Dai Li was deep in thought. He walked towards the training field wondering what to do next.
Without him, there would be no more explosive force halo. His trainees' performances would decline without a doubt. Dai Li was part of the group, so he definitely knew what would happen to the athletes, but he could do nothing to save the situation. He even felt a sense of guilt. It had been him who had taught them to fly, then kick back into the ground. He did not want to crush their dreams.
"Hey, do not overthink it, OK? You are just their coach!" said the System. It seemed like it had felt Dai Li's depression. It changed its tone to become more serious.
"Do not feel guilty. You have done nothing wrong. Do not forget who you are—a coach. As a coach, you have done pretty well. They are a group of C-level athletes. Remember that C-level athletes can only become good athletes at best, even under your guidance. Their future has already been determined.
"In professional athletics, genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration, but the inspiration is more important. You see those foreign soccer stars, they all train very hard. Why do their careers turn out differently? Some people become rulers, some become superstars, some are celebrities, and some are nobodies. You know why? Because they all give different amounts of effort? No! The only reason is talent. They have different talents.
"Talent decides where one will land. It is like buildings with different heights; some buildings have ten floors, some have twenty, and some may have thirty. If it is a ten-floor building, no matter how hard you try, you will never reach the 11th floor. The same can be said about talent. Coach are stairs for athletes to climb. You, with the Coaching System, I would say you are more of an elevator. But you can never break the boundaries of walls."
The System kept trying to get its point acrossDai Li only caught the last few words. He said, "I got the idea. You are saying that one's talent decides one's peak ability, and the my Coaching System only helps them to reach their peak, right?"
"Correct. You got it. You have already helped them, so there is no need to feel any regret. With your help, the five athletes have reached their peak. But with their C-level talent, they will never be world champions. They will just be their normal selves without you. Isn't that a good thing? You are just a coach. They need to take their own path. You cannot help them forever," said the System.
"Walk their own path? Right, I have my own way to go!" Dai Li was suddenly enlightened. The next second, he laughed, "Ha, I never thought I would be enlightened by you!"
"Hey, do not take me so lightly! My intelligence is beyond your imagination!"
"Coach Li, are you really leaving?" The five young athletes surrounded Dai Li. After months of training, they had developed close relationships. Now that Dai Li was about to leave, they were not willing to let him go.
"All good things must come to an end. To tell the truth, even if I stayed with this team, you would still leave one day, wouldn't you? You are almost 18-years-old, it is time for you to leave the youth team. We were going to split up eventually." Dai Li gave them an encouraging smile and said, "Some of you may continue your careers as athletes, and some of you may not. But I hope that in the future, no matter where you are, or what you do, that you remember what I taught. Try hard, don't give up, and never regret anything!"
"Understood!" The five boys said in one voice.
"Alright then. I will go talk to Coach Zhuang. You should listen to him, and do your best!" Dai Li patted their shoulders, then turned around and left.
Coach Zhuang could not wait to join the shot put team. He had gone through the procedures quickly to transfer. He showed no sympathy for what he had done, feeling that everything was behooved.
This made Dai Li feel gross. He hoped to see Xuexi Zhuang mess everything up in the Provincial Youth Games.
After the transfer was completed, Dai Li headed to the long jump training field.
Once he Dai Li noticed that there were less people on the long jump team than he had expected.
The old athletes had all left after the friendly match with Nantan Middle School. Dai Li was not surprised. Besides the shot put team, old athletes on the other teams had all left because they had either reached the age limitation or had no reason to stay, since they could not make any further progress. The shot put team had astonished everyone. Even the weakest one had reached the minimum standard of a first-class athlete. The shot-putters had all been selected by the Sport Team, which was why they were willing to stay here.
The rest of long jump team were all newcomers, and there were only sixteen people altogether. Dai Li was confused.
Every July, Hanbei's good young athletes were sent to the Provincial Youth Team. Usually there would be anywhere from twenty to fifty people in each group. When Dai Li had originally trained the shot put team, there had been forty people in the program.
Why is this team is so small? The long jump is quite popular. Why are there only sixteen people? Dai Li was confused, so he called an athlete over.
"Is your team always this small?" asked Dai Li.
"No, we used to have more than fifty people. But they were all selected. This is all we have left," answered the young boy.
"You had more than fifty people but only have sixteen left? More than thirty have left? Who took them?" Dai Li asked. He was astonished.
"The sprint team, hurdle team, and high jump team. Even the badminton and tennis team took some people away," answered the boy.
Long jumpers had a lot of explosive force, so it was understandable that the sprint team and hurdle team had taken some of the athletes away. The sports shared something in common. Take Feixiang Lin as an example: He had originally been a long jumper before he had been selected by Coach Jihai Ding. He had become a hurdler afterwards. There were other good long jumpers who had originally been sprinters, too.
But no matter which sport it was, they all belonged to Youth Athletics. Such a transfer could be considered an inter-team transfer. But why had the badminton and tennis teams taken athletes?
Thinking about this, Dai Li felt there was something wrong.
Wait a minute. Coach Zhuang's uncle is Director Zhuang of the Provincial Sport Department. With such strong connections, who would dare take people Xuexi Zhuang?