Making training tools themselves and managing diets, the 'diligent' survival story of an amateur volleyball team

The reality of an amateur volleyball team, in stark contrast to the systematic approach of professional volleyball teams, has been revealed. The team is operating in a poor environment where only two people—the head coach and the coach—must take responsibility for everything from the team's training to player management and overall daily life.

The 'multi-play' of the head coach and coach filling the gap of professional personnel

The training site of the amateur team was markedly different from the specialized system of professional teams. While professional teams have subdivided roles such as analysts and trainers, here, the head coach and the coach perform those roles simultaneously. Coach Lee Yun-hui, who took on the coaching position for the first time this year, revealed that she is not only designing weight training programs with the head coach but also performing the role of a trainer.

Due to the nature of amateur teams where it is difficult to recruit players, the process of filling the shortage of personnel by even performing the role of a Plan Coach depending on the team's circumstances was also shown. Coach Lee explained, "In a professional team, the environment allows for missing parts to be filled right next to you, but since it is just the head coach and me, the two of us must do all the work," adding, "Since we have to take care of everything from training to eating, living, and moving, the head coach and coach of an amateur team must move very diligently."

"Cannot use the gym when we want to"... The limits of a restricted training environment

Securing training space is also a major challenge. The team rents and uses the gym four times a week (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday). Because the gym's rental schedule overlaps with other sports such as badminton, they are in a situation where they must squeeze in training times by avoiding fixed schedules. It was noted as the biggest disappointment that they cannot practice at desired times because rentals are sometimes impossible on public holidays.

The lack of training equipment was also noticeable. It is an environment where it is difficult to equip professional auxiliary tools like professional teams. To supplement the lack of balls, players also conduct individual practice using walls. During training, they were also captured using tape directly on tools for the convenience of the players.

Nighttime individual training to make up for the lack of balls

The constraints of the training environment led to individual training for the players. Since the amount of balls available for practice is not sufficient, players are dedicating their personal time to make up for the training volume. Seon-ye, Gyeong-a, and Coach Lee continue nighttime partner training for about 2 hours almost every day to supplement the insufficient amount of practice.

Source: MBCentertainment (YouTube)