WGP Pool assignments

[Phaedrus]

Can anyone explain the pool assignments for each of the preliminary rounds of the World Grand Prix. I tried for about 15 minutes and I am now getting acupuncture for the headaches. I understand the point scores but I don't get how two first place pool teams ended up in the same pool in the second round. Are the schedules pre-determined before the contest started or does the results from each preliminary round determine where each team will go next?

[BeiBei]

it is predetermined. Not sure why they chose this system cos some teams do not play each other at all( USA did not play Italy or Brazil etc) or they played each other twice (USA vs China, Russia and Cuba) Japan had the luxury of playing at home all 3 weeks and they have a much easier draw than USA. USA should qualify for the final 6 and it is commendable for what they had done so far

[Phaedrus]

BeiBei,

Thanks for the explanation. This is very strange.

By the way, I hope Feng Kun isn't done. I still watch the gold medal match from 2004 all the time.

[BeiBei]

China still need Feng Kun, she is recovering from injuries right now. The head coach is pretty tough on the new setter, Wei. She was blamed for the 5 sets loss to Poland and Italy. I thought that was pretty harsh as she is only 19. Can you imagine a college freshman setter leading Team USA.

OTOH, I think Yang Hao is done, she is still on the team but her terminating abilities is no longer there, she had about 8/9 attempts in the fifth set of the CHINA-ITALY match but ended with 0 kills in that set

[Phaedrus]

Didn't Yang Hao just come into her own in in the last quadrennial? The other outside was done, I forgot her name. The big girl with the wicked jump serve. They yanked her after the first two sets against Russia.

Is Zhang Ping done too? What is Sun Yue doing now? Sorry, we get so little news about the Chinese volleyball team.

[BeiBei]

phaedrus said:

Didn't Yang Hao just come into her own in in the last quadrennial? The other outside was done, I forgot her name. The big girl with the wicked jump serve. They yanked her after the first two sets against Russia.

Is Zhang Ping done too? What is Sun Yue doing now? Sorry, we get so little news about the Chinese volleyball team.

The commentator make an interesting comment which I absolutely agree. Once the chinese player hits late twenties, their skills begin to deteoriate. This could be dued to their training methods. Of course there are some exception like Zhang YueHong. However, China has no shortage of young new talent.

The outside hitter that you are talking about is Wang LiNa, I think she is the ONLY player that represented China for 3 olympics

China still have another outside hitter, Wang YiMei who is currently injured, She played L1 for China last year at the world championship, she is only 20 and has tons of potential.

I do not know much about Zhang Ping and Sun Yue

[Phaedrus]

Do you know if the training is that different from Lang Ping to Chen Zhong He? Because Lang Ping is doing more teaching than training here in the USA. I know a girl who is training with the senior USA team and she said it was hard but it hasn't been brutal.

I also think the gymnasiums have a lot to do with it. They train and play hard on really hard surfaces, which means that they will break down sooner.

I also know a couple of Chinese men's player and they keep telling me stories that make me cringe.

[BeiBei]

phaedrus said:

Do you know if the training is that different from Lang Ping to Chen Zhong He? Because Lang Ping is doing more teaching than training here in the USA. I know a girl who is training with the senior USA team and she said it was hard but it hasn't been brutal.

I also think the gymnasiums have a lot to do with it. They train and play hard on really hard surfaces, which means that they will break down sooner.

I also know a couple of Chinese men's player and they keep telling me stories that make me cringe.

No, I do not know anything about their training methods

[Phaedrus]

They dive on concrete and they teach them to dive head first to get lower to the ground. The guys said that if they are hurt they still had to do things at full speed or else they lose their spot in the sports schools. They said things got better at the national team because they knew how to train better, but in the sports schools and provincial teams they literally had to play in pain all the time and the medical care wasn't that great. They all became experts at treating themselves. This one guy even brought his own sten machine, the thing that you hook up to your knee and send electrical currents into your knees. One of the guys said his skull has a soft spot on top because he had to dive so hard that he cracked his skull.

[Murina]

After Sun Yue retired from the national team she played in Italy for a few years. She left that league and is now either retired or playing in Asia somewhere.

I don't know for certain, but I'm pretty certain that China is resting the veterans that they expect to play a good role in the next Olympics. Remember, China is not allowed to play in World Cup or in the Olympic Qualification tournament so the only title the national team has to play for is the Asian Championships. This is a free year for China to get their youngsters quality matches at the senior level. It would be stupid to risk another injury to Zhang Ping, Zhang Na, Feng Kun etc... I think the only reason that China is keeping Zhou, Yang, and Liu on their rosters is the FIVB rule requiring a certain number of first line players in the active roster of the Grand Prix. Breaking this rule in 2004 got Russia kicked out of the 2005 edition.

I could be wrong, but I suspect that as Montreux and Grand Prix 2008 roll around we'll start to see some more familiar players in the Chinese lineup.

[baywatcher]

I wrote a thread awhile ago complaining about the Grand Prix scheduling. What happened is that, of the 12 teams, the six ranked in the top of the World rankings only had 3 of 9 matches against other top 6 teams, while the bottom six had six of 9 matches against top six teams. I think what happened is that, when the pools were set, the scheduling committee, or whatever, wanted to make sure there were two, and only two , of the top six in each pool. The result is that each top six team has only one game in each pool against another top six team. A result is that Japan, seeded sixth, has the tied for easiest schedule, while the USA, seeded seventh, has the tied for hardest schedule. It's their schedule and FIVA can do what they want, but since results from this tournament count in World Rankings this is decidedly unfair. (Brazil has three matches against Taipei, who si struggling to break 20 against anybody). The interesting group is Japan, Poland and Russia; Russia is 5-1, but three losses could put them out of the tournament, so I don't know how hard they'll play. At 3-3, both Japan and Poland will have to sweep to assure a berth (points ration better than USA). Finally, China is already in, so how hard will they play against USA, Cuba and Nederlands, which has an outside chance at 3-3. Assuming USA goes 2-1, which they have two weeks in a row, a sweep by Poland or Jaapan in Jaapan could bump out USA on points, which would be a major bummer if it was Japan, which has had the easy schedule at home.

[Phaedrus]

Thanks Baywatcher. It doesn't make it any more logical but now I see how they are doing this. I think China will play hard if what Murina says its true, that they are playing the younger players to give them seasoning. The youngsters are hungry to make the team so they will play hard. Not sure if that will be enough.

Its funny that the FIVB goes through all these gyrations to come up with the "right" mix and then the teams will go through their gyrations to sabotage it.

[Keystonekid]

Here is a video of the brutal chinese training at an early age

[Phaedrus]

Yes, he wouldn't have been able to do that here in the USA. Dodgeball is too violent. *sigh*

[simonsun]

Some news of the Chinese team:

1. Wang Yimei is probably going to return late this year, as well as the starting libero Zhang Na. They had some minor injuries which require lots of rest.
2. Feng Kun had her knee surgery early this year and she just resumed training recently. However, she won't be able to jump until late this year or early next year, which means her chance of playing in 2008 Olympic is slim.
3. Zhao Ruirui is recovering better than Feng and she's able to resume normal training in 2 or 3 months. After 3 years of waiting she finally comes back!
4. Zhang Ping had her knee surgery last month in Germany. She's probably going to miss 2008.
5. Zhou Suhong the current captain is currently going through a family tragedy. Her husband, the former starting opposite of the Chinese men's volleyball team had a neck injury while his club team visited Russia. He's currently paralysed and probably going to be in bed for the rest of his life. They just got married early this year...
6. As for Wang Lina, she's still playing in her club team. Sun Yue just got married and is currently coaching in her hometown club team.

If everything goes well, I believe the 2008 Chinese team will be more powerful than ever. The recovery of the injured players is the key factor here.