Today, I’d like to come back a little on the last Olympics which ended 3 weeks ago. Here is a British coach who moved in China to train Chinese athletes and to understand and experience the “Win culture” of the Middle Empire.

Chinese athletes train incredibly hard, harder than we could explain in words and as a coach who has placed swimmers on five different Olympic Games teams, he tells he has never seen athletes train like this anywhere in the world. They have an unrelenting appetite for hard work, can (and will) endure more pain for longer than their western counterparts, will guarantee to turn up for practice every single time and give their all. They are very proud of their country, they are proud to represent China and have a very team focused mentality. If their swimming fails, they fail and the family loses face. This is neither an attitude nor a problem shared by athletes in the west. There are countless other differences, but the main point is that these are professional athletes, salaried to train and perform. Here are three simple reasons it works better the Chinese way:

Almost every Chinese athlete has experienced the relentless training since childhood.

1.  Facilities: access to both 50m and 25m pools in the same building 24 hours per day seven days per week – there are no NOPs, EOPs, red tape managers, lifeguards, public swim etc getting in the way of the coach’s training.

2.  Athletes: unlike in the UK (where he worked in both a top university and high performance centre) coaches are able to select any athlete they wish, coach them how they want to, when they want to for as long as they want to. These athletes give them their total attention, time and effort every day.

3.  Funding: These athletes are salaried and receive bonuses for performance; coaches are salaried and receive bonuses for performance. They all want performance, not mediocrity, not sport for all, but gold medals – and they are not afraid to say this. If the coach wants a foreign training camp, money is available; if he wants high-altitude training – money is available; if he wants an assistant coach – money is available; if he wants some new gadgets or training equipment, guess what? Money is available.

For these, and countless other reasons he is very happy he moved to China; it is the future both financially and in terms of sporting ambition. He’s still proud to be British, but for him as a coach, he wants to be in a position where he can maximise his ability and realise his potential in his field of employment.

But while training techniques appear extreme to Western eyes, they provide an insight into why China’s athletes at London 2012 seem so easily able to swim, dive, lift and shoot their way to victory. Gymnastic stars are known for starting at an incredibly early age, and this group of children appear no different as they battled to complete the demanding routines on bars, rings, and mats. Boys and girls who looked no older than five or six-years-old were tasked with swinging on beams, hanging from pairs of rings and bounding across floor mats during the physically strenuous training sessions.

The youngsters at the same training school will be hoping to emulate the success of 16-year-old swimming sensation Ye Shewin, who glided into the record books on the 4th of August at night.

Only last January harrowing photographs were posted on the internet showing Chinese children crying in pain as they were put to work. In case they had forgotten why they were there, a large sign on the wall reminded them. ‘GOLD’ it said simply. Charges are often taught by rote that their mission in life is to beat the Americans and all-comers to the top of the podium.

A former well known colleague of mine once said we need to be out of our comfort zone more often. Well, Chinese athletes do not have a comfort zone; life here is challenging and often uncomfortable and they are now prospering because of it. There will always be “rogue” individuals in many countries who turn to “the dark side” for assistance in training, and many countries have a history of such practices, but people must realise how far these athletes push themselves every day, how much they sacrifice in terms of living away from home, with reduced education opportunities. Simply put, they want it more than everyone else.

China is performing as a Gold medalist in many other fields; it is the same for business, our business or your business. SBE has realised it already few years ago and believes that working with winners will help you learn how to be a winner yourself.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/jul/31/chinese-athletes-olympics-train-harder

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2182127/How-China-trains-children-win-gold–standing-girls-legs-young-boys-hang-bars.html

– See more at: http://www.sbeintl.com/

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