On The Rise As A Catcher [EN]: Chapter 17

“I graduated from Woojin High School.”

“Woojin High School… Where is that?”

“Ah, it’s a newly established high school in Seoul.”

“Okay, then who was the coach there who taught you how to hit?”

“Hitting?”

Song Seok-hyun tilted his head.

“Are you asking about my batting form? Does it look strange?”

“Not strange, but… hmm, it’s unique. Your stance is narrow, you don’t stride [take a long step forward], and you hold the bat at shoulder height. But you hit a home run on your first swing, right? And then you kept pushing the ball to the opposite field.”

“…Yes. And?”

“Even the balls you pushed to the opposite field went far, even though you hit them late.”

“Yes.”

“…”

Kim In-hwan put his hands on his hips.

“I’ll be honest. I don’t understand it at all. Who taught you your batting form? Theoretically, you shouldn’t be able to hit for power, and your contact zone should be in front, but yours is behind. How are you hitting home runs?”

Song Seok-hyun rolled his eyes.

*What’s going on?*

He couldn’t tell if he was being scolded or if they were genuinely curious.

If Kim In-hwan, who was usually quiet, was getting this worked up, there must be a reason, but it was hard to figure out why watching him during batting practice would make him so agitated.

“In-hwan, sit down for a minute. What’s the rush?”

Kim Hyeong-seok, who had approached unnoticed, sat down next to them.

Kim In-hwan sat down without a word at his senior’s suggestion.

“Seok-hyun.”

“Yes, senior.”

“In-hwan is just impatient. Try to understand. He’s weak against outside pitches that drop. But when you were batting earlier, the ball didn’t get pushed even when you hit the outside pitches late, so he’s curious.”

“Isn’t that only possible because they were batting practice balls? If a professional pitcher threw them, they would get pushed, right…?”

“Even if they did get pushed, you shouldn’t be able to get good hits with your contact zone so far back, but you kept getting hits.”

“Yes… But is it really that special…?”

“You take a narrow stance, your hitting point is low, you don’t stride, and you tap the ball with your toe, but it still goes far. It doesn’t make sense theoretically. You’re strong, but are you as strong as In-hwan? That’s why I’m asking. Are you just hitting randomly and it’s going over, or did you learn to hit like that somewhere? You said Woojin High School, right? Who is the hitting coach at Woojin High School who taught you that?”

[Stance refers to the posture a batter takes with their legs spread before hitting.]

[Hitting point refers to the point where the batter pulls the bat back before hitting the ball.]

[Stride refers to the posture of shifting weight while extending the front leg, and toe-tap refers to hitting the ball directly from the stance without extending the front leg.]

Generally, the wider the stance, the higher the hitting point, and the longer the stride, the stronger the ball can be hit.

Conversely, if the stance is narrow, the hitting point is low, and the stride is short or non-existent, accuracy increases, but power decreases.

Whether to increase accuracy or increase power.

It would be best to have both, but batters usually choose one as their base.

Song Seok-hyun’s stance makes him look like a contact hitter, but the ball still goes far.

Even Kim In-hwan, who was born with great strength, wasn’t confident he could hit a home run like Song Seok-hyun.

“Well…”

Song Seok-hyun swallowed hard.

Kim In-hwan stared at Song Seok-hyun with burning eyes.

“From my second year of high school, I was pretty much considered outside the main force, so I trained separately. I had only been a pitcher, so my hitting wasn’t good either. So, when I was training alone, I looked at books and videos with my friends and created my own form, so there wasn’t a coach who taught me separately… I’m sorry, senior.”

Song Seok-hyun lowered his head.

He had disappointed Kim In-hwan, who was full of expectations.

“So, you’re saying you made that form all by yourself?”

Song Seok-hyun sweated at Kim Hyeong-seok’s question.

“Of course, I had learned something, so I initially hit like everyone else, but after changing positions to catcher, I didn’t have enough time. So, I didn’t have much time to practice hitting, so I thought I should find the best hitter and follow them as efficiently as possible.”

“The best hitter? Who? Kyeong-su? Ah, now that I think about it, it is similar to Kyeong-su. No stride and the contact zone is far back.”

“No. I like Kyeong-su, but I have a different role model.”

“Who? Who is it?”

“Babe Ruth.”

It was an unexpected answer.

Babe Ruth, the king of baseball, was like a symbol of home runs.

He was a great hitter, but he was from decades ago.

“Are there even batting videos of Babe Ruth?”

“Yes, there are many on the internet. Since I’m a catcher, I don’t need to hit like a contact hitter, so I thought I could hit home runs, so I referred to Babe Ruth’s batting videos, but it was completely different from my current batting form. These days, the hitting point is at least at the shoulder, and some hitters put it even higher, right? The upper swing. I naturally thought Babe Ruth would also do an upper swing, but when I watched the videos, it looked like an extreme level swing.”

“Babe Ruth?”

“Yes, the videos are old, so I couldn’t see it in detail, but it was hard to see it as the current upper swing.”

“Is that so? I don’t watch them, so I don’t know.”

Song Seok-hyun continued.

“Since it seemed strange, I searched it up and read that Babe Ruth did that to increase his CSR. I didn’t know what CSR was, so I searched it up and found out that the conditions for hitting a home run weren’t leg kicks or raising the hitting point, but the top hand angle and bat angle were more important.”

Kim In-hwan frowned.

“What the heck is that?”

Kim In-hwan was already in his third year as a professional.

With the best power hitter prospect in history joining the team, numerous hitting coaches were assigned to teach Kim In-hwan.

Kim In-hwan had a typical weakness that power hitters have.

Outside breaking balls.

To hit outside breaking balls, he changed to a lighter bat and stood closer to the batter’s box. It was to see the ball for even a little longer.

The result was useless.

Changing to a lighter bat and seeing the ball longer didn’t improve his weakness against breaking balls.

He wanted to narrow his stance and stand in an extreme closed stance, but Kim In-hwan was a power hitter prospect.

Even if he struck out, he had to hit a home run.

The order to swing confidently resulted in accumulating strikeouts instead of home runs.

As the number of strikeouts increased, opportunities decreased.

Kim In-hwan felt like he was walking a tightrope for three years of his professional career.

If he increased accuracy, he was worried about his identity as a power hitter, and if he stuck to his batting form, he struck out too much.

But Song Seok-hyun, with his unexpected stance, presented a clue to solving his problem.

It was absurd and infuriating that the basis was the internet, but he thought of Kim Jeong-ryul. Kim Jeong-ryul was also in the process of overcoming the yips [a sudden and unexplained loss of skills in experienced athletes].

He had never seen a professional player search the internet for a solution.

It was because of pride as a professional and suspicion of information from unknown sources.

“CSR, simply put, means reducing the top hand angle and increasing the angle between the bat and the arm. To put it even more simply, it’s like hitting the ball when a pitcher throws a slow ball to the batter’s high inside course. Since you can’t extend the top hand, the top hand elbow will be completely attached to the ribs, and since it’s an inside ball, the bat will turn early to hit it, so the angle between the bat and the arm will be at least 90 degrees, maybe even over 120 degrees, right? Any hitter can hit a home run if the timing is right on a high inside batting practice ball.”

Kim In-hwan’s expression didn’t improve even with Song Seok-hyun’s explanation.

“CSR is hitting every ball like you’re hitting a high inside course ball. I was skeptical at first, but when I actually went out and did it, it was easier. Since I was thinking of hitting with the top hand folded from the beginning, the bat naturally went out like a level swing. Since the bat launch angle is small, the impact area is wider, making it easier to hit.”

Song Seok-hyun demonstrated in front of the two.

Kim Hyeong-seok, who had only been listening to Song Seok-hyun, opened his mouth.

“What the heck are you?”

Succeeding as a Catcher

About Common Sense

Common sense.

Common sense refers to knowledge, values, and judgments that are taken for granted.

There is common sense in every field.

Of course, baseball is the same.

If it is common sense that there is common sense everywhere in the world, then it was also common sense that times change.

Korean professional baseball was always a few steps behind the times.

Korean professional baseball developed greatly in the 2000s, but from student baseball to professional baseball, they only focused on learning and mastering with their bodies, and rarely accepted and researched new knowledge.

* * *

“My identity?”

Song Seok-hyun couldn’t hide his embarrassment.

“What, are you a baseball expert? How do you know all that stuff?”

Song Seok-hyun could laugh along when Kim Hyeong-seok showed a smile.

It was a joke.

“I don’t know everything, but you can find this much with a little searching. As the saying goes, a thirsty man digs a well, so I searched a lot.”

“You have a lot of passion. You looked up this kind of stuff?”

“I didn’t do it alone… I have a baseball otaku [geek] friend, and I learned a lot while being with him. Thanks to that, I got used to searching and looking things up. In fact, even if it takes a long time to read baseball books from scratch, baseball players can read and understand them quickly. Even if you pick out the worthwhile baseball books on the market, there won’t be 50. Rather, there are too few translated books, so it’s my hobby to search for new ones every day… I also learned about CSR while searching.”

“Do all the kids these days study like you? Amazing, a young kid knowing this stuff.”

“It’s just a hobby, a hobby. It’s theory. How can it be the same as practice? I don’t have anything to do, and my friend is knowledgeable about baseball theory, so I heard a lot while being with him.”

Kim In-hwan raised his hand.

“I understand what CSR is. But does Babe Ruth also stand with a narrow stance like you?”

“Ah, that?”

Song Seok-hyun scratched his head.

“No, that’s not it. I just do it. If CSR is the most effective way to increase power, then there’s no need to widen the stance, raise the hitting point, or do a leg kick, right? All of those methods increase power but lower accuracy. So, that’s why.”

Song Seok-hyun stood up and showed his batting stance.

“Athletics stance is popular in the major leagues these days, right? If you hit with an up-and-down bounce instead of widening the stance, you can increase accuracy and supplement power to some extent, so I tried it with athletics.”

“…What’s that? Athletics?”

Song Seok-hyun scratched his head.

He had too little base knowledge.

He didn’t just not know the latest trends, he also lacked knowledge of baseball theory.

Song Seok-hyun barely held back a sigh.

When he was learning baseball, he just did what the coach told him and mastered it with his body, but had he ever seriously studied baseball theory?

He thought the pros would be different, but it was a time to confirm that the pros were the same.

“There are contact, slugger, no-step, and athletics stances depending on the width of the legs, right? Athletics is similar to the contact stance, but instead of putting the center of gravity on the front leg, you put it equally on both sides. You swing with an up-and-down movement, like bouncing. There are a lot of cutters and sinkers [types of pitches] in the major leagues these days, so this stance came out to deal with them.”

Kim In-hwan and Kim Hyeong-seok only listened silently.

What Song Seok-hyun was saying was definitely about baseball, but it was something they had never heard before, so they couldn’t step in.

They couldn’t pretend to know and embarrass themselves in front of their junior.

Song Seok-hyun also read the two people’s reactions and spoke more easily.

“So, to explain in detail…”

* * *

Song Seok-hyun gave an unexpected lecture for over an hour.

Why stand with a narrow stance, why keep the elbows close to the body, what is the S-angle, etc., he continued to talk until his mouth was dry.

While Song Seok-hyun was drinking water, Kim In-hwan asked.

“So, keeping your elbows close to your body improves your eye for the ball?”

“Rather than eye for the ball, it makes contact easier. If you lower the hitting point and keep your elbows close to your body, the angle at which the bat naturally comes out becomes lower, and then the area where the ball and bat meet becomes wider. That means the impact area where you can hit the ball with the bat, well… what’s called the contact zone? The range where you can hit the ball becomes wider. That’s why I can hit the ball from behind.”

At this point, Kim Hyeong-seok stepped back altogether.

His head was already throbbing, and there was no need for him, a pitcher, to suffer.

“Usually, if you hit like that, it gets pushed, but the top hand is folded, so the CSR value is high, so the ball doesn’t get pushed and goes out.”

“Yes, Kyeong-su also has his impact behind, to the point where people say he hits the ball out of the catcher’s mitt, but it’s different from me. Kyeong-su doesn’t stride, but he pushes the ball with his lower body strength by striding widely. I reduce my lower body strength and hit by increasing the CSR value, so it consumes less stamina and is easier to hit the ball.”

“Why is it easier to hit the ball?”

“If the lower body movement isn’t large, the center of the body doesn’t shake as much, so it’s easier to watch the ball a little longer and get ready to hit.”

“Ah…”

“Of course, this kind of hitting also has disadvantages. If you keep artificially attaching your elbows, you’re screwed when you meet an umpire who’s generous with outside strikes. You just get robbed blind. You can’t hit it because the bat doesn’t even touch it.”

“That’s troublesome.”

Kim In-hwan’s weakness was outside breaking balls.

If he couldn’t hit outside balls, Song Seok-hyun’s advice would be meaningless.

“But on the other hand.”

Song Seok-hyun raised one finger.

“There aren’t many pitchers who can throw with that kind of precision, even if you search the whole world. Even if one ball misses, it’s a ball, so even if they’re generous, it’s about two balls. Instead of giving up one to one and a half outside balls, you increase accuracy. An advantage, if you can call it that, is that since you can’t attack outside balls in the first place, you don’t even swing at breaking balls that fall just outside. If the ball comes in well, it’s a looking strike, or a ball. You have a little more choice.”

“Is that so?”

“I can’t be sure about this either. That’s what people who follow CSR say. Hitting that increases CSR will inevitably lead to pulling the ball. So, the goal of CSR hitting is to throw away what you can throw away and definitely pull the rest over the fence, rather than vaguely aiming for outside balls.”

Even if Kim In-hwan lacked a theoretical foundation, he was a man who had only played baseball his whole life.

As Song Seok-hyun’s explanation became more detailed, he caught a clue, and as he caught a clue, he could understand.

“Is it possible to just throw away outside balls altogether?”

“This is just theory, so I can’t give you a definite answer. But when I tried it, it always worked at the high school level. There’s no pitcher who can throw that well. I don’t know about the pros. I haven’t experienced it yet.”

The talk was over.

Kim Hyeong-seok stretched.

“The training flow has been completely cut off. Jeong-ryul isn’t here either, and it’s chaotic, so how about we go in early and rest and do it properly tomorrow?”

Kim In-hwan shook his head.

“No. You go in first. I’ll go in later.”

“You’re going to do more?”

“Yes, I think it’s better to do it now.”

Kim Hyeong-seok didn’t say anything more.

There is enlightenment when you get a feeling, when you think this is it.

Whether what Song Seok-hyun was saying was just an illusion of theory or a new theory, if he had caught a clue, shouldn’t he dig into it?

“Okay, I’m going in first.”

The conditioning coach and Kim Hyeong-seok went in first.

Song Seok-hyun stayed at the baseball field at Kim In-hwan’s request.

“Can you watch my stance?”

“Me?”

What kind of nonsense was it to ask him to watch the form of a third-year professional player?

Song Seok-hyun waved his hand and refused, but Kim In-hwan was adamant.

“Anyway, you’re the only one here who knows the CSR theory you talked about best. It’s right for you to watch.”

“I just studied the theory a little and interpreted the rest as I pleased, so how can I give advice to my senior?”

“I’m not telling you to take responsibility. I’m just trying to get a feel for what it’s like.”

“Still…”

“Just throw me some balls, okay? Watch me while you throw.”

At Kim In-hwan’s strong request, Song Seok-hyun also picked up a ball.

Kim In-hwan took his stance and waited for Song Seok-hyun’s ball.

Thwack!

The ball that Kim In-hwan hit went foul.

It was thanks to the fact that he had narrowed his stance more than before and the bat turned faster than the ball.

“Keep throwing.”

The ball that Kim In-hwan hit kept going foul.

It was thanks to the fact that the timing had also become faster as the stance narrowed and the bat’s start-up became faster.

Kim In-hwan put his front foot a little more inward.

Closed stride.