After winning the men’s title at the 2023 Gumi Dodram Cup Professional Volleyball Tournament, OK Financial Group head coach Masashi Ogino cited a horizontal team culture as the key to the victory.
OK Financial, led by Japanese coach Ogino, won 3-1 (25-23 22-25 25-23 25-20) against Samsung Fire in the men’s final of the 2023 Gumi Dodram Cup Professional Volleyball Tournament at Park Jung-hee Gymnasium in Gumi, Gyeongbuk, on Nov. 13.메이저사이트
OK Finance reached the top of the Cup for the first time since its inception in 2013. After reaching the Kobo Cup finals in 2015, 2019 and 2021, but finishing as runners-up, OK Financial enjoyed its first title.
Coach Ogino, who took over in June, showed off his leadership skills by winning the title within two months. Ogino said he did not aim to win the tournament. “I didn’t think about winning or not winning,” he said in a post-match interview. It was more about participating in an official match,” he said. “I played five official matches in my first two months in charge. It was five good test matches.”
When asked what changes he made at OK Finance that led to the win, Ogino cited a change in culture within the team as one of the factors. “I told the players not to call me ‘boss’,” he said. “We’ve made sure that the coaches, managers, and players have a friendly relationship, not a hierarchy,” he said. “Whether it’s a game or a meal, we’ve made sure that the managers, staff, and players mix.
Another change is that coaches can coach players without being watched. “If the coaches don’t speak up, we’re giving them the opportunity to say what they’re thinking,” Ogino said. “Then the players listen to the coaches, and the coaches have confidence in them, and that creates a trusting relationship, and we’re having fun with that.”
Despite winning the Kobo Cup, Ogino believes the V-League will be different when it starts in October. That’s because the other teams will have their strongest squads. “I think the Kobo Cup and the V-League are completely different,” Ogino said. The V-League is twice a week, the schedule is tough, and there can be injuries,” he said. “In a long race, you need multiple players to play, so we don’t divide the team into first and second teams, but we try to build the team by practicing the same and improving the team’s skills from the bottom.”
How to utilize Shin, the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, will also be key. Leo could play the position that Shin played in the tournament, which is the position of an aggressive spiker. “I’m thinking about it because Leo hasn’t joined us yet. “I haven’t seen him play,” he said, “I heard that he’s the best foreign player in Korea, but I’ll make a team based on what level he’s at. It’s different to watch a video and see him in person.”
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