I will be traveling to the City of Wuxi (woo-she), in the Jiangsu Province of the Peoples Republic of China. Wuxi is a very old (over 3000 years old) City situated on the shores of Lake Tai and is approximately 75-80 miles Northwest of the City of Shanghai. Wuxi is traditionally a manufacturing city, but recently is emerging as an economic business hub. According to the 2010 world census, the prefecture-level city (regional) population for Wuxi is 6.3 million people.
Wuxi Sports School:
In many ways the Chinese Sport Development System is different than here in the United States, but there are also some similarities. They ways in which swimmers enter the system is very different, but once on a team and when it comes to competition, it is fairly similar. You strive and work very hard to get better, so that you can qualify for higher levels of competition. There's also the simple pride of racing for your team and beating rivals (just like in the USA).
Here in the US, as we all know, children and kids are free to join any sport they feel like doing and can come and go from an activity as they please. There are any number of different entry points for kids into a sport (private club, YMCAs, School teams, ect...), and for the most part, you just need the desire to start and perhaps the resources to pay for it). In China, a traditionally closed society, they do not have this same "club system". Instead, primary aged school children are occasionally given aptitude and skills testing at their "regular" schools and then, based on the results, can get selected to attend one of the premier local or regional Sport Academies. These are like traditional schools, except that in addition to academics, sports become a very important aspect of those student's lives.
The Wuxi Sports School is one such sport school that serves the greater Wuxi area. It is one of the most important Sports Schools in the Jiangsu Province. The Jiangsu Provence itself has a population of 78.7 million people (in an area slightly larger then the state of Maine), and there are several other Sport Schools that serve the region as well.
At this point, competitions become similar to the United States. Provincial school teams will compete against each other in regional, provincial competitions. The faster you swim, the more you qualify for and the higher the level of competition, up to competitions that feature the best swimming in the entire country. At some point, just like in the United States, the very best swimmers from all the various Provincial Sports School will form the Chinese National Team (to compete at the Olympics, and other International events). Others sports in Chinese operate under the same basic format, and the underlying bedrock of the whole system are these Sport Development School.
Are They Any Good?:
This is a fairly legitimate question, since just like here in the US, some teams are better then others and have more resources (from the Government in the case of China), so it's certainly reasonable to wonder what kind of reputation the Wuxi Sports School has among it's counterpart sports academies in China. The Wuxi Sport School is a Chinese Olympic Base School, which simply means that the government gives it its highest level of support ($$$) and it is looked upon to produce the future stars of Chinese sport. Based on their results, they have (and are) producing some of the best athletes, not only in China, but in the world.
Wuxi Sports School:
- There are 22 different sports teams at the Wuxi Sports School in the traditional Olympics sports (like swimming, diving, table tennis, gymnastics, shooting, basketball, baseball, weightlifting, and archery). The school has 100 professional coaches employed there.
- In it's history, Wuxi Sports School has produced 16 world champions (i.e. best in the entire world) in sports like table tennis, weightlifting, shooting, diving, etc..)
- In the most recent 2009 Chinese National Games, the school produced 25 medals (8 gold, 9 silver and 8 bronze). That is a very high numbers.
- The swim team (which has about 70 swimmers on it - Chinese teams by their selective nature are smaller then US teams), currently has 6 swimmers on the Jiangsu Provincial Team, which represents the province at the National level. That is roughly the US equivalent of "making a US National Qualifying Time". By comparison, The Comets currently have 1 swimmer at this level and trains 1 other swimmer (from Victor) at this level. Although, we have several others (2-3) that are on the verge of those qualifying times.
In short, this is one of very best that the Chinese have to offer in their Sport Development Program. We are honored to be able to go there and share with them.
Wuxi Sports School Pool (L - outside, R - inside)
So What Will You be Doing There?
I have posted my preliminary itinerary for the trip -HERE-
The first few days, I will be meeting and working with the team and my counterpart coaches from the School, Coach Xu and his staff. I will also be meeting and getting to know the School's principal (Principal You). I'm sure that I will also be getting quite a bit of a cultural lessons as I interact with their staff and swimmers. As a guest, I will no doubt be treated to traditional Chinese hospitality and I look forward to doing my part as a guest in their country. I will be humble and represent our club in the most respectable way I can. I've done my best to research traditional Chinese etiquette and I will take my role as Ambassador from our club, and our sport as a whole, very seriously.
After a few days, of working and sharing with the Swimming Staff, I will obviously become more comfortable, and I'm told that I will be expected to give a much broader lecture to the entire school Coaching Staff (over 100 coaches) on Wednesday. Considering that some of these coaches have athletes that are the best in the world in their sports, to say I'm a little freaked out about that is putting it a bit mildly. I think that my 90 minute lecture will focus on the challenges of motivating an athletes in in an open society, but I'm not sure. I have some general thoughts on where to go with it, but I'm still a little nervous. I just hope my translator makes me sound better than I actually am.
Later in the trip, I will be going to a nearby college level swim team and will have meetings and discussion about our sport at that level. I'm actually very confident and about this aspect of the trip. This is right up my alley and I've coached at the college level for a very long time. I'm very interested in seeing what their approach is.
Finally, on my last day, I will travel to the Shanghai Sport Development School. This is one of the premier sport schools in all of China. I will be able to mingle with some of the finest coaches and swimmers in the country. By this time, I certainly hope to have mastered the different traditions and etiquette to come off professionally and with some dignity. Interspersed among all this "work", I will have a small amount of time to sightsee, and experience some of the attractions in the Wuxi and Shanghai area. That is secondary of course, but I think that understanding the culture and their traditions will allow me to be better able to open my mind and really challenge myself on all of the "norms" that I currently have as a coach.
After all, this trip is about challenging myself to open my mind, and learn more as a coach. I demand that my athletes abandon their comfort zones every day at practice, so it's only fair to hold myself to those same standards. I can't wait to share with you what I learn. I am told that I am one of the first USA swim coaches to be offered this level of access to the very base-level of the Chinese Sport Development System. To me, this is an incredible honor. I must thank Jianlin Fan, who is my primary sponsor, and his family for making this whole thing possible.
More to come next week......
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