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After a 12-month soul-searching coaching experience with the China national softball team, Michael Bastian has yet to prove himself on the uphill road to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

The US coaching guru led China to a modest fourth-placed finish at the World Championships, which ended last week in Beijing.

Although it is too soon to judge Bastian, who has spent less than a year with the squad, China needs to significantly improve before seriously considering themselves as a chance of winning the coveted Olympic gold medal on home soil.

"I am very disappointed with the result," Bastian said after China lost to Australia 1-0 in the bronze medal play-off game on September 4. "I told my players to remember how it feels because it hurts a lot."

China is very familiar with fourth place. In the softball world, China is seen as "second-best" behind elites, such us the US, Japan and Australia. China has repeatedly proved that point, finishing fourth behind the trio at the 2000 Sydney and 2004 Athens Olympic Games.

In the last Worlds in Canada four years ago, China also placed fourth when Chinese Taipei replaced Australia in the top three positions.

However, moving up only one spot against world's elites is by no means easy. China has only three losses during the Beijing event, falling to each of the trio.

Bastian believed China's downfall was the inability to score runs against world-class pitching. This was especially frustrating considering the national squad in many areas are a model team, with strong pitching, rock-solid defence and agile short-hand game.

"Just look at how we play with international elite softball - 2-0 to the US, 1-0 to Japan and 1-0 to Australia.

"We are very close to them but could not score against them."

Tough change

Introducing more power is one of Bastian's main goals in bid to lift China softball into the next level. If the Chinese can drive the ball long enough, their game will become unpredictable. But it isn't easy to persuade Chinese to make any change, he said.

China is the silver medallist at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games and two-time runners-up at 1994 and 1998 Worlds.

The 44-year-old coach said many of the team resisted change while some were hoping to mix power with their old game.

"It is very, very difficult to make Chinese change," said Howard Carrier, Bastian's long-time friend who was invited to become a temporary hitting coach for China.

Carrier's influence was evident during the Beijing event with the team achieving one of the hardest hitting displays in the championships. They scored almost as many base hits as the Americans, arguably the best hitters in the world.

The hitting ability made its offence simply awesome - it routed lower-level teams England and South Africa 10-0 and 12-0 and medal-level team Italy 9-1.

"We swung the bats more fundamentally sound and we are much more aggressive than we used to be," Bastian said. But such new-found power was not enough for China to surpass the world elite trio of the US, Japan and Australia.

Its pitching was as strong as before, allowing very few hits and its defence was definitely top class, allowing only six runs in total throughout the tournament. However its offence was not in the same class. The Chinese did not score a single run against the elite trio. "We are already there," Bastian said. "We just have to make some small adjustments."

Hitting is not the only area of the Chinese game that Bastian was hoping to improve. He is also eager to motivate his intimidated and always-serious Chinese pupils on and off the field. He wants them to be more confident and happy. "They are the most hard-working and unselfish people in the world," he said. "But they need to have more fun."

Everybody in the team can feel the coach's passion. He likes to exchange special hand-shakes with each player and give exaggerated instructional gestures during competitions. He also used nicknames to inspire his players; the team captain Li Chunxia, is called "rainbow" and even dubbed himself a "teddy bear".

"That's the reason I try to persuade them to hug me," Bastian said. "I hope I can bring happiness to them like the Teddy Bear."

Many have felt the change, including their rivals.

"We played them early in the summer in the World Cup in the US and just from that time until now, it was like a new team," said American Jessica Mendoza, the biggest star of Beijing event who delivered a winning home-run to help US to beat Japan in the gold medal game. "The intensity and confidence they showed really impressed me and I am looking forward to play with them in 2008."

Life-changing experience

Bastian said his coaching stint in China has been special time that has deeply touched him inside. "It is a life-changing experience," said the experienced coach, who has worked with US national, college, professional teams and international clinics during his 19-year coaching career. He even opened a softball academy.

"I have so much fun coaching the Chinese team. I learned about the culture and how they played softball. There are so many things that make me a better and stronger person."

He said he would hang on with the team to the 2008 Games.

"We are a family. I won't leave. They mean so much to me," he said. "The gold medal is already in sight. We are very close. We have to keep walking."

(China Daily September 13, 2006)