"3+4 Integration," a triple exploration sparks reflection

Written by Han Bing In February 2024, the General Administration of Sport of China, along with 12 departments, jointly released the "Implementation Opinions on the Reform and Development of Chinese Youth Football" (referred to as the "Implementation Opinions"). The document is divided into eight sections with a total of 27 articles. The third section focuses on innovating the football talent reserve training system; the sixth section, titled "Strengthening the Training of Football Professionals," emphasizes researching and demonstrating the "3+4" integrated training mechanism between sports schools and regular universities, exploring industry-academia-research collaboration models, and promoting innovation in football vocational education; the seventh section, "Implementing Youth Football Guarantee Policies," highlights the need to smooth the advancement channels for football talent reserves by establishing a seamless primary, middle, high school, and university progression system.

The primary, middle, and high school competitions of the Centennial Elite Football Exchange Tournament not only serve as a platform for competition but also for communication and showcasing. The exchanges and displays involve participating schools from cities nationwide, focusing on innovations, explorations, and trials in the football talent reserve training system. Besides the nationwide "631 policy" fully deployed in key football development cities aiming to establish a seamless training system across primary, middle, and high schools in every district and county, there are also three different integrated training mechanisms: "3+2," "3+2+2," and "3+4."

Zhangjiakou Ice and Snow Sports School has implemented the "3+4" integrated training system, and its team participated in the middle school group of the Centennial Elite Football Exchange Tournament. This not only attracted broader attention but also inspired schools like Hengyang Chuanshan English School and others from various cities to try the "3+4" integration. Compared to the "631 policy" addressing the "retirement at age 12" issue, the "3+4" integrated training system that tackles the "retirement at age 15" problem represents the critical link between the quantitative growth of youth players and their qualitative transformation into professional players. Zhangjiakou Ice and Snow Sports School's comprehensive exploration of the "3+4" system in training, competition, teaching, management, and assessment is one of the valuable takeaways from this Centennial Elite Football Exchange Tournament worthy of reflection and discussion.

At the second Centennial Elite Football Exchange Tournament, Zhangjiakou Ice and Snow Sports School's "3+4" integrated training system became the true highlight. Previously, we introduced how the school invested significant human, material, and financial resources to equip its faculty, establishing pioneering concepts such as "one coach per team, coaches follow the team without interrupting studies" and balancing "professional teaching with employment-oriented practice." More importantly, the school has built a sound management and assessment system to cultivate new football talents who are politically, professionally, behaviorally, and culturally strong, realizing "learning and training first, system as the foundation."

Li Xiaoguang, Party Secretary of Zhangjiakou Ice and Snow Sports School, gave a comprehensive explanation of the school's "3+4" integrated training system: "The school is committed to cultivating high-quality football talents with the 'Four Haves' spirit. We have thoroughly evaluated potential issues in education, professional skills, management, and assessment and preliminarily formulated corresponding plans and management systems. The team participating in the Centennial Elite Football Exchange Tournament consists of the first batch of students under the '3+4' system, who will fully undergo the integrated education and management in the new semester. Meanwhile, the school will dynamically adjust the training plans and management systems according to specific situations, allowing the '3+4' system to be tested in practice and continuously improved."

The foundation for improving the quality of cultural courses and professional training competitions in the "3+4" integrated system is a strict and seamless management and assessment system. In terms of management, Zhangjiakou Ice and Snow Sports School centers on sports team management, with school leaders overseeing coordination, and team leaders, coaches, and counselors each fulfilling their roles. The management layer’s evaluations are directly linked to student assessments. Management covers not only the "standard procedures" for teaching and training but also comprehensive integrated management of students' ideological politics, daily habits, and physical and mental health.

Additionally, team leaders, coaches, and counselors each have their own management systems. The quality assessment of teaching extends beyond students to include management and teaching staff in an integrated evaluation. This sports team management approach inherits the traditions of sports schools while incorporating modern educational concepts, making it more scientific and systematic, tailored to the characteristics of sports students.

How are diverse cultural courses and sufficiently long training sessions managed—especially through assessments—to achieve high-quality integration? Zhangjiakou Ice and Snow Sports School implements a comprehensive dynamic scoring system covering teachers, students, and supervisors to ensure the quality of both teaching and learning. For stage transition assessments, the first three years include six semesters, with the last semester involving a key transition exam that accounts for 30% of the total score, while each of the previous five semesters accounts for 14%. The total score includes professional courses, cultural courses, bonus points for achievements, and deductions for violations, each with corresponding scoring mechanisms. This full-process integrated assessment avoids a "one exam decides everything" scenario and prevents students from neglecting cultural courses, ideological politics, and daily discipline, ensuring they maintain high-quality training and study states throughout.

Regarding score proportions, professional training courses slightly outweigh cultural courses. In the sports team's professional training and competitions, evaluation is mainly based on dynamic healthy competition between starting and substitute lineups. Monthly internal matches and external competitions form the basis for assessing the starting lineup, with adjustments made accordingly. Starting and substitute players differ somewhat in subsidies and training: starters train under the head coach, substitutes under the assistant coach. The roles of starters and substitutes are fluid and dynamic, encouraging players to maintain high self-discipline and active participation in training and matches, preventing complacency.

Besides the standard high school curriculum, cultural courses also include diverse interest classes such as calligraphy, painting, and photography to broaden students' knowledge and enhance learning interest. Naturally, cultural course exam results at different times also factor into the semester transition assessments, directly affecting final outcomes. The school implements a "coach follows the team" system to ensure that, despite increasing off-campus training and matches, students' cultural course performance remains consistent through dynamic learning.

On top of professional and cultural courses, the school places special emphasis on cultivating students' team spirit and patriotism. The sports team has fixed morning exercises from Monday to Saturday (7:00–7:30 am), including 20 minutes of jogging and 10 minutes of stretching, covering both on-campus and off-campus training and competitions. Morning runs and separate exercises according to training and competition needs require uniform attire, orderly formations, and high spirits, with students shouting the school motto "Confidence and Openness, Pursuit of Excellence." Additionally, every Monday from 7:30 to 7:40 am, patriotic education is conducted by singing the national anthem together. During off-campus training and competitions, ideological and patriotic education is regularly held to foster team spirit, national pride, and confidence.

Zhangjiakou Ice and Snow Sports School is not the first to explore the "3+4" integrated training system, but they are the only participant among schools at the Centennial Elite Football Exchange Tournament. Their institutional exploration covering management, teaching, and assessment under the "3+4" system offers practical references and lessons for other schools. Although the new semester has just started implementation, the trial management, teaching, and assessment systems launched by the school leadership after thorough research and evaluation have largely dispelled external concerns about the "3+4" system.

The "Zhangjiakou Model" of the "3+4" integrated training system first ensures strict quality control of student intake from enrollment. The entire process of training and study during the initial three "3-stage" years is equally rigorous and high-quality, aiming to prepare students so that their academics and professional training in the subsequent "4-stage" will be manageable, enabling them to freely choose their career paths. Meanwhile, students' performance in professional courses, cultural courses, ideological politics, and daily discipline during the "3-stage" will directly impact the school's future national recruitment appeal, forming the foundation of the school's reputation and achievements.

The management and assessment of the "Zhangjiakou Model" detail shared responsibilities among leaders, team leaders, coaches, counselors, and students, fostering internal motivation and enthusiasm across management, teaching, training, and competition. For example, team leaders must create semi-annual work plans and monthly summaries of training, competitions, studies, and life. Monthly team meetings review the current month and plan the next. Within seven days after each off-campus training or competition, a "Summary Report" is produced. Counselors handle ideological and political education, daily attendance, discipline, living habits, safety education, other daily tasks, and maintain communication between parents and the school.

Notably, all management systems in the "Zhangjiakou Model" are supervised by corresponding departments to ensure proper implementation, with timely, fair, and compliant rewards and penalties for managers and students. This comprehensive management system provides a valuable "template" for all schools wishing to explore the "3+4" integrated training system.