I spent the day with Mr. Jianlin Fan (Arthur, Linda, and Eric's father), Coach Xu, and our interpreter Holly and it was amazing experience. Today started with a traditional Chinese buffet breakfast that was phenomenal. Chinese food in the US, is not like Chinese food in China. I really enjoyed everything I sampled. Next we went to the Wuxi Sports School to watch the AM practice.
Coach Tim and Coach Xu, outside the entrance to the Wuxi Sports School.
This practice was a full team participation workout and all levels participated. It was strangely foreign but at the same time very familiar being in the pool here. In talking and getting to know Coach Xu over the course of the day, I was able to get a very good idea of how the entire system of swimming in China works. I think that in some ways it is better then our system, but at the same time there are some things where the advantages our system really come through. I wasn't completely wrong in the way the system operates, but it's much more dynamic than I once thought. There are some things culturally that they do here that we cannot do in the US, but at the same time there are things that we do they they probably cannot duplicate here. It was a real eye-opening experience. I have not really had time to process the volume of information I learned today, but believe me..... It's something I will be doing in the coming days and weeks. It wasn't even so much in we said, but in what I observed. It's very special.
Coach Tim, Coach Xu (to Tim's left) and the rest of the coaching staff.
Coach Tim and Coach Xu with the 11-12 swimming group.
After the AM practice, we had a traditional Chinese lunch. Again, it's was so different of an experience, but very good at the same time. I'm still getting used to the feeling of being the only westerner in the room, and having everyone looking at me. Not in a rude way, in a very curious one. The little kids will go out of their way to get my attention, just so that I can say "hi" to them. Then they run off giggling. Lunch was great and after we headed into the office to wait for PM practice. Coach Xu presented me with some AMAZING gifts from himself, his school and the rest of his coaches. It was a very humbling experience to feel the sincerity of the gift just by the gift itself. It was very heartfelt by it's personal nature and you can feel the pride in their school, culture and country just by the nature of the gift. Gift giving is a much more important part of the Chinese culture than it is in ours and I can see why now. They don't give gifts, just for the sake of giving them, they give them because they mean something.
We then went to PM practice and only the 11-12 groups had water work this afternoon. Through Holly (who speaks fantastic english), Couch Xu and I were able to exchange a good deal of information about our sport and training. Coach Xu has been coaching about as long as I have in the Chinese system and we both understand things despite the translation difficulty between chinese and english. We ended the practice with Coach Xu offering to let me coach this group (11-12) tomorrow in my own style (with the help of Holly of Course). I consider it a great privilege. It should be very fun, for both the swimmers and for me.
Typical Practice Scene (not much different then ours)
Tonight, I will have a traditional Chinese dinner with Coach Xu, Holly and his staff. I'm pretty excited about it. One other thing that has most struck me so far is the incredible graciousness of Mr. Fan and Coach Xu. Perhaps this is typical Chinese hospitality, but there is no way that I can describe how good they have been to me so far. It's very humbling to me and I'm grateful for the experience so far.
I'll get into more detail about the things I've learned in future posts. For now. It's getting close to dinner time.
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