“Why do Japanese pitchers have a good end of the ball?”
At the 2023 Asian Professional Baseball Championship (APBC) in November last year, Ryu Jung-il, the head coach of the South Korean national baseball team, once again found himself facing the high barrier of “World No. 1” Japan. Moon Dong-joo, Lee Yi-ri, Kwak Bin, Won Tae-in, Noh Si-hwan, Choi Seung-yong, and Kim Joo-won, all rookies in their early 20s, overcame an objective power disadvantage to finish as runners-up in both the preliminary (1-2) and final (3-4) rounds.
Especially on the mound, they were outclassed by the Japanese. Even with the same velocity, the Japanese pitchers felt more powerful than the Koreans, 카지노사이트 and the average velocity itself favored Japan over Korea. “Japanese players with similar body types to us would throw 145 kilometers and it would look like more,” says Ryu. We wondered, ‘Why do Japanese pitchers have a good end of the ball and we don’t?'” he said.
Ryu sees flexibility training as a priority for Korean pitchers to catch up with their Japanese counterparts.
He recommended training at the Worldwing Training Center in Tottori, Japan, a mecca for flexibility training. “Restraint is not strength, but flexibility. “In Japan, there are weight training methods that strengthen the hip and shoulder rotators. They do a lot of hip movements to create flexibility. I hope the younger players will open their eyes and train in that direction.”
After attending the APBC, Doosan Bears left-handed duo Choi Seung-yong (23) and Lee Byung-heon (21) decided to head to Tottori for two weeks of special training ahead of the Australian spring training in February. The duo, who earned their first Korean flag, gave up their January vacation to travel to Japan to improve their skills.
In a recent phone conversation with OSEN, Choi Seung-yong said, “With the help of the agency, I decided to train in Tottori, Japan for two weeks with Lee Byung-heon. Probably, other team players will also go with me.”
The move to Tottori is a welcome one
As Doosan has been suffering from a lefty famine since the retirement of “dynasty closer” Lee Hyun-seung. The starting rotation, which includes foreign pitchers Brandon Waddell, Seung-yong Choi, and Won-jae Lee, isn’t too worrisome, but the bullpen doesn’t have anyone who can reliably handle left-handed hitters in the postseason. In the 2023 season, it was no exaggeration to say that the bullpen was practically without a left-handed pitcher except for swingman Choi Seung-yong.
“As a left-handed hitter myself, it was difficult to face tricky left-handed pitchers in clutch situations during my active career. We need a left-handed pitcher who can block strong left-handed hitters with runners on base,” Lee said, emphasizing that finding a left-handed bullpen was one of the biggest challenges in the offseason.
For the upcoming season
Choi Seung-yong will be the starter and Lee Byung-heon will have to play a role in the bullpen. Seung-yong Choi is expected to compete for the fourth or fifth spot behind Raul Alcantara, Brandon Guk-Bin, and Byung-heon Lee is on Lee’s list of left-handed bullpen options for the 2024 season, along with Kim Ho-joon and Seung-woo Paik. For now, Lee, 카지노사이트 순위 Doosan’s first-round pick in the 2022 First-Year Player Draft, is at the forefront of the competition. It will be interesting to see if the two players’ January training camp in Tottori, Japan, can help solve the Doosan lefty famine.
Choi Seung-yong said, “I showed good form in the second half of last year, so the fans have high expectations and I have high expectations for myself. The first thing is to not get sick. I will improve even more than the second half and show that (Kwak) Bin is getting better and better, just like you are getting better and better, and Bin is getting better and better after you. I’m looking forward to making a full start and going the full innings,” he said.
