Chapter 137 - Coachess Plan (2/2)

Albert: ”He took the circus shots from the dark-blue haired player from the other team. His range was much shorter than the original, but he used it efficiently.

Shun's rim-finishing skills are already on a high level with those shots.”

Sarah continued from there and added.

Sarah: ”Shun's ball-handling is also similar to the blue-haired player. Both of them can dribble the ball any way they like, but the streetball style has heavily influenced the original, whereas Shun is much more balanced in his approach.”

Albert nodded at that assessment.

Both of them moved to another aspect of Shun's game.

Albert: ”We saw both of inspirations for Shun's shooting in that video.

Both of the shooting guards in the game influenced Shun's shooting style.

Shun's Team's shooting guard provided with diversity and the green-haired shooting guard provided, Shun with stability and accuracy.”

Sarah nodded and elaborated.

Sarah: ”He got the foul-drawing shot from his teammate, and the stable form and high release point from the green-haired shooting guard.

But, he abandoned that ridiculous high-arc and focused on speed over the range.”

Albert rubbed his hand over his face and said.

Albert: ”From that, I can tell Shun didn't straight copy them, and he made those moves his own.”

Sarah agreed and said her opinion.

Sarah: ”Unlike today and yesterday, his moves didn't completely resemble the originals. Those moves were his own.”

Albert moved on to the next topic and the most important topic in his mind.

Albert: ”I still can't understand what happened in the confrontation between Shun and the red-haired point guard.

The red-haired point guard was moving before even Shun started his move, and Shun was changing moves with unbelievable timing.”

Albert massaged his temple when he thought about all the confrontations he saw in that video.

Sarah sighed as she concluded from what she gathered from the video.

Sarah: ”Shun can copy moves, and he has incredible reaction time. I think his reaction time is faster than Leonal Claude. We saw him react as fast as Leonal does, even though their bodies are on different levels.”

She looked at Albert and asked.

Sarah: ”How do we proceed to train his training here?”

Albert stayed silent for a while and said.

Albert: ”Shun had me change his workout menu to a more balanced one, which was the right thing to do. He needs a balanced physique for his playstyle.

I would slip in some endurance exercises on his menu to increase his stamina. We don't want him to collapse mid-game.”

He looked at Sarah and said.

Albert: ”You can't tell anyone in Division-One about Shun's copying ability.”

Sarah was surprised and asked in a hurry.

Sarah: ”Eh, but why?!”

Albert sighed and answered.

Albert: ”The players would find out on their own, Shun is copying them, so of course they would find it out sooner or later. I want the players to decide what they show Shun when they do find about his ability.

What we would do is deliberately put Shun against all of them in some so he could experience their playstyle first-hand.

I am pretty sure, after seeing him, some will approach him actively to help him out, some wouldn't, but they would show their diversity from away.”

Sarah frowned and asked.

Sarah: ”What is stopping them from not showing their full capabilities? To protect their secrets and moves.”

Albert scoffed and answered.

Albert: ”The answer is Pride. Some of them might not show it, but all the players in Division-One are players full of pride and confidence, they would see Shun's attempt to copy them as a challenge and would show him more moves, like saying,

'Try to copy this.'

And, on the other side, Shun is no exception to the prideful player category, he too has pride. You say it in the clip, right? At the end of the third quarter, he tried to crush the opposite team.

The more moves they show Shun, the more he would try to one-up them by trying harder to copy them. This would create a cycle of competition between them.”

Albert laughed as a wild grin appeared on his face.

Albert: ”I have to run these guys to the bone before this camp ends. They need to gain as much experience as they can gain by the time they leave.

I will make sure that all of them get the best of this camp.”

Sarah felt nervous and was worried about the players under her.

Sarah: ”Just don't go full-on Sparta mode on them, they are children, especially Young Shun.”

Albert quirked his eyebrow and said.

Albert: ”Hey! I am not that bad. I treat my charges with the utmost care and gentleness.”

Sarah sighed and spoke.

Sarah: ”If your method is called gentle, then I don't want to know what is considered harsh in your book.”

-*-*-*-*-*-*-

It was decided that the coaches would help Shun in his quest to copy players.

Shun didn't know it, but even though he had gotten coaches' support, but at the same time, his days in the camp were going to become much harder, as the coaches were going to put him against the others, and he would end up responding to the challenges.

Egos were going to clash, and the summer camp was going to heat up.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

[A/N: Hattori Akira is a character from one of my favorite series, Bakuman. The link to his profile would be in the comments. Use it for his photo and nothing else.]