Training With Hyakuzawa

On a random day of practice, Shun jogged towards Hyakuzawa and lightly tapped him on his back.

Hyakuzawa turned to look at Shun and asked.

Hyakuzawa: "Yeah?"

Shun peered at his teammate and asked back.

Shun: "Are you going to stay late today?"

Hyakuzawa replied with another question.

Hyakuzawa: "Why do you ask?"

Shun answered the new center of the team.

Shun: "I want someone to play one-on-one against me."

Hyakuzwa raised his eyebrows and yet another question.

Hyakuzawa: "Why don't you ask Yuki? He stays late every day."

Shun shook his head and explained.

Shun: "I need someone taller than me.

You are tall, so if you are going to stay late, help me out.

I want to practice my post plays, and you will be the best practice."

Shun pause and corrected himself.

Shun: "Well, after Aone-san, but he is spending time studying and has decreased his after practice days, so I don't want to bother him.

I will go bother him during practice."

Hyakuzawa thought about if he should agree to practice Shun and came to a decision.

Hyakuzawa: "Alright, but I won't stay for too long."

Shun slapped him on the back and chuckled.

Shun: "Thanks, and you know I leave early these days."

Shun visited the gym after practice, so he needed to be out of the school earlier than he previously did.

Hyakuzawa nodded, and Shun waved to him.

Shun: "Okay, see you later. I need to complete my drills.

Once again, thank you, Hyakuzawa."

Hyakuzawa nodded, and he too returned to his practice.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-

The practice was over, and a lot of members in the club left for their home.

Hyakuzawa walked to the third-string gym, where Shun and Yuki usually practiced after club timings.

He entered the gym to see Shun instructing Yuki on his defensive technique.

Yuki was in the defensive stance, and Shun was pointing out some tips to him.

He pointed to Yuki's feet and suggested.

Shun: "Focus just a little more than half of your weight on the ball of your feet, but don't take your heels off the ground.

Get used to this, and you will gain added stability."

Yuki nodded and tried to shift his weight on the ball of his feet. He nodded and spoke.

Yuki: "Okay, I will try this and see if this helps."

Shun patted Yuki on his shoulder and talked.

Shun: "Alright, tell me if there is anything you need."

He turned away from Yuki and headed towards the other side of the court to practice. Shun caught Hyakuzawa from the corner of his eye at the door of the gym.

He waved at his teammate and called out.

Shun: "Oh, Hyakuzawa! You made it. Come on, let's get this started."

Hyakuzawa nodded and followed Shun to the other side of the court.

Shun jogged to the ball cage to pick up a ball and returned to Hyakuzawa.

Hyakuzawa inquired about the motive of this practice.

Hyakuzawa: "What are we going to do?"

Shun dribbled the ball and answered his tall teammate.

Shun: "I was thinking of having you play defense while I attack in the post.

I want to get some practice in the post."

Hyakuzawa shrugged and acknowledged.

Hyakuzawa: "Alright, let's start."

Shun nodded and gestured Hyakuzawa to follow him. They passed the three-point arc and walked to an area just past the elbow of the free-throw line.

Shun stood there and dribbled the ball once, he looked at Hyakuzawa and explained.

Shun: "Okay, this is the scenario. I just got a pass here and want to attack the basket, and you are my defender.

Easy enough?"

Hyakuzawa nodded and responded.

Hyakuzawa: "Which means that you can still dribble to the basket."

Shun affirmed with a smile.

Shun: "Yeah. Okay, you understand, let's continue."

Hyakuzawa got into a defensive stance and was ready to defend against Shun.

Shun also held the ball in his hand and thought about what he should do for the first attack.

He looked at Hyakuzawa did a quick jab step from his front foot to put Hyakuzawa focus on a charge to the basket. Hyakuzawa did shift to the side, and Shun immediately shot the ball.

Haykuzawa looked at the ball as it landed in the net.

Shun clenched his fist and spoke.

Shun: "Okay, that was good."

Hyakuzawa turned back to look at Shun and thought.

Hyakuzawa: 'How does he do things like these so effortlessly.'

Shun gave a lot of time on fundamentals. When he started to learn different moves to integrate them into his style, he found that the same fundamentals were present everywhere.

Many single individual components made up complete moves, basic or complex every move followed the same fundamentals.

And, he found that if he worked on those individual components, then learning difficult moves became much smoother.

Take the move he used against Hyakuzawa. The whole move depended on the quick jab step at the start. It was the jab step that made Hyakuzawa shift his stance.

After the jab-step was a simple mid-range shot, but if the jab step didn't work, then there was a chance that Hyakuzawa could've leaped to contest the shot, and made contact with the ball.

And, Shun had worked that simple jab-step every day for a few minutes to get it to his current level.

-*-*-*-

Another possession and Shun started with his back to Hyakuzawa.

He started to dribble and began pushing back on Hyakuzawa.

Hyakuzawa got into a defensive stance and tried to slow down Shun, but Shun didn't slow down one bit.

Hyakuzawa: "Oof! How are you this strong?"

Shun might not have Murasakibara's freak strength, but he still was plenty strong, and he was easily able to push back Hyakuzawa ignoring their height and weight difference.

Shun just chuckled, and the moment both of them reached just outside of the paint region, Shun pivoted his front foot back, squared up facing the basket, and leaped up for a jump shot.

Hyakuzawa was stunned by the sudden change from the push to the jump that he jumped quite late. He looked behind him to see the ball bounce off the backboard into the net in a bank shot.

Shun swung his arm, celebrating the success of the score.

Shun: "Alright! Bank shot for the win."

Hyakuzawa once again had a question that he wanted the answer to, so he asked his practice partner.

Hyakuzawa: "Why didn't you keep pushing. You could've easily made it inside."

Shun set his eyes on his tall friend and spoke.

Shun: "Hyakuzawa, my whole style is based on making space. If I have space, it gets a lot easier to shoot.

While there was no disadvantage to push to under the basket, but in a real game with other players on the court, I would've definitely encountered another player trying to steal the ball."

He raised his forearm with a single finger point up and imparted.

Shun: "Timing is important.

Unlike centers, I don't start in the low post. So, I don't have the time or the short distance to push myself below the basket and lay the ball.

When I do make my way to the basket, it is usually with a speedy dribble."

-*-*-*-*-*-*-

They were once again at the starting position.

Shun stared at Hyakuzawa while swinging the ball like a pendulum.

Hyakuzawa felt tensed, he hadn't able to stop Shun even once, and he had no idea what Shun was going to use.

Finally, after swinging the ball for a while, Shun moved. He did a quick jab step and followed it with bringing the ball up for a jump-shot.

Hyakuzawa immediately jumped for a block, but Shun lowered his hands in a shot-fake.

Hyakuzawa's eyes narrowed in displeasure.

Hyakuzawa: "Shit, a fake."

Shun immediately dribbled to the basket. Without jumping, he formlessly chucked the ball to the backboard and made the ball direct itself into the basket. [1]

Shun slowly came to a stop and turned to Hyakuzawa.

Shun: "Let's call it a day."

He glanced at the clock in the gym and said.

Shun: "It is time to leave."

Hyakuzawa wiped the sweat from his forehead with the hem of his shirt and nodded.

Hyakuzawa: "Yeah, I just started to feel a little tired."

Shun nodded and turned to Yuki, he shouted to the other side to the court.

Shun: "Yuki! We are leaving!"

Yuki stopped what he was doing, looked at Shun, and shouted back.

Yuki: "Alright! Good Night!"

Shun waved and replied.

Shun: "Good Night!"

Another day of practice came to an end, with Shun leaving for the gym.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

[

A/N [1]: I have been using Free-{Shot Name} for formless shooting.

From now on, I will be either using the above format or use "formlessly shot/chuck/threw/any other word" the ball.

I didn't give this note before, so if you guys remember seeing this in previous chapters, think of Shun or Aomine something effortless or crazy.

Let the imagination take over.

]