Progress

Shun entered the gym for the first string. Today was the sorting test for the new first-years, but the first-string functioned as usual.

The first string members didn't care about the sorting test. They only cared about the members who made it to the first-string.

Of course, there were exceptions. Mibuchi and Shun were very interested in the new prospects, as the captain and vice-captain, they had to make sure that the future of the team was strong and the second-string inductees were the very future of the first-string team.

Of course, that didn't mean that they were going to see the sorting process for the first year.

They just wanted to see who got into the second string as a first-year.

Shun had arrived late as today was his turn for classroom cleaning duty. He looked around to see all the regulars had already arrived.

They were warming up for the day. Shun went to where Kaitani and Yuki were stretching and greeted them.

Shun: "Hey, guys! How are you doing today?"

Kaitani and Yuki looked up at Shun as he started to warm up.

Kaitani: "We are doing fine. What about you? Why didn't you come to the club solicitations, on the first day."

Shun remembered the club solicitations, the fight among the clubs to attract new members for their clubs. The basketball club didn't need to look for new first-years, as they were pretty famous, and those who wanted to join would join on their own.

But they did go to the solicitations as one never knew when they might succeed in recruiting a newbie who might become a good player and help the team.

The prime example of this was Otsubo. He had started playing in middle school and then rose to the captain of the team, participating in two Nationals, and leading the team as the captain once.

Shun: "I was busy with some work with my class. Our homeroom teacher is really particular about the class' image. She grilled us about the ground rules after school. I wasn't able to come because it took too long."

The three of them finished their warmup and moved on to the workout with the whole team.

Between the workout, Yuki asked them about the new second-year that was entering the first-string in a few days.

Yuki: "Did you hear about the second-year that is going to join the first-string?"

Both Kaitani and Shun nodded.

Shun: "I saw the guy when I went out to the second-string gym, he was insanely tall, he is as taller than Otsubo-san despite, being two years younger than him."

Kaitani whistled and asked.

Kaitani: "That means he is taller than Aone-san."

Shun nodded and made a prediction.

Shun: "If he doesn't stop growing, he might reach two-hundred centimeter by the time he reaches high school."

Yuki thought about if the tall second-stringer could become an asset to the team.

Yuki: "Do you think he will be able to join the bench for this year's National preliminaries."

Shun nodded and spoke his thoughts.

Shun: "Definitely, I sometimes go and see second-string's practice in my off time. He is has become good enough to at least pull his weight in the first-string, he will definitely join the bench, before the preliminaries."

Shun looked at his two friends and clubmates.

Shun: "I know about the dude, but I don't know his name. You guys were with him in the second-string, you must know his name."

Yuki looked at Shun and revealed his name.

Yuki: "Hyakuzawa Yūdai." [1]

-*-*-*-*-

It was time for the mini-game of the day, and Tokiawadai's coach smiled as he looked at the progress shown by the first-string.

Coach: "They have definitely grown."

He looked at the captain of the first-string and saw the difference in skills between the time he started shooting off the dribble and now.

Mibuchi received the ball at the three-point line, but a defender was right on his mark. Mibuchi moved along the three-point line, trying to get away from his defender and successfully evaded him by stopping and preforming a pivot to go forward in the opposite direction creating plenty of space between them.

Mibuchi took the shot from the three-point line, successfully making the shoot and scored three-point.

Coach: 'His accuracy has become better, and he has a good feeling about when to shoot off the dribble, and when to wait for the ball to come to him from his teammates.

And, if he completes the move, he showed to me before the spring vacations, then he might just become the most all-rounded shooter I have seen in a while.'

-*-*-*-*-

Coach turned his eyes towards Aone. He had seen Aone jumping for rebounds, as other members did there shooting drills.

Now he saw Aone dominating the rebounds in both power and height.

Coach: 'He hasn't grown in height in the last couple of months, but his jumping ability is getting better, he is jumping higher and higher. He had completely changed his style from balanced to defense.'

Coach felt good as he saw Aone taking the responsibility as a third-year seriously and changing his style to suit the team better.

Coach: 'He is also building up his strength and endurance to go up and down the court for getting rebounds. He has grown to be a fine backbone to the team. He doesn't get tunnel vision and choose his positioning calmly and cleverly.'

The coach was extremely impressed by Aone's persistence and hard work.

Then he turned towards the second-year on the team and saw them playing on different games in the gym.

-*-*-*-*-

He looked at Kaitani and saw him running around the court faster than anyone on the court. He had excellent acceleration and deceleration and was explosive on the ground.

Coach: 'He still hasn't quite gotten the timing on layups and floaters, but his accuracy is acceptable. He will be fine facing opponents of above-average height, but tall players as tall as Aone will still give him problems.'

Kaitani got a pass from his team member and quickly shot from the mid-range. The ball had a good spin and dropped in the net smoothly.

Coach: 'He has also gotten solid at mid-range shooting. He is good at creating space in tight areas. It will serve as a great asset to him. But we need to work on his temper, he gets too worked up and is brash.'

-*-*-*-*-

Next on the list was Yuki Tetsuya. The coach respected Yuki the most on the team.

Yuki worked hard more than anyone and was efficient in his approach.

Yuki was staying close to his mark and wasn't letting him pass.

Coach thought about talented offensive players.

Coach: 'Good offensive players know how to deceive defenders, they drive past them if the defender stays close to them, and they shoot if the defender defends from a distance.'

Coach looked at Yuki and thought.

Coach: 'Yuki is a good defense, he reads the people good enough to tell if they are going to shoot and contest the shoots, and if they try to drive by, he has good pressure defense to stop them.

He is persistent and remains focused. All the qualities of an excellent ground defender.'

-*-*-*-*-

The coach turned towards the star player of the team.

Coach: 'Kageyama Shun. Where should I start describing him?'

Coach felt overwhelmed when he looked at Kageyama Shun.

Coach: 'An amazing talent who works hard to improve himself. He has completely revamped his dribbling skills in the past few months, his shooting accuracy is on the rise, and his passing skills are getting honed with each mini-game.'

Coach remembered a conversation he had with Shun at the first practice of the new year.

Shun: "Coach, can you help me get better at changing the pace of my attacks."

Coach widened his eyes at the concept that Shun talked about and thought.

Coach: 'Players don't think about the change of pace until the late years of their high school career. Why is he asking for it now in middle school.'

The coach addressed his question to Shun.

Coach: "Kageyama-kun, why do you want to learn about the change of pace."

Shun sighed and scratched the back of his head.

Shun: "I have gotten pretty good at free-forming my dribbles, but if I want to get passed good and experienced defenders, I need something more. At this rate, my dribbling patterns will get more and more complex, and the time it takes to pass them increases, and it gives enough time for the backup to arrive.

An irregular change of pace will grant me a significant advantage over any defender and will throw them off."

The coach couldn't help but wonder how Shun not only figured out a problem he could have in the future but also found himself a solution to his problem.

Coach: "I will say this I am impressed with your reasoning, most players your age would think that complexity is always the answer, but with complexity comes increased instability and higher chances of the ball getting stolen.

Now about the change of pace, I can't teach you that. The skill is not something that is taught but learned through experience. You need to learn it on the court, go against defenders, and learn what it takes to tick off and deceive the defenders."

From that day, Shun had been learning to change the pace of his dribbles.

He had been having a few problems with that as he would make the wrong change in his pacing and get the ball stolen from him.

But the coach could see Shun getting better every day, he didn't make the same type of mistake twice, and with each matchup, he got better.

Coach looked at Shun and felt that something was going to change in Shun. His many years of experience with youth basketball was telling him that Shun was going to have a transformation.

Coach: 'He needs a catalyst. I need to find him a strong opponent to have a game against. An opportunity to go all out and use every skill he has to the fullest.

One game will do, but the question is who?'

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

A/N - 1: Hyakuzawa Yudai is a character from Haikyuu. The link to this profile will be in the comments.