Chapter 40: My Lord, Stop Kneeling, There Is No One Left to Tell You to Rise (Extra-Large Chapter Arrives~ Wuwuwu~)

Seeing the speed at which Zhou Bing was progressing, Zhou Tao had no way of making him go back to train under Gou Laozhi.

Moreover, after witnessing Zhou Growth rate, even Zhou Tao, who was in the provincial team, felt a slight, subtle sense of envy.

The provincial team might look good on the surface, but in reality, if you failed to secure any resources and ended up marginalized, your treatment would be even worse than staying back in the city. Yet Zhou Tao could not swallow his pride, and he felt that he might have truly reached his limit...

His potential had been drained, leaving virtually no room for further improvement.

"Three days from now, you will definitely come too, right? There is still one slot left. Ah Bing, come with me; I'll give you some special training over the next few days." After all, he was an older brother, still remembering his younger sibling at a time like this. But what kind of special training could it possibly be? Su Shen already knew all those routine methods; they amounted to nothing more than detailed technical guidance. Yet Su Shen did not need this in the slightest, nor did he envy it at all.

"Brother, can't you let Xiao Tian come along too? He and I..." Before Zhou Bing could finish, Zhou Tao raised a hand to interrupt him.

"Your rate of improvement is quite good, and if you want to change coaches, I won't force you otherwise. But for the next few days, you must follow me. The sports school in Zhongshan City only has two slots, and I've taken one. If you want him to come with you, are you planning to split your slot as well?" Zhou Tao felt his younger brother was still too naive and said earnestly, "I don't object to you wanting to make friends with him, but when it comes to business, even close brothers must keep clear accounts. I can only coach you; I cannot coach him."

"It's fine, go ahead. I don't mind." The more Su Shen said this, the more guilty Zhou Bing felt. But matters were beyond his control; Zhou Tao was currently the "master" of their brotherly relationship.

If he wanted to flip this dynamic, there was only one way: surpass Zhou Tao.

For now, it was best not to dwell too much on the rest.

Su Shen bade a carefree farewell to Zhou Bing, seemingly completely indifferent at heart to this so-called "special training by Zhou Tao."

Being able to pull that off was certainly no easy feat.

Did one not see how the vast majority of people present were casting looks of envy at Zhou Bing's "good fortune"?

With an attitude like that, Su Shen was surely being branded as a "freak" behind his back.

...

After finishing a day of training, Su Shen headed to the library. Taking advantage of his free time, he set out to write the rebuttal article he had promised Ning Debao, using it as a reference. Although Ning Debao's name was attached to all the pieces she published, it was obvious that nobody paid any attention to this "Su Shen." Even if an interested party bothered to look him up and discovered that Su Shen was only fifteen years old, they would quickly dismiss any desire to investigate further.

After all, what could a fifteen-year-old brat possibly accomplish?

He was undoubtedly just riding on Ning Debao's coattails to build up his resume.

Such situations were hardly uncommon in the academic world.

Yet none of them anticipated that this was precisely Su Shen's strategy of hiding in plain sight. He intended to leverage his age—a naturally deceptive blind spot—to keep himself as inconspicuous as possible for the time being. Once he thoroughly established himself as a master in this field, entered the provincial team, and achieved even a modest result, he could take the national athlete single-enrollment examinations and essentially secure admission into university. That would be the moment for him to unleash his full potential.

For now, what he needed to do was solidify Ning Debao's identity as the "foremost domestic promoter of the six-second law." Consider it a grand gift package for Ning Debao after this rebirth.

With this credential, the probability of Ning Debao receiving promotions, salary increases, and even entering the provincial team in the future would be exceptionally high.

...

Su Shen's habit was truly remarkable.

In all her years working within the sports school system, whether in Hunan province or Guangdong province, Ning Debao had never encountered a sports student with such an intense passion for learning. The sheer drive he showed in his studies was something even the top academic achievers in regular schools would likely find difficult to match.

If Ning Debao had initially suspected that Su Shen was merely putting on a show, after all this time, she certainly no longer held that belief.

Sure enough, when she returned from attending a meeting at the city's sports bureau this time, the lights in the library were already brightly lit.

Ning Debao walked in and saw Su Shen reading the latest SCI sports journals, while several sheets of paper covered densely in handwritten notes lay scattered beside him.

"Oh? Coach Ning, you're back?" Hearing the door open, Su Shen turned his head, saw Ning Debao, and immediately lowered his gaze back to his reading.

He had just come across a rather interesting topic, so he quickly refocused his attention on the journal.

Such periods of focused study, free from any disturbances or trivial matters, were truly unique to one's student days.

Once grown, one had too many distractions that pulled the mind away. Neither energy nor physical stamina could match the vigor of youth.

...

Having spent so much time with Su Shen, Ning Debao already knew what kind of person he was.

Aside from running, his sole hobby seemed to be reading these sports-related SCI journals.

Would this fellow even care about sorting out his "personal life issues" in the future?

That...

Ning Debao was overthinking it.

The kid had already found his true love back in middle school.

Moreover, it was the kind of perfect romance that transitioned seamlessly from school uniforms to wedding gowns.

Did he really need anyone to worry about his "personal life issues"?

With Lin Yanfang in his life, there was no room for any other girls in Su Shen's mind. Aside from training and reading, his single-minded focus was precisely what caused Ning Debao such "concern."

However, Su Shen was still young, so she didn't need to busy herself playing matchmaker just yet.

Sitting down opposite Su Shen, Ning Debao lowered her gaze, and her attention was instantly captivated by the densely packed draft text. Although the handwriting was somewhat crooked, Ning Debao wasn't concerned with penmanship; she cared about the actual content formed by those characters.

After reading for about ten minutes,

Ning Debao could not help but slap the desk and exclaim, "Brilliant!"

If not for the fact that the sports school library was virtually deserted, Ning Debao would surely have drawn the collective stares of everyone present.

Su Shen drew upon numerous historical precedents, wielding data and literature with effortless ease. For instance, he broke his counter-argument against this "Teacher surnamed Wang" down into seven major sections.

First—For elite athletes, maximum speed remains virtually identical, making any attempt to increase it exceedingly difficult.

Su Shen cited the maximum speeds of several prominent sprinters, such as Greene, Bailey, Montgomery, and Bolton. Their peak speeds all hovered around 11.80 meters per second. This demonstrates that the average maximum speed has reached a threshold internationally that current training methodologies struggle to surpass. Furthermore, the peak speeds of our domestic athletes fall far short of this figure. This proves that from the traditional perspective of maximum speed, that path possesses limited potential, an overly low ceiling, and is likely unviable.

Coupled with the currently popular theory that human beings cannot exceed a limit speed of 12 meters per second, it further indicates low potential for excavation in this event. One ought to change their mindset and forge a new path. (If anyone fits the bill, let us shout his name aloud.)

Extending the distance over which maximum speed is maintained currently appears to be the most promising approach.

For instance, Maurice Greene, the champion of the Sixth IAAF World Championships, maintained an average maximum speed over a distance as high as 50.16 meters, whereas the average maintenance distance for finalists in that race was merely 38.185 meters. Yet looking at alternative data, Bailey's maximum instantaneous speeds at 30, 40, and 50 meters all surpassed Greene's; however, because his maximum speed maintenance distance was only a little over 40 meters, he lost the race.

Moreover, we can observe that individual variance in this average maximum speed maintenance distance is quite substantial—reaching 50+ meters at the highest, while dropping to a mere 20-odd meters for athletes like Bolton and Isinbayeva. This issue also surfaced during the men's 100-meter final at the Athens Olympics. Since the internationally recognized approach of prioritizing maximum speed is a dead end, and elite athletes show little variance there, one should instead target the variable that exhibits significant differences.

Facts have proven that once our nation's athletes adopt systematic and scientific techniques, they are no less capable than foreign elite athletes, and can even surpass them—Liu Xiang's 110-meter hurdles gold medal in 2004 being the prime example.

Second—As for "Teacher Wang's" assertion that peak velocity is already reached at the 80-meter mark, it is utterly lacking in textual corroboration. (Because Su Shen knew such a person existed, but he had yet to run the 100 meters; his name is...)

According to multiple SCI journals, the six-second mark is the actual zone where an athlete's explosive limit speed is achieved, with almost no exceptions.

On the few occasions when Carl Lewis and Leroy Burrell hit their maximum speed at 80 meters, it was because their starts in those races were poorly executed, throwing off their rhythm, forcing them to accumulate speed only in the final stages. A detailed analysis of a broader sample of their races reveals that their peak speeds under normal circumstances consistently occurred within the six-second zone, rather than the so-called 80-meter mark.

Those were anomalies and cannot be generalized.

Therefore, a peak speed around the 80-meter mark is entirely unsupported by data and literature. (Otherwise, compile a list for me to see? One should read more even as one grows older.)

Third—The domestic advocacy for traditional 30-meter training merely demonstrates that "Teacher Wang" has failed to spare the time to examine the latest sprinting research... The greatest flaw is that traditional 30-meter training exerts a profoundly adverse impact on our nation's athletes' overall ability to maintain maximum speed output, gradually stripping many athletes who originally possessed this advantage of their edge...

Fourth—Whether the "Law of Six Seconds" is correct is evident from the following table. (Fearing that your eyesight might be poor, I have directly organized the table for you so it requires no effort to read.)

Every elite sprinter listed in the table achieved their maximum speed within the six-second zone. As for the few examples cited by "Teacher Wang," they are all anomalies whose initial starts were flawed or whose rhythm was disrupted—akin to arguing that because a village happens to house a few wealthy individuals, the entire village is wealthy. This commits the errors of "dogmatism" and "empiricism." According to big data statistics, six seconds is the primary interval for these athletes' maximum speed explosions. If maximum speed truly occurred at 80 meters, how many seconds would it take to finish the race?

Your arguments are entirely self-contradictory. Statistics for our country's athletes, shown below, prove that this principle is fully applicable to them as well.

Fifth—The theory of racial inferiority is untenable. The latest testosterone theories demonstrate that we Asians are not weak in the least; on the contrary, we are the strongest. If "Teacher Wang" does not understand what testosterone is or its significance, he may consult SCI journals. No further elaboration will be provided here...

Sixth—The future belongs to science, and athletics is no exception.

Seventh—The times have changed. As an authority in the field, one ought to continually absorb new knowledge rather than coasting for a lifetime on established dogma. This is no longer the Qing Dynasty; in an information age of rapid transformation, failing to keep pace with the times leads to obsolescence.

...

Flowing and eloquent, the text spanned several large pages.

The title read: —《Your Excellency, the Qing Dynasty Perished Nearly a Hundred Years Ago; Nobody Kneels and Cries "Rise" Anymore.》

At first glance, this title left Ning Debao slightly baffled. But upon closer reflection, she nearly spat out the water she had just swallowed in a fit of laughter.

This was a textbook "Seven Deadly Sins of Teacher Wang."

Crucially, this brat had even altered Coach Wang's title to "Teacher Wang," a modification fraught with subtle implications.

"Xiao Tian, you wrote this exceptionally well. How is your brain wired? You've seized upon every single loophole in the opponent's argument. If you weren't running track, you could easily go into academia." When Ning Debao uttered these words, Su Shen's inner adolescent thought was:—Only children make choices.

Adults want both.

Though he wasn't an adult just yet.

"It's just that the phrasing in certain places is a bit too provocative; publishing it might make the other party lose face. Still, this concept of big data is fascinating." Despite saying this, Su Shen did not catch even a hint of displeasure on Ning Debao's face.

"That's precisely why I need Coach Ning to guide and polish it. I merely listed a few points at random." Su Shen was doing this intentionally, after all. He was still a fifteen-year-old boy; no matter how composed a teenager appeared at this age, his diction wouldn't be overly subtle, and a touch of bias was entirely acceptable. Besides, Ning Debao would undoubtedly rewrite and refine it anyway—that was something he didn't need to worry about.

As long as the core arguments were laid out, that was enough.

And Su Shen knew that this ideological battle would not be settled overnight; it would be fought over the course of several years.

Just like in his previous life, only once he achieved concrete results would these individuals quietly retire to become old men sitting at home.

However, controversy was a good thing. Versed in the "internet trending topic theories" of later generations, Su Shen understood very well that—

The louder and more intense the arguments, the greater the promotional benefit.

That was precisely the tactic employed by emerging celebrities and idols in future eras, known as "becoming famous through infamy."

Su Shen was merely borrowing the technique.

What he aimed to promote this time was not himself, but a far more advanced and scientific athletic truth.

He intended to use this debate as his breakthrough starting point within the domestic track and field community.

Next up, he would need to back it up with his actions.

And ramp up the coordination.

*(Author's Note: I fell hopelessly short on material; Xiao Zi overestimated her capacity this time, and reading English literature was making my head explode. Apologies, the text is patched up here~~~~ A 4k-chapter to help cool everyone down. Xiao Zi really overestimated herself, wuwuwu~ Writing this kind of content is vastly harder than writing plot lines, both time-consuming and exhausting. Not to make a joke of myself, but I ended up typing this final segment on my cell phone because my company got a new female manager and checks are exceptionally strict. O(╥﹏╥)o. No more chatting, lunch break is over, back to work. I'll continue writing tonight~~~)*