# Korean Archers



## watermedic23 (Aug 23, 2006)

They eat, sleep, and breathe it from the time they are 4 or 5 years old. That is all they do. Government chosen.


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## Warbow (Apr 18, 2006)

From what people say, the full support of the Korean government is the key. And a factory like development program in schools. And rigorous practice on foundations before people even get to pick up a bow. And archery and coaching are actual state supported career choices, not just hobbies that will actually cost you money--which is the way archery works in the US, where very, very few people can make a living just teaching or shooting FITA recurve.

If you train people from their youth at a nationwide, factory level, you are going to find more talent than you would in a country of similar size with less interest.

But, I have no direct knowledge on the Korean programs.


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## archerymom2 (Mar 28, 2008)

Hmm, sounds like a good way to win, but quite a poor quality of life. I think I'll stay with free choice and a capitalist society!


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## Beastmaster (Jan 20, 2009)

Two good articles on their system:

http://www.texasarchery.org/Documents/KoreanTechnique/Ktech.htm

http://www.tournamentarchery.com/Korean Archery.htm

-Steve
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## tkaap (Nov 30, 2009)

archerymom2 said:


> Hmm, sounds like a good way to win, but quite a poor quality of life. I think I'll stay with free choice and a capitalist society!


Unless I'm vastly mistaken, it isn't a government-enforced choice. It's not a -requirement- that talented archers only do archery. They could go work for Samsung. So it's still a free choice. Just fully paid-for.

Also, this is South Korea (Republic of Korea). They're capitalist. Not North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea), which is, naturally, Communist Totalitarian


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## teammemphis (Jan 6, 2010)

My sons coach is from Korea and was on the Korean national team for more than 20 years. It is a full time PAYING JOB when they get to that level. They do start training at a very young age and by the time they are in thier mid teen years they shoot around 1000 arrows per day everyday. My sons coach has converted to the National Traing System developed by Coach Lee and spent a couple of weeks working with him at the OTC. She likes the system and says that the NTS s a very good way to shoot. It is meant to eliminate injuries that the Korean method causes.


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## Guest (May 1, 2010)

The Korean system targets abilities at a young age,combine this with the countries strong view that archery is a high value activity to be part of and you have their system, this type of system doesn't happen in most western countries simply because there is little to no value placed on archery as a hobby let alone a national sport and thats the differnce.

Yuo can make all kinds of money coaching many other sports like hockey,soccer track&field curling, baseball,football etc, just archery isn't one of those sports that requiers the coaching level to be as high as other sports.We have a static sport nothing more, since there is no stratagy involved a whole level of coaching is gone when compared to sports like football


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## zal (May 1, 2007)

Theres no magic in korean system. They just teach basic skills properly and with time, and after that train a lot, while constantly observed by a coach, not to mention that all coaches are required to actually teach the same basic elements same way (they decide what to teach in annual coach's conference).

Just that, a lot of physical training and they're good to go. Not to mention that successful archers in Korea have rockstar status and everyone actually wants to be one.

Of course the first few months doing pushups and practicing with rubber band isn't nice but it's meant to winnow out the hopeless cases.


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## whiz-Oz (Jul 19, 2007)

Zal's got it.
You may as well ask why the USA is dominant in Basketball and Baseball. 

There is reward and recognition for success. 
It's a well known sport and it's offered as an activity in a lot of places. 
There are lots of facilities. 
There is good training and coaching available. 
It's a nationally recognised sport. 

So, am I talking about Baseball and Basketball in the USA or Archery in Korea?

Applies pretty much to all of them, doesn't it?

Now, lets look at something else. 

Lets define a personality type of a potential elite sportsman. 

Lets find a person who is:
Competitive
Motivated
Driven
Athletic. 
Knows the value of training.
Is coachable. 

What kind of sport would they choose?

In the USA, they overwhelmingly pick occupations which reward their success at a sport with financial reward. 
And why not? The USA can support many professional sportsman in their chosen sports. 
Golf, Football, Baseball, Basketball, Hockey, you name it. 
Archery?
Sure.
But.... where are they and what are they shooting?
How many compound shooters can make a living from Archery?
There are some. 
How many professional Golfers, Footballers, etc are there in the USA alone?
These would easily number in their thousands if not tens of thousands. 
There is some money in being a professional compound archer.
Does anyone know any full time recurve archers who shoot target for a living in the USA?

So our athlete who displays the characteristics for success in their chosen sport: Competitive, Motivated, Driven, Athletic, Knows the value of training and is coachable must absolutely LOVE archery to stay with it and be successful.

That tends to weed them out quite significantly.

So the systems that are in place in Korea for archery roughly matches the system for baseball in the USA.

Would you understand why Korea isn't a world force in baseball?

There are no magical secrets. When you've got a lot of people who want the same thing, the most competitive perform at the highest standard because they want to. 
Korea has lots of archers. Their general standard is very high. 
The USA has lots of baseballers, their general standard is very high.

Pretty obvious isn't it?

Now lets look at something which may get some feathers ruffled if you wrongly assume that I'm pointing at anyone in particular. 

IF YOU THINK THAT I'M HAVING A GO AT ARCHERS - You are wrong.

Lets define two fictitious extremes. 
A person who is out being active, running around working hard.
and
A person who likes sitting on the couch watching TV. Their exercise regime consists of stretching to reach the remote control. 

We point a gun at these people and say "Choose a sport"

We offer them football and archery. 

To be successful in each of these sports, the participant must expend effort. 

Who is going to select what sport and who will be the most successful in it?


Now look at the highest performing archers that you know. 

Where do they sit between our two extremes of activity type.
Super active person, or couch potato?

Where do all the successful footballers appear to be?


Does anyone not understand why Korea is the strongest country in Olympic Archery now?


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## limbwalker (Sep 26, 2003)

fingers81 said:


> Why are Korean archers so dominant at the Olympics


Because the majority of their archers aren't shooting compounds for money or chasing Illinois whitetails half the year... 

John.


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## lorteti (Apr 14, 2008)

limbwalker said:


> Because the majority of their archers aren't shooting compounds for money or chasing Illinois whitetails half the year...
> 
> John.


Funny.

As far as I know, not many Korean archers are paid to shoot.
Only nation team members and a few corporation sponsored archers are full time paid.
Many, I mean really many 1350 archers only get a bow and some arrows.

They do it for there country, Koreans are know to have very strong nationalism.
They always do what they can for there nation, like only buying Korean made products and cars.

And Olympics is very a good international promotion for a country, that's why they work so hard to become Olympic champions.

jx


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## Beastmaster (Jan 20, 2009)

I think one of the biggest things people are forgetting is the culture. The Oriental culture and work ethic in general ends up promoting and helping archery programs. 

-Steve
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## jmvargas (Oct 21, 2004)

based on the posts here so far i believe everybody has a pretty fair idea on why the korean archers in general are so successful in olympic archery....

i guess the bigger challenge now is how everybody else can achieve similar successes---in their own way...


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## Vittorio (Jul 17, 2003)

lorteti said:


> ......
> As far as I know, not many Korean archers are paid to shoot.
> Only nation team members and a few corporation sponsored archers are full time paid.
> Many, I mean really many 1350 archers only get a bow and some arrows.
> ........


Better you update your files...apart from those very young and still students, all "mature" archers belong to Business teams, shooting for schools, local administrations and companies, and they compete each other during the year in several tournaments for the glory of their team and to reach the national teams.
They get a salary to shoot, related to their level, and get an even better one if they get to the national Team. Talking about several hundreds of pro recurve shooters. No way to shoot 1350 getting "a bow and some arrows" only, when you have to shoot at least 6 hours a day to keep that level.


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## whiz-Oz (Jul 19, 2007)

Beastmaster said:


> I think one of the biggest things people are forgetting is the culture. The Oriental culture and work ethic in general ends up promoting and helping archery programs.
> 
> -Steve
> _Posted via Mobile Device_


But that means that the Asian work ethic would apply to all other sports and activities as well. Korea is dominant in a few activities. Asian work ethic must cover all of Asia. Asia is not overly dominant in general. 
So we may safely exclude that from being a factor. 

Besides, that means that their work ethic is only an archery work ethic. 

It's not that much of a factor at all.


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## Huntmaster (Jan 30, 2003)

whiz-Oz said:


> But that means that the Asian work ethic would apply to all other sports and activities as well. Korea is dominant in a few activities. Asian work ethic must cover all of Asia. Asia is not overly dominant in general.
> So we may safely exclude that from being a factor.
> 
> Besides, that means that their work ethic is only an archery work ethic.
> ...


Just work with some aisian foreign exchange students - hard work is an understatement.


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## whiz-Oz (Jul 19, 2007)

Right. 
Here's where you're taking a general statement and applying it to everything. 
If "Asian work ethic" was responsible for the Korean Archery Dominance. 

Then why doesn't that Asian work ethic apply to everything? It means that Korea should be dominant in every other sport that they do. They should be dominant in everything else too. All business and all sports that Korea do.
But they're not. 
And Asia is not just Korea 
So that "Asian work ethic" besides being an incredibly racist statement, should apply to all countries which are comprise Asia.

Lets see. 
Abkhazia, Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Buhutan, British Indian Ocean Territory, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Christmas Island, Cocos Island, Cyprus, Egypt, Georgia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kazakstan, North Korea, South Korea, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Macau, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Burma, Nagorno_karabakh, Nepal, Northern Cyprus, Oman, Pakistan, Palestinian Authority, Phillippines, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Ossetia, Sri Lanka, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Akrotiri, Dhekelia, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Yemen all form Asia. 

So out of 63 countries that should have an "Asian work ethic" because they're part of Asia, which of them are dominant in Archery to support the "Asian work ethic means archery dominance theory"?

And what are they all as a group dominant in as a whole?

Eating Asian food? 
That's about it.


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## limbwalker (Sep 26, 2003)

So, now you're telling me that Jordan, Israel, Pakistan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Emirates, Russia, etc. are considered "Asian" ???

I'm so confused.... 

What was the question?


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## whiz-Oz (Jul 19, 2007)

Yep. They form Asia.

But people not knowing this doesn't surprise me.


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## feildfool (Jul 22, 2009)

limbwalker said:


> So, now you're telling me that Jordan, Israel, Pakistan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Emirates, Russia, etc. are considered "Asian" ???
> 
> I'm so confused....
> 
> What was the question?



If I'm not mistaken Australia participated in the Asian Games until 2006.


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## Beastmaster (Jan 20, 2009)

Hm. I don't know whether to be amused or offended. 

As much as some want to promote geographical physicalities and impress those who want to tout them, this isn't geography. 

Specifically, I'm talking about eastern Asia. When I talk about an Asian work ethic, there's no way I'm talking about someone from a country ending in -stan. 

-Steve
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## whiz-Oz (Jul 19, 2007)

Regardless, equating an "Asian work ethic" as a reason for Korean archery dominance has so many holes in it, you may as well ignore it. That's what I'm pointing out. It's a throw away line that can't be even remotely proven to be correct. 
The reasons that Korea is dominant are specific to that country. Trying to cover it all with a racist term is something best avoided.


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## Beastmaster (Jan 20, 2009)

whiz-Oz said:


> Regardless, equating an "Asian work ethic" as a reason for Korean archery dominance has so many holes in it, you may as well ignore it. That's what I'm pointing out. It's a throw away line that can't be even remotely proven to be correct.
> The reasons that Korea is dominant are specific to that country. Trying to cover it all with a racist term is something best avoided.


You have no idea what ethnicity I am, do you? Hence why I don't know whether to be offended by your generalization or to be offended that you're calling my comments racist. 

I am fully aware of what the 'Asian Work Ethic' entails. It is one of those intangibles where you cannot factor it in into mere generalities. And by you casually dismissing it shows your own ignorance in the matter. 

-Steve
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## whiz-Oz (Jul 19, 2007)

What? 
I don't need to know what ethnicity you are.
I don't care. 
You thinking that I need to know your ethnicity so that your exclusionary statement can be considered racist or not is immaterial.

THAT is incredibly ignorant. You have absolutely no idea what my ancestry is either, so if we were the same, who would be right?

Your point and your argument is irrelevant. Your ability to deal with that will be demonstrated by anything else you post in this thread.


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## Greysides (Jun 10, 2009)

Boys, boys, boys, I get the message behind both lines of thought. The truth, as often turns out to be the case, is probably somewhere in the middle. Grey areas abound in life.Lets leave it there, for now, unless it merits it's own thread.

What was it Limbwalker said? 

Oh yes, what was the question again?:smile:


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## limbwalker (Sep 26, 2003)

whiz-Oz said:


> Yep. They form Asia.
> 
> But people not knowing this doesn't surprise me.


LOL!

Funny Whiz.

But I'm still confused. :darkbeer:


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## gig'em 99 (Feb 1, 2008)

Wow, the race card being played on an archery forum. ukey:


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## titanium man (Mar 5, 2005)

:moviecorn

I had no doubts another entertaining thread would appear.


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## AvalonPlusGuy (Aug 6, 2008)

So dominant in team competition because of the country's depth of talent but (amazingly) still no Korean male has won individual gold at Olympic level and that ranges from double FITA format, Grand FITA and OR variations. Keep in mind that Italy and Ukraine have medalled at every Olympics from 1996 and up. Korea is not the sole powerhouse in archery.


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## fingers81 (Apr 18, 2010)

Thanks APG


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## ZephyrSoul (Nov 12, 2007)

whiz-Oz said:


> But that means that the Asian work ethic would apply to all other sports and activities as well. Korea is dominant in a few activities. Asian work ethic must cover all of Asia. Asia is not overly dominant in general.
> So we may safely exclude that from being a factor.
> 
> Besides, that means that their work ethic is only an archery work ethic.
> ...


Actually, he said oriental culture and ethic. He didn't include the whole of asia in saying so. When pple mention oriental, the chinese, japanese and koreans usually come to mind.


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## zal (May 1, 2007)

Italy has a really strong club system with tens of thousands recreational archers, so it definitely has depth from which to pick. Plus they have a korean coach working in the top (whose father originally developed the "korean system").

Ukraine has more koreanisque style of working, with a great history in the sport.

There are always strong teams, China, France, India etc with fairly well working organizations and their own distinguished ways of working.

No, Korea is not alone, but still ahead by far.


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## Miika (Jun 29, 2003)

This forum is really past it's heydays. I so miss the old Sagi BB...


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## InKYfromSD (Feb 6, 2004)

Miika said:


> This forum is really past it's heydays. I so miss the old Sagi BB...


There's still a lot of good information to be had here as well as topics of interest for newbies and experienced archers! There is indeed a wide variety of members here. 

We call it "squeaky outhouse wheel" syndrome at work - those people who always have to be right, often make the conversation all about themselves or their ideas, can't seem to just let the other person express an opinion without attacking them, and often only detract from an otherwise productive exchange. Even when you "oil" them, they're still just not worth a crap...


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## limbwalker (Sep 26, 2003)

> those people who always have to be right, often make the conversation all about themselves or their ideas, can't seem to just let the other person express an opinion without attacking them, and often only detract from an otherwise productive exchange. Even when you "oil" them, they're still just not worth a crap...


Yup. And we have a few of those here now alright, which in my case are a major reason I don't check in here like I used to.

Miika, I agree with you on the old Sagi site.  It was pretty darn good.

John.


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## ZephyrSoul (Nov 12, 2007)

limbwalker said:


> Yup. And we have a few of those here now alright, which in my case are a major reason I don't check in here like I used to.
> 
> Miika, I agree with you on the old Sagi site.  It was pretty darn good.
> 
> John.


And some how the same few always stand behind the reason of "intellectual debate" and/or "free speech" to sledgehammer their views home with lengthy paragraphs I usually just skip reading.


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