Chapter 248: Practicing the Palmball

After finishing lunch at noon, Huangqian Yangyi called Miyuki and Chris to come to the Bullpen together.

"Slow Curveball and Palmball?" Miyuki frowned as if he were thinking.

"I suggest practicing the Palmball first," Chris said.

"Why?" Huangqian Yangyi asked.

Chris smiled, "The Palmball is similar to the Circle Changeup, so it will be easier to master. It can be turned into a combat-ready weapon in time; you could even learn it today and use it tomorrow."

"Hah, there's no need to be that rushed. I don't even know if I'll be able to play tomorrow; I estimate the manager will have Tanba and Kawakami in charge for this game," Huangqian Yangyi said.

"That's not necessarily true. Immediately after this game is the Quarter-finals; perhaps the manager will have you go up to pitch two innings to find your rhythm," Miyuki said.

Huangqian Yangyi shrugged indifferently, "Let's not talk about that for now. Let's try the Palmball."

Miyuki and Chris looked at each other, and the two tacitly stretched out their hands, "Rock, paper, scissors!"

"I won," the corners of Chris's mouth curled up. Huangqian Yangyi wanted to practice a new pitch, and whether it was him or Miyuki, both wanted to be the first person to catch it.

Miyuki let out an 'ah' and said helplessly, "Then I'll just wait a little longer."

"Come, come, come, the Palmball is gripped like this, right?" Huangqian Yangyi held the baseball in his palm, the ball body completely covered by his palm, his five fingers naturally curled to wrap around the ball, like holding an egg.

"Mm, that's right. Pay attention not to exert force with your index and middle fingers; just lightly hook the baseball on the sides with your thumb and little finger," Miyuki said after looking at it.

Huangqian Yangyi looked at his own grip, then lightly swung his arm a few times to simulate the feeling of pitching.

After getting a feel for it more than ten times, Huangqian Yangyi stopped and turned his head to say, "The feeling is still a little bit different from the force exertion of the Circle Changeup; it's like pushing the ball out."

"It is just pushing it out; don't apply any extra spin to the baseball."

As Chris said this, he walked to the opposite side of Huangqian Yangyi, "First, use the Palmball grip to do a few light toss practices and see."

"Alrighty."

Huangqian Yangyi said, and began the catch training with Chris using the Palmball grip.

"Not bad, that's it. Try increasing the distance a bit more."

Chris said while stepping backward, from the initial 5 meters to 10 meters, 15 meters, and finally a little over 18 meters, which was exactly the distance from the Pitcher's Mound to Home Plate.

When the pitching was stable at this distance, Chris caught the ball sent by Huangqian Yangyi and nodded with satisfaction, "Not bad, you adapted quite quickly. Do you want to try throwing two balls directly to see the effect?"

"Okay."

Huangqian Yangyi caught the ball returned by Chris, rubbed his shoulder, and walked to the pitcher's position.

"Be careful, don't use too much force at the beginning," Miyuki reminded from the side. When practicing a new pitch, if one uses too much force at the start, it is very easy for the form to become distorted.

"Mm, I know," Huangqian Yangyi said, then twisted his waist.

Chris had also crouched down on the opposite side by this time, patted his glove, and shouted, "Throw it over!"

Huangqian Yangyi let out a light breath, adjusted the grip on the baseball in his hand, lifted his leg, and whipped his arm. The baseball flew out from his palm with almost no extra spin. The ball speed looked very slow, and as it flew before Home Plate, it produced a drop toward the left side of the pitcher, with a greater drop magnitude than the Circle Changeup.

Pop!

Chris caught the ball, "It was a bit off; it was a ball, but the speed and movement were both quite good. You just need to practice more."

"Hehe, is that so? To be able to learn it so quickly, I really am the best," Huangqian Yangyi was not humble at all.

"The Palmball and Circle Changeup are already very similar, so stop showing off and pitch properly," Miyuki said with annoyance. He was still feeling depressed about not being the first to catch the new pitch.

"Hehe, Kazuya, why don't you go back? You aren't needed here anymore."

"Baka!" Miyuki rolled his eyes; this guy was really infuriating enough.

Huangqian Yangyi smiled and stopped teasing Miyuki, turning to continue pitching. Bang, bang, bang, pop, pop, pop—as the number of pitches increased, the landing spot of the Palmball gradually stabilized. Huangqian Yangyi could feel that he had already gained some insights into his control of this Palmball.

"Senior Chris, I'm going to pitch normally from now on," Huangqian Yangyi said.

He had been deliberately holding back his strength for the nearly twenty pitches just now. Now that he had the feel for it, he had to try to see if he could throw the ball into Chris's glove under normal conditions.

"Good, go ahead and pitch. Kazuya, grab the speed gun," Chris said, turning his head.

Miyuki quickly brought the speed gun over, "You can pitch."

Whoosh~

Huangqian Yangyi moved nimbly, the baseball flew out from his palm, pop!

"The pitch was off again, but it was in the Strike zone, so it's still not bad," Chris said.

"Ball speed is 112 kilometers, about 5 kilometers slower than your current Circle Changeup. Tsk tsk, with these two changeups combined, how are the Batters supposed to play?" Miyuki said excitedly. Just thinking about using different changeups to toy with Batters in a game made him feel so happy.

Hearing this, Chris stood up and laughed, "Yangyi's Circle Changeup drops toward the right-handed Batter's feet at Home Plate, but the current Palmball drops toward the right-handed Batter's outside corner. Combined with the Fastball, it would be as difficult as ascending to heaven for a Batter to hit well."

"Yeah, especially with such a large difference in ball speed. Sometimes I'm really glad this guy came to Seido; otherwise, if I had to face this jerk in a game, just thinking about it gives me a headache," Miyuki couldn't help but shiver at the possibility. To put it mildly, if Huangqian Yangyi had gone to Ichidai Sanko or Inashiro, then Seido would really be finished for these three years.

"Is that so? Actually, sometimes I also wonder what it would feel like to have Yangyi as an opponent. That kind of game would definitely be very exciting," Chris said.

Miyuki nodded; he had had this thought too.

Just at this moment, a person full of resentment appeared outside the Bullpen, a pair of eyes staring fixedly at Huangqian Yangyi.

"Aniki!!"

Sawamura walked in angrily, carrying a bat.

"Sawamura, what's wrong?" Huangqian Yangyi was completely confused.

Hearing this, Sawamura became even angrier, "Batting! You promised to teach me batting."

"Ah... le..." Huangqian Yangyi smiled awkwardly, "Cough, Sawamura, actually I have been thinking about how to teach you batting. Believe me, I've already thought of a way!"

"Really?" Sawamura looked suspicious; this guy clearly had forgotten, right?

"For real!"

Huangqian Yangyi said, pointing to the opposite side, "Come, you stand over there."

Sawamura didn't understand, but the kid was obedient, carrying his bat and standing beside Chris.

"Good, now you set up in a bunting stance, and when it's time to hit, change your stance back and swing the bat directly."