On The Rise As A Catcher [EN]: Chapter 13

The team that paid Kim Jung-ryul 8 billion won in free agency [FA, a system where players can sign with new teams after a certain period] gave up on him due to Goth’s complex adverse conditions.

They don’t even care about the minor leagues, so there’s no way the team would be interested in the rehab group.

Objectively, it was bleak, but I couldn’t give up hope.

It would have been best to go to a lower-ranked team with a thin first-team roster, but now there’s no choice.

A hidden talent.

If I can’t break through here, I’ll be forever stuck in the bottom of the rehab group, disappearing without a trace.

Tap.

Kim Young-suk sent a link.

Song Seok-hyun didn’t leave his desk until the morning sun rose.

* * *

“Your face looks terrible today. Didn’t you sleep? Your dark circles are down to your knees.”

Afternoon training time.

Kim Jung-ryul looked at Song Seok-hyun’s haggard face and laughed.

“Is it because of what I said yesterday? Did I put too much pressure on a kid? Are you okay?”

Song Seok-hyun rubbed his eyes.

“I’m sorry. I couldn’t sleep much.”

“I’m sorry, man. I thought you should know…”

“It’s okay. More than that, senior.”

“Yeah, why?”

“Can I ask you something?”

Kim Jung-ryul nodded.

“Yeah, well, there’s nothing I can do for you, but I’ll answer what I can.”

“Senior, are you really suffering from the yips [a sudden and unexplained loss of motor skills in athletes]?”

Kim Jung-ryul looked awkward at the mention of the yips.

“Me? Well… yeah. The yips. Is that what you were curious about?”

“Yes.”

“You should be worrying about your own future, not worrying about me having the yips. Haha. I appreciate you thinking of me, but is that why you stayed up all night?”

Kim Jung-ryul looked at Song Seok-hyun with pity, unaware of Song Seok-hyun’s true feelings.

“You’re still young, so you’re kind. Hey, this is the pros. Look out for yourself first. What’s it to you that I have the yips?”

“Aren’t you my first partner, senior? I’ve decided to stop worrying about what happens to the rehab group in the future since there’s nothing I can do about it. But since you’re my first pro pitcher, I want to help you.”

Kim Jung-ryul may have been criticized as ‘Kim Eat-and-Run,’ but he is Goth’s franchise star.

If he’s been an ace who’s played only for Goth for over 10 years, his words will carry weight with the first team, the second team, and even the front office.

I wasn’t 100% sure, but I believed that if I helped Kim Jung-ryul’s comeback, he wouldn’t ignore Song Seok-hyun, given his personality.

The more Song Seok-hyun became a definite help to Kim Jung-ryul’s comeback.

“You little…”

Kim Jung-ryul’s eyes welled up even though it wasn’t a big deal.

Kim Jung-ryul hugged Song Seok-hyun.

Song Seok-hyun was taken aback by the sudden hug but decided to hug back for now.

What was most embarrassing wasn’t the hug, but the tears.

Crying here?

“You’re a really good guy.”

“Yes? No, it’s not that I’m…”

“Thank you. The yips aren’t something I can control, but I’ll work hard for your sake. You’ll need something to focus on too.”

Kim Jung-ryul broke the hug and turned around. I could see him wiping away tears.

Song Seok-hyun was embarrassed but said nothing.

“Senior.”

“Yeah.”

“Can I ask what your current situation is?”

“Hoo, yeah. I have to be honest with my wife. Bro, let me tell you…”

Kim Jung-ryul’s situation was like this.

Kim Jung-ryul had been a fixed starter since he was young, pitching a lot of innings.

Goth wasn’t a championship-contending team, but they often advanced to the postseason with FA acquisitions. As with any team, in the postseason, all teams rotated with 3-4 starters.

He pitched long innings throughout the season and took on small breaks, great pressure, and long innings in the postseason.

Injuries were inevitable.

The problem was that he lost confidence after suffering three injuries.

If he got injured again here, he might not only quit being a pro but also be unable to throw a ball for the rest of his life.

Kim Jung-ryul, a fastball pitcher, couldn’t suddenly become a finesse pitcher.

When he tried to throw the ball without putting strain on his shoulder and elbow, he naturally only threw so-called ‘junk balls.’

A fastball pitcher who had lost his fastball was no more and no less than a batting practice pitcher to the batter.

Goth felt that the 8 billion won they spent on FA was a waste, so they rotated him as a 5th starter, then as a bullpen pitcher, and then as a mop-up pitcher to eat innings, but even this was a constant disaster.

As his anxiety about his own pitches grew, and he was ignored and criticized by fans, teammates, and the team, Kim Jung-ryul, who always smiled, began to shrink.

The broken mentality immediately manifested in his body.

The yips.

He had become a pitcher who could no longer compete with hitters.

“I want to throw the ball hard somehow, but my body won’t cooperate. I think if I have surgery one more time, it’s over, so my arm won’t listen to me. My back and knees are all strong, but this arm is the problem, this arm.”

Kim Jung-ryul swung his arm around.

“So you still can’t catch the ball properly?”

“Well… you knew it too, didn’t you? That my ball isn’t good.”

“I knew you weren’t getting enough of a feel for hitting the ball.”

“You’re a pitcher, so you know. That’s right. I can’t hit the ball. So I thought about learning a knuckleball or a palmball, but that wasn’t easy either. I can’t concentrate.”

“Senior, do other people know that you have the yips?”

“They don’t know. It’s been a while since I was demoted to the second team. I’m telling you because it’s you. Why would I go around telling people this?”

Since Song Seok-hyun was a rehab group catcher and had no contact with other people, he was able to open up his heart.

There would only be disadvantages in the event of a possible trade or free agent signing if he talked about his weaknesses and spread rumors, so he would have kept his mouth shut to others.

“I’m really curious. Do you want to overcome the yips?”

“Me? Of course… I do. The problem is that I can’t overcome it. In the first place, how can I compete head-on with a hitter when I throw a ball like this? When I think about it now, I think the problem isn’t the yips, but the ball…”

Song Seok-hyun took a deep breath.

Now I have to talk about the most important thing.

Even if Kim Jung-ryul is a nice guy and friendly to me, the yips are a sensitive issue.

If what I’m about to say offends Kim Jung-ryul, my life in the rehab group will be ruined.

Even if Kim Jung-ryul accepts Song Seok-hyun’s proposal, problems remain.

If things don’t work out even if I do as Song Seok-hyun suggests, resentment towards Song Seok-hyun will remain.

“I’ve heard about a cure for the yips.”

“A cure for the yips?”

Kim Jung-ryul laughed.

“I’ve tried everything, man. I’ve had so much psychological counseling, and I’ve thrown the ball like crazy. So what? It didn’t work. The problem is the ball in the first place.”

“What I’m about to tell you isn’t about getting psychological counseling or throwing the ball a lot. It’s a yips treatment training method.”

“Yips treatment training method? Is there such a thing?”

“Yes, my friend is a baseball fanatic, and I asked him just in case, and he said that a yips treatment training method actually exists.”

“There was such a thing…? I’ve never heard of it?”

“Isn’t it because you didn’t talk about the yips externally, senior, that you couldn’t hear about the yips?”

“Hmm, is that so…”

Kim Jung-ryul crossed his arms and pondered for a moment.

Song Seok-hyun swallowed hard and waited.

You shouldn’t rush him. He has to be interested.

Even if Kim Jung-ryul is friendly to him, he is a senior of 11 years in the pros.

If I get on Kim Jung-ryul’s bad side here, no one will help me.

“What is it? Tell me about it.”

Song Seok-hyun breathed a sigh of relief.

“Yes, it’s…”

* * *

The data Kim Young-suk sent was a program created by a Japanese coach. It was introduced in a book, but the content was brief.

Song Seok-hyun searched the internet and found the original version of the Japanese coach’s yips treatment training method. It took a long time to translate and paraphrase because it was in Japanese, but I could immediately understand what it was about.

“Senior, what do you think is the problem with the yips?”

“It’s that I can’t throw the ball properly.”

“You can’t hit the ball properly because you’re worried about getting injured, but there are other pitchers who can’t overcome the yips even though they throw fastballs. Do you know what the commonality is here?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t thought about it.”

Song Seok-hyun raised his arm and swung it forward.

“The problem with the yips has nothing to do with stride, pelvic rotation, or kicking. Only arm swing. The problem is that the arm swing isn’t working properly. There is a way to get a feel for the arm swing by throwing a lot, but you don’t necessarily get a feel for it just by throwing a lot. Whether you throw a fastball or not, the fact that the yips come means that it has nothing to do with catching the ball. If you correct your arm swing, you can fix the yips surprisingly easily.”

“Arm swing, huh…”

Kim Jung-ryul frowned.

“I know what you mean, but the problem is that I can’t control my arm swing. The problem is the junk ball in the first place.”

“If you think about it the other way around, it can be an advantage. Of course, it’s not an easy method.”

“An advantage? A junk ball?”

Kim Jung-ryul shook his head as if he couldn’t believe it even as he said it.

Can a junk ball be an advantage?

Not a knuckleball, just a junk ball?

“I found a case in Japan where they fixed the yips. I told you that the yips are a problem with the arm swing, right? To fix the arm swing, you need very simple training. There are a few basic drills, but the main drill is that if the second baseman practices throwing the ball in reverse turn during a 6-4-3 double play [a common baseball play], the arm swing will be corrected automatically.”

“Double play? Wait a minute.”

Kim Jung-ryul physically imitated the second baseman’s reverse turn play during a 6-4-3 double play.

After moving once or twice, Kim Jung-ryul immediately realized what Song Seok-hyun was talking about.

“Ah, you mean throw underhand?”

Success as a catcher

Belief

“Is this effective?”

Kim Jung-ryul’s question was a natural one.

Usually, 90 out of 100 yips treatments are psychological.

The other 10 were plastered with obvious stories of ‘be faithful to the basics.’

Song Seok-hyun also searched the internet, but yips treatment training methods were rare.

Even the few yips treatments were virtually useless, such as doing a lot of long tosses and throwing without being conscious of the hitter.

“It’s a method developed by a Japanese coach, and two out of three people have seen great results. The other one retired due to injury.”

“So the success rate is 70%?”

“Even though there are few cases, it was the most scientific content among the data I’ve found. To correct the arm swing, which is the problem with the yips, there’s nothing more effective than the underhand toss posture, right?”

Kim Jung-ryul bent down and took an underhand toss posture.

“Now that I think about it, you’re right… If you do an underhand toss in a reverse motion, you can’t use any force other than your arm.”

Kim Jung-ryul took the posture a few times and then practiced the underhand toss while turning in succession as if he was amazed.

“It’s refreshing that the yips are due to the arm swing, but it’s even more refreshing that there’s a yips treatment training method. Your friend knew this?”

“Yes, my friend is originally a severe otaku [a Japanese term for someone with obsessive interests, often in anime or manga]. He’s read all the baseball textbooks and related books that are available in Korea. The posture I just told you about is also mentioned on a few pages in a book published by a Japanese coach, and I searched the internet to find the original.”

“Hoo, there was such a thing?”

“I’m not sure if this method is right, but shouldn’t we try it at least once?”

Kim Jung-ryul crossed his arms.

Song Seok-hyun inhaled.

Kim Young-suk’s words echoed in Song Seok-hyun’s head.

A pitcher who has reached the peak.

A pitcher who received a large sum of money as a free agent and is currently struggling due to a decline in velocity after an injury.

There is only one year left on his free agent contract.

A player who was Goth’s ace for life but has been forgotten by both the team and the fans.

In terms of motivation, Kim Jung-ryul’s situation was the worst.

Being a good person is a different issue from motivation.

“But you know…”

“Yes.”

“I’m so grateful and sorry that you’ve worked so hard for me, and I think it’s better than doing nothing, but…”

Gulp.

Song Seok-hyun swallowed hard.

“Do you think I’ll be able to stand on the mound if I fix the yips?”

After overcoming one hurdle, another hurdle came.

“Will my ball work against hitters? This dull ball?”

Kim Jung-ryul’s tone didn’t blame or doubt Song Seok-hyun. In his self-deprecating tone, I could see the fear of an ace who had reached the peak and fallen to the bottom.

Song Seok-hyun took out the words he had prepared.

“Yes, if you change your perspective, there is a way.”

“…….”

Kim Jung-ryul looked at Song Seok-hyun and smiled.

Kim Jung-ryul’s hand patted Song Seok-hyun’s shoulder.

“Man. I know you’re cheering me on, but objectively, will it work? This ball?”

“It’s definitely possible if you give up your desire for velocity.”

“It’ll be a disaster if my velocity is even lower than it is now. Are you telling me to live on control now? I know you care about me, but that’s a bit…”

“Isn’t the problem the quality of your pitches rather than the velocity right now? Actually, what you’re most worried about is not being able to catch the ball properly, right?”

“Yeah, that’s it. And even if I do catch it properly, I don’t know how much more velocity I can get from here.”

Song Seok-hyun grabbed Kim Jung-ryul’s hand.

We’ve crossed the 9th ridge. If we drive a wedge in here, Kim Jung-ryul will come over.

Conversely, if Kim Jung-ryul closes his heart here, it doesn’t matter that we’ve crossed the 9th ridge.

“You can reduce the spin rate even more.”

“Spin rate?”

“Yes, the more effective spin a fastball has, the better the ball is, but conversely, the less effective spin a two-seamer or sinker has, the better the ball is.”

Kim Jung-ryul blinked at the word ‘effective spin.’

He didn’t seem to know what it meant.

“In simple terms, two-seamers and sinkers have more movement when the ball has less spin. You have to reduce the spin of a forkball or splitter to improve the movement, right? It’s the same thing.”

“Are you saying that two-seamers and sinkers are the same as forkballs?”

“They’re the same in that they’re better when they have less spin.”

“Hey, you have to catch the ball properly and spin it to get movement out of two-seamers and sinkers. Are you mistaken?”

Song Seok-hyun shook his head.

“Sliders and cutters have more movement when they have more spin. But that’s because they’re breaking balls. Cutters and sinkers are similar breaking balls, but the mechanisms are different. Cutters are more effective when they’re faster, but sinkers can be thrown by sidearms or submarines, right? It’s a pitch that can be used even if the velocity is slow.”

Kim Jung-ryul tilted his head.