The tennis club at Hyundai Steel’s Incheon Works has a rich history now reaching 38 years, with a current membership of around 70 employees. The club has seen an increase in membership in recent years with younger members who are passionate about tennis, with many of them competing and winning titles at amateur competitions. As hot as the blast furnaces at the Incheon plant, the heat of the passion of its tennis club members is something to take note of.
Members of the tennis club get together for tennis matches every Tuesday and Thursday after work, and a number of them practice on other days as well. As with any skill, as one gets better with more time spent on practice, those who want to get even better make a habit of showing up to the courts every day.
Members try to gather off of the courts as much as they can as well. The pandemic made social gatherings sparse, but the tennis club is once again planning group dinners and trips this year.
A notable feature of the tennis club is that it feels like family, as everyone works together in the same plant. Among the 28 clubs totaling 1,530 members across the entire company, the tennis club is known as a very tight-knit community according to its members. Bound by their passion for the sport of tennis, new members often become fast friends with the rest of the club members. They say that the most recent new members are particularly passionate about tennis, with several of them competing and winning at competitions, which inspires others to take practice even more seriously.
When asked why they took up tennis, members say it is because of the sense of achievement it provides. Since a daily rut can drain people in spirit, they say a hobby that gives you a sense of achievement also helps with performance in work. As with any sport, you get better at tennis if you keep at it. With its active participation rate, there are many opportunities for receiving tennis lessons, making it a sport where you can learn and excel if you have the drive. Neighborhood tennis competitions of all sizes are easy to find these days, providing an opportunity to win and earn that sense of achievement. Members of the Incheon Works tennis club say that the sense of achievement they get from tennis fuels them in life.
For some of the members, tennis has turned their life around in a positive way. They say they have become more outgoing after joining the club and taking up tennis. Gathering as a club and being more active allows them to open up and communicate more with others.
Better health is already frequently mentioned. Some members, who used to run out of breath just by climbing stairs, have gotten in better shape after taking up the sport and now perform better in all activities that are physically or mentally demanding, including work at the plant.
A universal goal among members of the tennis club is for each and every one of them to keep up their healthy lifestyle until the day they retire.