There is less than a month left until the opening of the 2023-2024 season V-League. Each club is busy with last-minute power checks. It is important for teammates to come together and work together, but the most important thing as we enter the latter part of the preparation process for the new season is a practical sense. This is why clubs that have worked hard all summer to prepare for the new season regularly invite university and business teams to practice games.
In this respect, the ‘2023 Pre-season Men’s Professional Volleyball Tournament (Pre-season Tournament)’ held in Danyang, North Chungcheong Province from the 17th to the 21st is special. Ahead of the opening of the new season on the 14th of next month, five teams, including Hyundai Capital, Korea Electric Power Corporation, Woori Card, KB Insurance, and Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance, are participating in a series of practice games in the form of a full league. Korean Air did not participate due to domestic joint training with the Finnish national team that will participate in the 2024 Paris Olympics world qualifiers, and OK Financial Group did not participate due to a schedule that overlaps with Japanese training, but the opportunity for each team to play four games each is rare.안전놀이터
Unlike the V-League and cup competitions led by the Korea Volleyball Federation (KOVO), the pre-season competitions prepared by the clubs are held twice a day at the Danyang National Sports Center, and the results are not important. The main purpose is to check the results of summer training and check current performance.
Therefore, each game is played in 4 sets regardless of the set score, and foreign players can also use it freely without any restrictions. Of course, the same applies to Asian quota players introduced from the new season. Also, if there is room for player management, different lineups or combinations can be used for each set. Maybe that’s why Woori Card-KB Insurance and Hyundai Capital-Korea Electric Power Company were all exciting on the 18th.
KB Insurance and Woori Card players are playing the first game on the second day of the ‘2023 Pre-season Men’s Professional Volleyball Tournament’ held at Danyang National Sports Center on the 18th. Danyang | Reporter Nam Jang-hyeon yoshike3@donga.com
This year is not the first time a pre-season competition has been held. This tournament, which started as a practice match planned by Hyundai Capital and Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance in 2018, has established itself as a special event for professional volleyball, passing through Hongcheon, Gangwon-do, Busan, etc. Due to the aftermath of the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19), 2020 and 2021 were skipped, but the competition began again in Danyang last year.
As the scale has expanded, the format of the competition is likely to continue to evolve. It can be held in a different region every year, and it can be played in the form of a tour where major teams during overseas training, such as Japan or Thailand, coordinate their routes. An official from one club explained, “Training conditions and schedules will be different for each team, but it is positive in the sense of efficient quenching through actual games.”