Kia, a dark horse in this season’s championship race, had a literal “meltdown” ahead of its first spring camp in Canberra, Australia. Just two days before the camp was scheduled to begin, news broke that former head coach Kim Jong-guk, who was supposed to lead the camp, was being investigated by prosecutors for an unsavory incident.
As the case progressed, Kia suspended him from his duties and then terminated his contract. Needless to say, the players were shocked. The team was devastated. Although the camp schedule had already been decided in a coaching staff meeting, it was still a big difference between having a coach and not having one. The head coach was the one who had the final say in the selection of players. It was decided that the camp would be held under head coach Jin Gap-yong, but there was no way to avoid the players’ agitation.
Named captain of the team after last season, Na Sung-beom (35) had a lot on his shoulders. While coaches lead the camp, there are still things coaches can say and things players can say, and sometimes a word from a senior player speaks louder to younger players than a hundred words from a coach. That’s why the leadership of Na Sung-beom, who became captain for the first time this year after joining from KIA, has been in the spotlight.
Fortunately, Na knew what he had to do. Despite being the first captain of KIA, he seemed to have organized his thoughts on how to lead the camp and the team before boarding the plane. “The players didn’t know anything about it, and I don’t think it’s our job to tell them what to do. All we can do now is focus on playing baseball on the field and preparing for the season because spring training has started,” he said. What happened was what happened, and that meant the rest of the team had to do what they had to do.
“I think every player feels differently. “I thought some of the players might be agitated, so I told them in the meeting, ‘Don’t be too agitated, we’ll go to the camp as we prepared, and we’ll do what we prepared, so let’s prepare well for the season,'” he said, encouraging the players. And he made sure to keep that promise himself. Under his leadership, the KIA squad was able to finish the Canberra camp without too much faltering.
The Tigers will conclude their first spring camp in Canberra, Australia today and will travel to Okinawa for the second camp, the Kia announced on Tuesday. The Tigers have been training in Australia since the first of this month, focusing on physical fitness, technical and operational aspects. The camp attracted a lot of attention from fans as talented young players challenged the existing main roster players. Midway through the camp, hitting coach Lee Bum-ho was officially promoted to the 11th head coach of the Tigers, and the leadership of the coaching staff was stabilized by keeping the same system of head coach Jin Gap-yong and hitting coach Hong Se-wan. He may have left in tears, but he won’t be in a bad mood when he returns.
‘The spring camp, which was held at Narabunda Ballpark in Canberra, Australia, was held on a three-day training, one-day rest schedule and focused on physical fitness and technical training. The team also had its own practice game on the 18th to prepare for the start of the practice games in the Okinawa camp,’ the KIA explained. ‘In particular, the team also conducted training to prepare for the new regulations that will be introduced to the KBO League from this season, such as the introduction of a pitch clock and an increase in base size.
But the camp isn’t over yet. The second Okinawa Camp, which focuses on practice, awaits. The players who survived the first round of cuts are now eager to showcase their skills in the real world. As their performances in the practice games will likely lead to roster spots in the exhibition games, the survival of the younger players, who are still unsure of their place in the team, will be of great interest. After returning to Korea on the 21st, Kia will depart for Okinawa on the 22nd, where they will play a total of six home and away practice games based at the Kin Stadium to check the physical condition of the main players and to identify younger players.
Na Sung-beom, one of the main players behind the successful completion of the first camp, also breathed a sigh of relief and pointed out the challenges ahead. “I was satisfied that the weather at the camp was very suitable for exercise, and all the players were focused and trained in a good environment. We had a schedule of three days of training and one day of rest, and we spent our time efficiently by focusing only on exercise on training days and 바카라사이트 resting well on rest days. The club took great care of our meals and sleeping arrangements, so there was no shortage of living conditions,” he said.
“On the first day of camp, I told the players to have a light-hearted atmosphere and have fun. I thought it was necessary for me, as the captain, to lighten the mood of the players because the mood could easily sag. “I told them to think about what we need to do and not worry about anything else, and I’m grateful that they responded well,” he said.
“In the training part, we promised them before the camp that we would take care of them with ‘the best service’ and we did. Not only in terms of conditioning and training, but also in terms of nutrition. In the power analysis department, we had a briefing session on the new rules this season, and they organized the information into materials so that the players could familiarize themselves with it,” said the player.
Na had a particularly injury-plagued season last year. He injured his calf before the season even started and was sidelined for an extended period of time, and then suffered another hamstring tear at the end of the season when the team was in the midst of a title fight. While leadership is necessary to guide the team, showing your worth on the field is one way to guide younger players. Na, who spent the winter rehabilitating and working out, was also pleased with his individual performance.
“I think spring camp is the beginning and part of the season,” said Na. It’s important to get off to a good start, so I trained individually before the camp to get my body ready to start training right away. At the beginning of the camp, I started intense training to build my physical foundation for the full season. Last year, I didn’t play much due to injury, but this year I want to prepare well in camp and play a lot of games,” he said.
“We’ll be playing scrimmages to improve our conditioning for the upcoming season. I’m going to tell the players to take their training a little more seriously because it’s going to be more practice-oriented, and we have a lot of new players, including foreign pitchers, so we’re going to try to get the chemistry right. Our goal this season is to win the championship, of course. We will do our best to prepare for the rest of the camp so that we can play fall baseball in Gwangju this year,” he concluded.