How South Korean kicker overcame a language barrier to thrive in the NFL

It was this second early in his profession that taught the then-23-year-old rookie about life within the NFL.

“It taught me that is by no means over. You gotta compete each single day. You gotta produce; it is a manufacturing enterprise. That is what the pinnacle coach informed me after I was getting launched. That was an enormous studying expertise for me.”

With nowhere else to go, Koo was compelled to show to moderately acquainted environment — someplace he didn’t suppose he would ever discover himself once more.

“Once I ran out of cash with the Chargers, I moved again dwelling to my mother and that is if you’re simply ready for a cellphone name, ready for a exercise,” he says.

“And when it comes it is like: ‘Oh yeah, good. I am able to go.’ Then there goes [the] offseason [and] two or three months go by [and] no cellphone name comes: ‘What am I doing with my life?’”

Soccer gamers, and athletes basically, are significantly conditioned to all the time having their day by day actions deliberate for them, whether or not it’s movie examine, meals or coaching. With out that, Koo misplaced his sense of path.

“I assume my soccer profession, like highschool, faculty after which attending to the Chargers, I all the time had one thing to do, on a crew. You virtually really feel empty as a result of [when] you get up, no person’s telling you something,” Koo says.

Connecting with fellow NFL free brokers helped him to regain that sense of crew ethos and construction he missed.

“I discovered so much. I wasn’t the one one going via it. It was virtually therapeutic for me to go to exercises [with] guys which might be going via the identical stuff and we’re competing but in addition sharing our journeys,” Koo explains.

He credit these moments of early adversity with serving to him turn out to be an expert and an excellent higher scholar of the sport, though he says he nonetheless has much more to study as his profession progresses.

“Popping out of school, I felt like I knew every thing, however [in] actuality, I did not know something,” Koo says.

“I made a decision to drop that ego [and] ask questions. I needed to study, I needed to see what went unsuitable, and really quickly after that, I noticed I used to be a pet on this enterprise. I needed to preserve asking questions. I bought so much to study and an extended option to go, clearly.”

‘Robust’ beginnings

Koo lived in South Korea till the age of 12 earlier than shifting to the USA to attend sixth grade.

“I grew up enjoying soccer for the varsity crew. That was actually my major focus. I wasn’t actually nice at school,” he says.

He describes the transition to the USA as “robust,” an expertise that was additional compounded by his lack of English. Koo cites sports activities as a catalyst to studying the language and making pals in an unfamiliar nation.

“I really feel like I picked up English so much faster as a result of I performed sports activities,” Koo says. “I used to be compelled to throw myself on the market and socialize with totally different buddy teams and meet totally different folks. It positively bridged that hole for me.”

Koo first discovered soccer by way of his pals, who seen his soccer expertise and needed him to punt or kick off of their video games.

“And that is when everyone noticed my leg power as a result of [of] soccer, so kicking got here naturally for me. That is after I was requested to enroll in soccer and I signed up that summer season.”

Koo remembers particularly sitting in a automobile with teammates heading to follow sooner or later not even realizing the best way to talk with them.

“I did not know the best way to ask, like: ‘Hey, what do you guys do on the weekends?’ I did not know the best way to phrase that and even kind a sentence at the moment,” Koo explains.

Regardless of a worry of sounding “silly,” he was in a position to muster a phrase that modified his fortunes.

“I bear in mind simply saying, ‘I am bored,’ and so they have been simply asking [me] questions like: ‘Now? Within the automobile going to follow?’ I used to be like: ‘No, no, no, on the weekends.’ So then that weekend they known as me to hang around.”

‘Bulletproof’

As a South Korean immigrant in the USA, Koo says he seen racism rising up however selected to not “reply to it or react to it.” He did not take any racist feedback to coronary heart, realizing everybody has their very own opinions, whether or not legitimate or invalid.

“All people has one thing to say. All people can say one thing in the event that they need to. It is not likely my accountability to soak that each one in and take up [it]. I select what I need to take note of [and] what I do not need to take note of. I believe that is the mindset that I had after I was youthful as effectively,” Koo says.

As for the way he offers with negativity now as one of many NFL’s top-earning kickers, Koo likens it to a food plan the place he chooses which feedback he desires to eat and digest. He says his mindset have to be “bulletproof” when he takes the sphere; adversity from exterior may damage his efficiency.

“Whether or not it is coping with racism or whether or not it is coping with adversity, we shank a ball … we gotta go on the market and subsequent time, we bought to now give attention to the subsequent snap. That may’t stick with me as a result of it should have an effect on my subsequent kick,” Koo says.

“My dad taught me from a younger age [that] should you’re ok, your expertise speaks for itself,” he provides.

And when the kick is within the air, all that issues is the end result.

“You are White, Black, Asian or no matter. [The] soccer does not know who’s kicking it. And when the ball’s flying, they do not know who kicked it and so they simply see the outcomes and so they see the ball and so they’re like, ‘Alright, that kick’s good,’” Koo says.

‘Arrange a plan and go after it’

Koo understands the place soccer can play on the planet and what his story can imply for the subsequent era of Asian athletes eager to play within the high American league.

“It is [something] we talked about so much. It is a very numerous group of individuals in that locker room. All people comes from totally different locations, backgrounds, households, however all of us have one widespread aim, and we work in direction of that collectively and that sacrifice to work onerous for not just for your self, [but] for one thing that is larger than you,” Koo displays.

“I believe illustration is massive as a result of, rising up for me in soccer, there was no person that regarded like me. It was more durable for me to visualise, [if] he is doing it, I can do it.

“For those who have a look at my story, I did not converse English, I did not know what soccer was. I used to be struggling to say: ‘What are you doing this weekend?’ I believe anyone, if they’ve a dream and simply chase it and work onerous, can arrange a plan and go after it.”