Chang
Yoon-Hee (KOR)
Guts,
wits, and tips galore |
The life of
the party, and the heart of the team, Chang Yoon-Hee at the '99
World Cup [Photo: Daniela Tarantini, FIVB] me the possibility to see one
match live, I would ask him to see Chang Yoon-Hee face the
Chinese, either in the Asian Games, in the Atlanta Olympics, in
the '98 World's, or the Asian Continental Championships. Those
matches—if you haven't seen them—are absolutely spectacular.
I assume that she was a member of
one of the Korean Junior teams that participated in the '87 or
'89 World's at that level, but I am not completely sure. Still,
the first time I saw her was at the '90 Continental
Championships in China. The Chinese were preparing their team
for the '90 World's that were going to be played in their own
country. They had a really good team, with Li
Yueming and Wu
Dan mature and in great shape, but the South
Koreans were on the rise with players like Nam Soon-Ok, Kim
Kyung-Hee (I believe that was her name), and Chang Yoon-Hee, who
was still young and full of vitality. Korea, as everyone knows,
is not only geographically between China and Japan, but the
on-court personalities of its players are also somewhere in
between that of Japan's cookie-cutter happiness and China's cool
"tough look". Chang Yoon-Hee especially, celebrated
like the Japanese by running around the court after making a
point, and yet she wouldn't have that pre-fabricated smile from
ear to ear hiding her real emotions. With Chang Yoon-Hee you
could see the emotions in her grimaces, her smirks, her clenched
fists, and her frustrated indications of "Give me the
ball!" to her setter. The Japanese are too polite for that,
and the Chinese do it all the time. The Koreans, therefore, are
just the perfect blend.
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blend of quickness and power that has made the recent Korean teams
so successful against the once untouchable Chinese squads. In the
times of Lang Ping, forget it, Korea was never going to win a
match against China. Even after Lang Ping stopped playing, China
was still riding on the talented players who shared the '84
Olympic gold with her. But starting in '92, when China hit rock
bottom at the Barcelona Olympics, Korea began to take advantage.
The Chinese coach, Hu Jin (who is still in charge of the team
nowadays—I
don't know WHY) took his team to the lowest level in over a
decade, not only in Barcelona, but at the '94 World's in Brazil.
There, they lost to South Korea in five sets and then fizzled out
of the tournament after having had come in first in their pool.
The Koreans knew that China liked to make its opponents get into
long rallies to tire them out, and with their good transitions,
they could always come up with a final combination play and
execute it to perfection. But if that was China's secret weapon,
then Korea used it even more so. By playing the Chinese at their
own game, the Koreans added a touch more wittiness, dinking balls
in the most unreachable of corners, passing free balls directly to
the outside hitters instead of to the setter, and having more
people in the air waiting for a shoot set than China could keep up
with. So in that sense, Korea used China's vulnerability to beat
them at the '94 World's and then at the '94 Hiroshima Asian Games,
to which China, with a battered ego, said, "No more!"
The formula was easy: out
with Hu Jin and in with Lang
Ping. The Chinese legend showed the world that she
was an excellent coach (see my article about her), and in very
little time she assembled a team that made it to the finals of the
Atlanta Olympics and the '98 World's. But when facing Korea in
pool play, in both tournaments, they never expected it to be so
difficult! Both matches went five sets and after the Atlanta match
Lang Ping was criticised for letting a usually "lesser"
rival get so close to winning. Korea finally gave the Chinese
skeptics more to rant about by beating them at the '98 World's,
sending signals to the world that they were on the rise, blending
finesse, quickness, and power very well. The Japanese, on the
other hand, with only finesse and quickness on their side, have
seen a steady downhill regression vis-à-vis the teams that are
adapting to modern day conditions. In a volleyball world where the
Russians pound and the Cubans rule, China and Korea have adapted
by finding taller, stronger players, who can block solidly, and
yet are quick and agile thanks to the training school they come
from. Japan hasn't found that balance, and with their players
equally as tall as they were ten years ago, it cannot face even
Korea or China anymore, which is quite sad, considering the long
tradition of rivalry with those two teams.
Chang Yoon-Hee has stayed with her team from
'90 to '99, and only recently was absent from the roster to
represent Korea at the Sydney Olympics. I don't know why, and I
only hope that she isn't hurt because that would be very
unfortunate. I heard a rumour that she is having a baby, in which
case, she's finally decided to settle down and raise a family. It
is very interesting to recall that ridiculous FIVB declaration at
the '94 World's that made doubt of Chang Yoon-Hee's femininity!!
She had to be absent from Korea's first match in order to take a
gender verification test. How the doubt began is beyond my
comprehension, really...
I tend to pick up the different things that
players do on the court, and for that reason Chang Yoon-Hee is one
of my favourite teachers. If you watch her closely, you can learn
a special "dink" by pretending to hit a bit inside
position 4 and placing a bubble right in the corner to your left
(to the right of the opposite blocker). Chang Yoon-Hee does that
all the time, and you'll see that if it doesn't touch the floor
for some miraculous reason, their defence will probably still be
trying to get in place before your transition nails a kill amid
their disorientation. Shorter players can learn how to hit those
shoots off the block by swiping the ball away from your body,
something Chang Yoon-Hee does even if she's facing the inside of
the court. And her other favourite corner to dink at lies to the
left of the middle blocker, but only if the defender in position 4
is standing far back by the corner of the 3-metre zone. Drop
another bubble there à la Chang Yoon-Hee and you're guaranteed a
point. This player can teach you numerous things. If you want a
recommendation: get any one of the five-set matches between China
and Korea since 1994. You'll be amazed at how thrilling these long
matches can be! And when you see everything that Chang Yoon-Hee
does with the few centimetres that Nature has given her, you'll be
even more amazed at how human beings can be so resourceful, with a
little bit of wits, and with even more guts.
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