Starting Up On Improvement

The whole first-string finished their regular physical workout, and it was time to train their skills.

The usual day in the club was a physical workout, skill drills, and one mini-game to end the day.

Shun's goal for the time before the next Nationals was to emulate and consolidate Generation of Miracles' skills into his style.

Shun: 'Let's set some goals.'

Shun thought what was needed for him to beat the Generation of Miracles.

Shun: 'If they weren't on the same team, then I would have gone with Aerial Combat as my weapon of choice, but because they aren't, I need to be able to pass multiple of them before I can actually score.'

Shun didn't want to undermine his teammates, but he wasn't very confident about their offensive ability against the Generation of Miracles.

Shun: 'I need to be able to cover ground, weave through the defenders, I need to be able to beat them on the ground, and for that, I need to work on my dribbling skills, I have to shed any fix patterns of dribbling, I need to be able to freeform my dribbling.

I don't have to be unorthodox or orthodox. I have to break my dribbling skills down to nothing and just able to control the ball however I want.'

Dribbling skills and ball handling was important to get past defenders, make space between them to take a shoot, to be to move the ball around without the ball getting stolen from the player.

Shun over the years had learned a lot about dribbling, and he had found that dribbling was not just about the way you handled the ball in your hands.

Shun: 'Ball handling is an essential part of dribbling, but footwork and how you moved your torso are as important as ball handling to have a good dribbling game.'

Shun went straight to the coach to get some advice about how to improve and go on about improving his dribbling skills.

Shun: "Coach."

Coach turned around to see Shun calling him.

Coach: "Yes, Kageyama-kun. What is it?"

Shun explained to the coach that he wanted advice.

Shun: "Coach, please give me advice on how to improve my dribbling skills."

Coach nodded.

Coach: "Dribbling skills, is it?"

Coach looked at Shun and thought for a while about what Shun specifically needed.

Coach: "Tell me, Kageyama-kun. What do you think is important for dribbling skills?"

Shun spoke up the factors that he has thought about just moments earlier.

Shun: "Ball-handling, footwork, and torso movement."

Coach smiled and praised Shun.

Coach: "Excellent! Now, I know that you are ambidextrous, right?"

Shun nodded as he had trained to be ambidextrous since he was young.

Shun: "Yes, Sir. I can do all tasks with both my hands. Though my handwriting comes out messy when I write with my left hand."

Coach smiled and continued his explanation.

Coach: "You already have a solid foundation for the ball handling aspect of dribbling. To build upon this foundation, I will have you do drills with both hands simultaneously.

I want you to forget that you have an off-hand. Purge the idea from your mind that you have a dominant hand, that you prefer.

I will give you drills that you have to complete every day, with both hands. It will take hard work, and your shoulders will be sore for a few days, but the final result will be, you being able to switch hand instantly."

Coach then asked for Shun's e-mail address so that he could mail him the schedule of the drills that he had to follow, and he continued his explanation.

Coach: "Now, let's move on to footwork. In almost all humans, there is one leg that the person would lean more while standing in everyday life.

The result of even the slightest of lean will build up over the lifetime, and that one leg will become stronger and preferred over the other leg."

Coach looked at Shun asked.

Coach: "Tell me, Shun. Which leg do you prefer when you try to move forward for a drive, or a spin, or when you jump for a layup."

Shun looked at his legs and answered.

Shun: "I prefer my left leg."

Coach nodded.

Coach: "This limits your choices and creates a pattern from a subconscious habit. Of course, you don't have to worry as we can remedy this with a simple yet efficient routine."

Coach widened the distance between his legs; his stance was much wider than his shoulders.

Coach: "This is a basic exercise for making both feet equally strong. With your legs this apart, you aren't able to lean on one leg, and you have to use both of your legs equally. This exercise is regularly used in baseball training so that they can have a stable lower body."

Shun tried it himself and found that he really couldn't lean on one leg in this stance.

Coach: "Try this whenever you can, like when you are studying at home, you can study while practicing this stance."

Shun: "Yes, Sir."

The coach explained further.

Coach: "Of course, this is just physical conditioning, I will be assigning you drills to do to improve your footwork."

The last was the torso movement.

Coach: "The torso movement is the simplest of all three factors, but this is what really makes the defenders break down. The torso movement helps you extend your body more than you are actually doing."

The coach grabbed a basketball and started dribbling it.

Coach: "Concentrate on my right leg."

The coach assumed a neutral stance and moved his right leg forward in the right direction, and then pulled back after a single step.

Coach: "See, I moved in the right direction and then pulled back, establishing a simple fake. Now, I will do this again, and you will tell me what do you think."

Coach repeated the same movement as before, but this time he leaned his torso to the right.

Shun looked at the coach and said.

Shun: "This time, it looked like you moved further than the last time."

Coach nodded and explained.

Coach: "The torso movement is for deceiving the defender's sense of distance and speed. If you move your torso sharply in the direction that you are moving, then that will create an illusion that you are moving faster than you actually are, and that will make a defender commit in that direction while you can pull back and cross from the other side."

The coach passed the ball to Shun and said.

Coach: "Add the new drills to your training menu, some drills might give you fast results, but thoroughly learning something takes time, so work hard."

Shun thanked the coach and returned to his training.

Ahead of Shun was months of hard training to surpass himself again and again. Break himself down and rebuild a new one.

Shun smiled widely, looking forward to how much he would improve.