On January 10, the Volleyball Sports Management Center of the State General Administration of Sport released the "Announcement of the Volleyball Center of the General Administration of Sport on the Selection and Recruitment of the Head Coach of the National Women's Volleyball Team" on its official website, and after more than four months of vacancies in the coaching position, the selection and recruitment of the new manager of the Chinese women's volleyball team was officially launched. Since Lang Ping is included in the selection team, this is equivalent to announcing in advance that she will definitely not return to the national team coaching position, and it is worth noting that in this selection team of coaches, there is also the first time in history that Tianjin experts have appeared.
Screenshot of the official website of the Chinese Volleyball Association
The announcement shows that at present, the leading group for the selection and recruitment work and the expert group have been formed. The leader of the leading group is Liu Guoyong, deputy director of the State General Administration of Sports, and the deputy leaders are Li Quanqiang, Cao Jingwei, Lai Yawen and Yu Guangyan. Among them, Li Quanqiang, Lai Yawen and Yu Guangyan are all leaders of the drainage center, and Cao Jingwei is the deputy director of the Competition Department of the State General Administration of Sports. The leader of the expert group for selecting the marshal is Zhong Bingshu, the deputy team leader is Lai Yawen and Wang Jingyu, and the team members are Chen Zhonghe, Lang Ping, Shen Fulin and Zhang Xin. In addition to the three famous coaches familiar to fans, the expert group included Zhong Bingshu, former dean of the Capital Institute of Physical Education, and Wang Jingyu, a reporter from the Sports Department of Xinhua News Agency and a member of the International Volleyball Federation Press Committee.
In particular, it is worth mentioning that there is another member of the expert group who has a close relationship with Tianjin, that is, Zhang Xin, who was the deputy director of the Tianjin Sports Bureau and is now the vice president of the Tianjin Institute of Physical Education. Zhang Xin is one of the few volleyball doctoral supervisors in China, a sports decision-making consulting expert during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period of the State General Administration of Sport, and he is also the head of the scientific research team of the Chinese men's volleyball team and an international referee. For the first time in history, Tianjin volleyball players participated in the selection of the Chinese women's volleyball team, which highlighted the influence of Tianjin to build a "volleyball city" and the strength of Tianjin Sports Institute and China Volleyball Academy in volleyball research. From this list, it is not difficult to see that the selection expert group of the Chinese women's volleyball team is a composite team composed of high-level professional coaches, college research experts, and senior media personnel, which also provides more new perspectives for the Chinese women's volleyball team to choose a coach.
Zhang Xin
After the Tokyo Olympics, former head coach Lang Ping's contract expired and he left the Chinese women's volleyball team, which had been coaching for eight years. In eight years, Lang Ping has built a composite coaching team, introduced advanced technical and tactical play, reshaped the Chinese women's volleyball team, and helped the team get out of the trough and reach the peak again. Although the team's performance at the Tokyo Olympics was not satisfactory, Lang Ping's outstanding contribution to this team cannot be erased. Due to Lang Ping's huge influence, so that during the period when the women's volleyball position was vacant, the sound of expecting her to change her mind and go out of the mountain again was endless. However, there is no unbroken banquet in the world, and this time Lang Ping participated in the selection of the coach as a member of the expert group, which is equivalent to announcing in advance that she will definitely not return to the national team coaching position.
In addition, the entry of another meritorious manager, Chen Zhonghe, into the expert group also means that he has no intention of participating in this selection. Chen Zhonghe, who has long since retired, will turn 65 in October this year, and he has been saying 13 years after he left the coaching position, so his exit is not unexpected.
When it comes to coaching, the last time the Chinese women's volleyball team was selected was 9 years ago. At that time, after the defeat of the Chinese women's volleyball team in London, it was in the trough of being green and yellow, and the competent authorities decided to find a suitable helmsman for the team by means of open coach selection. In the end, Lang Ping won the competition, and the Chinese women's volleyball team ushered in the glory of two Olympic cycles. Now, this gold medal division has come to a new crossroads, as the first successor after Lang Dao, the pressure faced by the new manager can be imagined. Coupled with the expectation that the Chinese women's volleyball team will get out of the shadow of the tokyo Olympic Games defeat as soon as possible, it has invisibly added a burden to it. Standing up at such a time requires enough courage and responsibility. For every candidate, we should have enough respect and respect. We should be more tolerant and patient with the eventually elected successor.
With the start of the Chinese women's volleyball team's coach selection work, the speculation of paying attention to the manager has once again become the focus of fans' attention, and Lang Ping, Chen Zhonghe and entering the expert group have also left many popular candidates that fans generally believe. According to the selection announcement issued by the Volleyball Center, the new Chinese women's volleyball coach must be familiar with the situation of domestic women's volleyball players, have a clear team idea, and combine this with the current domestic relevant entry epidemic prevention requirements, as well as the registration deadline on January 15, and other conditions, should first rule out the possibility of choosing foreign coaches.
Among the local candidates, An Jiajie was originally a popular candidate. After all, since 2014, An Jiajie, who assisted Lang Ping, has always been regarded as Lang Ping's most likely successor, considering the urgent preparation time of the Paris Olympic cycle, if An Jiajie can pick up the beam, he can naturally continue the team tactics and characteristics of the Lang Ping era to the greatest extent, and complete the replacement of the Chinese women's volleyball team at the minimum cost, but An Jiajie, who has been an assistant coach for a long time, has also encountered many doubts in the past in terms of his ability to lead the team alone. Just yesterday, a number of media suddenly reported the news that An Jiajie replaced Li Yanlong and officially became the head coach of the Shandong women's volleyball team. At the beginning of the Chinese women's volleyball team's coach selection, An Jiajie found a new position in the Shandong team, which is equivalent to indirectly announcing that he has also withdrawn from the selection of the national team manager.
After An Jiajie withdrew, Jiangsu women's volleyball team head coach Cai Bin and Tianjin women's volleyball head coach Wang Baoquan became the last two candidates. Both of them have served as the head coach of the Chinese women's volleyball team, but they have been dismissed for various reasons, and it can be said that the national team's coaching position is a heroic experience for them. However, now that Wang Baoquan's guidance is over sixty years old, considering physical reasons, there is a high probability that this Jinmen Iron Marshal will not participate in this selection. In this case, Cai Bin, the "little Zhuge Who has coached the Jiangsu women's volleyball team for two full-time cycles," has become the biggest popular candidate. In March 2009, Cai Bin coached the Chinese women's volleyball team for the first time, but in just one year, he was overshadowed by the loss of the Asian Championship final team to the Thai women's volleyball team. Since then, Cai Bin has successively picked up the teaching whip of the Beijing and Jiangsu women's volleyball teams. While in Beijing, he took the team to the fourth place in the league, moved to Jiangsu, and Cai Bin led the team to win the double championship of the league and the National Games in 2017. At the Shaanxi National Games, he led the Jiangsu team to the runner-up, and in the just-concluded Volleyball Super League, Cai Bin led the Newly created Jiangsu Women's Volleyball Team by many newcomers to the final, and the final runner-up result also exceeded the expectations of many people.
Cai Bin's coaching ability is beyond doubt, and his failure to coach the Chinese women's volleyball team for the first time will not affect the recognition of his coaching level. In addition to having a high prestige among the members of the national team, the Jiangsu women's volleyball team he taught advanced technical and tactical playing style, and at the same time, the style is tough, and it is also a unique existence in the domestic volleyball arena. Whether it is coaching experience or team results, the 56-year-old Cai Bin is enough to be the head coach of the Chinese women's volleyball team, but whether he will choose to join the national team again depends on Cai Bin's personal will. It is particularly worth mentioning that a passage of Cai Bin's interview at the beginning of the season also left us with endless conjecture.
In addition to Cai Bin, Zhang Jianzhang, the coach of the Beijing women's volleyball team who is similar to his age, is also regarded as one of the new coach candidates of the Chinese women's volleyball team. However, compared with Cai Bin, Zhang Jianzhang has been away from the national team for many years, and this year's Shaanxi National Games women's volleyball adult group qualifiers, Beijing women's volleyball team failed to enter the final final, which directly led to Zhang Jianzhang's dismissal, which also made his prospects in the national team not optimistic.