How women’s tennis club participants construct identity: ‘respect, pride and distinction’

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to determine the value of South Korea tennis club participation to women’s members and understand their conflicts. Data were collected through participant observation and in-depth interviews. For this purpose, all the six women of the city tennis club were selected as research participants, three from the upper level (league name: Gukwha) and three from the lower level (league name: Gaenari). The study used an ethnographic method of qualitative research. The collected data were practically used to analyse the text. The results showed that women participated in these clubs for the following reasons: ‘desire for Gukhwa’, ‘pride of Gukhwa’ and ‘symbolic capital of Gukhwa.’

KEYWORDS:

• Women’s tennis club
• tennis club participants
• identity
• South Korean
• social capital

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Notes

1 Most of the amateur tennis players in Korea belong to clubs and when they participate in a competition, they must state their club name. Skilled amateur players tend to belong to more than one club and sometimes state two or three club names.

2 Korea’s amateur tennis has a different ranking system mainly under KTA (Korea Tennis Association), KATA (Korea Amateur Tennis Association) and KATO (Korea Amateur Tennis Organization). These three organizations are the largest and are publicly recognized. KTA is the official organization for both elite and amateur players; KATA and KATO are the organizations that conduct only amateur competitions with company sponsorships and entry fees. They are trying to maintain a cooperative relationship, but KATA and KATO do not want the three organizations unified.

3 Tennis club activity in Korea is generally very limited in time (approximately 2–3 h per day), and space (1 to 2 courts), so opportunities to participate in a tennis game while active in a club are rare. Therefore, highly skilled (upper level) players tend to think they are doing low skilled (lower level) players a favour by allowing them to participate (Han 2013).

4 Most of the women’s tennis club members choose to play twice a week on Tuesday and Thursday or Monday and Wednesday mornings. Women who work during the day can select one time a week to play tennis, either Monday or Wednesday evening.

5 The three professors (two men, one woman) who helped increase reliability and reduce subjectivity in this study play in Korean tennis clubs. They are aware of Korea’s tennis culture and its research.

6 In Korea, tennis courts are public facilities that are rented to different tennis clubs for use. In the case of an indoor court, players pay about 25,000₩ (about 20€), and the court rental time is between 2 and 4 h. The tennis club pays the public institution the facility fee and has an annual contract. The payment for using the facility differs depending on the condition of the court, the surrounding environment and the location. The ward office will take charge of the work-related facility fee.

7 Once players enter the upper level (Gukhwa), there is a culture of respect for them as upper-level players, even if their skills are diminished for some reason.

8 A follow up study will also be able to compare the Korean tennis club culture with those of other countries that share some cultural similarities, such as Japan and China.