*This content was translated by AI.
"Playing only baseball does not grow baseball."
Takashi Junichi (50), an S&C (Strength & Conditioning) coach who has experienced both Japanese and American professional baseball scenes, emphasized to young baseball players something unexpected: it was neither more pitching nor more hitting.
Coach Takashi recently explained physical training for growing athletes at the "Advanced S&C Theory and Practical Training Seminar" hosted by the Korea Baseball Softball Association (KBSA) at Dong-A University in Busan, stressing that "what is done from ages 12 to 15 is important."
The order of player development he presented was clear. At the bottom was 'Flexibility', above it was 'Movement', and at the top was 'Skill'. This meant not building baseball skills first, but rather creating a body capable of movement first, then placing skills on top of that foundation.
Coach Takashi told StarNews, "Baseball skills are just the tip of the iceberg in playing baseball well. Flexibility is the most fundamental and important element. Especially between ages 12 and 15, more stretching and movement training should be done." While weight training can be increased after becoming a high school student, the point was that one should not focus solely on weight training from childhood.
This did not mean strength training was unnecessary. Since the stimulation the body can accept and the abilities to be learned first differ by age, it meant that "what to do at which stage" must be carefully divided. Coach Takashi assumed both weight training and stretching are important, stating, "People only have 24 hours a day. How those hours are allocated is what matters."
In this process, Coach Takashi emphasized diverse sports experiences. In the past, children naturally encountered numerous movements by running around, climbing, rolling, and engaging in various sports. Coach Takashi cited examples from the seminar such as freestyle swimming, pull-up bars, hip joint movements used in taekwondo, and dance. This was not meant to teach techniques of specific sports, but rather that pre-learning movements difficult to experience by only repeating baseball actions is helpful.
During the seminar that day, participants did not simply stretch their bodies left and right. They repeatedly performed movements on mats that moved hip joints in multiple directions, connected lower body and torso, and used areas they had not previously been aware of.
Reactions from young athletes who experienced it firsthand also differed. Moon Chae-won (14), a Little League player active in Busan, said, "I knew Japan valued flexibility, but I didn't realize it was such a fundamental base at the very bottom." She added with a smile, "I usually do strength training, but after doing flexibility training today, the feeling of difficulty was completely different. In fact, the flexibility training hurt more." Her younger brother Moon Chae-hwan (13) also said, "It was surprising to loosen areas I never thought about," and added, "I plan to continue what we learned today at home. If you want to play baseball well, you have to do it."
For young baseball players, throwing more, hitting more, and lifting heavier things may seem like the path to rapid growth. However, the order of development emphasized by Coach Takashi was nearly the opposite. He hoped they would first create a body capable of moving in multiple directions, learn how to control that body themselves, and then build baseball skills and strength on top of that.
Good pitching form and fast bat speed do not appear out of nowhere. Much earlier than that, how many different ways one has moved their own body can become the foundation. Is playing only baseball from childhood really the best way to play baseball well? This is why Korean amateur baseball needs to reflect on "what order it has taught" just as much as "how much training it has done."
-How to create a 160km/h pitcher
① "Korean players can't drive even with a good car": Body is better than Japan's, so why? Trainer who created ML 34-win Japanese pitchers diagnoses the issue
② "Parts are good but not connected": 178cm Japanese Yamamoto throws 159km... Why can't larger Korean pitchers convert power into velocity?
③"When I was young, would throwing more and hitting more make me better?" A top Japanese trainer said the opposite: "Playing only baseball does not grow baseball."
④ "Must find Korea's original style": Korean baseball, which has used American baseball textbooks for 15 years, now needs its own 'new normal'
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*This content was translated by AI.
