Topic: Korea stuff

[Jim Hooper]

Shaun, what kind of development program to the South Koreans have going?  Are they getting lots of kids lifting in the early teen years?  Neat thread, thanks for posting this material. 

[Shaun Le Conte]

From what I could tell their country has a lot of junior lifters in the various provinces, but very few senior lifters. Over there, the pressure to go to a good university and to do well in studies is astronomical so unless they already have shown they have talent they pretty much don't continue. They're too busy. I didn't see any recreational lifters, or late starters while I was there. On the other hand, I didn't spend much time with them unfortunately because they wanted me to train between 2-5 pm and for me those were working hours. They were perfectly fine with allowing me to work out with them, and even took me to lunch one day. I was very sad that I couldn't keep it up due to my schedule. It would have made a world of difference to my happiness over there.

The regional coach in Busan is a PE teacher so my guess is that he recruited from his school. Most of the middle schoolers seemed to live in the same section of the city.

They've actually put a large amount of information on their web site compared to some federations of course it's all in Korean which really filters out who can read it. Their development program could be there in plain sight.

A huge difference is that they have 50 million people in a space that is slightly larger than the state of Indiana (source: CIA World Factbook). On top of that there is great public transportation. It's a lot easier to coordinate a program on a national scale in those circumstances.

[Jack Dluzen]

good stuff shaun!

[Shaun Le Conte]

This week at the Korean Olympic Trials, 77 kg lifter Sa Jae Hyouk lifted 162+203=365 for new national records in the snatch and total. He tried 207 but was unsuccessful. 69 kg Lee Bae Young, 2004 Olympic silver medallist also set new national records in the snatch and total with lifts of 154+189=343. I'll see if I can get the complete results tomorrow when the event finishes.

Photo: Sa Jae Hyouk (Kyeongi Mail News)

[Shaun Le Conte]

Jang Mi-Ran at the Olympic Trials, snatching 140 kg. I am not sure what she clean & jerked yet. There was another article which stated she is under enormous national pressure to win gold and she's been getting counsel from Kim Tae Hyun, who lifted as a SHW from 1990 - 2000 and totalled 460 in the 2000 Olympics (and amazingly, he did not even medal). He's advising her about weight management. She's having a hard time maintaining weight.

[Walter Bailey]

She's having a hard time maintaining weight.

Haha, that's super funny.  I never though that would be too much of a problem in weightlifting!

[Shaun Le Conte]

Actually I recall in one of Ironmind's videos, that Valerios Leonidas of Greece, then 64 kg said he had to eat ice cream just to keep his weight up. I think it was the 1996 Training Hall. I will to have another look at it to confirm.

Maryse Turcotte and/or Pierre Bergeron have/has also said that Maryse had to eat a lot to weigh 58 kg.

I am witrh you, it's hard to understand this problem as I always have to tell myself not to eat everything in sight so I don't wake up and weigh 170 pounds. But I have no idea what it's like to train as they did.

[Shaun Le Conte]

On and on I go about Korea.

Women 75+
I showed a picture of Jang Mi-Ran earlier snatching 140 kg. She actually missed that lift and was credited with 135 kg. In the clean & jerk she lifted 183 kg to tie the amount lifted by Mu Shuangshuang at the Chinese Olympic Trials. Again, the comment that she should gain weight to 120 kg from 115 kg but finding it difficult.




Ok more news about Sa Jae Hyouk, the 77 kg winner. He claims he's been injured on an off since 2003 which explained his absence after he won the 2005 World Juniors. He feels good now but his problem is a weak (less resilient) upper body relative to his lower. He said he's had shoulder surgery, wrist surgery and elbow problems. "There are a lot of advantages and disadvantages to greed." He hopes to one day break the world record.

105+ kg
Jeon Sang Geun has secured his place in the Olympic Games. At the Olympic Trials he snatched 200 and clean & jerked 240.