In February 1993, Kong Zhendong had a smooth ride in the Swedish Table Tennis Super League and the Table Tennis Champions League.

The guidance of Mi Xingbang in China is very anxious.

Because of the men's team list for the World Table Tennis Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden at the end of April 1993, the coaches disputed.

Whether the table tennis coach's position is stable or not depends on the results of the three major competitions.

The three major competitions refer to the biennial World Table Tennis Championships, the quadrennial Olympic Games, and the annual Table Tennis World Cup.

The team competition of the Table Tennis World Cup is held separately from the individual competition, but each individual event is only played once a year, so it is customary to call it once a year.

For other countries, and even other table tennis teams in the world, winning one or two of the three major championships as a collective or individual champion is enough to glorify the entire athlete's career or coaching career.

But for the coach of the Chinese team, losing a championship can be said to be a horse stumbling on the front foot, losing more than two, and preparing to roll up and walk.

If it is a series of fiascos, look at the men's table tennis head coach who has fallen into the handsome position in the past five years, you can know what a high-flying profession this is.

The more in times of crisis, the more long-term the layout of Mi Xingbang.

In 91, the national table tennis men's team fell to the bottom with the worst results in history, and Mi Xingbang was ordered to be in danger.

But Mi Xingbang is not a hexalist after all, and he did not stage the drama of waste materials and turning eyes to counterattack and become holy.

The men's team began to win the championship in the 92 World Cup, and then at the Barcelona Olympics, it snatched back the men's doubles gold medal and saved face.

Men's table tennis has made achievements in the past two years, so Mi Xingbang's position has gradually stabilized.

However, in the Chinese table tennis industry, in the past two years, there has gradually been a voice raising its head, that is, the growth of national table tennis is too slow, and this little achievement is almost a normal recovery, how can there be any coach credit?

The Chinese men's team won the men's doubles gold medal at the Barcelona Olympics in 92, which is nothing more than a copy of the men's doubles gold medal won at the Hancheng Olympics in 88, without any improvement.

Most people's evaluation, after the national table tennis has experienced the lowest trough of the 90 Asian Games ~ 91 Chiba, the parabola has risen to the same level as the strength of 88.

So according to the law of the team's progress and rise, will the 93-year-old national table tennis men's team return to the competitive state of 87?

In 1987, the national table tennis men's team swept the Swedish team 5:0 to consolidate the national table tennis dynasty.

So the goal of 93 is to position the men's team champion?

There is a strong rising force in the team, thinking that 93 is the year of national table tennis, and you Mi Xingbang can't take everyone off, so you will give up your position and let the people who promise to bring everyone to the team championship.

Under such pressure, Mi Xingbang positioned the task of this year's World Table Tennis Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden as a breakthrough in men's singles, men's team, men's doubles, and double champions.

Among them, the most bottomless thing in Mi Xingbang is the competition for the men's team.

In the past month, several intra-team meetings have been to discuss the five-member roster of the Chinese team for the team competition, but it has not been decided.

The key core that can't be decided is that Mi Xingbang boldly pushed two teenagers under the age of 18 to the front line of the team competition, which no one dared to agree with.

The list recommended by Kong Zhendong includes Kong Zhendong, who has worked hard in Sweden to practice authentic arc circles and tournaments, and Liu Guobang, who was selected to enter the main team of the national first team at the end of last year and performed well at the Qatar Open at the beginning of this year.

Kong Zhendong is 14 years old, and Liu Guobang is not yet 18, such two little guys, who were sent out to participate in the World Youth Championships in previous years, have to think about it, not to mention the World Table Tennis Championships, which has the highest level of table tennis competition.

After four meetings in a month, the quota for each individual event of the World Table Tennis Championships was basically determined, and the rest of the team competition was also roughly decided, and the key was Kong Zhendong and Liu Guobang.

There is one last meeting this afternoon, and Mi Xingbang routinely called Wu Jingping and Yin Xiao, two coaches promoted by himself, to the office for discussion.

In the past four meetings, even Wu Jingping and Yin Xiao, who had the grace of knowing Mi Xingbang, still only expressed cautious support for his bold personnel proposal, and did not wave the flag.

Kong Zhendong and Liu Guobang are both members of Yin Xiao's responsible team, as the head coach, of course, he hopes that his disciples will be successful as soon as possible, but Kong Zhendong, who has been polished in Sweden for more than half a year, and Liu Guobang, who has only participated in one or two international open tournaments and lacks experience in other international competitions, is it really good for them to directly push it to the big stage of the World Table Tennis Championships?

In the team competition of this era, there is no lying crown, and the arrangement of troops at this time is not based on absolute strength, but more about playing, so even newcomers like Kong Zhendong and Liu Guobang, as long as they enter the squad, it is possible to play in the finals. What should they do if they collapse at such a young age?

It was Wu Jingping who came up with a comprehensive plan: "Mi Shuai, if you push two inexperienced players under the age of 18 to play the World Table Tennis Championships at one time, it is impossible for the list to be passed." We can save the country by curves. Liu Guobang is the inheritor of straight and positive glue, if he says something that should not be said, he is rooted in the seedlings, and his growth is very concerned about the old people of national table tennis. What's more, it's easier to play straight and quick, if you just push him. The combination of the four elders and a newcomer can be regarded as cultivating future newcomers and cultivating the future heirs of the quintessential style of play, and I believe that the list will be passed soon. ”

Yin Xiao also strongly agrees with this view. Mi Xingbang has no bottom on who Liu Guobang and Kong Zhendong prefer, the two talented players selected by themselves, Yin Xiao and Wu Jingping.

Judging from the weekday exchanges, Mi Xingbang admires Liu Guobang more. But Kong Zhendong's every step of progress, he cares more than anyone else, even less than 14 years old, without any international open, Asian-level events training, just want to go directly to the World Championships, what kind of confidence is this? And what kind of preference?

Mi Xingbang thought for a while, and did not continue to insist that Kong Zhendong enter the list. In the subsequent meeting, Mi Xingbang really changed his strategy and still insisted that the World Table Tennis Championships must pay attention to the training of newcomers, so that Liu Guobang, the inheritor of straight board Zhengjiao, entered the team competition squad.

Seventeen-year-old in the team squad? How unusual, how glorious?

Some coaches still feel a little risky, but they see that Mi Xingbang has made concessions on Kong Zhendong's issue, and if they continue to refute Liu Guobang's selection, it will be blatantly fighting with the head coach.

This era is actually more open than later generations, and it is common for national table tennis to fight internally, and there have been public debates between players and head coaches in the newspaper.

But is it really necessary to hinder Liu Guobang's growth?

These national table tennis coaches are all predecessors or the team left by their predecessors, they are not rootless trees, and most of their old coaches and leaders are the generation with a straight and positive complex.

After Jiang Jialiang retired, Cheng Longcan also went away to Hong Kong Island, and the national table tennis really needs a new generation of straight and positive glue blood to grow up.

As a result, Liu Guobang successfully entered the men's team squad for the World Table Tennis Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden.

After Liu Guobang's list was confirmed, Mi Xingbang's words changed, but he put forward a new proposal that shocked everyone.