‘It’s hard enough to play sports, but how many student-athletes are also studying hard?
There are a lot of high school athletes out there sweating it out even in the hottest summer months. However, those who overcome the 1% odds to become a professional athlete are often stereotyped as ‘all work and no play’. However, there are plenty of athletes who manage to find time to study in between their grueling training sessions and competitions. We met Kang Chan-ho, a soccer player at Ohyeon High School, who is still sweating it out to fulfill his dual goals of learning and exercising.
-What inspired you to combine sports and study?
“I’ve been playing soccer since I was a kid, but I think I started studying in middle school. After joining the soccer team, I didn’t let go of my studies in middle school. I think that’s why I started studying, because I had anxiety about not being able to become a professional soccer player.”
-On the challenges and benefits of combining training and studying.
“The difficulty is that I don’t have enough time to study and play soccer at the same time. I have afternoon training, then night training, then I go home and I don’t have enough time to study. But I think playing soccer and studying can help me in the future. Whether I end up playing soccer or doing something else, the more I know, the better. I’m also finding it rewarding to continue my studies. I think that’s a good thing.”
-How does he think studying will help him in the future?
“First of all, I think it will give me an advantage when I graduate from high school and go to college. It will give me more options when it comes to choosing a university or major, and it will open up more options for me when I retire as a soccer player, such as coaching and commentating. Not only the future, but also the present is affected. If you work hard at anything, including studying, you learn to work hard at other things, so it helps me in that regard.”
-On whether he would recommend studying to other soccer players.
“Right now, I have friends on the soccer team who are studying and some who are not, and it can be hard for them to study because they don’t have a lot of time. But if you study together, you can encourage each other. I would tell my friends to study with me because I would be able to help them by asking them what they don’t know.” 먹튀검증
Kang Chan-ho’s hard work has been recognized by his coach, Oh Hyun High School soccer coach Yang Ik-jeon. We asked Mr. Yang about the current state of Chan-ho Kang and the benefits of soccer players studying.
“Our soccer team has always had an environment where students can study, so there are seniors who study by choice, and I think that culture has influenced him,” says Yang. “If you focus on only one sport, the pressure to fail is bound to increase,” he said. “That’s why we have players who have been studying and playing sports since middle school, and they have no pressure to keep up with their high school classes.