Book Description

Seoul Ambition is the remarkable story of how the nation of South Korea—despite its infamous obsession with academics—focuses feverishly on sports in ways much different than what we’re used to in the West. South Korean athletes dominate leaderboards in international golf events and have won the most Olympic medals of all-time in archery and short track speed skating. The country has produced transcendent talents in figure skating and the budding arena of esports, creating a seemingly never-ending pipeline of children who want to emulate their success. Yet, the talent development process in Korea presents an interesting conundrum. Though all young athletes pour in hours of practice, Korean athletes traditionally only become world class in a select few niche sports. One victory from a 20-year-old golfer caused one of the greatest talent rushes in modern sports, but a captivating World Cup run in men’s soccer did not. In fact, Son Heung-min, the most dynamic Korean soccer player of all time, actually had to rebel against the system to become a creative genius. What is happening behind the scenes? After spending years as a coach and physical education teacher in Seoul, author Joel Cressman set out to answer that question. Seoul Ambition explores the amazing stories of: • A young baseball prodigy who taught himself how to throw left-handed to become one of the most accurate Major League pitchers of all time • How South Korea intentionally used East Germany as a model to win more medals and the ideological battle over North Korea • An educational system that pushes athletes to focus full-time on their sports while ignoring academics to get into top universities • Why the Korean Basketball League banned tall players to help save the sport • The story and the surprising neuroscience behind how Korea became the global hotbed of professional video gaming • The misconceptions of “Tiger Parenting” and how a hands-on parenting style is viewed differently by East Asian children than Western kids • Why the country’s best speed skater was forced to defect to Russia • How the national men’s and women’s hockey teams willed themselves from obscurity to compete with the world’s best at the 2018 Olympics Full of extraordinary stories of athletes and their dedicated parents, the book explores the science and history behind one of the most interesting sports cultures in the world. Seoul Ambition will change the way you think about talent and creativity, the power of community and national identity, and the fascinating process of creating world-class athletes.