How is life and volleyball in Chine? We asked Freddie Winters (CAN), who is currently playing in China and he told us some really interesting things.

How did you get into China? Where is placed your team?
I was always talking about how I was sure China was going to open up their league to foreigners soon enough. I know they had had foreigners before but not ones of really high quality who had played in the best leagues in Europe. I was driving in Ottawa in May when my good friend and teammate Steve Brinkman called me and asked if I was interested in playing in China. Of course I said yes, and the rest is history. I guess I found my way to China through him and his agent. They wanted a middle blocker and an outside hitter so Steve thought of me right away.

 

Thankfully our team is located in Beijing. We have been to some of the other cities and they are lacking the comforts that Beijing provides (ie. Starbucks!)

As of today, December 29th, we are in Chengdu, Sichuan Province and 12-2 on the season. We are close to securing a guaranteed spot in the semi-finals, just need a couple more points and we’ll be there. The team finished 4th last year so an improvement on that is a must.

 

It is not common destination for foreigner volleyball players. How could you describe the volleyball in China? Maybe in future everybody will want to go there…
I hadn’t heard of players going to China in the past but one of my Russian teammates told me that some Russians had played there and didn’t like it. So far I’ve enjoyed myself with all aspects. The volleyball could be better. Every team has many athletic players who can jump and hit but they are lacking polish. They have been playing the same style for decades and don’t have any knowledge of western style volleyball. It makes it very hard to change and can create some interesting situations on the court. Despite these challenges I suspect that many teams will employ at least one or two foreigners in the coming years. They have seen what us three have done in a couple of months (almost made our team unbeatable and the Chinese players are improving dramatically) and will want to do the same with their teams.

 

You played in many countries. What is the biggest difference between the rest of world and China? Food? People? Language?
The biggest difference would have to be the food. In Europe you can always find a decent plate of food. In China, a lot of the times you have no idea what is being placed in front of you. We’ve noticed that in China they eat the parts of the meat or chicken that westerners would throw away. Instead of a breast or a thigh or a fillet, they will eat the cartilage, the neck, or the feet and leave the tender parts out! It’s unbelievable. The club has tried really hard to find us decent food to eat but sometimes we just have to eat Chinese and our go to dish is always Kung Pao chicken!

 

What you do in China when you are not practising or playing matches?
When we aren’t practicing or travelling with the team (we play every Thursday and Sunday) we are relaxing at the spa in the basement of our building! We also spend a lot of time exploring Beijing because it is so large you can always find a new place to eat or have a coffee. I haven’t made it to the great wall near Beijing yet but that’s my next spot when I have some free time!

 

Tell me some interesting/funny story you have from China…
I would have to say the craziest/funniest thing to happen so far was some articles in the newspaper about us saying how we were bad because we were skipping the security lines in the subway! Steve Brinkman made a video about our commute to training and did a really nice job of editing it but one part of it portrayed me talking about how everyday we just walk right through the security and they don’t say anything to us. The Chinese media wasn’t too happy about that but they have since moved on. We were on damage control for a bit because we didn’t want to ruin our reputation but thankfully nothing happened and everything is ok now. You can see the video on youtube titled ‘Beijing Commute’ or on my blog at www.suitcaselife.ca