Baseball: A Two-Way Player

The Meiji Shrine Tournament has concluded, with the Tokyo region achieving complete victory in the autumn events: Waseda University from the Tokyo Six University Baseball League and Nihon University representing the Tokyo Region claimed the glory in the university and high school divisions, respectively.

With the end of this prestigious tournament, the winter break for major high schools also arrived one after another—from December, the baseball teams of various high schools will temporarily cease activities and take a good rest, until the flames of competition reignite in March of the following year.

Time passed day by day, and suddenly, 2011 had arrived.

In the early morning, on a small street in a residential area of Tokyo, Lin Guanglai was engaged in his daily training.

"Huff, huff, huff—"

Lin Guanglai kept adjusting the rhythm of his breathing, the vapor from his nose turning into mist as it met the cold air; his tall and vigorous figure weaved through the crowd, drawing attention from the pedestrians.

Some, upon seeing his face, even exclaimed in surprise to their friends beside them, "Ah, is that Lin?—Oh my, that high school baseball player from Waseda! He's so good-looking and plays really well!"

Evidently, in the Tokyo Region, Lin Guanglai had become quite a famous Takayama star—Koshien and the local tournaments not only enhanced his skills and brought team honors but also garnered significant exposure.

This winter break, his parents and sister traveled to the warm regions of Southeast Asia; Lin Guanglai did not accompany them as before; instead, he chose to stay at home alone, seizing the approximately 10-day winter break to further improve his abilities.

The championship performance of Nihon University at the Meiji Shrine Tournament undoubtedly motivated him—especially when he saw Yoshinaga Kentarou, full of vigor, receiving the black and gold victory flag from the award presenter on TV, a tinge of jealousy rose in Lin Guanglai's heart.

Aiming to "defeat Nihon University," aside from going out with old friends during Christmas, he spent all the remaining time rigorously improving his baseball skills according to his set plan.

Upon reaching an uninhabited hillside, Lin Guanglai stopped his steps—after a short rest, he began his official training.

The first training item was hill sprints, ten sets before starting, and ten sets after finishing, aiming to maximize and enhance Lin Guanglai's physical capabilities—as the team's main starting pitcher, after advancing to his second year of high school, Lin Guanglai would inevitably need to attempt pitching complete games more frequently;

Standing now over 1.9 meters tall, his pitching exerted more energy than those of average build pitchers, which meant that pitching complete games required far more stamina from him than the average person.

Not to mention, Lin Guanglai always wanted to excel in both pitching and hitting—simultaneously serving as the team's starting pitcher and cleanup hitter, without ample stamina, such a huge expenditure might be more than his body could bear.

Why are hill sprints popular? A large reason is that the swelling in the legs and the pounding heart from a lot of uphill running can efficiently strengthen his muscle power and cardiovascular function;

Moreover, compared to endurance runs on flat ground, the hill's load on the knee joints is less and can provide more intense muscle stimulation—particularly the crucial hip and gluteal muscle groups for baseball players, the hill sprints are especially effective.

Secondly, is the increase in strength training intensity—for most pitchers, especially young pitchers still in their physical development phase, enhancing strength through strength training is the most direct and effective way to increase pitching speed; Lin Guanglai's excellent physical traits also spared him from worrying about the so-called speed limit like others. Generally speaking,

After discussing with coaches at Waseda specifically responsible for this area of training, Lin Guanglai also advanced his training in an orderly manner according to the training load given by professionals.

The goal he set for himself was to increase his maximum pitch speed to over 150km/h before the games started in the following year—if he could actually achieve this goal, he would become the nightmare of all star batters in every school.

In terms of hitting, Lin Guanglai set a goal for himself of more than 1,000 swings a day—for this purpose, he even used his connection with Izumi Minoru to custom order a somewhat special wooden bat for practice.

Baseball games at the high school level generally use metal bats, with mainstream weights ranging from about 750 to 850 grams, allowing players to choose within the permitted range;

Compared to mainstream metal bats, wooden bats are heavier and harder to precisely hit the ball, requiring a higher hitting technique from the batter—the specially made wooden bat in Lin Guanglai's hands weighed even over 1,200 grams, and even with his decent strength, using his upper body to swing the bat was a challenge.

When using this bat, Lin Guanglai could clearly feel the increased load on his wrists, a slight overextension could easily lead to an injury—which was exactly why he chose to use this bat: by skillfully leveraging the bat's weight, Lin Guanglai aimed to enhance his control over lower body force.

Also, using this bat for swing practice could significantly increase his swing speed.

In Japanese high school baseball games, the speed of the fastball from a typical school's ace pitcher could reach over 130km/h; teams eligible to compete for a Koshien spot demanded even more, with some reaching 140km/h;

And if focusing on those schools capable of winning at Koshien, some pitchers could even throw at speeds of 150 or even 160km/h—the current speed record for Koshien was set by Sato Yuuki of Sendai Yuuying, who threw at 155km/h in the summer of 2007.

When facing such high-speed pitches, hitters barely have half a second to think; in such a brief time, to hit a successful hit, the batter must have swing speed that matches the pitch speed—and the increase in bat speed comes from the daily repetitive action training.

This is an extremely monotonous, extremely tedious training, but the honing of a skill is often achieved only through decades of repetition.

In order to unleash all his power in a mere 0.1 seconds, this kind of training is something he must relentlessly polish every day.

Even though in today's Japanese Takayama scene, it seems no player can steadily and consistently throw over 150km/h fastballs—the next one who might achieve this could be Lin Guanglai himself;

Yet, faintly, Lin Guanglai always felt, as if an unknown force was guiding him:

He couldn't shake the feeling that such a person would soon appear and become entangled with him for many years to come.

Practice continued...