Zheng Wei, head coach of China women’s basketball: Lower your body and stand on the fight
Head coach Zheng Wei: Lower your body, based on the competition
our reporter Li Yuanfei
The 2022 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup will be unveiled in Sydney on September 22, and China will face South Korea on the opening day women’s basketball. On September 12th, women’s basketball of the team members who went to Sydney in two batches met successfully, and then they entered the preparations for the Sprint phase. Next, the Chinese team will play the last three warm-up matches with Australia, Canada and Mali.
In order to prepare for the women’s basketball World Cup, the Chinese team concentrated on May 20. After that, the team experienced three stages: physical recovery, personal technical training and running-in preparation. However, due to the need to find problems in training through competitions and solve them one by one, the Chinese team finally decided to visit Europe for training after two months of training. Now, they have arrived at the World Cup venue, and the two centers have also joined the team. The whole team has put into preparation for the sprint stage.
During the one-month training in Europe, the Chinese team successively played many warm-up matches with French team, Belgian team, Serbian team and Spanish domestic club teams, it solved some problems existing before the team, such as how to break pressure defense, and achieved the goal of training. “So far, we have played 8 games. I think every match is a good test process for us. In the middle, we found many problems. At present, the situation of the team is getting better and better.” Zheng Wei, the head coach of the Chinese team, said, “Li Yuelu and Han Xu have also returned to the team. They only played two games with the team, so I think the team’s running-in needs to be further improved. But their mental outlook and the overall situation of the team are very good.”
As the two internal generals of the Chinese team, Han Xu and Li Yuelu joined the team at the end of the European training. It took four or five months to leave the national team, but after returning, Han Xu and Li Yuelu were quickly integrated into the team. Han Xu experienced the whole WNBA season, and she was tired and had some effusion in her right foot, but she was determined to go all out to complete the task of the World Cup.
When Li Yuelu returned to the team, he felt that his cooperation with the team was a little unfamiliar. However, after a short adaptation process, she and the team regained their previous tacit understanding. Li Yuelu thinks that he has gained more confidence from WNBA. She said: “At the end of a season, I think a lot of things our team is doing now are improving. The purpose is to develop towards the world’s top teams. If we keep improving, we can get closer and closer to the world’s top teams.”
In the World Cup four years ago, the Chinese team created the smallest loss score difference with the American team since 1983, and finally lost to the French team to rank sixth in the competition of five or six. In this competition, all circles have high hopes for the Chinese team, but the team remains calm. “We need to keep a very clear mind, put ourselves in a lower position, base ourselves on fighting opponents, and be prepared to deal with more difficulties.” According to Zheng Wei, at present, eight World Cup teams have come to the competition ground. Judging from her observation, each team has a very complete lineup and full preparations, therefore, every game China women’s basketball will encounter next will not be easy, “China women’s basketball will definitely finish this game with the best mental outlook and state.”