Accumulated efforts connect suddenly one day

In my previous article, I wrote about how a single word from my coach led me to start thinking about the 'direction of my efforts' rather than the 'amount of effort'.

'What am I lacking? And what can I contribute to the team?'

After a summer spent facing those questions, the autumn league finally arrived.

However, to be honest, I wasn't exactly overflowing with confidence.

I had started to feel a sense of progress in practice, but the anxiety of 'was this really the right thing to do?' never completely disappeared.

I had changed the direction of my efforts.

But there was no guarantee that those efforts would lead to results.

—

Even when the autumn league started, things didn't go as planned from the beginning.

When the opponent changes, the situation changes too.

It is not so simple that what you can do in practice can be done in a game.

Still, what was different from before was that I stopped evaluating myself solely by the 'results'.

It wasn't about whether I got a hit, but whether I was able to do what I had set out to do.

Did I try to fulfill my role?

I started looking back at every at-bat from that perspective.

—

Every time I stood at the plate during the league, there was only one thing on my mind.

'Hit to the opposite field.'

Watch the ball as long as possible and drive it between first and second base.

If I get two strikes, I'll hang in there, and a walk is fine too.

If there are runners, I'll connect to the next batter with a sacrifice bunt or an advancement hit.

It doesn't have to be a flashy extra-base hit.

Don't stop the team's offense.

I believed that was the role assigned to me.

—

I didn't have any special emotions in the moment I was making those plays.

I was just focused on the pitch in front of me, desperate to fulfill my role.

But when the game was over and I looked back, I suddenly thought,

'Ah, this is what I practiced for all summer.'

If it were the old me, the desire to 'hit it further' or 'hit more extra-base hits' would have come first.

But by then, it was different.

Fulfill the role the team requires.

Do what I can to achieve that.

That way of thinking had gradually taken root within me.

—

As I accumulated those at-bats, the words my teammates said to me also gradually changed.

'That was a good at-bat.'

'Let's keep that approach going!'

'Don't be impatient, the results will follow!'

I started hearing those words more often, and I began to feel that my approach hadn't been wrong.

Of course, there were times when I felt frustrated.

There were days when I didn't get the results I wanted.

Even so, strangely, I didn't feel as impatient as I used to.

What you have accumulated does not disappear easily.

That feeling was gradually sprouting within me.

—

Looking back now, I remember this experience many times since becoming a working adult.

Even at work, there are times when I feel like 'I'm working hard but not getting results'.

When I try a new way of working.

When I worry about my career.

When I decide to change direction.

When results don't come immediately, I get anxious, wondering, 'Is this really the right way?'

But that experience from back then taught me something.

Effort doesn't always return results in the order you put it in.

However, effort accumulated in the right direction will definitely remain as your own strength.

That is why it is a waste to quit halfway through just by looking at the results.

There is a moment when accumulated efforts suddenly connect one day.

I learned that from baseball.

—

However, the confidence I gained in this autumn league didn't mean everything went smoothly from then on.

Walls I couldn't overcome even with continued effort.

A reality that couldn't be changed by my own power alone.

What triggered the breakthrough to overcome that wall wasn't technique or physical strength.

It was a change in a 'certain way of thinking' as a catcher.

Next time, I would like to write about that experience.