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General knowledge courses good for young gymnasts, says former Olympian

Xinhua,December 11, 2017 Adjust font size:

WUHAN, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- Compared with the past, current training schedules with more general knowledge courses are beneficial to young gymnasts, said a top Chinese gymnast here on Friday.

"General knowledge courses can make young gymnasts think in a more comprehensive way and strengthen their ability to resist pressure, which will make their training more effective," said Deng Linlin, two-time Olympic champion, in an interview with Xinhua after a training camp for talented gymnasts had wrapped up.

Aiming to accelerate the building of a gymnastics team with top talent for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the 10-day training camp kicked off on Nov.29 with over 130 gymnasts from across China gathering in Wuhan, capital of China's Hubei province.

The camp has been held annually since 2011 by the General Administration of Sports of China.

"The camp is an excellent way to train young, talented gymnasts. They can compete with and learn from each other," said Deng, now the provincial team coach of central China's Anhui.

The training camp can make up for the deficiencies in China's gymnastic team by helping young gymnasts set short and long-term goals, added Deng, who participated in the camp in 2003 and 2004.

The camp features training practice, theory classes and seminar courses, and famous experts in both gymnastics and psychology will be invited to introduce to them the trends of gymnastics in terms of both training and competition.

Besides courses about gymnastics, the 2017 training camp added common knowledge courses, to which the youngsters have been very receptive.

"In the past, gymnastics was regarded as a painful, tiring and even boring thing. But now the general administration advocates 'happy gymnastics,' which takes the sport back to its natural roots. In the long run, the combination of training and general knowledge education will create a self-sustaining cycle (of positive development in the sport), which will lead naturally to the emergence of talented gymnasts," Deng said. Enditem