Chapter 878: Surpassing the ace pitcher! Numerical crushing!

The two coaches suppressed the anxiety in their hearts and started from the most basic equipment.

Kuroda Keisuke turned around and took out a brand new but specially treated dark brown baseball glove from a side equipment bag, and handed it to Natsume Chikage solemnly with both hands.

"A-kun, this is a brand new baseball glove prepared for you. We have pre-processed it for a period of time according to the needs of professional pitchers."

Sano Sho explained in detail on the side, his fingers gesturing to the key parts of the glove:

"Professional baseball gloves, especially those used by pitchers, cannot be used directly after buying."

"The new glove is very hard, the leather lacks flexibility, and it cannot catch or control the ball smoothly, and even hinders the subtle movements of the fingers."

He took the glove and skillfully demonstrated the action of pressing the palm and ball pocket of the glove.

"It needs to be like this, use special protective oil to cooperate with repeated pressing, bending, and sometimes even use the ball to repeatedly hit specific parts, so that the leather gradually forms a 'memory' suitable for the user's hand shape, becoming soft and fitting, but without losing support."

"This process is professionally called 'Break-in', and it often takes several weeks or longer."

"A good, 'tamed' glove is like an extension of the pitcher's arm, which is crucial."

Natsume Chikage suddenly realized, took the glove with a faint leather scent and maintenance oil smell, and felt it was indeed much softer than it looked, and the key parts already had traces of use like concave marks.

"So that's it, thank you two coaches for preparing so thoughtfully for me."

He thanked sincerely, then put the glove on his left hand, adjusting the position of his fingers and the binding strap.

Seeing Natsume Chikage's attitude, the two coaches felt a little relieved.

Immediately, the teaching officially began.

Since they only needed to specialize in pitching this time, the two didn't explain other complex rules of baseball, but went straight to the core.

The guidance leader was Sano Sho, a former professional pitcher.

"Then, A-kun, let's start from the very basic place."

Sano Sho stood on the pitcher's plate, his expression becoming extremely focused and serious.

"Pitching is an art of precisely transmitting whole-body strength to a small ball."

"If any link goes wrong, the strength will be scattered, and the ball speed, control, and ball quality will be greatly reduced, and more importantly—it is extremely easy to get injured."

"So, please abandon the idea of 'throwing hard' and instead feel 'how to exert force correctly'."

He started an extremely detailed, even somewhat cumbersome decomposition teaching.

Stance: The position of both feet on the pitcher's plate, how the center of gravity is distributed, how the body is slightly sideways facing the home plate.

Ball grip: How to press the index finger and middle finger on the seam of the ball, how the thumb gently supports from below, and how the ring finger and little finger assist in stabilization. Different grips will directly determine the rotation and trajectory of the ball.

Start: The timing and coordination of lifting the leg, turning the hips, and shifting the center of gravity.

Arm swing: The trajectory of the arm is not a simple "wheel big arm," but like a whip, accumulating strength from behind, transmitting through the shoulder, elbow, and wrist, and finally "flicking" the ball out at the best release point in front of the body.

Release: The moment the fingertips leave the ball, the wrist buckle, and the feeling of the fingers flicking the ball.

Follow-through: The natural follow-up action of the arm and body after the ball is released, how to buffer the strength and protect the joints.

Every link, Sano Sho demonstrated personally several times, and then let Natsume Chikage imitate, and he and Kuroda Keisuke observed from all angles, constantly correcting the subtle points.

"Here, the body must be more stable when lifting the leg, like a tree, the axis foot must be firmly nailed to the ground."

"When turning, imagine using the belt to drive the upper body, don't open the shoulders too early."

"Relax the arm, like a whip, yes, feel the transmission of strength..."

And Natsume Chikage was pleasantly surprised to find that if he treated his hand as a sword, he could indeed trigger the kendo talent of the 'Decaying Wooden Sword'.

Because of this.

His ability to control his body, it seems, could be adjusted at a super fast speed according to the situation of pitching when he learned kendo.

Later.

The teaching lasted for about five minutes.

And in these five minutes, the surprise in the hearts of the two coaches began to expand like ripples.

Natsume Chikage's talent in body control once again made them feel that familiar, near-horrifying shock.

At first, Natsume Chikage's movements were obviously unfamiliar, even a bit stiff, completely a layman.

But after only five or six detailed decomposition demonstrations and corrections by Sano Sho, the movements he made again already had a considerable appearance.

Not "a bit like," but the frame, angle, and rhythm all reached a shocking degree of similarity.

Later, when Sano Sho and Kuroda Keisuke stared wide-eyed, trying to find obvious deformation or errors in Natsume Chikage's movements, they found that they actually couldn't pick out any faults.

From the static preparatory posture to the dynamic force-exerting process, Natsume Chikage's imitation was as precise as a mirror, even more standard than many novices who had trained for several months.

"This... this body imitation and learning ability..." Kuroda Keisuke said to Sano Sho in a low voice.

Sano Sho swallowed his saliva and nodded, his eyes serious and excited.

But they knew deeply that standard movements were just an admission ticket.

The soul of pitching lies in the "force exertion" where the whole body's strength gathers at the fingertips within a few tenths of a second, and the "ball feel" that comes with it.

Without correct force exertion, no matter how beautiful the posture is, it is just an empty frame, and it cannot throw speed.

Without ball feel, no matter how great the strength is, it cannot accurately control the ball path.

Therefore, after confirming that Natsume Chikage's basic movements were basically correct, they decided to enter the next stage—throwing the first ball, aiming at a fastball, first establishing the most basic ball speed and accuracy.

"A-kun, now try to throw a ball, don't use too much force, the focus is to keep the movements just taught without deformation, and feel the process of strength transmitting from the feet to the fingers."

Sano Sho stood at the catcher's position, put on the mask and protective gear, and clapped his gloves.

"Throw it to me first, relax, just like the air swing you practiced just now."

Kuroda Keisuke watched nervously on the side, holding a recording board and pen in his hand, ready to write down all the problems.

Natsume Chikage nodded, took a deep breath, and stood on the pitcher's plate.

He recalled all the points just now, lifted his leg, turned his body, swung his arm, released—

The first ball was released.

The small white ball drew an arc, but obviously deviated from the direction, let alone the strike zone, it didn't even touch the catcher's glove behind the home plate, and fell far on the ground next to it.

Natsume Chikage was not discouraged and made adjustments slowly.

At this moment.

He hadn't used the effects of 'Hot-Blooded Baseball' and 'Effort Baseball Glove' yet.

Because now it was just a basic training of 'light pitching'.

If he used those two pieces of equipment now, because of the hit rate, the ball that wouldn't have hit would suddenly hit.

This kind of must-hit effect would only affect his progress in consolidating the foundation.

Better to wait until after learning the basics, until the official pitching.

So now he intended to use the ultimate control over the body attached to the 'Decaying Wooden Sword' to start consolidating the body 'pitching' foundation.

The second ball, a little closer, although still crooked, but compared to the first ball, it had already improved significantly.

The third ball, finally went towards the catcher, but the landing point was still some distance from the glove.

Kuroda and Sano exchanged a look, although they had expected it, their hearts still sank.

Sure enough, from "shape-like" to "spirit-like," from "knowing how to do" to "being able to do," there was a huge chasm in the middle.

Standard movements didn't mean being able to throw accurately, which required a lot of practice to cultivate muscle memory and spatial sense.

It seems that even Natsume Chikage, a batting genius, in terms of pitching talent... currently looks a bit ordinary.

"It doesn't matter, A-kun, it's like this at the beginning." Sano Sho's voice came through the mask, trying to keep encouragement, "Pay attention to the feeling of your wrist when releasing the ball, the direction of your fingers flicking the ball determines the direction of the ball."

"Yes, don't rush to exert force, first find the feeling of 'making the ball fly straight to the target'." Kuroda Keisuke also added.

Natsume Chikage felt that the so-called 'ball feel' was actually essentially the same as the 'kendo' slash.

Both are controlling distance, attacking.

Even Natsume Chikage was pleasantly surprised to find that his 'Darwin's Notes', about the special sensitivity of spatial lines, also had special effects at this moment.

So after two or three balls.

In his eyes, he could already vaguely see the approximate ball path he could throw after his body was manipulated.

And in his heart, he also vaguely formed the basic 'ball feel'.

But to combine the two, he needed to throw more balls.