Star player Seo Hyo-won, who was an active and veteran national team defender, is transforming into a team coach. Last year, director Choi Young-il, who was the head of the national team training at the Busan World Table Tennis Championships, and 'career' coach Hwang Seong-hun are also rejoining the national team as the total supervisor and coach of the men's team, respectively.
The Korean Table Tennis Association (Chairman Lee Tae-sung, hereinafter referred to as the Association), which had set a policy for additional public recruitment of national team leaders and was operating a talent pool, officially announced on the 27th the appointments of Choi Young-il as total supervisor and Hwang Seong-hun and Seo Hyo-won as coaches. The appointments of these three leaders went through a review procedure that included public recruitment on the website and in-depth interviews, culminating in a final decision at the Board of Directors meeting of the Korean Table Tennis Association held on the 24th of last week.
The reason the Association added national team leaders is due to the increased number of international competitions and the selection of national representatives by the Association itself, which has expanded the size of the national team. The goal of hiring additional specialized coaches is to enhance performance and strengthen the management and supervision system. Existing leaders Oh Sang-eun and Seok Eun-mi, as well as the coaching staff of Choi Hyun-jin and Yun Jae-young, will also gain a strong support base.
Total supervisor Choi Young-il is an experienced coach with a rich history in leading the national team. He led the women’s national team to many medals as a coach during the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games, the 2001 Beijing Universiade, and the World Championships in 2003 and 2004. From 2002 to 2018, he served as the head coach and total supervisor of the Samsung Life Insurance women's team, and from 2019 to recently, he has been the coach of the Korea Racing Authority men's team. Last year, as the head of the national team training, he played a pivotal role in achieving good results for the team at the Busan World Championships and the Paris Olympics.
Coach Hwang Seong-hun is also a 'career' coach. He completed his playing career with Samsung Life Insurance and the Armed Forces Athletic Corps, and after experiencing coaching with Samsung Life Insurance and youth teams, he served as a full-time coach for the men's national team from 2022 to 2024. He has a knack for calm communication with players, and during his tenure as a representative coach, the men’s national team achieved good results, including consecutive finals in doubles at the World Championships and reaching the semifinals in the team event. His recent experience with the national team is expected to be very helpful in the current national team.
The appointment of Coach Seo Hyo-won is the most eye-catching. He will officially retire from his playing career at the end of June and will immediately start a new challenge as the coach of the women’s national team. Although he has no formal coaching experience, his long history as a veteran player with the national team works to his advantage. There is great interest in how his 'big sister leadership' with a fresh sense of reality will translate into results. Newly appointed coach Seo Hyo-won noted, "As the youngest coach on the team, I am thinking about how to do my job better and what I can do to help. I want to be a coach who helps players improve, even by 1%, acting as a bridge between the director and the players."
The three newly appointed leaders will begin their official term in July. The busy national team players, who will participate in various international competitions, are expected to start intensive training at Jincheon Athlete Training Center from August 11. It is also time for the newly formed men's and women's national team coaching staff to begin creating real synergy.
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