Finally, to the post-season for the first time! Shohei Ohtani: The key to hitting for the world’s best is “Chin-quick” and “Shoulder-in”!
Shohei Ohtani achieves an unprecedented 54-59 record, wins triple-three and 10 batting titles!
The “chin tuck and shoulder tuck” method, which became the source of his success
The legendary season is over.
Shohei Ohtani, 30, led the Dodgers to a district championship this season with a career-high 54 home runs, 59 stolen bases, 130 runs batted in, and an unprecedented 10 league batting titles.
He continued to do so well until the final game of the season without stalling out. For Ohtani, the stall from late August to September has been a major problem since his first year in the U.S. However, this season, Ohtani has been able to keep his form going and has been able to pitch well until the final game of the season. This season, however, Ohtani peaked in September, which is his weakest month. This is partly due to the fact that he has been concentrating on being a hitter, which has reduced his fatigue, but it was a tremendous performance that cannot be explained by that alone.
In fact, since early September, when he was in the midst of a fierce battle for the regional championship, Ohtani began to show a tendency to move his right shoulder toward home base and bring his chin close to his left collarbone immediately after getting into his stance.
Sportswriter Nachi Tomonari analyzes, “This action was the source of his MVP-level success.
Until August, Ohtani had been hitting a lot of home runs, but he was struggling with outside fastballs and in-high straights. This meant that his shoulders were open and the trajectory of his bat was going the long way.
Ohtani realized this and corrected the trajectory of his swing by incorporating this action. Even when an in-high straight was thrown, he perfected an ideal swing in which the bat was launched from the inside without opening up his body.
Ohtani, who mastered the “chin-up and shoulder-in technique” in the final stages of the season, is expected to hit hard in the postseason, which begins on October 6 (Japan Standard Time).
If we play five games, I think he will hit two or three home runs. The pitcher for the first game may be Yu Darvish (38), but closer Roberto Suarez (33) is currently in a slump and is increasingly getting hit hard with high fastballs. We expect Ohtani, who has become stronger on in-high pitches, to decide the game with a dramatic home run.”
Ohtani should do more than fans can imagine in his first postseason appearance.
From the October 18-25, 2024 issue of “FRIDAY
PHOTO： AFLO
