outlook8970   Album Posted Sep.10th, 2024, viewed 39 times

Kim Ji-won led the team to victory in the 2022-23 season KOVO Cup

Setter Kim Ji-won 23, who will mark his fifth season with GS Caltex, has gained a lot of experience in the last two seasons.

Kim Ji-won led the team to the KOVO Cup title in the 2022-23 season and was selected as a member of the national team after the season ended. She also won the KOVO Cup and the Rising Star Award in the 2023-24 season. Entering the regular season, Ahn Hye-jin, the former main setter, underwent knee surgery, and was reborn as the main setter who is solely responsible for one season. She played in 35 matches and 117 sets, the most in her career.

As the main setter, Kim endured the early days of the season. "I tried to play without thinking. I tend not to have many thoughts and complicated feelings," Kim said. "I tried hard to wrap up the game by saying, "I'm still young and I'll be okay. Let's do it without any pressure." "My early performance in the season was not bad. It was fun." Through the third round, GS Caltex was in the upper and middle ranks with 12 wins, six losses and 34 points.


The problem was after that. "Don't you think the ranking competition continued to soar towards the end of the season? Suddenly, I felt more pressure and had more thoughts. That's why I was shaken and had many ups and downs in the second half of the season. I also knew what was regrettable." In the end, GS Caltex fell to fourth place during the regular season. It only acquired six wins, 12 losses and 17 points in the fourth and sixth rounds, failing to participate in the spring volleyball tournament.

For Kim, this season is important. As the main setter who has to lead a completely reorganized team, the team should play with great responsibility. Lee Young-taek, a former famous middle blocker, was newly appointed as the coach. The team also brought in Kiyoshi Avo, who led the Japanese women's volleyball team to the bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics and the national team by age. Currently, most of the main players in Japan's women's volleyball have passed through Avo.

Kim Ji-won also learned a lot from the coach Avo, who was a setter. "Coach Avo gives you really detailed information on the position of your feet and the position of your hands," Kim Ji-won said. "He will systematically inform you on the day of practice. He will tell you in detail that blocking is difficult to follow while holding the position," he said. "He also tells me when I play things that I didn't think of, so I always try to remember and execute them even during the game. I think a lot."

I will also try to melt down my experiences while playing for the national team this season. Korean women's volleyball suffered 30 consecutive losses in the Fédération Internationale de Football Association FIVB Volleyball Nations League VNL, and finally ended its long losing streak in a match against Thailand in May. To Kim Ji-won, who has been wearing the national flag since 2023, the high wall of world volleyball came as a shock and an opportunity to renew her commitment.

"I definitely had a high level. I thought a lot about foreign players, 'I want to do that, too. I'm still young and not good enough. But I feel like I learn a lot by bumping into each other," he said. "I always thought about how to make our strikers more comfortable." "I'm now studying what I learned at international competitions to make it difficult for my team to keep up with my opponent's blocking."

This season's GS Caltex will be joined by Stephanie Weiler, who entered the Asian quarter of Gisele Silva, the top scorer in the league last season. Their teamwork has become important, too. Silva has no problem, but she needs to renew her teamwork with Stephanie. "At first, we really didn't hit it off. The foreign players I experienced were Silva and Moma, but Stephanie was different from what I expected," she said.



Still, now we are talking to each other and getting along with each other. "Honestly, I was very worried. But Stephanie's body has come up and she's getting to know my style," Kim Ji-won said. "It's important for me to fit Stephanie, but I think Stephanie needs to fit me. We talk a lot because we have to do it together all the time. Now we definitely fit better than the first time."

Many expect GS Caltex to be weak this year. Still, as the main setter, his goal is to play Kim Ji-won's volleyball and GS Caltex's volleyball responsibly and firmly.


"I'm in my fifth year. I don't care when people say I'm weak because I'm young. You can see it like that," Kim said. "If you stick to it, you won't know. I think it would be unfair to feel intimidated and not play our volleyball just because we will be weak and our opponents will be strong. I don't think I'm weak and if I show you what I practiced, I will have no regrets. I also want to spend a season without regrets and without ups and downs." 바카라사이트