“I quit drinking starting today. “I will get great results the day the Olympics end and eat again.”
It was around this time a year ago. Many people tilted their heads at the sudden announcement by Gap Seok Gap, head coach of the Korean national shooting team (64), to ban alcohol. Coach Jang is famous not only in the shooting world but also as a representative ‘lover’ in the Korean sports world. There was even a saying, “I drink alcohol 360 days a year, except for five days” and “There are quite a few days when I drink alcohol twice a day, including lunch and dinner.” Since he said he wouldn’t drink alcohol, it’s natural that people around him were shocked.
Director Jang kept his words. I practiced abstinence from drinking not only at the Jincheon Training Center but also when I returned home on vacation. At family gatherings, we drank water instead of alcohol.
Before leaving for the Paris Olympics, the leaders of the Korean national team had a dinner hosted by the head of the athletes’ village, and even here he did not drink a single drop of alcohol. I brought non-alcoholic beer to dinner parties. Director Jang said, “After declaring abstinence from drinking in December of last year, I stopped drinking for about 8 months until mid-August when the Paris Olympics ended. I once stopped drinking for 6 months to take care of my face ahead of my daughter’s wedding. Now that I think about it, I think this year marked the longest period of abstinence from alcohol in my life.”
![The power of abstaining from alcohol for 8 months, Gap-seok Gap, in his prime at age 65, “You have to give up to gain” [이헌재의 인생홈런]](https://dimg.donga.com/wps/NEWS/IMAGE/2024/12/30/130751368.1.jpg "The power of abstaining from alcohol for 8 months, Gap-seok Gap, in his prime at age 65, “You have to give up to gain” [이헌재의 인생홈런]")
The Korean shooting team he led achieved its best performance ever at the Paris Olympics. Ban Hyo-jin, Oh Ye-jin, and Yang Ji-in won gold medals, and Park Ha-jun, Geum Ji-hyun, Cho Young-jae, and Kim Ye-ji won silver medals, winning three gold and three silver medals. Ban Hyo-jin became the youngest person to win the 100th gold medal at the Korean Summer Olympics, and ‘Mom Shooter’ Kim Ye-ji became a ‘world star’ with her unique chic expression and aura.
Coach Jang himself does not drink alcohol, but he imposed a ‘3C ban’ on his players at the training ground. 3C is the English acronym for Cellular, Coffee, and Cigarette.
Coach Jang said, “I was watching the players training, and whenever I had free time, I saw them looking at their cell phones. “Everyone knows that the longer you look at your cell phone, the less you can concentrate and it does not negatively affect your eyesight,” he said. “There is a saying that you should practice as if you were actually practicing.” However, no player smokes or drinks coffee while competing. “I gave up what I liked the most to get the players to follow my lead,” he said.
There is one more thing that had a positive impact on the Korean shooting team at the Paris Olympics. Director Jang’s ‘treasure No. 1’ is a golden tie that he carries with him to every international competition.
The Korean shooting team swept 13 gold medals at the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games, the most in a single event at any Asian Games. At the time, he was the chairman of the Korean Shooting Federation’s Performance Improvement Committee and wore that very tie when watching all events. He said, “There was a day when Federation President Kim Jong, who was the Federation President at the time, came out wearing a gray tie. I told him, ‘Change the color of your tie right now and come out,’ and he actually changed his tie to a yellow one and came out wearing it. “Maybe it was because of that kind of energy that so many gold medals were won at that competition.”
He also brought a lucky tie to this Paris Olympics. When I went to the stadium, I put it neatly in my backpack, and every time I watched a game, I put my hand on the tie and cheered for our players. He said, “I used to take that tie to the Universiade as well. “The Korean team has always performed well in the four Universiade competitions we have participated in,” he said with a smile.
However, this does not mean that he relied solely on prayer and luck. When he, known as ‘Tiger Teacher’, was appointed as the head coach of the national team, many people were worried about how he would communicate with young players.
He treated his players with encouragement rather than criticism, and praise rather than criticism. The thing he said most often to his players was “You are the best.” The most common gesture was ‘thumbs up’.
Players who realized that someone believed in them grew rapidly. The phrase ‘I am the best in this world anyway’, which became a hot topic when Ban Hyo-jin put it on the top of his laptop, can be understood in the same context. Coach Jang said, “The coaches took care of all the technical aspects. “All I did was praise him, ‘You’re good, you’re good,’” he said. “But the power of that praise was scary.” Armed with confidence, Ban Hyo-jin and Oh Ye-jin didn’t seem like they would lose no matter who they faced. Yang Ji-in, who usually used to shake his hands before a game, also became an impregnable player after standing in the firing line.”
After successfully returning from the Paris Olympics, he is enjoying the drinking he had been putting off while meeting people he had not met before. To celebrate the end of the year, we are open 5 days a week.
But is it still good for your health if you drink that often? Wouldn’t drinking alcohol every day be considered an addiction?
However, he has firm principles regarding alcohol. The point is never to drink to the point where you feel drunk and staggered.
He also abstains from drinking for a month twice a year. He said, “I drank alcohol the night before, but sometimes the hangover doesn’t go away in the morning. It means that you are not feeling well. “Then, from that day on, I will not drink alcohol at all for about a month until my body recovers.” He also said, “The difference between a lover and an addict is whether they can tolerate it or not. Personally, if you decide not to drink, it is not difficult to not drink. “Even these days, I give my body time to fully recover twice a year,” he said.
Compared to before, I also reduced the amount I ate. I tend to only drink one type of alcohol whenever possible, rather than mixing it up. He said, “For a long time, I used to boil and eat a tree that was said to be good for the liver. These days, vegetable soup made with various vegetables is boiled and eaten. “Personally, I think it’s quite effective,” he said.
I also exercise hard. The sport he plays the most is golf. Instead of walking on the field like most people do, they swing so much that they sweat on the practice range.
Coach Jang said, “I go to the practice range about three times a week and exercise for about an hour to an hour and a half. “When I have plenty of time, like on Sundays, I stay at the driving range for 3 or 4 hours. Some people say that the golf swing is not exercise, but if you do it properly, it uses a lot of your torso and arm muscles. “Thanks to practicing golf hard, my belly fat went away.”
He also likes walking. For fairly short distances, I walk rather than driving. Even when leaving the field, I prefer to walk rather than ride a cart.
Thanks to his sincerity in golf, he is a single player with a handyman of 5. Life best is 73 strokes, 1 over fine. He said, “Golf and shooting have many similarities. Just as shooting does not allow for an inch of error, in golf too, if there is a small gap in the swing, the ball will not go in the direction you want. “You have to concentrate at every moment, from address to follow,” he said.
He dreamed of becoming a shooter since middle school under the influence of his father, a former Air Force colonel who led the creation of the Chungnam Shooting Association, and has been a living witness to Korea’s shooting history for over 50 years.
He is a 10m air pistol gold medalist at the 1979 World Air Rifle Championships and a gold medalist at the 4th Asian Championships in 1980. Without continuing his career as a player for long, he served as an assistant at his alma mater, Korea National Sport University, from 1984, and was appointed as a professor in 1990. Equipped with field experience and theory, he later served as Vice President of the Korea Shooting Federation, Chairman of the Performance Improvement Committee, and Chairman of the Technical Committee.
And I had the best moment of my life at this year’s Paris Olympics, which might be my last Olympic appearance.
When he reaches retirement age next February, he will leave the school he has loved for 40 years. But his new life begins again at age 65.
After achieving the best results at the Paris Olympics, he will serve as general manager of the Korean national team for two more years. The term lasts until the 2026 Nagoya Asian Games. At the end of his term as the national team’s head coach, he can travel to shooting ranges at home and abroad as an international referee.
Coach Jang said, “My short-term goal is to support the prospects discovered through the Paris Olympics so that they can grow well,” and added, “I want to continue my relationship with shooting and make a living doing related volunteer work.”