Chapter 7: 7. Training (3)

So then dad starts to throw the balls at me. So as I just practiced I swung at some, some connected while some missed and the ones which connected flew in random directions. This continued for some time and then dad stopped throwing and came towards me.

He came and said, "Ok you are doing good. It's alright to miss some as you just started. I'll teach you basics called 'load, stride, and swing'." and he proceeded to teach me about it. So I understood that this is a very convenient way to learn how to properly swing the bat. The drill consists of three parts-

one deals with proper positioning of the hands, elbows, and shoulders. Then you go to the second step which is the proper positioning of the legs and keeping some distance between them. The last step is to bring the bat down using the full force and connecting the ball.

Dad told me that these three steps should be practiced and when completing one step you should give a short pause and continue to the next one. Then dad left me to continue teaching Izumi so I started to continue to practice the way I was taught and then lunch came and we three stopped and returned home to eat lunch. Izumi went to his home and we went to ours. After we ate, and after a while Izumi came back to the house and then dad told us, "Ok then we will go to the batting cages today and test out your both batting skills".

Listening to him we both nodded happily and went our way towards the cages and many people were waiting and we were safe as it was rather a small one meaning we didn't wait for a long time. So we got inside the line and waited for some time and finally got our chance. My dad first went in and showed us how to hit the ball and set the speed and to my surprise, my dad set it pretty high and still managed to hit it back.

Then I went inside to hit. I set it pretty low around 50km/hr and went to the right side first. Then the balls started to come at me. I first got tensed and was unable to hit the ball properly then I heard my dad saying, "Don't get tensed Rei calm your shoulders and concentrate on the ball coming ahead instead.".

So I listened and relaxed my shoulders and concentrated on the ball. To my surprise, I saw the ball clearly and in slow motion and I hit it back but due to my strength, it didn't go far but probably enough for a single. Then the next balls came in and I was still able to see the balls in slow motion and hit them back mostly singles and sometimes doubles. Then I went to the opposite box and to my surprise again I could play normally.

So I then felt overconfident and increased the speed to 60km/hr and then the first ball came and I saw it clearly as the rest but my body was not fast enough to react to it so it was a late swing. Then I came out and now it was Izumi's chance so I let him go and stood beside my dad and watched with me.

He went inside and kept the speed as 50km/hr just like me and the balls started to come at him. He was able to connect some and missed some but what was fascinating was that the ones he hit all nearly went to a home run and this is understandable as he has a better body and strong arms compared to me, but it seems he has a problem with connecting the ball.

This continued till evening and then we decided that it was time to go home so we started to go back. Then we reached home. I went to my room to catch a quick nap till dinner and tell him about how I could see the ball.

Then I heard my dad shout from below to come and eat so I went down and saw my dad kept everything ready at the table for us to eat and was waiting for me. So I sat and we both started to eat. After eating we went to the main room and sat down and turned on the tv to watch.

Thinking it was the right time I turned to him and asked, "Oto-san, I want to ask you something".

He replied saying, "Go ahead, son ask me whatever you want."

"Oto-san, it's like this..."

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