Introducing Zambom

The strong blast of Korean Air is continuing in professional volleyball. The leading scorer, Brazilian player Bob, is making a clear contribution, but other teams also have foreign players with the skills to match.

The real secret is on the bench. On Korean Air’s bench sits a foreigner who smiles, strongly resembling movie star Yul Brynner with his striking bald head. This is Coach Zambom (46, Brazil). After leading the Brazil league team Simedo to victory as coach, together with Bob as a player, he came to Korea through Bob’s introduction. He played volleyball as a famous setter until he was 30, and then went on to become the Brazilian professional team coach and Italian women’s professional team coach.

Well-known Setter In His Days…-

Korean Air team members call him “choppa.” This is a nickname that was derived from the Portugal word, “to suck in” (chupal). This nickname was given by a coach when Zambom first began to play volleyball because he had the tendency to swallow through his braces. One would think that this middle-aged coach would not like his team to call him by his leisurely nickname, but he says, “Why not?” He says that he likes the name choppa because his real name is too long.

Zambom’s coaching method is as forthright just as he is straightforward. He gives special attention to Kim Young-rae (26), who plays the same position as he did. The first thing he did when he arrived in Korea last October was to request from Coach Moon Yong-gwan, “Kim Young-rae should not be forced to do running.” His reason was, “A setter is not a mid-fielder like in soccer, and the important thing is to be able to be good at providing the ball, so why should he practice running every day.” Instead, the task that he has given Kim is to practice with a ball that is the same size as an average volleyball (260~280g) but three times heavier. He must practice fast and low tosses 500 times a day. This is for developing his ability to attack swiftly.

Intense Training On Short And Fast Tosses-

In truth, Korean Air was a team that appeared to have no quick hit (an attack made close to the setter) ability. For two seasons in a row, the team came in last among six teams in quick hits. This season, the situation has improved slightly in that the team came in fourth in quick hitting opportunities, and was fifth in successful hits. Moreover, the double quick hit (and attack in which the setter tosses the ball close to the net and players attack from the left and right) moved up from fourth place to second place in terms of successful hits. This is largely because of Kim Young-rae’s improvement in short and quick tosses.

The team is picking up quick hits at a fast pace. On February 4, Korean Air played against last season’s quick hit champion Hyundai Capital and succeeded in hitting 22 quick hits which was not far behind the other team’s 23 hits.

Coach Moon, who was famous for his quick hits when he was a member of the national team, can now no longer say, “If only we had one smart setter.”

jeon@donga.com