In this issue, we will focus on the women’s basketball coach of Shanghai Jiaotong University: Cong Xueyu, and look at the development of Shanghai Jiaotong University women’s basketball and CUBAL from her story.
During the late peak hours in Shanghai, Humin Elevated was blocked, and Cong Xueyu was driving slowly in the traffic. She taught women’s basketball in Minhang campus of Shanghai Jiaotong University. This elevated frame is the only way for her to go to and from work.
Occasionally, she would pull her eyes out of the traffic, leaning on the “Shanghai Big Turning Wheel” not far away “. That is the iconic amusement facility of Jinjiang Park, a giant Ferris wheel height of the seat 108 meters. When the landmark Jinjiang Park was just built, she was only 22 years old and lived in Jing’an district. Every time she came, she felt “like an outing”. At that time, Jinjiang Park made her feel as far as another city.
Thirty-eight years later, the resident population of Shanghai has more than doubled, and the scale of the city has expanded again and again. Going to Jinjiang paradise is finally no longer like an outing, but young people also have “new favorites”, that is Disneyland, which was put into operation in 2016. Not long ago, Shanghai Jiaotong University won the first champion of the Southeast division women’s basketball young pioneer team history. Cong Xueyan promised to the players at the celebration banquet that he would take everyone to Disneyland when the season ended. If it was two or ten years ago, Jinjiang paradise was probably their first choice for “group Building.
The changes of the world are often unpredictable. Just like her, she entered shanghai sports school at the age of 14 and entered the national team at the age of 20. At the age of 55, she led the national youth team to win the asian youth league three successive championships. She had dealt with the professional team for most of her life and had equal honors, however, at the age when she was supposed to retire, she came to the university campus and went back two or ten years. She would never expect this change in her life. This is her personal choice and the result of the era of “integration of sports and education.
01 The greatest guard, the Olympic three-point King
On april 9, the first entrance ceremony of china’s naismith memorial basketball hall of fame was held in tianjin. Standing on the small podium of the old site of the east road club, cong xueyu said, “insist, it is the highest starting point on the road of chasing dreams.” She is only 1.66 meters tall. Without persistence, she would definitely not be the point guard G.O.A.T (the greatest player) in China’s women’s basketball history.
One of the most popular stories about Cong’s “persistence” is that she started from the youth team and shot thousands of times at the special little rim every day. In order to achieve this goal, she had to get up at 5 a.m. for training. People around her loved her and said, “you are still young, don’t practice your body.” she replied, “because you are young, you should fight hard!” Later, after a confrontation, she fell into the habit of dislocating. Sometimes she would relapse just as soon as she raised her hand. Even so, she still kept the habit of improving shooting until she retired-but the number was not so large, only “hundreds” of times a day.
In the national team, she has another habit. According to Li Xiaoqin, her old teammate and her assistant coach in the national youth team, Cong Xueyan often cooperated with Zheng Haixia to practice “attacking the center, throwing out after being blocked and shooting again, the frequency is” almost after every technical training “. Because of this, the combination of height difference of 40cm will become one of the most representative double groups in Chinese basketball. “Is my alarm clock, which often asks me to get up and practice.” In the Hall of Fame speech, Zheng Haixia said.
Cong learned from the beginning that she was a small man who had no advantage in the basket. Only by practicing the outside shooting to the extreme can she stand on the basketball court. With persistent training, her COSCO investment ability far surpasses her time. In 1983, yang bozhen, the then head coach of china’s women’s basketball, transferred her to the national team because she saw her amazing cosco investment in this national games. FIBA did not introduce three point line in the official competition until 1984.
In the Seoul Olympic Games in 1988, Cong Xueyi made his first appearance in the Olympic games in three point line, and he cast the second three-point shot percentage in the games. In barcelona in 1992, she hit 57.7 percent of the three points and the average number of 3.0 games was the first in the double high. In the semi-final World War I with Cuba, she scored 20 points in 5 of the 3-point goal 8, and the fans on the field played a banner: “Cong Xuexiao, China’s pride!” In that olympic games, china won a silver medal women’s basketball, which has not been surpassed so far. Cong’s score was 12.0 points, second only to peng ping’s 12.2 points in the team.
Barcelona Olympic Games China won silver medal women’s basketball
Li xiaoqin recalled that cong’s range was “at least 8 meters”. How far is the three point line distance of FIBA standard today? The answer is: 6.75 meters (the bottom angle is 6.60 meters). It shows the foresight of the concept of xuusheng basketball-to some extent, it is also forced to be forged by the extreme height disadvantage.
As an athlete, she is not only holding the Olympic Games 1 silver 1 Copper so simple, her indomitable will, her unremitting pursuit of perfect football skills, and her feelings of “sacrificing the ego, achieving the greater I, they are all valuable spiritual wealth of the National basket.
In 1991, Cong Xueyu had retired for two years. Getting married and taking care of his parents who were suffering from illness had become another rhythm of life. However, when the Chinese women’s basketball fell into a low tide and there were few available soldiers, she responded to the call of the team without hesitation and chose to come back. As a result, soon after she joined the team, she felt the pain in her ankle during a training. The examination found that there were 21 bone spurs on it! It is hard to imagine how difficult she had overcome at that time to shake the world basketball in Barcelona one year later.
Therefore, it is not difficult to understand why cong xueyan can become one of the first nine people in china’s naismith memorial basketball hall of fame, and the other eight people, jiang xingquan and xu limin, who entered the hall as coaches, and Zheng Haixia, Song Xiaobo, Hu Weidong, Liu Yudong, Wang Zhizhi and Mu Tiezhu who entered the hall as athletes. Anyone who takes it out is a hero who can hold up a period of history by himself.
As a coach, Cong learned the same success. At the league level, she led the badly downgraded Shanghai women’s basketball to return to the first a in just one year. At the national character level, she led the team to complete the U18 women’s basketball asian youth league three successive championships in 2014, 2016 and 2018, and also brought out huang sijing, dilana, li yuan, zhang ru, han xu, li Yuelu was waiting for a group of national players who were the year of fighting. As the most cold-blooded three-point shooter in active service in women’s basketball, huang sijing once told me that the formation of her football style was due to the ear and ear of cong xue in the youth period.
Many people do not know that behind the “three successive championships” is actually the cruel fact that women’s basketball talents are increasingly scarce. At that time, fewer and fewer players were able to train in the team for a long time. In 2018, the national youth team really followed only three people from beginning to end. The fourth time with the team was a chongqing girl. She was li yuyan who won the MVP with 13 points and 6 rebounds in the final of CUBAL south-east district not long ago. The reason why she chose to apply for shanghai jiaotong university has a lot to do with cong’s invitation.
According to Li Yuyan’s memory, after the end of the Asian Youth Games in November 2018, most of the team members were scattered. When fighting against training, they were hard-pressed and could only be physical coaches and assistant coaches, however, Cong learned that he did not show negative emotions to the team members, “from the beginning to the end, he is very serious, no matter how many people there are.” In the World Youth Championship in July of the following year, Cong Xue won the fifth place in the team, which was her last battle in the national youth women’s basketball. After that, she accepted the invitation of the sports department of Shanghai Jiaotong University and became a women’s basketball coach of CUBAL.
02 “second start-up” after retirement”
Women’s basketball, shanghai jiaotong university, which was off-season in 2019, has won the final of the southeast division for two consecutive years and also lost the hand of women’s basketball of china university of mining and technology for two consecutive years. At that time, the latter was the absolute overlord of the Southeast Division. At a higher level, Shanghai Jiaotong University women’s basketball, the former CUBS Super League champion team, has never scored the top eight in the country. The Department of Sports obviously hopes that Cong can make a breakthrough.
Her nature “likes to do things that have not been done” is one of the places that campus basketball attracts her. In professional teams, the only task of athletes is to play basketball, and practice several times a day. The coach has the final say. In a top university like Shanghai Jiaotong University, coaches have to “grab” time with athletes’ studies-or, in other words, reach a balance. She wants to know whether she can lead such a team to “play style” and cultivate truly high-level athletes.
“There are not many other things I have learned. Just because Shanghai Jiaotong University needs me, I like this again. If I want to teach others something, I will come.” Cong said lightly.
At that time, she was already 56 years old, the real retirement age, but this did not prevent her from devoting herself to a new job with full enthusiasm. In fact, during the more than 40 years of getting along with basketball, she has never been slack, and naturally she will not change because she coached a student team. On the eve of the national competition in 2022, she led the team to qingdao for training. The staff of the stadium sighed with emotion to the local reporter: “a 60-year-old man is standing at the edge of the field no matter the training competition, it was more than three or four hours a stop last afternoon. It was like this every day for more than a week.”
Cong Xueyu continued the “devil training” of the professional team, which requires both intensity and investment, which once made it difficult for the team members to adapt. The outside core Zhang Tianmei once said in the interview: “I really collapsed at that time, crying loudly, and I really wanted to run and run.” But this is the only way to transform, and there is no shortcut.
According to Cong Xueyu’s memory, there were many problems in the team when she took over. Players don’t like to communicate and play dumb basketball. “If you don’t shoot the ball, you don’t know that someone is trained”. Poor basic skills-such as rapid decline in physical strength and lack of skills, resulting in three points “unable to vote”-so that the training indicators she set can not be completed. It was not until later that quantitative changes resulted in qualitative changes. “The communication between team members and team members, coaches and team members is becoming more and more smooth.”
It is worth mentioning that Cong Xueyu did not copy the experience of professional teams, but gave full play to his advantage of “flexible mind” and constantly adjusted the thinking of leading teams in practice. She once asked the players to practice shooting early. Later, she found that in this way, the players were easy to doze off in class, which affected their study, so she no longer asked for it. Instead, the shooting training was changed to night, and the frequency was not high, at most twice a week. “I mainly let them finish the quality in one training class, which is higher than the quality of their two classes.” Cong said.
Compared with the national youth team, Cong Xueyan gave more “care” to the players in Shanghai Jiaotong University. When it was time to eat green, she would personally go to the time-honored brand “SUNYA” to buy fresh green for the team members. Buy zongzi on the Dragon Boat Festival, buy moon cakes on the Mid-Autumn Festival, and sometimes bring some chocolate that young people like to eat. She will also celebrate each team member’s birthday, which is the habit that Guoqing had when she was women’s basketball. The team members returned the favor and prepared gifts for her every teachers’ day and mother’s day.
Cong Xueyu and the team members played together in Gulangyu
In order to find out the “trend” of young people, the “grandma-level” coach would also follow her son’s advice. For example, the “slam dunk master” she organized her team to see some time ago was recommended by her son. She liked to be with young people, and she said that she could “keep a young mind”-indeed, when she stood with her young team members in sunglasses, who would dare to say that she was 60 years old?
“But I won’t spoil it. On the contrary, the more I like, the higher the demand may be. I won’t talk about her if you don’t play.” Cong Xueyu said, but she hoped that the players could play “Happy Basketball”-her WeChat signature was “happy every day”, so if she said something seriously, she hopes that the team members will “talk to her” in time and don’t hold back. “If it is my problem, I will solve it.”
In a tense and relaxed atmosphere, Cong learned to grow up with her young team members. In the 22nd league match, cong xueyu canceled the “cainiao season” in CUBAL due to the “new crown” epidemic, but she led the team to the top eight in the national competition and completed a historic breakthrough, only lost to Minu women’s basketball in the 1/4 final.
On September 21, this year, the State Sports General Administration and the Ministry of Education jointly issued the Notice on deepening the integration of sports and education to promote the healthy development of teenagers, which raised the “integration of sports and education” to a brand new height. Teaching a college team may be the most insignificant resume in cong’s legendary career, but it will definitely occupy the most special position in her heart, which represents the switching of her personal track, at the same time, like a weather vane, it marks the arrival of some general trend-CUBAL’s attraction to high-quality coach resources is still increasing day by day.
03 climb over the “mine” mountain and fulfill the promise
Under the leadership of Cong Xueyu, the women’s basketball of Shanghai Jiaotong University has gradually formed a “fast-oriented” ball style, and its level has also made great progress. But they still couldn’t turn over the mountain of mineda. They lost to their opponents again in the final of the 2021 partition competition. “I didn’t hold some chances under the basket, otherwise I should be able to take it that time.” Speaking of that game, Cong’s tone showed a little chagrin.
At the last minute of the regular time, Shanghai Jiaotong University grabbed at least four offensive rebounds, but none of them could be converted into scores, including even an undisturbed underboard, the ball rolled from rim to the outside. At the last attack in regular time, li yuyan got the offensive rebound, but forgot to shoot in hesitation. Until cong xueyan stamped her feet and shouted to the court, she woke up like a dream and was hit by the iron. The final result is that the mine University tied the score and won in overtime.
After Li Yuyan lost her shots, Cong Xueyu got angry rarely, but she soon returned to normal and drew tactics on the coaching board calmly. She remembered that when she first took over Shanghai women’s basketball, she was in her early 30 s and was “aggressive”, but she always wanted to get immediate results. An old coach reminded her, “you need at least 2-3 years.” She felt depressed and felt that it took too long for her to wait. Slowly she realized that leading the team was a systematic project, “no link is missing.”
Although she promised to take the Southeast King when she took office, she also knew that the players had experienced too few games and needed to continue to grow. She had to be patient.
The coach who has won three Asian Championships has never been able to conquer the Southeast Division of CUBAL. I asked her if she felt embarrassed for a moment. She said: “There is a little bit, but it is not very important. I also know that no coach can achieve good results in the area. But one thing, if you are playing around and have a bad style, dare not fight or lose to the other side, from my point of view, it may be a little cost-effective to bring such a team. But if you beat the level out and fight with others, it doesn’t matter if you lose two or three ten. I don’t feel ashamed.”
Time soon came to this year’s partition competition. They played a wave of 7 consecutive wins of goal difference up to 44.3 and rushed into the final, and once again joined the division of the Mining University. At the end of the third quarter, they expanded the score difference to 14 points. Of course, mine University will not wait to die. When 48.9 seconds are left in the fourth quarter, it tenaciously reduces the score difference to 1 point. Cong Xueyu called for a pause and knelt down on one knee to explain the tactics to the team members. The camera did not capture her face, but I think she was like Pinghu at that time.
After the pause, shanghai jiaotong university attacked. They handed the ball to ma tianyu, 45 degrees on the left. Unfortunately, her three-pointer hit the basket. This is exciting! 1 point behind, enough time, there are countless ways to complete the reverse super. When the players of both sides landed, Wang Zhen suddenly ran back to the line, using complicated cover to create a dislocation with Li Yuyan. She wanted to hit one with speed, but Li Yuyan didn’t panic at all. She followed her steps to death. At the same time, she raised her hands high, like a wall blocking her body.
This attack failed to be won, thus losing the best chance to end the game. With their desperate arch top, Shanghai Jiaotong University finally crowned the Southeast King. At the moment of the final whistle, everyone, players, assistant coaches…… The whole team rushed into the field, laughing and jumping excitedly, only Cong’s face remained unchanged. She has too many honors. A southeast King is far from letting her expression get out of control, but she attaches great importance to the process. “It is a sense of accomplishment to watch the team members change a little.”
Cong Xueyan signed a souvenir on souvenir T-shirt of southeast King
In four seasons, Cong Xueyu won two national top eight (2020, 2022) and one division champion, which are the best results of Shanghai Jiaotong University women’s basketball. The daughter of the South cadre, who was originally born in Laiyang, Shandong province, played basketball at first because she didn’t want to be confined to the narrow table tennis table. She liked to “run all over the world”. Now, she “ran” to another area previously considered to have some kind of isolation.
Campus and career, it is hard for you to say who is close to whom-maybe it is some kind of opposite direction. In a word, Cong Xue suddenly found himself in the place where the two fields overlap and took root, let his painstaking efforts flow in the gas Film Museum of Minhang campus of Jiaotong University. She was the first coach of CUBAL to enter China Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame-it is true that it has nothing to do with her achievements in CUBAL. Even so, the whole league is still with glory, because she is already a member of the CUBAL family.
Now, Cong Xueyu lives the life of an “office worker” every day: Drive home at noon, lead the training team at 2:30-5:30, and then in the traffic of Shanghai evening peak, take twice the time to get back. Every morning, she can accompany her family, meet friends, take care of housework, and even watch her favorite suspense movies and TV plays. In the six years since she coached the national youth women’s basketball, she stayed in the team all day long and stayed at home for no more than 2 months a year. Obviously, there is no such condition.
She liked this kind of life, so she refused the invitation of several WCBA teams. Another reason is that she has not led the team far enough. In the 25th CUBAL first-level league women’s basketball national top 24, she set the goal for the team to “guarantee 8 for 4”. Unfortunately, the key battle was “revenge” by the mine University with the advantage of 1 point, so that the 8-in-4 had to fight for the powerful Peking University, and finally it was a pity to stop the 8-in-4. Cong had to continue to struggle with these children, but there was no need to worry too much. It took her and her teammates 8 years to change the color of the Olympic medal. She must have patience from the top 8 to the top 4.
