By Ren Yibin
In the present, sports exchange has become an important carrier of presenting ‘the Belt and Road’ proposal. Last summer, in order to prepare for southern Africa table tennis competition, Namibia table tennis association sent invitations through Embassy of China in Namibia to Jiangsu foreign affairs office and Jiangsu sports bureau that they would like to employ a table tennis coach to help Namibia table tennis national team in training. After research, small ball sports management center of Jiangsu sports bureau decided to send Mu Zhixiang, who is the first coach of Olympic Games champion Chen Qi and has ample foreign aid experiences, to Namibia.
Mu learnt that the Namibian table tennis team was formed by 10 players, including white people and black people. The youngest of them is about seventeen years old, the eldest is over 30 years ago. ‘There was no professional coach. The abilities of players were generally not enough. Chairman of the table tennis association Rudi and the general secretary are table tennis fans. They work as part time coaches.’
Time was limited. Mu Zhixiang decided to divide half month to three training stages. In the last few days of the training, through internal matches, according to personal conditions of the players, Mu Zhixiang taught a few individualized tactical routines.
Southern Africa table tennis competition was held in Lesotho on 8 December. Because of visa problem, Mu Zhixiang was not able to go with the team. Before the team left, Mu Zhixiang told the few female players: be steady, reduce mistakes.
A few days later good news came that Namibia women’s team made a historical breakthrough and won a bronze medal.
‘In Namibia, more and more people like table tennis. However, to improve general table tennis level, teenager training is important.’ Mu Zhixiang said that if Namibia or other countries had the will, we could use ‘the Belt and Road’ as a platform, send young coaches there, to promote table tennis, and let more foreigners know about and fall in love with table tennis.
