A Real Pain for Teams Packed with Key Players

Why is your nose like “Rudolph the reindeer?”

The story begins in 2004 Woori Finance Group women`s regular season match against Hyundai and Samsung Life in Seoul Jang-Choong gymnasium. The nose of Hyundai`s Kim Young-ok has turned red just like “Rudolph.”

Why is a non-intoxicated woman player`s nose so red?

Kim explained, "It`s really tough. I used to have a reputation as being strong, but these days, I get fatigued so quickly. I don`t know how i`m keeping up with this."

Kim appealed that the color of her nose was due to exhaustion and not by consuming alcohol. The coach of Samsung Life (Park In-kyu), which lost to Hyundai despite having the Fab-Four members (Byun Yun-Ha, Lee Mi-Sun, Park Jung-Eun, Kim Kae-Ryung), commented, "The starting members can`t play strong in crucial situations..."

Every member on the team gave excuses of physical strength, saying, "The national team

training is too painful," and adding, "It was the first time to face such a hard training session."

What kind of training does the team implement then?

Looking into the daily schedules of the women`s national team, it starts off with four hours of morning training which includes two hours of weight training and relays to a strength-boosting training by unfolding the body using an extension band attached to the shoulders and thighs, and stretching them in the afternoon.

There is a special course training called “Hell training” once a week which the players fear. The course was designed for a player to run between Buel-Am Mountain Hills 10 times, go back and forth through the saw dust road 10 times, and run 10 times in Tae-Reung tracks. The hardcore training often results in the players’ vomiting.

Coach Park Myung-soo, who is in command of Woori Bank, praises physical strength as the first priority in his book, "Mental power is ahead of techniques and physical strength is ahead of metal power."

That is something he always emphasizes to Woori-Bank players. His philosophy explains in his words as he said, "The daughter-in-law should always check if the fire hole is still lit or else she will get scrutinized. In a same way, the lights of our Woori gymnasium should always be bright."

Sixty percent of the training program consists of physical training. The team wakes up at 5:30 a.m. and performs shooting drills at 6:00 a.m. along with four sessions of physical training until 9:30pm. The team has less sleep and trains one more session per day than the other the teams.

Coach Park cut his head bald as Woori Bank struggles with poor results. The players are having a hard time as the dreadful head coach gives it all out while letting his hair go.

The low physical fitness level of key players doesn`t show in their performance in the winter league. The number of key players is inversely proportional to the team records.

Kookmin-Bank stands at top of the league, and Keumho-Life is in the second spot with each team holding only one key player as good examples.

On the other hand, Samsung Life is tied second place with the league’s best players and

Woori Bank and Hyundai are tied for fourth.Kim Young-0k, a guard in the past national team, said, "I concentrated on maintaining my physical strength rather than focusing on the outcome in the first round. It will be the same deal for the key players on other teams."

Won-Hong Lee bluesky@donga.com