National Coach Bitterness “There are players who boast that Daewoo has improved”

The Korean baseball team suffered the humiliation of being eliminated in the first round of the 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC). Following the 2013 and 2017 tournaments, they failed to advance to the second round three times in a row. Previously, I heard about the problems, causes, and countermeasures of Korean baseball from former coach Kim In-sik (76), the “national coach” who served as the WBC team commander in 2006 and 2009 and achieved the splendid feat of semifinals and runner-up. /Sports Bureau

<Part 1> Continued from “Why do leaders only talk about ball speed”.

With the 2009 WBC runner-up and the 2015 Premier 12 championship, KBO League players continued to advance overseas.먹튀검증

Starting with Kim Tae-gyun and Lee Beom-ho leaving for Japan in 2010, Lee Dae-ho in 2012 and Oh Seung-hwan in 2014 moved to Japan professional baseball. In 2013, Ryu Hyun-jin joined the Major League Baseball LA Dodgers, and in 2015, Kang Jung-ho joined the Pittsburgh Pirates. After winning the Premier 12, Kim Hyun-soo and Park Byung-ho advanced to the United States in 2016, Yoon Seok-min and Hwang Jae-gyun in 2017, and Kim Gwang-hyun stepped on the major league stage in 2020.

It is certainly welcome for our players to go abroad to promote national prestige and promote the excellence of Korean baseball. The problem is that even among domestic players who have watched their colleagues advance overseas, an atmosphere of overestimating and shaming themselves has arisen.

In addition, since the early and mid-2010s, agents have appeared in professional baseball one by one, and the treatment of players has improved. At the same time, the number of players who thought they were very good at baseball increased without realizing it.

It seems that the players’ perspective on the national team has changed quite a bit. When I was in charge of the national team command tower, I could see that the players regarded the Taegeuk mark as a great honor and honor.

However, even at the 2017 WBC, there were 8 players who did not respond to the national team selection for one reason or another. As a result, whenever the baseball team performs sluggishly in international competitions, the mentality and attitude of the players are often on the chopping block. Even if the times have changed, wouldn’t there be baseball only when there is a country?

One of the causes of the national team’s sluggishness this time is the ‘burden’ of the players. Ultimately, this is the responsibility of the coaching staff. Anyone can be nervous at international competitions, especially against Japan. That doesn’t mean you can just tell the players, “Don’t be pressured, don’t be nervous.” It is important to induce a team atmosphere naturally in order to relieve tension from the process of training and lodging.

But the biggest problem above all is our lack of skills. In words, they shout ‘generation change’, but it is possible only when new faces that surpass existing players come out.

Facilities and treatment are better than in the past, but mental strength, concentration, and overall baseball level can never be said to have improved. This is something both players and coaches should reflect on.

Finally, I would like to point out a few details.

The WBC team returned to Korea temporarily after training in Arizona, USA, trained for two days at Gocheok Dome, and then departed again. During the first WBC in 2006, he trained and practiced for 8 days at the Fukuoka Dome in Japan before participating in the tournament, achieving 6 wins and 1 loss and advancing to the semifinals. I don’t know if there were unavoidable circumstances, but I wonder if it would have been more helpful for the players to manage their condition if they moved straight from Arizona to Japan this time.

And I wonder what it would have been like if I had held a brief meeting with the former WBC coaching staff before the tournament to hear about their experience in participating. Also, in the first match against Australia, it is regrettable that the result would have been different had all the pitchers in good condition been mobilized and caught without fail.