8.Training (4)
( REI POV )
"Otou-san it's like this when I was batting in the cages today I noticed something. It was like I was able to see the ball come in slow motion and see it clearly. Is it normal?"
My dad didn't reply for some time and I could see the look of surprise on his face until he lightly patted my back and started laughing, "Hahahahah So you have even that ability ha. Yes, this is due to your eyes that you can see such things in slow motion. You have more concentration which enables you to do this and it's really helpful to become a good batter and catcher. Some of the legends in baseball also had such ability to see the ball slowly."
Hearing this I got shocked. So according to him, I have a rare ability. This makes me happy that I can become one of the greatest catchers and batters If I train my body more so that my body can adapt to the vision of my eyes than I will be able to hit any ball thrown at me. I then went to my room and slept peacefully.
* NEXT DAY *
Today dad told us that he will go out for some time and take us to the ground in the evening. So as it is Sunday I had so much leftover homework to do so I went to complete it along with Izumi in my room. After we both were done with it we went down, sat on the couch and saw some baseball clips on tv and ate some snacks. Then my dad came home and we are lunch and headed towards the ground. After arriving there we went towards our usual spot to train. I then started to swing my bat the way my dad taught me as Shriogana-san couldn't come today too.
( IZUMI POV )
Since I found my motivation, Tensei-sensei helped me a lot in pitching. He showed me the basic stand of a pitcher and how should I throw the ball. He told me I was good at it and that I had a strong arm to throw the ball fast. Yesterday he told me he will teach me something special today so I was eagerly waiting for today's session. He took me towards the side to our spot to start training me again.
He looked at me and asked, "So Izumi do you want to make your pitches faster and more compact."
I then nodded my head.
He then said, "Ok then I have a way to increase your velocity of the ball but it also makes it harder to achieve accuracy."
I then thought 'It's alright I can work harder on accuracy afterward so for the time being so that I can throw the ball quicker. I can think about the accuracy of the ball afterward.'
After collecting my thoughts I replied, " Ok teach me Tensei-sensei."
He then nodded and started to teach me some of the drills which will help me to throw the ball quicker and gave me some pointers on my form while pitching the ball. He told me to keep a goal and a realistic one to reach in terms of achieving the speed of the ball. He kept a timer and timed the balls I threw to see my performance.
The first drill he told me is to throw the ball to long-distance and continue practicing in this way to help me build-up my arm power. He then also told me that when pitching I should keep my back leg in the right angle so that I can kick off the ground when throwing the ball and gain momentum to do so.
We continued to practice like this until the sun was starting to set seeing it he stopped me and we both went towards Rei. These practice drills were really good as it felt I was throwing the ball faster than before. But what Tensei-sensei said was also true the balls started to go in different directions and my accuracy came back to the time when I initially started to practice pitching.
When we reached there he was completely exhausted so we decided to go back. Upon reaching my house I told them goodbye and went in. I had dinner with my parents, told them about my day and went to sleep.