Chapter 114: Chapter 13: Leading by Example
From the day he was granted the position of captain, Lin Guanglai began to lead by example, fulfilling his captain responsibilities.
The team’s daily affairs were jointly discussed and managed by captain Lin Guanglai and vice-captain Kenshu Yasuda: After setting the goal of winning the fall Tokyo tournament, the training atmosphere of the Waseda Jitsugyo Baseball Club has been exceptionally intense, with each player brimming with energy.
As captain, Lin Guanglai couldn’t fall behind either. Combining his gains from training in the United States, the coaching staff at Waseda devised a brand new enhancement training plan for Lin Guanglai.
First, with the graduation of third-year ace pitcher Suzuki Kensuke, Lin Guanglai was required to take on the role of primary starter in future games—the first issue to tackle was stamina.
High school baseball demands extremely high endurance from pitchers, and the ace of any team needs the ability to complete back-to-back games. For Lin Guanglai right now, finishing one game might not be too hard, but as the number of games increases and the pace quickens, his stamina will deplete faster, and his pitching effectiveness will significantly decrease.
To enhance his stamina, besides the regular team-wide long-distance running, Lin Guanglai would undergo additional hill-climbing exercises under the supervision of the pitching coach after daily training.
Within the set time frame, Lin Guanglai needed to continuously sprint from the bottom to the top of the hill, pushing his stamina to the limit—after each training session, he felt his heart and lungs burning fiercely, and sweat poured down his body like a torrential downpour.
During his training in the United States, pitching coaches from both Japan and the United States offered numerous suggestions to Lin Guanglai, which included improvements in his pitching posture.
Due to his height reaching nearly 190 cm, Lin Guanglai’s pitching posture is the high-pressure style used frequently by tall pitchers. This style not only ensures velocity and quality but also applies sufficient pressure on the batters.
However, high reward also means high risk—the intensity of high-pressure pitching is high, and during the pitching process, the shoulder’s ligaments and muscles endure significant impact.
Therefore, in order to increase Lin Guanglai’s resilience, after conducting a comprehensive examination of Lin Guanglai’s physical condition, Waseda’s coaching staff began incorporating moderate strength training for him.
At the same time, during his daily pitching practices, Lin Guanglai started using more of his lower body’s strength in pitching.
Pitching is an extremely cohesive action group—in order to maximize power, the pitcher needs to harness the strength of every part of the body.
Reasonable utilization of lower limb muscle groups can effectively increase pitch speed and significantly enhance pitching endurance, complementing daily stamina training.
Waseda’s pitching coach also shared Saito Yuuki’s pitching training method with Lin Guanglai—training on flat ground.
This method effectively prevents the body from leveraging the slope of the pitching mound to impart extra momentum to the baseball, which is beneficial for increasing pitch speed.
Regarding batting training, Lin Guanglai continued to use the theory taught by the Japan National Youth Team’s batting coach, combined with his experiences in the United States, continuously improving his batting technique—he set a goal for himself to become a versatile power hitter with over 50 home runs by the time he graduates from high school.
If asked what the most painful stage of this process is, no matter how many times you ask, Lin Guanglai would always give the same answer: eating.
Over the past half year, thanks to the massive caloric intake every day, Lin Guanglai’s weight has already surpassed 70 kilograms, steadily advancing towards the 80 kilogram mark—but for a starter pitcher with a height close to 1.9 meters, this weight is far from enough.
The daily training of the baseball club is intense, and Lin Guanglai has additional training, so his daily caloric consumption is already a terrifying number; in this situation, to cover the huge caloric gap and make his skinny physique beefier, Lin Guanglai had to force himself to intake far more calories than he burns.
In all his years, Lin Guanglai never felt eating could be such a painful task: compared to the usual enjoyment of tasting food, eating has become more of an additional training challenge for him now:
The first meal after waking up, Lin Guanglai needs to consume at least five bowls of rice;
During the morning break, he has to finish the gigantic rice ball specially made by the baseball club cafeteria, with caloric content roughly equivalent to one and a half bowls of rice;
At lunch, awaiting him is yet another extra-large bento prepared by the baseball club cafeteria, besides a large quantity of rice, it includes vegetables, fruits, and fried pork cutlets to ensure balanced intake of vitamins and proteins;
By the afternoon break, he has to finish two large breads prepared at noon;
Between the start of afternoon training and dinner, there’s another identical extra-large bento waiting for him;
The above components are just appetizers, the real challenge is the dinner after completing a day’s practice—during dinner, Lin Guanglai is required to consume ten bowls of rice!
Counting calories, Lin Guanglai’s daily intake reaches 10,000 kcal—this caloric amount is over four times that of an average adult male’s daily caloric intake.
Importantly, the 10,000 kcal intake number is merely the minimum goal. Lin Guanglai must eat more, not less.
As a child who grew up eating rice, Lin Guanglai initially considered himself quite fond of rice; however, since starting such training, he now sees rice as if looking at a demon, eager to avoid it.
Facing such unimaginable suffering, Lin Guanglai is fully committed—to squeeze all this food into his stomach, he even began to constantly sprinkle salt on rice or mix it with raw eggs to make it more palatable.
Initially, the feeling was quite unpleasant: the sensation of being stuffy full made falling asleep at night somewhat difficult;
But after adapting for a while, Lin Guanglai gradually got used to such intensity; after all, as the old saying goes, you have to eat much to train well.
Among this rapid pace, days passed by one after another; soon, October arrived—
The match day for the 63rd Fall Tokyo Tournament approached closer day by day.