"It's war!"

Why have the Koreans (or the Korean women) dominated the world of recurve archery for the past two decades? I think there are two things responsible. No, not rice and kimchi. I believe it's discipline and the sport system. Children begin the process of learning archery at the age of 10. I called it the "process of learning archery" because they don't get to shoot a single arrow until they have mastered perfect technique with an elastic band. This is rumored to be 6 months of practicing with a band. Can you imagine trying to implement this kind of training in North America? I don't think we would have any kids participating in the sport! It is also rumored that the first time a Korean child shoots a score at 30m (after 6 months of band practice), they typically shoot over 330 out of 360 points. Now, I don't know if these rumors are all true (I will try to find out) but I DO know that their sport system brings about results!

When I spoke to my coach in Korea over the phone last week, she talked about the national team trials for the 2009 World Championships and Asian Championships. Unlike the one-time deal type of trials (or two-time deal) here in Canada, there are several stages involved in Korean team trials. My coach said it's so intense, everyone is at each other's throats and it's like war. At the first stage, there were over 200 archers who shot the ranking round and went into eliminations. After eliminations, only the top 32 went on to the second stage. My friend, Hye-Jin, (who I talked about in my last post) made it to the top 32! The second stage was held this past week and again, it consisted of a ranking round and eliminations. This time, only the top 13 (per gender) along with the 3 men and 3 women who went to the Olympics advance to the next stage. I checked the Korean Archery Association website to check the results and WOWWW Hye-Jin made it! I am SO HAPPY for her!

There will be a training camp held sometime during the winter where Hye-Jin and the other archers will fight for the six coveted spots (3 men and 3 women).

The talent runs so deep in the Korean archery system that it seems no matter who makes the team, they'll end up kicking butt anyway. I remember in 2004, Park Sung Hyun (my ultimate archery hero) said in an interview that making the national team is harder than winning gold at the Olympics. It's no wonder why for the past two decades the Korean women have dominated the international scene when all their competition is sitting back at home.