Baseball: A Two-Way Player

On May 14, 2011, the 63rd Kantou Spring Tournament officially kicked off.

Twenty teams from eight prefectures in the Kantou region of Japan will gather in Ichihara City, Chiba Prefecture, to compete over four days to determine the school that can dominate the Kantou region.

Because the tournament uses a knockout system, during the draw, there are bound to be some unlucky teams that need to play an extra round—Waseda Jitsugyo is one of them.

Waseda Jitsugyo's first-round opponent is Tengai High School from Kanagawa Prefecture; they performed exceptionally well in the recently concluded Kanagawa Spring Tournament, defeating many strong opponents to reach the finals, only to lose to Keio University due to exhaustion.

In conclusion, although their on-paper strength is not the strongest, the fighting power they demonstrated in the games should not be underestimated. Waseda Jitsugyo needs to take them seriously and study them carefully.

Waseda Jitsugyo continues with the lineup from the previous spring tournament. Lin Guanglai will focus on batting in the early stages of the event, primarily serving as the main right fielder of the team. The starting pitcher position is shared by Uchida Saint, Yagaki Kentaro, and Tanaka Justice.

During the match against Tengai High School, Lin Guanglai did not perform well—he is currently in the painful transition period of changing his batting style, and his performance in the batter's box has declined significantly compared to before.

In the entire game, he had five at-bats. Once he walked to base on four balls, once he hit a single, and in the remaining three times, he was struck out.

Two times on base in five at-bats with no RBIs is actually quite a good performance for an average player, and no one would criticize it, but Lin Guanglai is different;

In the eyes of the audience all over Japan, Lin Guanglai is seen as a once-in-a-millennium super rookie—therefore, expectations for him have also risen. Just mediocre performance is considered underperforming for him.

Those who love high school baseball expect more than just winning the game; they also want a beautiful performance, preferring that he surpasses his peers in every game.

However, when Lin Guanglai's performance declined significantly after returning from Senbatsu High School Baseball Tournament, some media tabloids began to exaggerate the phenomenon—some so-called "professionals" even concluded, just to attract attention, "Lin Guanglai is not a genius, but just an ordinary player benefiting from being a newcomer."

His supporters, upon seeing his unstable state, couldn't help but express their concerns online.

Just less than a month ago, Lin Guanglai was surrounded by praises like "monster," "genius," and "super rookie," which had become fixed epithets used by the media to describe him; but now, it seems that everything has changed.

Lin Guanglai is aware of the external pressure; but he also understands that whether for the improvement of his own ability or for the team's further progress, the decline in batting level due to changing his batting method is a painful period he needs to experience.

After the Kantou Spring Tournament ends, more than a month later, the summer season will begin: in Lin Guanglai's view, if Waseda Jitsugyo wants to continue appearing in Summer甲 continuously and even contend for victory, the obstacle they must overcome is Nihon University from the same West Tokyo region—they must not stand still in their development to beat such opponents.

The opponents in the early stages of the Kantou Tournament are generally of moderate strength but still have a certain level of intensity—shouldn't the time be used to test the training results in real games instead of waiting for the summertime, where a single loss could end everything?

Fortunately, although Lin Guanglai's performance was mediocre, his teammates were very supportive:

In the first-round match against Tengai High School, Uchida Saint pitched for 7 innings, struck out 6, and gave up 1 run; subsequently, Yagaki Kentaro successfully completed the closing task for the team.

Despite missing Lin Guanglai's firepower, Waseda Jitsugyo's other players did not go silent facing the relatively weaker Tengai High School and relied on continuous scoring starting from the fourth inning, scoring in three consecutive innings, thereby establishing a victory in the game.

In the 9-inning battle of the first round, Waseda Jitsugyo advanced with a 5-1 victory, successfully entering the second round of the Kantou Tournament.

On the training field, Lin Guanglai is doing extra training—even though there is a game the next day, he didn't pitch in today's game, and the defensive pressure in the right field was quite light, so he still maintained considerable physical strength.

With a bat in hand, standing in the batter's box, Uesugi Yasuyuki was stationed inside the protective netting, throwing balls at him through the gaps.

For the past week, Lin Guanglai has been practicing almost every day according to the training plan given to him by Ikezaki Takakazu.

Changing a batting habit that has been ingrained for many years is indeed very painful at first, especially since Ikezaki Takakazu is training Lin Guanglai to be a full-swing power hitter—this torquing method can greatly utilize body momentum to produce very violent swings, capable of hitting balls in all locations with full power;

However, the downside of this approach is that it places huge demands on the batter's swinging speed and hitting precision, making it easy to swing and miss with any slight lapse in concentration.

When first using this method, Lin Guanglai's performance in training and practice was so bad that it was unbearable to watch, sometimes even completely losing the feel for hitting—for a player with such achieved feats like Lin Guanglai, it is a huge test for his mentality.

Having just hit another weak ground ball, Lin Guanglai didn't follow the baseball's trajectory, but instead, he demanded from Uesugi Yasuyuki not far away:

"Again."

Uesugi Yasuyuki got the hint and gently flicked his arm, tossing the baseball in his direction.

While watching the steadily flying baseball, Lin Guanglai recalled the torquing method taught by Coach Ikezaki Takakazu in his heart:

"As the baseball is released, pre-twist your body, and rotate the pelvis appropriately to shorten the acceleration distance."

"Keep your eye on the baseball, but don't rush to swing—try to track the ball longer than usual, watch the entire path of the ball, and delay for about a few tenths of a second before swinging."

"Imagine your body as a spring, using the immense energy generated from pushing off the ground with your lower body to drive the entire body's kinetic chain, transmitting all the energy in your body onto the bat."

"At the moment of hitting, remember to maintain the angle difference between the body trunk and the hip joint to further increase energy conversion efficiency."

"Lastly, control the launch angle of the hit at around 30 degrees, then swing with all your might and send the ball flying into the sky!"

"Clang——!!!!!!"

The crisp sound of the bat hitting the ball echoed across the training ground as Lin Guanglai and Uesugi Yasuyuki watched the ball, soaring high with great power, strike the net behind the outfield, making a "zzzzz" sound of friction as it landed.