"Hmm - the seniors actually left their meals to the end." Several first-year students, except for a few such as Yuki and Yui, the others are basically still eating very slowly and leaving their meals to the end.
"I heard they had physical training again this morning."
"It's so intense that I lose my appetite." It's the same as them, rookies who have just been exposed to high school intensity.
"From what Ochiai Coach means, it requires relatively high-quality content."
"It makes me curious. Now, let's go take a look tomorrow morning."
Seto listened to the discussion of others and was quite curious. He turned to his friend and asked, "Guangshu, should we go and have a look tomorrow?"
Okumura chewed something in his mouth, his cheeks bulging, and he finally swallowed it after a long time, "No, we have our own issues, don't we?" How to quickly enter First String, how to elicit the characteristics of the three pitchers, Pitching Strategy, guidance, and timing control on the field, these are what he needs to learn, and the person who can let him learn these things, Miyuki Kazuya, is about to retire.
"It's true." Even if the seniors have won the Koshien championship, there are very few people above their heads, and there are very few people with whom they can compare. They are still comparing themselves with their previous selves and striving for greater progress, not to mention these freshmen who still have many shortcomings.
"But -" Seto thought of Lang Zhi's declaration just now, "Sasaki-senpai has always wanted to switch to shortstop. The competition for this position is really fierce."
"Well," the former Kinoshita Little League player also spoke at this time, "Originally, senior Sasaki has always been a shortstop, but after coming to Seido, he changed positions to third base in order to be able to enter First String Regulars."
"Is that so?" Seto looked at Okumura, remembering his friend's loud declaration at the beginning of school, "Other than catcher, he will not accept any other position." '
"What's wrong?" Okumura was confused.
"No, it's nothing?" Seto was just wondering whether his friend would choose to take the same path as Sasaki-senpai in order to get on the stage faster, "Probably not." ' To some extent, my friend is still very stubborn.
The peaceful meal time passed, and two hours later, a bus drove through the gate of Seido. This was the battle sequence that Seido had almost scheduled until next year.
"Wow - look at the opposite side, there are so many pitchers. Seido is indeed the kingdom of pitchers!"
"Why are you so happy? All these pitchers are used to deal with us!"
"No, it would be best if their ace can play. I want to see what a Koshien level pitcher is like."
"Eh? It's true or not. Look at the battle table. The one who plays is really the ace!"
"Well, after all, we are also the near-winners in the county."
On the opposite side, Dugout, Seido's catcher is arranging the tactics for this game.
"Senior Miyuki, after my recovery, I still have about 90% of my physical strength. But I will lose about 10% after pitching a game. This situation is very similar to the situation in the middle and late stages of the game."
"So you want to use the game to train your performance in the later stage?" Miyuki probably understands what his partner means. Everyone at Seido knows the ace in 7 games, but it is a bit cruel to be put on the front page by the media.
"In other words, it is one way of throwing when the physical condition is good in the first half, and another way of throwing when the physical condition is not good in the second half. I need to find out this second mode." In fact, it was what Ochiai Coach emphasized to him before, how to stabilize his mentality and keep his posture stable and correct when his physical condition cannot keep up in the second half.
"I understand, then after I receive your signal, I will adjust Pitching Strategy's plan and gaps accordingly."
"Well, one more thing is that recently I want to go back to my previous method of resting between games."
"Huh?" Miyuki vaguely remembers that it refers to lying down to rest between games, as well as Pitcher's Mound taking deep breaths and relaxing muscles in order, "I know." What else can be done, just follow the pitcher's experiment.
In fact, when it comes to rest, it is reflected in the physical signs, which is the heart rate. In high-intensity competitions like tennis, someone has conducted hundreds of hours of field video research and found that top players can use breaks between games to maximize their physical recovery. Within 16-20 seconds after scoring, top players' heartbeats can drop to 60 beats per minute. (Quoted here from "Energy Management")
Pitching is a full-body exercise that relies heavily on the pitcher's muscle explosive power. While the baseball is accelerated to more than 140 kilometers, the pitcher's heartbeat will also become faster and faster. Kōshū's goal is very clear. During the interval between each batter, try to minimize the impact of the previous batter and return the heartbeat to the warm-up level.
This match was against Sendai Commercial High School. Spring Tournament from their county ended a little earlier than Tokyo. Seido made an appointment very early. After the match with Seido, there were also appointments with other Tokyo players.
"No, I'm going to get nervous. The ace is really coming!"
"I'll ask for my contact information later."
However, after the game started, the Sendai Commercial High School players clearly felt that the opponent's ace was paddling slightly.
"In this game, the opponent's ace's pitch is only about 140 kilometers at most."
"Didn't you say Tokyo Tournament, he didn't even play in the last game?"
Under such circumstances, the catcher's Pitching Strategy ability is very much tested.
'Let's mainly use Changeup here. No, wait, the hypothetical scene now is the middle and late stages of the game. The speed of the ball decreases and the sensitivity of the fingers decreases. For some Changeup that particularly test the feeling, the state needs to be determined before the call can be made. '
And Kōshū looked at the cautious catcher, and for some reason, there was a smile on the corner of his mouth. This smile was not only for the catcher, but also for the defenders behind him. Like Eijun, he silently said in his heart, 'I will let them beat them out. Everyone on the defenders behind, please take care of me~ You will never grow if you always rely on me to strike out~'
So for the next ball, only 70% of the force is used, and the rest is used to ensure accuracy.
"Bump--" The baseball turned beautifully to the inside corner in front of the batter's bat.
"Third base!"
"Yes!" Lang Zhi slid over, stood up after receiving the ball, and threw the ball toward first base.
"Out!"
"Three outs, exchange offense and defense!"
The first half of the inning was over, and even everyone inside Seido noticed something was wrong, "Is Kōshū doing some experiment? Is it an experiment with the purpose of making batters hit weak ground balls?"
But the coaching team probably knows his motivations, 'It's so easy to worry about, have you already started to adjust your mentality in actual combat? '
Accepting the loss of physical strength and accepting the ball being knocked out is, to some extent, more difficult than trying to maintain physical strength.