Chapter 12

It had been over 5 months since Hinata had started practicing with the Neighbourhood Association, and he couldn't quite believe how much he'd improved since then. He knew he had worked really hard for it, but it still felt pretty surreal. There was a stark contrast between his now and how he was during the Kitagawa Daiichi match.

After he solidified his basics, his rate of improvement had increased drastically. Especially his receives and jump floater serves. Receiving was the bread and butter for a volleyball player. If they couldn't get the ball up, they wouldn't even have a fighting chance against their opponents. They'd just lose. It was that simple.

Shimada had taught him how to do jump floater serves. He didn't exactly copy Shimada like Yamaguchi had done. Instead, he took whatever was important, and put his own touch to it. It took a lot of practicing, but he was able to implement it in a way that worked for him and suited his style.

Shimada had actually cried after Hinata was able to pull it off during a practice and then thanked Shimada for teaching him. The entire team had praised him too. He was now practicing to improving his serve accuracy.

It was crazy how quickly he was able to learn to do new things, after his basics were no longer an issue. Knowing the process and techniques involved helped a lot more that he initially thought. And while that was certainly true, there was still only one way to perfect them... by Practice.

Currently, his defence was much better than his offensive capabilities. Defence was the biggest and the most obvious weakness of the 'other' Shoyo - as he'd started to call his future version - during his high school volleyball days. And while he became a defence monster later in his professional career, it still didn't change that fact.

It was just as Oikawa had once said,- 'Receives don't improve overnight'. That was the reason why he focused on improving his defence first. He didn't want to be the same as the 'other' Shoyo.. he wanted to be better. While there would always be room for improvement, he was pretty confident about his defensive skills now.

His offence wasn't weak by any means.. it was just that his defence was stronger at the moment.

He was currently working on his Jump serves and Blocks, along with his sets. His sets were pretty decent and while he could do a good jump serve, he still hadn't perfected the Demon serve. He could do it.. but he wasn't confident about It's success rate. Somehow managing to pull off 2-3 out of 10 serves wasn't something to brag about in his opinion. It was even harder for him because his version wasn't the 'normal' demon serve. His one had a nasty spin on it and therefore was even harder to perfect.

While he should've just been happy about the fact that he could even pull it off, - seeing as even Oikawa wasn't able to do the server until the spring high qualifiers - he had set the bar pretty high for himself, and he'd only be satisfied after he could accurately nail at least 7 out of 10 of those servers.

Ukai was helping him with his sets so he wasn't too worried about their progress rate. Hinata knew he was in capable hands. Besides.. he also had his reliable memories and the 'other' Shoyo was pretty good at setting so he was confident about improving his settings abilities.

Hinata had a pretty good game sense and observation skills, and he believed that it was one of the most important aspects of Blocking. Blockers had to always be aware of the ball. There were different techniques and tactics to blocking, so there wasn't any single type that was the undisputed best. The best block was the one that worked for the team.

He was confident about his techniques.. but the art of blocking was actually very subtle, regardless of how formidable it looked. There were a lot of thoughts and mind game involved. It blocks had to be strong but the players had to remain flexible at the same time. If the blockers aren't flexible and can't improvise, it wouldn't take long before their opponents found a way around it and after that.. their defence would being to crumble.

It was why he was careful about his blocking approach and wanted to remain flexible. One player couldn't always block alone. It was a team effort and depended on the players. While individual skills at blocking were important and determined how good one was, it didn't change the fact that it took a team effort, to make successful blocks throughout the duration of the match.

One person, regardless of strength.. couldn't win alone. It was pretty straightforward and seemed obvious at first, but.. it takes a while to realise just how deep it was.

It was why Hinata settled for just practicing to improve his techniques and observing different blocks for now. Both during practice and through videos. Besides.. Takinoue was a pretty decent blocker himself so Hinata always observed him.

It wasn't just him game that was improving. His hard work and effort in the gym was starting to pay off too. His body was much more fit and his athleticism had improved. His muscles were starting to show. While it wasn't quite there yet.. he was confident he'd get his desired body by the time he started high school.

His speed, stamina, and strength had improved as well. He now jumped a bit higher that before. He was still lean, but he no longer looked like the wind could blow him away.

His height had increased too! He was now 165 cm tall (5'5''), which was already better than his future version who was (5'4'') when he started high school. He was certain that he'd be at least 5'6'' tall when he started school. It wasn't a lot, but for someone like him.. it was a big improvement.

He had lost some of his baby fat on his face, and it was starting to get more defined. It was becoming sharper and he was now starting to draw looks. It was even more so due to his striking orange hair and hazel eyes.

His body was going through a change and he wanted to know how he'd look when it was completed.

He now had another thing to look forward too.