More understanding and few cultural difference. That is the new feeling of Chinese coaches who have been training Africans in table tennis in recent years.

Chen Fen has been the coach of women table tennis team of the Republic of Congo for one year since 2005. Living in Africa alone is not easy for a young lady like Chen.

She has suffered from power outage and water supply stoppage and ever tried to offer training to Congolese players under the shabby iron roof when a downpour came.

One of those troubled her most in that period was the cultural difference in table tennis training.

"Members of the Republic of Congo team used to regard playing table tennis as a means merely to improve health. Under no pressure, they took part in international competitions just as participants," Chen told Xinhua on Sunday on the sideline of the table tennis contest of the ninth All-Africa Games which is going on in Algiers, capital of the North African country Algeria.

Besides training, Congolese players have learned a lot from Chen about the development of table tennis in China and began to change ideas about the discipline. They have a very clear objective now: be one of the eight leading table tennis teams in Africa.

Another misunderstanding occurred when Chen's trainees had pains in arms due to hard training. Some even regarded such practice as a kind of torture and asked Chen to pay their medical bill if they were hurt.

When they found their capability in playing table tennis has been improved following the buildup of physical conditions, they understood Chen at last.

Zhou Xuexing, the first Chinese table tennis coach in South Africa, has similar experience. He said on Sunday that various national conditions led to misunderstanding by South African for his training method in the past, but now the misunderstanding has melted.

"Even ordinary people will have pains in their legs after doing sports, not only professional players. But at the beginning when South African players met that problem, the authorities of South Africa will order me to stop all the training," said Zhou who has trained the South Africans for more than one year.

The South African side has understood Zhou's training method now and trusted the experienced foreign coach.

When the South African table tennis team trained in China last month, the authorities entrusted Zhou to make all arrangement during the trip. They also planned to extend the contract with Zhou by three years.

With the efforts of the coaches, squads of the Republic of Congo and South Africa have made tremendous progress. In the first stage of All-Africa Games's table tennis women team event, the Congolese team became the first one defeating Nigeria who has dominated the African table tennis for the past two decades. The South African contingent finished the fourth during the team event.
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(Xinhua News Agency July 17, 2007)