Chapter 9
It seemed she had indeed noticed that point.
Thinking this, Yasui Makoto nodded and said:
"Your strength level is outstanding even among horse girls, but that also makes it much harder for you to control your body. This is the main reason other trainers think you can only run short-distance races.
"To use a somewhat inappropriate analogy: if other people's punches weigh one ton, yours weigh ten tons. After proper training, your punches will definitely be more powerful.
"But without enough training, it's precisely your punches that are hard to control."
"My punches… ten tons is way too exaggerated, Trainer."
Kitasan Black held up her small fist in front of her face, looked at it, and let out a silly laugh. Then she nodded seriously:
"But I roughly understand what you mean. So how should I practice?"
"Good that you understand."
Yasui Makoto gave an approving nod and continued patiently:
"Force control is a very complicated matter involving many factors, so it's really just the surface issue.
"The problem I want to point out is one of those factors — your gait and running posture."
He grabbed the track railing and lifted both feet off the ground.
"While watching the videos these past few days, I noticed that your gait is very messy. The rhythm is basically a complete mess.
"In the vast majority of cases, the gait you horse girls use in races is the 'assault stride' (袭步).
"Simply put, it's front foot lands, back foot lands, front foot again, back foot again, followed by a brief airborne phase, and the cycle repeats."
As he spoke, he slowly demonstrated the horse girl race-specific gait.
"Taking each airborne phase as the boundary, one full 'assault stride' has four ground contacts, so it can be seen as a 'four-beat' rhythm.
"However, the gait you use during training isn't only the assault stride — you also mix in regular 'running'.
"Front foot, back foot, front foot, airborne — that's the 'three-beat' rhythm of regular running.
"The rhythms of these two gaits are completely different. Most horse girls, while running, will either mess up the rhythm or slow down. More often than not, they do both.
"And you, my dear Kitasan…"
After demonstrating the running gait, Yasui Makoto let go of the railing, landed on the ground, and smiled wryly.
"You actually managed to achieve quite decent training speeds while randomly switching between three-beat and four-beat rhythms. Should I call you a genius, or should I call you a genius?"
Kitasan Black was stunned for a moment, then scratched her head and laughed sheepishly.
"Ehehe, Trainer, you don't have to praise me so much…"
…Wait, she couldn't tell I was being sarcastic?
Feeling a bit suffocated, Yasui Makoto rubbed his forehead and thought for a moment.
Extreme stunts involved a lot of martial arts and combat techniques. To master their essence, one needed a deep understanding of the human body and injuries.
Applying that knowledge to training horse girls might not reach the absolute top level in the industry, but it definitely had many unique advantages.
He had already roughly compared the timelines — this world was more than ten years behind his previous world, so many of his ideas could be considered quite advanced here.
The overall level of the Japanese horse girl racing world wasn't particularly high, which gave him even more room to shine.
For example, force control.
If other trainers at the academy knew how to handle it and help Kitasan Black fully master her talents, she would have become famous long ago, and he wouldn't have gotten the chance to coach her.
Since that hadn't happened, and the records only evaluated her as "only suitable for short-distance races," it meant those people simply couldn't recognize true talent.
His disadvantages were also obvious.
From his previous life to this one, he had zero experience interacting with girls around Kitasan Black's age.
The experience of being an extreme stunt performer and coach wasn't entirely the same. To properly guide her, help her fully unleash all her talent and potential, and turn her into an outstanding horse girl, he would also need to learn and explore gradually.
For instance, now that he knew his horse girl had a straightforward but somewhat clumsy personality, it would be better to speak more directly in the future and avoid roundabout words.
"I wasn't praising you. Don't forget I said at the beginning that your gait is a complete mess. Randomly switching between two different rhythms is definitely not a good thing."
Having made up his mind, he spoke directly. Seeing the smug look on Kitasan Black's face instantly freeze, he thought for a moment and tried using a gentler tone:
"But don't worry. Since I pointed out the problem, I naturally have a solution.
"Come with me."
He motioned for Kitasan Black to hand him the tablet and stopwatch, then started walking toward the school building.
Kitasan Black followed subconsciously, looking back at the sports field with some confusion.
"Trainer, are we… not continuing training here?"
Sliding his finger across the tablet, Yasui Makoto answered casually:
"Not for now.
"You have basic training classes as usual, and I'll come watch those too.
"So next, I'm going to arrange some special training for you."
Tracen Academy's schedule was similar to other high schools. Morning and afternoon classes until around 3-4 PM consisted of academic subjects, with some outdoor classes mixed in.
In addition to regular subjects like Japanese and math, the academic classes also taught general knowledge about horse girl racing — race formats, racetracks, history, etc.
Outdoor classes covered basic physical training such as running and swimming.
After signing a contract with a trainer, once the morning and afternoon classes ended, the assigned trainer would arrange targeted special training based on the horse girl's specific needs.
This was currently the training time after classes. There were already quite a few horse girls doing special training on the field they had just left, and more could be seen working hard on other fields along the way to the teaching area.
Instead of entering the main school building, they headed to the dance studio inside the comprehensive gymnasium.
The dance studio was very large — easily enough space for over a hundred people to exercise at once.
There weren't too many people training, only about thirty or so.
Three teachers were each guiding over ten horse girls through dance steps, leaving plenty of open space.
As soon as they entered the dance studio, Yasui Makoto was about to greet the teachers when Kitasan Black suddenly whispered:
"Ah! It's Crown-chan…"
Hearing this, Yasui Makoto glanced at Kitasan Black, who was covering her mouth with an admiring look in her eyes, then followed her gaze to a horse girl practicing dance.
The horse girl had long black hair and dark green eyes. As she stretched and moved gracefully, a faint, confident smile graced her face.
Judging from her arm movements and footwork, she was clearly the most skilled dancer among the practicing horse girls.
"Crown… Satono Crown?"
Recalling the name Kitasan Black had mentioned, Yasui Makoto quickly remembered a file.
"The young lady from the Satono family?"
"Yeah! I'm in the same class as her. Oh right, I'm also roommates with Satono Diamond!"
Without realizing it, Kitasan Black's voice grew louder again, clearly a little excited.
"Satono Crown is really amazing! She debuted last year and already has two consecutive wins! She's just so outstanding!"