"Seido High School Baseball Team is a team with its own traditions, and their training is among the most rigorous in the entire country. Coach Kataoka himself is a strict person, and when nurturing Tanba, he would inevitably use some strict methods."
Fujio spoke with emotion.
"Isn't being strict a good thing?"
Owada Akiko asked, her large innocent eyes wide with confusion.
If one encounters a strict coach or a strict teacher, as a player or a student, their performance generally improves significantly.
In Owada Akiko's impression, encountering a strict coach, though tiring, was definitely not a bad thing.
"For most people, that's true. Ordinary people have poor self-control, so it's natural for their performance to improve if someone is managing them. However, this method isn't suitable for everyone. Especially for players who are usually quiet and extremely sensitive. Being too strict will only make the string in their hearts tighten even more. Koichiro Tanba was promoted by the team as early as his second year, and even made it to the Koshien quarterfinals with them. From this perspective, he shouldn't be worse than Yuuki or Zhang Han, who also participated in the Koshien tournament."
Fujio didn't explicitly state the rest of his thoughts, but Owada Akiko understood.
Logically, he shouldn't be worse than Zhang Han and Yuuki, but the current results are completely the opposite.
Zhang Han and Yuuki, let alone Tokyo, are already too big for the entire Kanto region.
Their strength is top-tier nationally; if you count star players on your fingers, both of them would be among them.
From this, it's clear just how popular they are right now.
In contrast, Koichiro Tanba, let alone nationally, struggles to be ranked among the top pitchers even in Tokyo.
People seem to only acknowledge his pitching talent, and rarely talk about his actual strength.
Fujio continued.
"Tanba is clearly not a player who should be treated strictly. He has a strong drive and practices very diligently on his own. Rather than stricter training and treatment, what he needs more is recognition and encouragement."
"Wow, Brother Feng is amazing! You're much better than that Coach of Seido High School Baseball Team."
When he said that, Owada Akiko also understood.
For sensitive players, external recognition provides more motivation than pressure.
"I'm just analyzing this after the fact. If I put myself in Coach Kataoka's shoes, I might not have been able to see this point."
Teaching according to individual aptitude.
These four words are easy to say, but truly difficult to achieve.
Not to mention, Coach Kataoka is a coach with a very strong personal style.
Asking him to change his style and adopt another to specifically guide one player is even harder!
Especially when other players don't have similar issues, it's particularly commendable that Kataoka noticed this, started trying to recognize Tanba's strength, and gave him more opportunities and a bigger stage.
"Seido High School Baseball Team!"
Fujio muttered softly.
Due to the addition of players from Zhang Han's year, the team's weaknesses in strength were gradually compensated, and their original strengths became even more pronounced.
Their only problem was on the pitcher's mound.
Seido High School Baseball Team doesn't lack pitchers with pitching talent.
In fact, they have many such pitchers.
However, these pitchers, including Zhang Han, all have their own issues.
Seido's biggest weakness right now is the lack of a truly capable Ace who can shoulder the main burden.
If Tanba can step up here and get through the seventh-inning hurdle in two consecutive games, then Seido High School Baseball Team will have a true Ace who can be brought out to battle.
Although this Ace's strength isn't overwhelmingly fierce and he can't suppress all batters, as long as such an Ace exists, Seido High School Baseball Team's path will be much smoother.
You know, even the previous Ace of Seido High School Baseball Team, Hidezawa, wasn't perfect.
But precisely because such an Ace existed, coupled with the hard work of other players, the players of Seido High School Baseball Team were able to overcome challenges all the way and ultimately reach the Koshien quarterfinals.
Their game against Osaka Kiryu High School Baseball Team is still considered a classic to this day.
"Strike!"
"Strike!"
"Strike!!"
"Strike out!!"
Just as Fujio was thinking that, Tanba on the field secured the second out.
Only one more out remained to end this inning.
"Pitch with confidence! Let them hit it!"
"We'll stop it!"
"Hehe, Tanba-senpai is full of energy today."
"Two outs!!"
The cheers from his teammates around him were endless.
Tanba's expression was surprisingly relaxed.
Usually, when a game reached the seventh or eighth inning, Tanba himself could feel his condition deteriorating.
Forget his condition, even his stamina would be greatly affected, making it impossible to maintain a stable pitching rhythm.
But after the experience of the previous game, pitching into the eighth inning again, Tanba suddenly found that it wasn't as difficult as he had imagined.
His body was tired, and his breathing was heavy.
But to say he was on the verge of collapse, it hadn't reached that point yet.
He still had strength, and he could continue to pitch.
"Whoosh!"
The white baseball whistled through the air.
With two outs already, the Yokohama Kohoku batter was also incredibly nervous.
Although they were leading by one run, Seido High School Baseball Team's offense was too powerful.
A one-run lead simply couldn't make them feel secure.
They wanted to score another run no matter what.
But how could it be that simple?
The baseball was almost going to hit him, and even though the batter knew the baseball would change direction, seeing such a pitch still made him nervous.
However, before he could react, the baseball dropped rapidly.
He swung his bat in a hurry.
"Ping!"
The bat barely made contact with the baseball, bouncing it back directly in front of the pitcher.
Tanba cleanly fielded the ball and then threw it to Yuuki.
"Out!"
Three outs, side retired.
In the top of the eighth inning, although Seido High School Baseball Team gave up two runs and was reversed by Yokohama at the last moment, their players, however, didn't show much disappointment.
************************************
Upto 50 Chapters In Advance At: P@treon/Vividreader123