China's softball team is trying to solve the problem of
integrating foreign coaches into its traditional but cherished
training system ahead of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
The team badly needs the advanced techniques introduced by
foreign coaches but their management style can be too much for the
players to handle, according to a top Chinese softball
official.
Such worries have caused the sport's national administrative
center to reshuffle the team's coaching line-up in March, replacing
American head coach Michael Bastian with local veteran Wang Lihong.
Bastian will stay with the team as the batting coach.
"Our cooperation was not smooth," Jiang Xunyun, deputy chief of
the center and vice-president of the Chinese Softball Association
(CSA), told China Daily. "On the technical side, he's got
plenty of things for us to learn. However, we have very different
ideas on how to mange the team."
Bastian, 44, began coaching the Chinese team in early 2006 as
the first ever foreign head of the team. He soon fell out of favor
with officials who believed the team spirit was fading due to the
American's slack management of the normally disciplined squad.
Wang, also a former member of the coaching group, agrees.
"I don't mean his ideas were wrong but they did not work with
the team because our players are used to the traditional
management," she said. "It just takes time to change."
However, Chinese officials have returned to tried and tested
methods under Wang - no one is allowed to use mobile phones or the
Internet after 10pm, for example.
The team has a tough task of winning a medal at the Beijing
Games. The team, silver medalists in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and
two-time world runners-up, achieved nothing of notice under
Bastian's helm, placing a disappointing fourth in the World
Championships and third in the Doha Asian Games last year.
"I hope we can work together in a better way while recognizing
our differences," Jiang added.
Bastian was not available for comment.
In addition to achieving good results at the home Olympics,
officials are promoting the game of softball in China by organizing
a training camp for the public in Beijing on Sunday. The camp, also
aided by Beijing Softball Association and Guangdong Hua Run Paint
Company, is also part of the celebrations of June 13's "World
Softball Day".
The sport is facing an uncertain future after it was axed from
the London 2012 Olympics alongside baseball. To revive the sport,
the International Softball Association (ISA) reached a five-year
cooperative deal with CSA in 2003 - ISA will donate softball
equipment to China from 2004-2008, hoping the sport will reach more
people before the Beijing Games.
"We try to show the public that softball is very a smart and
interesting game," Jiang said. "The game's influence in China has
grown as we've held such activities every year from 2004."
Other efforts include introducing the sport into schools and
universities.
(China Daily June 13, 2007)