition between some clubs and tried to find a breakthrough To unite the local equestrian power. "Several clubs found me,I hope to promote events in Chongqing, including those in the Southwest. If it goes well, there will be a game every month starting this year. "Yuhong said that the goal afterwards is to launch a points competition, because it is possible to participate in the finals by accumulating points, which can effectively promote clubs and riders to participate in the competition. The more the number of participants, the more equestrian atmosphere, which can ultimately drive the overall regional equestrianism. Development. He decided to change from starting from himself-Yuhong, who has not participated in the competition for 6 years, will return to the arena in the near future. On the basis of establishing the Chongqing equestrian team, he himself will bring a fresh team of Chongqing men to the competition field. Let the sports department see that Chongqing’s equestrianism can have a higher level. "I saw that the Chinese Equestrian Association also published an article. The door of the Chinese national team is open. Equestrianism is different from other sports. As long as there are horses, With time for training and hard work, anyone has the opportunity to enter the national team. For more equestrian enthusiasts, this is a good signal. "He said.

A photo of Yuhong with three Chinese equestrian youth representatives, Li Yaofeng, Jiao Yujiao and Shi Tianyang in Chengdu China Railway Construction

"Equestrianism is a bottomless hole"

Yuhong believes that equestrian teaching is the most important thing. The composition is four aspects: club members, coaches, horses and venues. The Yufeng Equestrian Club where he belongs, because it is an equestrian club cooperating with the school, 90% of the members are young people, the younger is two or three years old, and the older Yuhong is a teenager. How to let these young students really enter equestrianism and how to keep them has become Yuhong’s first consideration.

Yuhong explained the route before the competition with the young students in the Yufeng Horse Club

He once said, "Equestrianism is a bottomless pit", because this course gets deeper and deeper and wider. However, what children need most is the joy of learning horsemanship. Yuhong realized that his original teaching The method belongs to the professional team. In the club, the members purchase teaching services. There is a fundamental difference between the two. So he tried to develop a teaching method suitable for young students, from elementary to advanced, teaching at different levels, focusing on equestrianism. Children’s inner growth. In addition, he also focuses on the teaching method of team lessons-that is, several children are trained in a group at the same time, the purpose is to cultivate their sense of competition and teamwork. "Some parents did not understand at first,‘I paid the one-to-one teaching fee, why do several people have to go to class together? ’I will tell them that you can try it and see what the child has gained and changed. "Yu Hong said, "In class, I will first teach them the power of cooperation, not to make fun of each other, teammates are comrades. Then arrange some quizzes in groups to make them competitive. In this way, concentration can be cultivated, and everything taught to them can be heard. "He also has a characteristic when he is in class, that is, he wears a microphone. Every rider must wear headphones so that he can hear every instruction of the coach.

Through such team teaching, the level of students has improved significantly, but there are also problems. And then-not every coach has the ability to guide the team to class. Team classes require the coach to assign suitable horses according to the level of the riders during observation, and arrange the riders of similar level in a group when grouping, these are all tests The professional level of the coach.

Another trainee of Coach Yuhong, Kang Shile, loves horse riding very much. His dream is to become a great rider. For the first time, he took him to the first Qinghai Provincial Games and won two championships.

At present, the parents of the students in the club only approve Yuhong’s team teaching, and other coaches are not able to get exercise, so they have no confidence to carry out team teaching. “When everyone agrees with me, I can’t attend the class by myself, sometimes on weekends. Classes are not scheduled. "Yuhong said helplessly, "The value of the club does not depend on me alone. My strength and value lies in turning all the coaches in the club to the same level as me, so that the teaching system and teaching content of the whole club will be richer and more convincing. _P1p

After discovering the problem, Yuhong started training coaches again, once a week, and also went to other racecourses for training. "I went to teach coaches how to adjust horses and how to train children. Make full use of the professional knowledge we have learned, and only when the overall strength is improved, can we better promote local equestrianism. So cultivating all local coaches is the general direction. _P1p

Group photo of all the coaches and employees of Yufeng after the game

's original intention has not changed, and more people fall in love with equestrianism with professional influence

has experienced 31 years of horseback career,Yuhong wanted to drive a lot. I used to train in a professional team and couldn't take care of my family all the year round. Now the family has moved to the southwest, and my daughter is also attending Chongqing Tibet Middle School. There is no longer any worries and can concentrate on equestrian teaching. "Equestrian is my old line of business, it's a little easier, and I like it again. The most important point is that I have been doing most of my life, so I should train more students. The students have scored in big and small competitions, and parents have seen it. Goals, see hope, they will participate more enthusiastically. In this way, I have not discarded my profession, and I have also made a contribution to the equestrian industry."

Yuhong’s daughter, Suolang Zhuoga, nicknamed Gege , Was born in Beijing and grew up in Lhasa. Now I am studying at Chongqing Tibet Middle School. I love horses very much

Yuhong's daughter is 12 years old this year and has begun to practice horse riding under his father's professional guidance. "We try to practice as much as possible on weekends. She has a very good sense of horses. She has liked horses since she was a child. She is a little timid and dare not get on horses, but after only riding three or four times, she can already move independently. They are all very good." Yuhong hopes to pass on his equestrian talent to the next generation. In addition to training coaches and students, he is also very concerned about his daughter's riding skills. "I want to have more time to fix a horse for her. No matter what I will ride in the future, I will try it first, so that she can practice equestrian skills without delay in learning."

At the end of the interview, Yuhong Said that I have today’s achievements and can exert my strength to promote the development of equestrian teaching in the southwest region. I would also like to thank the Tibetan equestrian team for training, and the Panchen Lama’s efforts to promote Tibetan equestrianism to the whole country and the world when the Tibetan equestrian professional team was formed. Orally. It is with this original intention that Yuhong can persevere on the road of equestrianism and witness the growth of more young equestrians. (The article is from the February 2021 issue of Equestrian Magazine)

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