Compunction Junction

Volleyvall

Quick Donger Update to start: The vet has said (and proven it with a good explanation of an x-ray) that the bone has now fused together.  GREAT!  It is still very weak and she shouldn't walk on it.  But it is nice to FINALLY see an xray that has a bone fused straight together.   ahhhhh.  I believe we are in week 4 of an 8 week heal. 

So Volleyball:

I played volleyball in junior high.  I played intramural in high school.  I am, by no means, all that great, but let's just say I know the difference between a bump and a set if you know what i'm sayin'.

I am now playing on the teacher's team at our school.  We have just began our district "tournament".  There is only one every year and it is a month long situation where the teams play twice a week (we play mondays and tuesdays). 

Yesterday was our first game and we won.  Shezah!  If you think you can handle the excitement of teacher's interschool volleyball competitions but if not, you are warned!

This brought up a NEW aspects of Korean culture that absolutely baffle me.  The ladies volleyball game was a perfect example.

Our opponents (whose name's I'll leave out of it) were a pretty good team.  They had four really good players as well as one somewhat ample woman who was their setter: And the root of their problem as I see it.  In these volleyball games, we play 9 people on a much larger court than in North America.  Like N.A. the most important position is the setter whose job is to set up all the wicked ass spikes and smashes.

For reasons beyond my comprehension at the start of the game, they had placed an older, more rotund woman in the setter position (in front of the net and in the middle).  Being advanced in years or hefty truly has no bearing on someone's ability to play basketball and I certainly don't mean to imply that they did.  I am bigger fella but I'm capable.  Our principal is a fairly old bloke (50s for sure) and he's quite competent.

But this woman was terrible.  Really bad.  And moved like an Ent.  She seemed reluctant to shift and was having "a lot of trouble" making good sets. 

Throughout the game, she got continuously more and more upset as HER TEAM kept messing up.  She would start to lecture. If the ball landed right at her feet, it gave special license to spew out  vitriol.

I found it puzzling to me that they would put her in such an important position when there were four other players would could bump set and spike circles around her.  I puzzled over this for a while till it hit me in a flash: "It's because she's the oldest!"  And then it all made sense: Korean sense.

I could comprehend why they would do such a thing but I did not understand the reason behind it.  If, of course, the opponents weren't playing to win but merely for a good time, I would understand it.  But why would they do that?  It's a tournament: Who joins a tournament to play "for fun?"

It's something that has puzzled me about Korean culture:  There seems to be, reverence and respect given to people who shouldn't really get it (from a western perspective).  Does it make sense to listen to a volleyball player who is terrible?  To take their advice to improve?

To an extent, it happens on our men's team as well.  We have a "coach" who DOES seem pretty capable.  We have a young man who is, in fact, an EXCELLENT player, but yields his opinion and knowledge to the older man.  I can see on his FACE that he would LOVE to correct him, instead he just subverses him inconspiciously.

Both of these men yield to our principal.  Now I feel bad about saying anything other than glowing things about this wonderful man.  He is kind, friedly, even makes an effort to speak what English he knows.  Certainly he is a treasure to work for.  And I actualy feel a bit guilty about this but the simple fact is that he is not the BEST player on the court; sufficient oh my yes, but he really talks the ear off the teachers.  I don't really know what he is saying but all of the other teachers yield to him completely and it doesn't really make too much sense to me.

My Alberta mind is telling me I should be listening to those people who know what they want and who have the ability and knowledge to know that they are right.  Maybe i'm just a simple suburban boy, but i'd always given an ear and my respect to the able and smart.

On the other hand, the principal is a great leader.  And perhaps, in the Land of the Morning Calm it only requires a semblance of leadership ability and a whole bunch of Chuseok's under your belt to have a willing audience.