Almighty Coach

Although more than sixty people would be evaluated, over half of them would have to leave. How and what they would be evaluated on was still the biggest question, however. When Instructor Chen referred to this topic, everyone listened very carefully.

Instructor Chen said slowly, "Recently, we held a fitness test for the city’s first-class policemen, but had unsatisfactory results. A small number of policemen did not pass the test. We have picked out around sixty policemen with the worst performances. Your job is to train them one-on-one. This is your task for the evaluation."

The coaches all sighed in relief.

"Ah, so it’s training policemen. He scared me, I thought we were the trainees!"

"Policemen’s fitness test, I wonder what programs we will have? Will the test be like what we see on TV, like a weight-bearing cross-country race, climbing over a high wall, and crawling under an iron net?"

"Stop bullshxtting! Those are for training special soliders! Did you hear what Instructor Chen said? It’s a fitness test. How could a normal fitness test include so many cruel events? I say we have to work on the 1000m run at most!"

Instructor Chen took out a pile of documents and said, "You may be wondering what kind of events we have on the policemen’s fitness test, so let me explain. We have four events for the men: the 4x10m shuttle run, the standing long jump, pull-ups, and the 1000m race. For the women, we have one minute of sit-ups and the 800m race. However, on our team, most of the females are in administration and logistics departments; few of them are first-class policemen. This means that all your trainees will be men."

The standing long jump, pull-ups, and the 1000m race are all on the high school entrance physical exam. The only difference is the 4x10m shuttle run. Dai Li relaxed. He had once held a training class for the physical exam, so he had already had some experience on coaching these events. He could do this with ease.

Instructor Chen handed the files to the front row and said, "This is the evaluation standard of our fitness test. Sixty points is passing, and 100 points is a full score. Everyone take one copy, then pass it on to the people behind you."

The files were passed around. Dai Li took a copy and gave it a look. Scorn flashed across his eyes: Isn’t this too simple?

Dai Li was not the only one who reacted this way. The other coaches looked relaxed as well, including the ones who had gotten here through their connections.

For the 4x10m shuttle run, the minimum requirement is 12.20 seconds; for the standing long jump, the minimum requirement 2.20 meters; for the pull-up, trainees must get at least ten repetitions; for the 1000m race, it cannot be longer than 4.05 minutes. This is so easy! Even middle school students could do this. With two weeks of one-of-one training, this will be a piece of cake. I could train twenty or even thirty people at once and have them all pass! Xuexi Zhuang thought confidently.

Although Xuexi Zhuang did not have much ability, he was still a Provincial Youth Team coach. On such a team, even a loser would be influenced by what they consistently saw and heard. Although he was nothing comparing to Dai Li, he was still capable of helping an ordinary policemen pass the test without a doubt.

But then, the national team leader cleared his throat and said, "You are all professional coaches. Your goal is to be on the national team. You will have the best athletes in the country, including national champions, national record holders, and even world-level athletes. Are you satisfied with passing with the minimum requirement? Do you think passing will help you stay here?"

Instructor Chen continued, "This evaluation table is divided into several levels. From 5 to 100, every five points is a level. You can find a detailed rubric in the file. We will evaluate your performance by your total score. Passing is the minimum requirement; if you all pass, you will be judged by your scores. The thirty people with the highest scores will be allowed to stay. To guarantee your place, a full score gives you the best chance. If your trainee gets a full score, you will surely stay."

Hearing about this, the coaches turned to their evaluation standard.

"Pull-ups: 10 reps is 60 points, 11 times is 65 points, 12 times is 70 points. Every pull-up is five points. To get a full score of 100 points, one would need to do twenty pull-ups!"

"For the 1000m race, the minimum requirement is 4.05 minutes, but a full score is 3.25 minutes!"

"The full score for the standing long jump 2.52 meters! To get just 85 points, one needs to jump at least 2.40 meters."

"For the 4×10 meter shuttle run, one must finish within 10.60 seconds to get a full score."

Reading this, a lot of people frowned. These standards were easy to reach for professional athletes, but for ordinary people who lacked years of training, it would take much more time and effort to finally achieve the goal.

The most important thing was a trainee’s physical condition. If the trainee was in poor physical condition, he would only be able to do three or four pull-ups, jump two meters, and finish the 1000m race in five minutes. It would be impossible to obtain a full score with only two weeks of training. In addition, weekends did not count towards the two weeks. They really only had ten days in total to prepare.

All the coaches began to realize this. Someone immediately asked, "Instructor Chen, could you tell us what scores these policemen got on the fitness test?"

"Below 100 points," Instructor Chen smiled, "And I mean 100 points in total. The full score for all four events adds up to 400 points."

"100 points in total means they averaged 25 points per event. Let’s see what 25 is equal to on the rubric."

Everybody, including Dai Li, focused on the standard table again.

"For the 4x10 meter shuttle run, 25 points is 13.60 seconds. The full score is 10.60 seconds. That’s a three second gap!"

"For the standing long jump, 1.92 meters is 25 points. 2.52 meters is the full score. That is a sixty centimeter difference!"

"Three pull-ups is 25 points. Eighteen is 100 points. They would have to be able to do fifteen more pull-ups in just ten days!"

"For the 1000m race, 25 points is equivalent to 4.40 minutes, which is 1.15 minutes shorter away from the full score!"

"If you subtract the weekends, we only have ten days of training. In this period of time we have to help them improve by three seconds in the 4x10m shuttle run, sixty centimeters in the standing long jump, help them do fifteen more pull-ups, and shave off 1.15 minutes from their 1000m race!"

"How can we do it? Ten days is too short a time for them to improve. Based on their current condition, they can definitely pass the exam after ten days, but there is no way they can get full score."

"In athletics, the higher one’s ability is, the more challenging it is to improve. Nobody can improve that quickly and get a full score."

Dai Li frowned. He finally had an idea of what the evaluation would be.

All of the policemen’s scores are below 100 points, which means they are in poor physical condition. Normally, it would be impossible for them to get a full score with only ten days of training. An average of eighty points in each event would be ideal. The distinction appears exactly here! This evaluation is not as easy as I thought.