Seok Jin-wook, former director of OK Financial Group, has embarked on a training program in Europe.
On the 20th, Suk departed from Incheon International Airport on Asiana Airlines Flight OZ051 to Paris, France.
After leading OK Financial Group for four seasons, Seok planned to train in Europe after his contract expired.
When we met him at Incheon International Airport, he seemed calm: “First of all, I confirmed that I will stay in Paris for about three months. I will be accompanying the club on all of their schedules. I’m going to watch the whole process before and after the game closely.”
Paris Volley, the club that Suk chose for his first training camp, is a long-established and prestigious organization that is also funded by the Polish national team, Leon and Kubiak. Japanese international apogee spiker Miyaura will also join the team this season. Fabio Storti (Italy/1978), a former power analyst, will take the helm.
“This is my first break from volleyball. After retiring as a player, I became a coach and then a head coach. After four years of coaching, I was offered a job as a broadcaster’s commentator, but I politely declined. “I wanted to take on a new challenge rather than following the same pattern as everyone else. I wanted to go abroad and learn more,” he said.
Director Seok Jin-wook said, “My wife told me not to get caught up in money, so I’m going with my heart (laughs). It’s quite a budget, but I’m taking it,” he added. Traveling abroad on a personal budget is not an easy task. Family support is also essential.
“I’m going to make the most of it,” says Seok. I heard that the Paris Bali team doesn’t have a lot of staff. I want to see how the coach leads the team in this situation and how he leads them in the psychological part.”
“The only European volleyball I’ve seen so far is the matches. This time, I’m going to see the off-court aspects. I chose to leave today so that I can be with the team from the first meeting before the season. We will start training on Tuesday, the 22nd.”
Seok has rented a local apartment. When he lands at the airport, he’ll be on his own. He starts by laughing. “It’s a challenge. I’m going to go and crash. I don’t bring any food, just gochujang in my luggage,” he smiles again.
Although he has traveled abroad many times, this is the first time he will be traveling alone. “If I had someone with me, I would definitely lean on them. I would definitely lean on someone. But now I’m alone. I’m going to experience everything on my own,” he says, his voice strong.
There is quite a distance between the gym and the apartment, but Seok said, “I’m going to use public transportation. There are buses.”
In July, Seok watched the Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) Challenge Cup in Taipei, Taiwan.
“I felt that the domestic players lacked experience when playing against foreign players. The players were anxious. They didn’t look relaxed. I wish more of our players would go abroad,” he said.
“If you look at other countries, their volleyball is pretty much the same as ours. But Korean volleyball has a lot of errors, and other countries have fewer errors. It’s not that we are technically lacking much. We need to make up for it in psychology and errors. If we do that, I think we will be able to go up.”
Regarding Europe’s use of middle blockers in volleyball, Seok Jin-wook said, “It’s true that middle blockers are the center of blocking. In the middle, the side blockers should move organically. In the case of Korea, the middle blocker’s basics are poor, so the side blockers are constantly pointing at them. Even in defense, they are instructed from the side to the middle, which is unfortunate. The middle blockers need to improve their basics and take the center. We’re going to take this opportunity to look at that as well.”
Seok Jin-wook was called a volleyball guru during his playing days. He received the highest praise for his reception. There are many thoughts about the play-based volleyball he played during his career.
“If you look at overseas volleyball last year or this year, there are a lot of serve games. The team with the best serve won because they made fewer errors. If you look at our volleyball, we demand a strong serve even if we make a mistake, so there are a lot of ups and downs. We need to reduce that. Also, there is a trend of making a set play after the rebound with some ability to cope with the strong serve. We need to follow this global trend. Korean volleyball also needs to learn from it.”
During his three-month stay in Paris, Seok Jin-wook also plans to watch Polish and Italian volleyball. Afterward, he plans to continue his training in other European countries or Japan.먹튀검증
When asked how he feels about leaving, Seok said, “Honestly, I feel anxious and a little scared. I’m also excited. I think it will definitely be a good experience for me. I hope this training will be a turning point in my volleyball life,” she smiled.
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