Korea Soft Tennis Association President Jeong In-sun is working to expand the sport’s base and ensure the successful hosting of the world championships, sportsworldi.com reported.
Jeong took office as the 27th president of the Korea Soft Tennis Association in January 2021, secured a second term in January 2024, and assumed the presidency of the International Soft Tennis Federation in November 2023. Facing declining youth participation, shrinking elite player pools, and three bronze medals for the national team at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, Jeong has described the ongoing recovery effort as his final professional calling.
Jeong Played Soft Tennis Before a 30-Year Break
Jeong’s involvement with soft tennis began in the 1970s at Suseong Middle School in Suwon, when the physical education teacher and former Gyeonggi Physical Education High School principal Shin Yung-seon recruited him for what he believed was regular tennis. After discovering upon registration that the sport was soft tennis, Jeong played as a founding member of the school’s soft tennis club until the program was abruptly disbanded a year and a half later.
He did not return to the sport until more than 30 years later, when he was in his late 40s and read a newspaper report regarding South Korea hosting the world soft tennis championships. He joined a club in Gwangjin-u, Seoul, and within five years won a national amateur tournament.
Restructuring The National Youth Tournaments
Since taking the helm of the national association, Jeong has focused heavily on restructuring domestic youth competition formats to prevent early elimination burnout among student athletes. Beginning with the 2024 National Youth Sports Festival, Jeong introduced individual events alongside the traditional elementary and middle school team competitions, expanding the number of gold medals available to 12.
Previously, elementary and middle school competitors were restricted to four team events, meaning athletes who lost a single match were immediately eliminated from the tournament without a chance to continue. The administrative change ensures that competitors eliminated in team play can still contest individual medals, an adjustment that drew positive feedback from student participants and coaches.
In addition to competitive restructuring, the association has worked to increase media visibility by regularizing broadcasts of major tournament finals and supplying match footage through online platforms such as YouTube when television coverage is unavailable.
Declining Youth Participation Threatens the Player Pipeline
Despite administrative reforms, the sport faces significant demographic and competitive headwinds. South Korea currently maintains approximately 23 to 24 corporate and institutional adult teams, a stable figure for a non-Olympic discipline, but youth participation continues to contract amid declining birth rates and academic pressures.
While many children enter sports clubs for recreational health, many drop out as they approach middle school, with the retention drop-off particularly pronounced among female students. This erosion of the middle and high school player pipeline has depressed elite performance metrics, culminating in the South Korean national team securing three bronze medals at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games—the first time the nation failed to win an event since soft tennis entered the games 32 years prior.
To rebuild international competitiveness, Jeong is preparing for a leadership transition with a new national team coaching staff slated to take over ahead of upcoming international cycles, while simultaneously exploring development partnerships in Central Asia, where countries like Kazakhstan are integrating soft tennis into existing tennis training frameworks.
Internationally, soft tennis remains heavily concentrated in Asia, with Asia standing as the only continent maintaining an independent governing confederation among the five Olympic regions. Although contested as a distinct event at the Asian Games, soft tennis is officially categorized globally as a variation of tennis, placing it in direct competition with rapidly expanding alternative racket sports such as pickleball and padel.
Preparing For The World Championships And North Korean Participation
Looking toward upcoming international milestones, Jeong is managing preparations for the quadrennial World Soft Tennis Championships scheduled to be held in Mungyeong, South Korea, marking the sixth time the country has hosted the tournament. The competition is expected to draw approximately 400 athletes and officials from 35 nations.
Organizers are currently pursuing the inclusion of a North Korean delegation to facilitate cross-border sports exchanges, following North Korea’s performance at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, where the nation captured one silver and one bronze medal. Jeong stated that discussions regarding participation were initiated during the Asian Games after an informal exchange with the North Korean soft tennis head coach, with an upcoming opportunity for further engagement scheduled at the 5th World Junior Soft Tennis Championships opening on November 28 in Hubei Province, China, where roughly 10 North Korean athletes are expected to compete.
