Chapter 490: The way forward (2)

Ken scratched the back of his head in embarrassment, letting out a laugh.

“Ha haha, sorry coach. I’m a little eager for your feedback if you couldn’t tell.” He admitted, causing the coach to roll his eyes in response.

“Alright whatever. Take a seat.”

Not needing a second invitation, Ken pulled up a chair and stared at the Coach expectantly. He knew that the man would have some news for him, which meant he would finally find out what steps to make in order to improve.

Seiji turned around and saw Ken’s face not far from his own.

‘Too close…’

“Ahem… Well first off, I want to ask you something.” He stated with a serious expression.

“Hmm? Sure, anything.”

“How is your body feeling?”

‘Eh?’

Out of all the questions he could have been asked, this was not something he had expected, leading to an awkward pause.

Ken lifted his arms and moved them around, showing that there was nothing wrong with his movements.

“I feel fine I guess?”

“Hmm… I see. The reason I ask is because your old throwing form is rather dangerous, especially for someone your age whose body is still in the process of developing.” The coach said.

After saying so, he opened his laptop and pointed to one of the old clips that was open.

“See here, the way you’re whipping your arm through is putting significant pressure on your shoulder. If your muscles aren’t strong enough, your ligaments will begin to deteriorate.”

Ken narrowed his eyes and looked to where the coach was pointing. The clip rolled on in slow motion and he could see the strain that was put on his shoulder in that moment.

The blood suddenly left Ken’s face, causing him to go pale.

He could suddenly understand why he had gotten injured in his past life.

Seiji continued, “But if we look at your current pitching form, its as if your body is instinctively holding back. Instead of your arm being open here, you’re throwing more compactly.”

“This is where you’re losing your velocity.” He said, pointing to Ken’s shoulder.

Ken nodded. Now that the coach had pointed it out, the position of his arm significantly impacted the whipping action of his arm when throwing.

“That’s not the only reason…”

The next 20 minutes was filled with Seiji going over the differences between the forms and pointing out the impacts it was having on his pitching.

Ken felt overwhelmed at all the new information. Somehow he had subconsciously shifted his form after the system began its upgrade, leading to his current predicament.

‘Perhaps it was the system itself that allowed me to pitch like that in the first place?’ Ken thought, though he wasn’t so sure. There were too many unknowns that he couldn’t explore just yet.

While it was all well and good speculating, it didn’t really help him in the long run. His main concern was to get better in this period of time, which was why he asked for help from the coach.

“So what do I do to return to my old form?” Ken asked.

Seiji frowned. He was hoping that Ken wouldn’t ask this question, at least right now.

He shook his head, “Just the fact that you reverted to your current form should tell you enough Ken. Whether you want to admit it or not, your body subconsciously shifted, likely as a way to protect itself.”

Ken’s eyes widened, not expecting such a response from the coach.

While the coach’s theory might not be entirely correct, it did have its merits. The fact that he lost his strength as a result from the system shutting down was the most likely cause for his pitching form changing.

Now that he was lacking the physical fitness required for such an action, his body adjusted on its own in order to maintain itself.

“So I just need to improve my muscles and I can pitch like I used to?” Ken muttered, more so to himself than anyone else.

Seiji’s ears perked up at these words. He was going to suggest building muscles in order to protect the vulnerable shoulder ligaments, yet Ken seemed to already be on the right track.

“If your goal is to get back to where you were, yes you would need to improve your musculoskeletal strength.” He admitted.

Ken’s eyes lit up as he quickly got to his feet in excitement.

“That’s awesome! Thanks Coach!”

“Hey, settle down there tiger. I don’t just mean do pull ups and the like, you’ll need to specifically train the correct muscles or you’ll just completely ruin your form.” He replied, trying to calm down the overexcited teen.

“Ah… sure thing.”

Ken had gotten a little ahead of himself after hearing the solution. He had to admit that he just planned on doing pull ups and push ups in order to strengthen his shoulders, yet apparently that would be detrimental.

He felt a cold sweat run down his back in response to his bad assessment.

Thankfully there was an experienced sports science coach in front of him that would be able to point him in the right direction.

Seiji began to write down some things on a piece of paper.

Curious, Ken peaked over his shoulder and had trouble understanding what was written. It wasn’t that he couldn’t read it, just that he’d never seen some of the words on there.

‘Shoulder external rotation, TRX push up, bent over dumbell row…’

“Eh?”

The coach finally finished writing down the exercises on the piece of paper and handed it to Ken. Yet the more he tried to read the words, the more confused he was.

“What are these words?” Ken asked, his face staring blankly at the coach.

“They’re exercises… Search the internet and you’ll find plenty of tutorials that will be beneficial to you.”

After saying so, Seiji stretched his arms and let out a yawn.

“Ah, you’ll also need to build up your core strength.” He said, pointing to Ken’s stomach.

Just when Ken was about to leave, Seiji left him with one last direction.

“I don’t want you pitching for another 2 months at least.”

“EH!?”