First Day of Intensive Training (Part 2)

"Practice ends at 4 PM, Eijun! The four of us will go buy groceries—enough for about three days. Everyone else, keep training until 5:30. Lunch today was lacking in nutrition, so we'll wrap up early. If you want batting practice, I'll let you hit your fill tonight. You should be able to make use of it, right?" Sendou said after finishing lunch.

"Hooray!"

Overall, before Sendou took over Akagi, aside from Sawamura, Wakaba, and the others—even chubby Takada—their batting wasn't as terrible as imagined. It just leaned more toward blind slugging.

After correcting their stances, Sendou had no idea how far their hitting would reach. But the immediate priority was defense. If the defense was decent and luck was on their side, there was a strong chance of a First Battle Breakthrough.

Fixing batting stances required a lot of swing accumulation. But for Akagi's level, delicate techniques like defensive bunts could be improved in a short time.

Progress would only slow once they grasped the basics and started shifting toward finer, more difficult coordination. After all, cleanly handling every easy ball was simple.

But forming an ironclad defensive coordination wasn't something achievable in just a few years.

Sendou planned to have them reach a level before graduation where they could handle simple coordination—dealing with balls that weren't too hard or too easy.

Offense was a step-by-step exploration. If asked to lay it out now, even Sendou couldn't do it. He only had a rough outline in his head, nothing more.

"Alright, practice starts now. Get to your positions."

"Alright!"

"Ping!"

"Slap, slap!"

"OK, one more ball!" Seeing the first Ground Ball handled easily, Sendou shouted.

"Ping!"

"This one's a Fly Ball!" After over a month—no, actually two months of formal practice, they could at least handle individual Ground Balls and Fly Balls from normal Middle School hitting.

Simple infield coordination was fast enough too. But when it came to complex runs, Backup Position, and high-difficulty coordination, it was still a mess. In short, they could handle average batters, but line drives from strong hitters were completely beyond them.

Honestly, players who could hit those kinds of balls were usually the core of famous Little Senior League teams, and they wouldn't bother joining Soft Baseball tournaments.

That meant their defense, aside from its weak spots, could barely manage.

But that was far from enough. In real games, mistakes came easily.

In current practice, Sendou no longer told them in advance whether it was a Fly Ball or Ground Ball.

As for Line Drives, he only occasionally threw a few to Ono and the others he'd already decided on as infielders.

In Middle School Soft Baseball, Long Hits rarely appeared without Little Senior League batters participating.

Even after this long of practice, mistakes still happened often. But there was no choice—they had to accumulate one ball at a time.

Through observing ball after ball, Sendou also noticed some points to watch out for. Who could blame him for being naturally observant? It drove Coach Nakanishi crazy with frustration. The lack of focus was a side effect of that habit of always observing.

"Ono, don't always try to catch the ball with your glove. If time allows, move your feet too!"

"Takada, your stance is too far back. Don't think about buying more reaction time. If the opponent suddenly bunts, your position will easily let them reach base safely. Move forward a bit. One more ball!"

"So fast!"

"Lower your center of gravity, move your feet. If you think the ball's too fast, block it with your body. Don't make gambler-style moves—your technique is far from that level yet!"

"One more ball!"

As the only chubby guy on the team, he couldn't be sent to the outfield to chase balls—that would be a guaranteed scoring gap.

So Sendou paid extra attention to this Third Baseman in his mind. After all, the simple First Baseman position was reserved for Wakaba. The positions the original group had assigned themselves already considered quite a few factors.

The only certainty was that Sawamura definitely wouldn't understand his teammates' thoughts at all.

Right now, Sendou was like a completely different person from usual. No one expected that when he suddenly got serious, he'd be so nitpicky about these details, repeating the same few points over and over, demanding corrections. The usually quiet guy turned into a flamethrower, his mouth never stopping.

"Hold on, let me drink some water and rest! I'll be back to keep lecturing you! Ono, you're up!" After over an hour, Sendou's throat was parched.

Handing the bat to Ono, Sendou walked to the side and kept observing.

Half an hour later, everyone finished another round!

"Stop for now! Everyone, start 20 minutes of meditation!"

Meditation had become a routine at Akagi Middle School. They recalled the previous practice, repeatedly reminding themselves in their minds what to watch out for.

After meditation, Sendou led them through another round, this time paying special attention to Ono and Takada.

After that round, he gave everyone 10 minutes to summarize, then took Sawamura, Furuhashi, and Wakaba out to buy groceries, leaving the others to practice bunts!

Saying "buy groceries" was really just Sendou and Wakaba picking things out. Fumino tagged along to relax and unwind, while Sawamura was the pack mule.

Anyway, Sawamura's current program was just running and some body-maintenance meal plans. As for defense, Sendou really didn't have time to deal with that idiot. Occasionally, he'd let him catch a few Pitcher Ground Balls or do First Base and Home Plate Backup Position drills, and that was it.

They bought quite a bit of pork, beef, and vegetables. The money came from everyone chipping in.

That's how Japanese people were—treating someone a few times was fine, but if it happened too often, the one being treated couldn't accept it. In Japan, unless you were very close with someone, you wouldn't let them pay for you.

Of course, except for certain anime characters who were overly familiar from the start.

"I'm back!" The group entered the house, greeting everyone.

"Welcome back!"

"Practice is over, so go do your homework first! After dinner, you can do Self-Practice swings or batting, whichever you prefer."

"I should practice my swings too!" Sawamura chimed in, joining the fun.

"Suit yourself! Though it won't do you any good."

"What did you say, Sendou?"

"I'm just stating the facts! Even if you practice swinging, you'll only be swinging at air."

"Nnnngh!"

"I was just thinking it felt weird that Sen-chan hadn't picked a fight with Ei-chan today! Haha!"

During the evening batting practice, Sendou became even more certain of his earlier thoughts. A few of his teammates were actually decent hitters, but he still had no intention of changing the training order.

"I'll ask the coach about it tomorrow!"

After that, he went through the usual routine—soaking in the bath and heading to bed. Right before falling asleep, Sendou suddenly thought that this kind of life wasn't so bad.

The previous one-month training period was changed to two months. He happened to come across an old manga screenshot showing that the soft preliminary rounds started in early May. It's too late tonight—I'll check the earlier chapters tomorrow and make the change. Time to sleep. Finally, the usual daily request for recommendations and bookmarks! Thanks!