IBK Industrial Bank of Korea young middle blocker Choi Jung-min (21) is showing great growth this season.
IBK won a set score of 3-0 (25-21, 25-23, 25-19) at home against Pepper Savings Bank in the third round of the Dodram 2023-2024 V-League at Hwaseong Indoor Gymnasium on the 19th.
Although it was a game in which foreign player Yasmin of Pepper Savings Bank was missing due to injury, the IBK players' movement was good. Abercrombie scored 22 points and played 46.51% of the attack success rate. Outside heater Pyo Seung-joo scored 9 points and middle blocker Choi Jung-min scored 8 points.
It was a game in which one should pay attention to Choi Jung-min. It has been four years since he debuted in the 2020-2021 season. He is a young player born in 2002. He is 180 centimeters tall, shorter than Pyo Seung-ju (182 centimeters), a foreign player or a senior striker.
Compared to Yang Hyo-jin (182 centimeters) of Hyundai Engineering & Construction, the representative middle blocker of Korean women's volleyball, and Kim Soo-ji (188 centimeters) of Heungkuk Life Insurance, Kim is more than eight centimeters shorter than the other. He has 0.91 blocks per set, ranking first in the entire league until Sunday.
He is good at preventing attacks from players who are taller than him. "Choi Jung-min's experience in last season seems to be helpful. And he seems to have accelerated his movement as he followed foreign setter Ponfun," Shin Seung-hwan, coach at IBK, told OSEN over the phone.
"I have an analyst from Italy, and he practiced a lot about steps and checks. I think that helped a lot," coach Shin said.
As a professional athlete, he is armed with athletic sense and makes more effort than others. Moreover, he is strong even if he is short when playing middle blocker. "Basically, he is strong. He is a little short but also has jumping power. I think he is improving as he makes good use of those skills," coach Shin praised him.