China NT 2023

Quote from samsara

Yes, yes, at your mention and upon rewatching, at around 02:20:02 the popular Chinese song 🎶🎵 「Free To Fly」《自由飞翔》by the Phoenix Legend 凤凰传奇 was heard playing in the background amidst the boisterous voices of players and supporting spectators rejoicing 🎊🎉

I think the song “ Free to Fly “ was dedicated to one player. Actually I thought of another song for her... “ Invisible Wings “ In this old version performed in Hong Kong in 2008....we see famous divers Guo Jingjing and Wu Mingxia. Incredibly, Wu has won diving gold in 5 Olympics in a row and was 8 times the world champion.

隐形的翅膀

全力支持中國女排

The Asian Women's Volleyball Championship

The Asian Women's Volleyball Championship is an intercontinental event organized by the Asian Volleyball Federation. The first Asian Women's Volleyball Championship was held in August 1975. Previously, it was held every four years, but since 1987, it has been changed to a biennial event.

In addition to the Asian teams participating in the Asian Women's Volleyball Championship, there are also teams from Oceania participating. 20 teams have participated in this competition successively.

The Asian Women's Volleyball Championship has been held for 20 editions as of 2019 (the 2021 edition was aborted). The Chinese women's volleyball team is the biggest winner of the Asian Championship, winning a total of 13 championships. In addition, the Japanese team won 5 championships, and the Thai team won 2 championships.

In addition to winning 13 championships, Chinese team also won 3 Silvers, 1 Bronze, and 3 Semifinalists. Therefore, in every Asian Championship, the Chinese women's volleyball team has entered the semi-finals.

The last time the Chinese women's volleyball team won the Asian Championship was in 2015. In that year the Asian Women's Volleyball Championship was held in Tianjin. The Chinese team's players included Zhu Ting, Zhang Changning, Hui Ruoqi as the main attackers, Yan Ni, Yuan Xinyue, and Yang Junqing as the middle blockers, Yang Fangxu and Zeng Chunlei as the opposite attackers, and Ding Xia and Shen Jingsi as the setters. Lin Li and Shan Danna as the liberos.

The head coach Lang Ping led the team herself, and also brought her right-hand men An Jiajie and Bao Zhuang. Zhu Ting was named the best OH and MVP of that tournament, Zeng Chunlei was named the best opposite, and Shen Jingsi was named the best setter.

However, in the 2017 and 2019 editions, the Chinese team only finished fourth.

In the 2017 Asian Championship, the Chinese team was very average. Many players had no training experience with the national team. The better ones were Jin Ye, Chen Peiyan, Yu Jiarui, and Wang Simin. Naturally, it was difficult to achieve good results.

In the 2019 Asian Championship, the Chinese team sent a good squad, including Zhong Hui, Wang Yizhu, Zhang Yichan, Liu Yanhan, Duan Fang, Jin Ye, Du Qingqing, Gao Yi, Zheng Yixin, Yang Hanyu, Diao Linyu, Sun Yan, Wang Weiyi, Ni Feifan, and others. Most of these players had experiences playing for the national teams. Unfortunately, that Chinese team only finished at the fourth place.

And in these two Asian Championships, Bao Zhuang served as the head coach. Bao Zhuang was originally trained as Lang Ping's successor. These two poor team leadership experiences have raised doubts about Bao Zhuang and deprived him of the opportunity to compete for the head coach of the national team.

Zhong Hui, Wang Yizhu, Duan Fang and Yang Hanyu participated in the 2019 edition. Yu Jiarui participated in the 2017 edition.

This year's player roster is still very good. Although it is a second team, there are many strong players. If the Chinese team plays smoothly, there is a good chance of winning the championship. If so, this will be the 14th title for the Chinese team and after lapsed for eight years.

Twenty days ago, Zhao Yong led his team to win the gold medal at the Chengdu Universiade. If he can lead the second team to win the Asian Championship, it will greatly enhance his influence. Then Zhao Yong's coaching journey will be smoother. (Hunan, 2023-08-29)

Chinese U21 women's volleyball team sets a new historical record, congratulated by both the People's Daily and CCTV, and praised by fans for the strong strength of Player No. 6 (Sohu Sports, 2023-08-29)

On August 28th Beijing time, authoritative state publication and television continued to report on the 2023 U21 Women's Volleyball World Championship. The Chinese team performed outstandingly in the final, ultimately defeating the powerful Italian team with astonishing strength to win the championship, causing widespread discussion.

Although this Chinese team may not have a "Super Attacker", the girls demonstrated good competitive form in the competition with a spirit of the team unity and courage.

In the final match against the powerful Italian team, the Chinese team members dared to fight and win through a comeback, which is amazing. Two most influential China's media outlets congratulated the women's team on their victory and expressed admiration for the girls.

“Congratulations to the girls!” They wrote.

From the terse reports, it can be seen that the Chinese U21 women's volleyball team has set a new historical record. Despite limited coverage, the Chinese U21 women's volleyball team has received congratulations and recognition from the authoritative media, which has also sparked high praise from fans.

Some fans said, "Player No. 6, that is Zhuang Yushan, is too strong! Although she is not really tall, she has demonstrated the level of a world-class player." Some fans also hope to focus on cultivating Zhuang Yushan as the main striker of the national team, replacing Wang Yunlu.

Of course, some fans also said, "This year is really a year for Zhuang Yushan! I was captivated by this hot girl. From the Chengdu Universiade to U21 matches, as the captain, Zhuang led the team to win both the championships, and she also won the MVP and the best main attacker awards. Zhuang's performance is amazing. Her rise tells us that even players of modest stature can shine brilliantly on the volleyball court.

China's Players - The AVC 22nd Asian Senior Women's Volleyball Championship

30 August ~ 06 September 2023, Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand

Quote from Julian Chow

The Chinese Volleyball Association (CVA) has announced the team for the tournament... “ NT Team B “

OH: Wu Mengjie, Zhong Hui, Duan Fang, Wang Yizhu

MB: Wang Wenhan, Liu Yu, Cao Tingting, Yang Hanyu

OP: Zhou Yetong, Miao Yawen

Setter: Xu Xiaoting, Yu Jiarui

Libero: Xu Jianan, Wu Xinyu

Head Coach: Zhao Yong

Players in blue and the head coach participated in the recent Universaide

where they won gold.

Link for more information (in Chinese)

คนชื่นชอบวอลเลย์บอล

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It’s a rest day at the Asian C’ships today so let’s relook at the team’s performance so far.

We won all three pool matches 3:0, but imo we’ve been less than convincing, especially against the Philippines. There are 7 key players from the Universiade team. No issues with them... but players are humans not robots, they have off days... then what about our reserves? are they good enough? can they gel with our regular players? For OH, Wang Yizhu is ok.. a little inconsistent esp in last year’s VNL. But let’s hope she has improved, give her another chance. Then there’s Duan Fang, a good player from the Liaoning club, but perhaps past her best playing days. I wonder if she was selected just because coach Zhao is formerly coach of Liaoning, I hope I’m wrong.

For MB, Cao Tingting and Yang Hanyu are both tall with long hands... can block, esp. with attackers from medium ranked Asian teams. Both are clumsy, more so Cao.... to the extent that the smooth flow of the team’s play sometimes gets disrupted. As for Liu Yu, we didn’t see much of her... in fact Liu, despite not being very tall is a very capable MB... the best in the CVL two seasons ago according to the stats. I suspect we’ll be seeing more of her in the coming days.

Our setter Xu Xiaoting still have room for improvement. The OPs in position2 receive few accurate sets from her. In our match against Philippines I noticed that their setter performed better than Xu. But at least we have a reliable second setter in Yu Jiarui.

Xu Jianan our libero is okay... and I haven’t seen enough of Wu Xinyu to comment.

https://en.volleyballworld.com…china/teams/5913/players/

The wide roster of OQT 2023:

S - Diao Lin-yu, Xu Xiao-ting, Ding Xia

OP - Gong Xiang-yu, Zheng Yi-xin (also MB), Miao Yi-wen (also OH)

OH - Wang Yun-lu, Zhong Hui, Li Ying-ying, Duan Fang, Wang Yi-fan, Duan Meng-ke (also OP), Wu Meng-jie, Chen Xi-yue, Du Qing-qing (also OP)
MB - Yuan Xin-yue, Yang Han-yu, Gao Yi, Wang Yuan-yuan, Zeng Jie-ya

L - Xu Jia-nan, Ni Fei-fan, Wang Meng-jie

the same as the wide roster of the training camp for the first time

Zhuang Yu-shan will return Fujian VC for Chinese League 23/24.

On September 2, Beijing time, the official website of the FIVB announced the list of participating teams for the Paris Olympic Qualifying Tournament. The Chinese women's volleyball team headed by Cai Bin has a total of 23 players selected (9 OH, 5 MB, 3 OP, 3S, 3L).

Judging from the list, there is no controversy among the MB, setters, OP, and liberos. The biggest controversy is that there are 9 OH. Personally, many netizens jocularly said that Cai Bin summoned 9 main attackers to compete in the Olympic qualifying tournament, which is a miracle. The final list will be 14 players.

This list is exactly the same as the previously announced 23-member roster for the 2023 VNL. But then again, the list reported at this time is not the final list. Each team will report a list of more than 20 people. Whether it's to complete a task or to confuse your opponent, as long as it complies with the rules. Therefore, don’t be surprised when you see this big list.

Among the 9 OH, the most interesting candidates in addition to Li Yingying who is the core player, are Wu Mengjie (2002) and Chen Xiyue (2005).

The Paris Olympic Women's Volleyball Qualifying Tournament will be held in Ningbo from September 16th to 24th. The Chinese women's volleyball team is in Group A, and its opponents in this group are Serbia, the Netherlands, the Dominican Republic, Canada, the Czech Republic, Mexico and Ukraine. The Chinese team will stage fierce duels with strong teams like Serbia, the Netherlands, and the Dominican Republic. The competition adopts a single round-robin format, and THE TOP TWO TEAMS in Each Group will receive direct tickets to the Paris Olympics.

The schedule of Chinese women's volleyball team is as follows:

September 16, 19:30: China vs Ukraine

September 17, 19:30: China vs Mexico

September 19, 19:30: China vs Czech Republic

September 20, 19:30: China vs Canada

September 22, 19:30: China vs Netherlands

September 23, 19:30: China vs Dominican Republic

September 24, 19:30: China vs Serbia

There are no formidable Olympic champions such as Zhu Ting and Zhang Changning in this qualifier. Hopefully the younger generation of Chinese women's volleyball team can take up the heavy responsibility and continue to show everyone the fighting spirit of the Chinese women's volleyball team.

I’m sorry if someone already asked this but: can one play in the Olympics without playing the qualifier? Ie can ZT still play in the 2024 Olympics?

Quote from Tinyscrooge

I’m sorry if someone already asked this but: can one play in the Olympics without playing the qualifier? Ie can ZT still play in the 2024 Olympics?

Yes, this 2 are totally unrelated.

Quote from Tinyscrooge

I’m sorry if someone already asked this but: can one play in the Olympics without playing the qualifier? Ie can ZT still play in the 2024 Olympics?

Yeah of course

CCTV visited the Chinese women's volleyball team on the Beilun training center. The Olympic qualifiers and the Hangzhou Asian Games are held in sequence. The team has been reserving their physical fitness for these two events. They have done a lot of physical training in the early stage, and now they are turning to technical and tactical training. Since the OQT is ahead, the team is currently mainly preparing for this event.

Since the end of the VNL, the Chinese team has begun closed training camps. There is very little news about the team. This time CCTV visited the team and brought some news. First of all, there are 13 players participating in the closed training camp. Zhong Hui, Xu Xiaoting, Yang Hanyu and other players are participating in the Asian Championship. Secondly, the veteran Ding Xia has been participating in joint training. Since there are many games to come, Ding Xia may appear at critical moments to share the pressure on Diao Linyu.

The team members will summarize their own problems and areas that need improvement, write them down, and then keep working hard to make up for their own shortcomings.

The CCTV-5 (Sport) short footage (< 4 mins, without EN subtitles) can be watched here:

--------------------------

UNDERSTANDING THE SITUATION OF WANG YIZHU

Along with the progress of the national team, young players have also begun to take the lead, which can be described as a double harvest of honor and responsibility. However, not all players have made progress, and Wang Yizhu is one of them.

Wang Yizhu is from the Tianjin women's volleyball team. She is 22 years old. She is good in both height and physique. She was once known as the rising star of the Chinese women's volleyball team. Although Wang Yizhu is young, she has also crossed two Olympic cycles. Fortunately, Wang Yizhu received the attention of the two coaches both when Lang Ping was coaching and when Cai Bin is coaching, especially when she was carefully trained by Cai Bin.

When Lang Ping was coaching, although Wang Yizhu did not participate in world competitions, she was an important member of the national team participating in the Asian Championship. In 2022, when Cai Bin coached, Wang Yizhu was fortunate to be the only young player trained by Cai Bin. This year, Wang Yizhu officially entered the first-line team. Not only did she represent the Chinese Women's Volleyball team in the 2023 VNL, but she also participated in the 2022 World Championship, and even played a starting role in some games.

Wang Yizhu's journey to the national team should have been smooth sailing, but UNFORTUNATELY, when she needed the support of the club most to improve her strength and consolidate her foundation in the national team, the Tianjin Women's Volleyball Team made her sit out in the league for NEARLY FOUR YEARS. SITTING AT THE BENCH. It’s no wonder that from 2019 to now, the Tianjin VC has entered its most generous period of signings. At this time, the players introduced by the club include Zhu Ting, Hooker, Vargas, and Liu Yanhan. These players are all in the position same as Wang Yizhu. Under the temptation of achievement, the club can only put Wang Yizhu on the bench.

The shelving of the club not only put Wang Yizhu's chances in the club on hold, but also her chances in the national team. Just imagine how the national team can train a player who is not used by the club? So entering 2023, Wang Yizhu not only failed to enter the first team of the national team, she once couldn't even enter the second team. At the 2023 Chengdu Universiade, when younger players such as Wu Mengjie, Zhou Yetong, and Zhuang Yushan helped the Chinese women's volleyball team win the gold medal, Wang Yizhu was probably the most disappointed player.

Originally, Wang Yizhu's starting point was higher than that of Wu Mengjie and other players, but the club's attitude determined the player's direction. Players such as Wu Mengjie, Zhou Yetong, and Zhuang Yushan have been leading players in their respective clubs for two years, while Wang Yizhu has been a substitute in her club for four years. The gap between the two camps suddenly emerges. Wu Mengjie and Zhou Yetong are confirmed to be the best main attacker (OH) and opposite attacker (OP) in the 2022 Asian Cup, and are also confirmed to be the scoring champion in the 2023 Chengdu Universiade. Zhuang Yushan is confirmed to be the best attacker and most valuable player in the U21 World Championship, while Wang Yizhu secured the COLD BENCH in the club.

In the 2023 Asian Championships, Wang Yizhu temporarily entered the second team of the national team as a substitute. However, when Wu Mengjie, Zhou Yetong, Miao Yiwen, and others of their own age all possess the ability to compete for excellence, Wang Yizhu also became "Wang Duoyu" “王多鱼” (a character in the movie "The Richest Man in Xihong City"), of course, only limited to her name. In the Asian Championship, Wang Yizhu was given two opportunities to play during the short remaining duration and scored one point. This also reflects the current situation of Wang Yizhu, who was originally a star of hope, but has been sitting on the bench for many years at the club, and now has finally played a role in the national team. (2023-09-02, a sport writer in Shanxi, via Baidu platform)

And perhaps Chen Peiyan also experienced the same difficult situation (bench issue).

To sum up after 2023 ACH:
Xu Xiao-ting: not good

Yu Jia-rui: not good

Wu Meng-jie: not good

Zhong Hui: not good

Wang Yi-zhu: bad

Duan Fang: not good

Yang Han-yu: bad

Liu Yu: good but not perfect

Cao Ting-ting: a little bad

Wang Wen-han: if she could participate in semifinal and final...

Zhou Ye-tong: she forgot reception due to Jiangsu's need, so not good

Miao YI-wen: as a receiving OP, ordinary

Xu Jia-nan: she was too tired, if her substitute were Ni Fei-fan, Zhu Xing-chen and even Zang Qian-qian...

Wu Xin-yu: before Wang Meng-jie would be retired, she needs more time and opportunity

mengjie was disappointing. she's even duller than the last time I saw her.

Quote from tomen

To sum up after 2023 ACH:
Xu Xiao-ting: not good

Yu Jia-rui: not good

Wu Meng-jie: not good

Zhong Hui: not good

Wang Yi-zhu: bad

Duan Fang: not good

Yang Han-yu: bad

Liu Yu: good but not perfect

Cao Ting-ting: a little bad

Wang Wen-han: if she could participate in semifinal and final...

Zhou Ye-tong: she forgot reception due to Jiangsu's need, so not good

Miao YI-wen: as a receiving OP, ordinary

Xu Jia-nan: she was too tired, if her substitute were Ni Fei-fan, Zhu Xing-chen and even Zang Qian-qian...

Wu Xin-yu: before Wang Meng-jie would be retired, she needs more time and opportunity

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The final Two-Point changed the very fate... if the team did the reversal and earned the last two points as they did in the earlier match vs. JP, they would have earned the honor, glory and many praises and other positive comments 😁😂 and might even have positive effects on their subsequent careers and lives (thing that we may never really grasp).

But as the reality dictated, first, the opponent, the main line-up of the host Thai team played very well in that match!

Secondly, the maturity of this young, second Chinese team still needs more time and experiences in playing under pressure facing tough opponents!

IMO, this young team ain't as strong as it's perceived even if they had won the final two points from Thai team in that 5-set match to reap the championship! The reason is this team also won in very thin margin against JP's not the strongest line-up, even almost won by luck, far from a convincing victory. Judging from the plays from those two matches against JP & TH, it's obvious this team is just on the equal level as JP and TH's ones, not any stronger, both victory and defeat can be anyone among these three teams competing in the 2023 Asian Championship! This condition also testifies that UNLESS the Chinese team send their strongest line-up to compete with both TH & JP teams, a win and a loss is just fifty-fifty, or tend to be smaller the winning chance when facing these opponents' main line-ups... [and this situation has been happening for many years in my observation -- "if you wanna win, then send your strongest one" to compete].

Btw, the coach Zhao might have made a slight mistake by not calling time-out earlier when Thanacha made a series of aggressive successful pressing serves in set 3, took away the many-point-lead by CN team. But for CN to win the set 2 from trailing 18-24 was itself almost a miracle, prior to this I have never seen this kind of thing in volleyball between the equal teams! 🙄🤔

Defeat from not-an-underdog position (if not anything more optimistic on the paper) is very bitter to taste... but perhaps it's the very fate of the host team to win again after 10 years. After all they poured in a lot of efforts, time and money, to host the event as well as played their main line-up.

Thanks God this situation will change as of the Next Edition in 2026 due to the NEW stipulation by FIVB affecting all Confederations. The newly assigned significance to the Continental Championships will ensure that Asian NOC (and Oceania too) send their strongest line-ups to the Asian CHAMPIONSHIP instead of the second strings. I posted it in another thread, read it here.

Finally, players like Duan Fang, Zhong Hui, Yang Hanyu, they experienced the like of déjà vu, these players played in the team beaten by the Thai team at the last four the last time, four years ago in Seoul in the 2019 edition (the 2021 edition was cancelled due to the C-19 calamity).

Wu Mengjie, the "Xiao Zhu Ting", is outstanding among her teammates in this team. She deserves to play along with better teammates! I wish her to be really admitted into the main line-up of the Chinese NT, possibly to immediately take over the position of WYL, becoming the second OH supporting LYY. If not in this cycle, then in the next immediate one! If Zhu is really unable to comeback, then it'll be great to witness the duet of Li and Wu... and even if Zhu does return, it's still great to have Wu as the 3rd OH! 💕💓

Well, the Silver here is just a small setback and disappointment. And seeing all the host nation's happiness for topping this event for the 3rd time after 10 years, it tells us it's truly their moment this time. I wish the Thai team may attend the Paris OG too! All the best for the Chinese team in the upcoming OQT (SRB is the toughest opponent) and the 19th Hangzhou Asian Games! 中国女排加油 👊🏼✊🏽👏 CHEERS from the largest continent!

Quote from fire_cai_bin

new team uniforms

It will be rainy tournament?

Quote from samsara

This condition also testifies that UNLESS the Chinese team send their strongest line-up to compete with both TH & JP teams, a win and a loss is just fifty-fifty, or tend to be smaller the winning chance when facing these opponents' main line-ups... [and this situation has been happening for many years in my observation -- "if you wanna win, then send your strongest one" to compete].

It happens that this kind of thinking is not mine alone, a recent article posted at the Sohu Sports also adopted the similar position. The article basically talked about the reactions to the defeat of the Chinese team at the Asian Championship to the host team. And aside from being carried away by missing the championship by a razor-thin margin, actually the Chinese team already achieved some gains by the second team. The team did not return with empty hand. Judging from the current situation, we can definitely see hope from young players like Wu Mengjie in the first team. You may read the whole article (CN) here (Sohu Sports, 2023-09-08).