Capítulo 61: 61. Training Start (VI)

Going back inside all of them washed their hands and got seated. After a morning full of practice all four of them were very hungry and wolfed down till nothing was left in their bowls. Having eaten full, all of them stood up to go back towards their rooms.

Shirogana told Rei before he went out, "Rei I will teach you some more drills in the evening so that you could practice them for the rest of your summer. After these your basics all would be covered and you can train completely." and went away.

Rei nodded and went to his room to take some rest. He woke to feel refreshed and checked his phone for the time. It was already 4, So he got up and made his way towards the hall to listen to Shirogana's drills.

He saw Shirogana sitting with Sora waiting for him. He apologized seeing that he kept them waiting, "I am sorry Oji-san I was sleeping and did not look at the time."

Shirogana simply waved his hands and said, "It's ok Rei we weren't waiting for long anyway."

Rei nodded and Shirogana continued, "Ok now let's go to the backyard and I will start teaching you the drills."

All three of them went outside and Meiko couldn't join them this time as she had work to get down outside. Shirogana stopped after reaching the backyard while Sora and Rei were paying attention to him carefully waiting for him to start his explanation.

Shirogana started with his explanation, "Ok now Rei. you have started your training to become a catcher and learned some drills regarding it. But even though your body is very fit you are yet to train the core muscles needed for a catcher efficiently. Compared to other catchers who trained for a long time your core muscles are weaker.

The main core muscles for a catcher are the hamstrings, quads, glutes, and hips in order to get up and down into a catching squat position. Due to the constant movement for the catcher these 4 muscles are on constant strain for a long time. If you do not properly exercise these muscles you would suffer from pain in the later periods."

Rei nodded as he understood the importance of these 4 muscles. Shirogana continued, " Now the first thing you need to improve your hamstring muscles with quadriceps. So start with doing more squats. Add weight to your body so it helps build body power."

Rei noted in his mind to increase doing squats more. Shirogana continued, "Ok now the next drill you should focus on is doing side lunges. Doing side lunges with help mainly to improve your hamstring, quads, and your glute muscles. It would be even more effective when you carry a dumbbell in each of your hands. This will help to increase your movement and catch all types of wild pitches thrown.

Now the next drill is to mainly improve your body's agility. You should do rope jumping which would help you to increase this. Do rope jumping in various ways to increase your foot speed and coordination. Footwork is an important aspect of being a catcher. Blocking pitches and pivoting to throw out base runners requires you to be quick on your feet. So doing this will help you increase all of these."

Rei listened closely to all of his explanations and reasoning of the drills. The more Rei listened the more he understood how lacking he was and how much more work he had to put in to catch up with others.

Shirogana continued to the next drill, "Now the last drill is divided into 2 parts one is the Lower-Body plyometrics and the other upper-Body plyometrics. Now starting with Lower-Body plyometrics, this is a jump training in short sense and helps to build explosive leg power. You can improve this by crouching down and jumping up as hard as you can over and over again. You can also jump on something like a bench in one effective move.

Next Upper-Body plyometrics will help to strengthen your arms and shoulders helping your arms to be strong for all the throwing a catcher has to do. You can use a medicine ball for this and throw the ball while performing explosive throwing movements with both hands, using your arms and legs to generate power."

Pausing for a second, Shirogana continued, "Now Rei, these are the basic drills for building your core muscles. Practice these drills every day till your school reopens and you will be able to be on the same level of catchers your grade. Remember one thing Rei when you are catching not only your spot is on the line but also the pitcher you're catching for."

Rei felt confused and asked, "The Pitcher?"

Shirogana nodded and explained his word, "Yes Rei the pitcher. A pitcher is only able to perform well when the catcher is able to draw out his complete potential. If the pitcher fails to pitch properly then in this aspect it only means that the catcher was not able to do a good job in his position."

Rei nodded as what Shirogana said was correct. A pitcher alone can never bring out his maximum potential and this was the job for a catcher like Rei to help the pitcher instead.

As the explanation was done Shirogana made his way inside along with Sora and Rei. Rei silently went towards his room and took out a new notebook. He sat on his chair and started to write all the drills he learned till now this summer, starting with the soft hands drill till today's basic core muscles building drills. He wrote the importance of the drills along with its impact on the body.

He closed the book naming it ' CATCHER DRILLS' and got to work on his stance. He stayed till 2 hours and 15 minutes this time making huge improvements. He started to do the drills he learned after that. Slowly one by one he did the drills and got accustomed to them.

While doing the drills he felt the stress being applied to the core muscles meaning the drills are working. He noticed it was already around dinner time and stopped, making his way towards the dining room.