p01
Nishiura’s defense with low number of errors is thanks to Momokan training them well with
strong fungo drills!
Chapter 129. Mental training 2
p02
Nishiura’s in the middle of upgrading! If the players are going to improve their mental strength, the change in the coach’s way of thinking is necessary too!
Matsu: What’s the purpose of fungo drills?
Momokan: Eh. Mastering skills… right?
Matsu: Do you let them catch difficult balls?
Momokan: I try to make them catch to the best of
each player’s abilities (
(to hit it so each player can catch it if he tries)
)
Matsu: Then it’s about if they can or can’t (could and couldn’t?) catch it?
Momokan: Well, that’s right
Matsu: Let’s change the mindset and make it a place to accumulate success experience?
p8
Matsu: The person in question and people around can tell the player made a mistake. Why do you need to confirm it by saying it out loud? Let’s make practice a place to plant the success image (in their heads) and create self-confidence!
Kou: Today Momokan was different than usual.
p9
Fumiki: Yep.She didn’t scold me even once today.
Hanai: Even normally (usually) she doesn’t scold you, does she?
Fumiki: Nah-ah. Then the way how she adrressed it (how she gave us a notice / warning) was different than usual?
Yuuto: At first it was frightening, but somehow practice was easy (it was easy to do / to practice) today
Kazutoshi: Yep yep
Shintarou: I wonder if she was instructed by Matsuzaki-san
p10
p11
Momokan: Why did I purposely say out loud what everyone already knew / understood?
p12
Momokan: I wasn’t really thinking and said it in the rhythm.
—Or rather, I think somewehere (deep down) I enjoyed pointing out their mistakes.
Matsu: Is that so?
Momokan: From the start, I felt that I can’t let the boys not take me seriously so I thought that fatherly, not motherly, coaching was necessary.
p13
Matsu: High-level players has positive thinking and are good at finding strong point in people. To put it the other way around, low-level players will immediately blurt out something that would get them under plus beams.
p14
Matsu:
—like this. This is a greeting from a top-class (first-rate) player.
Momokan: —is this different from what they call… character?
p15
Momokan: Greeting is an act (behaviour) so you can do it if you try, but will kids with negative mindset (
thinking
) change it to positive thinking with training?
Matsu: What’s “character“? Of course, it’s something you were born with,
L-let’s eat / Yes!
Matsu: but do you think if you were raised while being constantly yelled at and when you were often praised it will turn into the same “character”? The greeting before, as you said, is an act you can do if you want (try).
p16
Matsu: Just be deciding if you will or won’t do it will totally change how you or people around feel. Greetings are one of team’s routine. Actually each player should
do greetings
understandingly
(why do it at all) but even forced greetings have effect. Baseball is sports where you make mistakes that’s why you need to be good at changing gears / the mood. Greetings and music are veru useful (handy) for changing the mood / gears. I said that you can train mental strength, but it could be said that you can learn (
acquire
) it as a technique (used english word as it is), same as greetings.
p17
Matsu: Think of “plus” positive thinking as a “technique / skill” (japanese word) you can use in a match. So everyone took and marked (assessed) his own test during the lunch break. This test is widely used by olympic athletes and top-class players. I’ll give you a simple (quick) explanation of the results now. First, the circle grapf on the left. Bigger circle (the bigger the circle is the better) and
small dents and lumps mean that balance is good.
p18
p19
p20
p21
Matsu: Mental strength is the power of imagination (mental image). Don’t just do what you are told but always think why you were told that and what would happen if you do that. And the last, cooperativeness. It shows if you can communicate with your teammates.
p22
Matsu: By rough look team average here is close to perfect score! This is a strong point of this team with small number of members who are in the same year!
Ohhh
Matsu: And lastly,
overall evaluation. In 5-level (stage) assessment you get 5 if you score more than 210 points, but if you score more than 230 points here it means first rank (place) throughout the country! If you have 220 points you can become national-level player no matter what you do!
p23
Matsu: Ifeveryone on the team has more than 210 points you can go to the Nationals. Then what about this team’s results! Who has more than 230 points! *raises hand*
p24
p25
p26
Matsu: Then those who still hasn’t raised a hand
Shouji: Who?
Shintarou: Oki and
Mihashi?
Hanai: Oh my…
Matsu: I can say it, right?
Kazutoshi: Erm, yes.
Ren: Yes
Matsu: Their overall evaluation is “1”
p27
Matsu: The circle on the chart 1 is this small. And both of them are regulars. And one (of them) is the ace, right? Do you undersnatnd what this means?
p28
p29
Matsu: However, “4 (level) or more” isn’t really a good estimation (assessment). It’s said that the turning point is “200”. For people with overall evaluation less than 4 it might result in nothing no matter how much they practice, because they may not be able to show their true abilities in real deal (official games). Let’s train our mental strength so that everyone can get perfect score!
Yes, sir!
Matsu: Of course, you have to keep a worbook every day but I’ll show you a simple training!
p30
Matsu: Its name is urination training!
Oh…?
Matsu: Do you know that body language makes an impact on the
spirit
(mood / feelings)? It’s fun to take good poses on purpose though. When you shrink and act like you don’t have confidence, your confidence will really disappear. When you cross your legs and extend your arms and act like you have confidence, you’ll really get confidence and the difference in the behaviour will show after that. By the way, what does this posture when you shrink and look down looks like?
Yuuto: Ah. Like you’re looking at your cell phone.
p31
Matsu: Right. This pose is really bad. The opposite pose, this pose is really good (great)! The pose when you are first at the goal at sports tournament (day / athletic meeting)! Seems like you’d be loud too! TOP FORM (CONDITION)! YES!
To… Top form (condition)…
Matsu: Once more!
TOP FORM (CONDITION)!!
p32
Matsu: Don’t have a yawn or something! UWAAH! do it like that! If someone sighs 1000 times he might turn into a pseudo-disease. Body language has this much impact on the spirit (mood / feelings). If you go to the toilet 6 times a day, it’s 2190 times a year. Try doing “Top form (condition)” (each time).
p33
Matsu: Your attitude and your thinking will change!
Kazutoshi: Ah
Ren: Yes!
Matsu: And another thing that worries me is “drive for the victory”. It’s pretty low for everyone. Drive for the victory will naturally become stronger as you become 2nd and 3rd years. It’s fine if everyone is all right with it, but you should probably confirm once again your team’s goal.
p34
Matsu: What’s this team’s goal?
Hanai: … It’s koshien champions!
Matsu: ‘kay. In the world of mental training it’s a obvious (natural / reasonable) goal to aim to become #1 in Japan or #1 in the world! I said it before mental strength is the power of imagination (mental image).
p35
Matsu: Let’s have stronger and more concrete image of you becoming Koshien champions. You can’t realize (fullfil / make come true) things that you can’t imagine! You can watch Koshien on TV, manga is okay too, use that as reference. The scene when you taste the moment of victory— Imagine your mood (feeling), sounds,
air temperature, even the smell
p36
Matsu: Even if you’re not successful at first, if you do it every day it’ll come to you in a flash. Koshien Champions! Let’s do it!
Yes
Mental strength is one skill (one of techniques). Do physical training with all
your might too!
Author’s note: For my child’s birthday we went to TDL (Tokyo Disneyland
) after 2 years. Usually I’m completely exhausted at 3p.m., but we made a dinner reservation and
focused on parade instead of rides (attractions) to match the child, I surprisingly enjoyed it, and (I) wasn’t tired even though we stayed till 10 p.m. This is good, TDL~
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