[Body Road News]Back in the evening 11 months ago, Grace Liu won her first Olympic medal in Tokyo, creating a dreamlike legend. More than 300 days have passed, and she felt the pressure brought by this bronze medal. On the surface, the way of katana emphasizes sturdy strength, but on the inside, it requires a strong heart of four taels and a thousand jins, so that the pressure can be swept away.
After winning the Olympic bronze medal, Grace’s magical journey did not end. In two months, she went to the United States again to prepare for the 2-yearly World Championships, and won the bronze medal twice in a row on the podium, proving that she is still based on The world’s top, “The Olympic medals have not changed me much. I don’t want to indulge in my past achievements, which will affect my future performance, or I can’t show my strength at this level. I’m afraid that one day I will go backwards. So I won the world championship again. The joy of medals is different from the Olympics, which may be once in a lifetime, but the World Championships are under pressure from outside to win something that is suitable or desirable for me, like playing for myself.”
Although her achievements have not made her complacent, it has become a burden for her training. In addition, the essence of “shape” is not to compete with others. The biggest opponent is often herself. Various factors made it easy for her to dig into the horns and magnify her imperfections. “After finishing K1 UAE in February this year, I shared my mentality with the head coach ‘so heavy’, and every day seems to be looking for my own shortcomings, and then think of ways to do it. Improve, every day. There is no problem when I think of a method, but sometimes when I don’t find a method, I get very troubled. Even outside practice, I am stuck with these things.
Grace will be divided into 4 stages in each preparation period, improving strength, speed, explosiveness and other elements, and is used to writing training notes to record daily progress, “The coach said after reading my notes, I feel very depressed, I can’t see it The part that I do well is that I am busy picking my bones every day. He suggested that I should rate my daily performance. Once I fall back one day, I can see improvement if I regain my status the next day, so I am grateful for my efforts. You also have to accept the day when you are not in your state.” Grace added that perhaps this Olympics may be the “only” of this generation of karate athletes, which is why they have cultivated a persistent mentality, and they will fall too deep if they are not careful. After unraveling the knot that had been lingering for several years, the training effect was immediately visible. She also changed the color of the medal from bronze to silver in the following two sub-stations of the World Class Karate Super League in April and May. This week’s World Games in Birmingham, Alabama, USA, are in full swing.
In order to obtain better training results, she has tried switching to a fish-vegetarian diet in recent years, and plans to become a full-fledged vegetarian in the future. In addition to training, Grace also learned to cook several home-cooked dishes to comfort herself, “It must not be the kind that cooks very well, but I cook spaghetti most often. In terms of vegetarians, I am still trying to figure out how to better absorb nutrients, and I also need to learn how to cook. More.” Although at this stage, I haven’t felt any major changes in my body because of my vegetarian diet, but it’s still a good try.
In recent years, Grace has spent more days practicing in Miami, USA than staying in Hong Kong. She mainly trains in other places so that she can concentrate more easily and will not be distracted by other things. She is very efficient for her extremely regular life. A life of training and rest may be rigid but the pattern works. However, there are always gaps outside of practice. Grace’s sparring opponents suggested that she explore new interests to release daily pressure, “Since Spanish is mainly spoken in the local area, which is even more popular than English, it is better to try to learn Spanish. So sparring opponents He suggested that I go to a course, but I don’t want to be stressed by taking classes. I’m afraid of taking exams. Maybe going online or buying books is more suitable for me. In addition, their whole family knows Spanish, so I can ask them at any time.” Asked Demonstrated speaking Spanish, Grace said with a smile: “But I’ve only said a few sentences, and I still don’t know how to make up sentences by myself!”
At the age of 30 after the Olympics last year, she has long regarded the Olympic medal as the best birthday present. When I was young, I always thought that 30 years old would usher in an important change. Now that I have crossed that barrier, “It’s actually no different. I used to think that when I reach 30 years old, I will immediately lose the strength to play karate and lift weights.” She Xiao Yan has experienced youth and frivolity in the past. He tried to practice at 9:00 in the morning and only returned to the dormitory at 5:00 in the morning to prepare. This immaturity was also a part of youth, “Maybe I didn’t have a big goal at the time, or I didn’t I have the ability to take responsibility, so I don’t have much motivation to pursue the results I want. I never thought that the Olympic Games have completely changed me, and this method of working hard is really useful, making me more determined to continue to pursue better Own.”
Figure: Xu Jiayi, Li Zizheng
Text: Li Zizheng
Venue provided: Craft House
This article was originally published on “[Karate. Interview]After the Olympics, Liu Mushang gave up his old attachments” by “Sportsroad”
