The Hanwha Eagles catchers are continuing strong training to strengthen their depth.
Hanwha is holding a spring camp in Arizona, USA. Four catchers, Choi Jae-hoon, Park Sang-eon, Heo Gwan-hoe, and Lee Seong-won, are training at the spring camp. Coach Jung-min Kim, who has been in charge of Hanwha Battery since this year, is leading their ‘hell training’.
It is rumored that he always accompanies the players with a smile on his face and a benevolent voice, but after the catcher defense training, everyone can be seen lying on the ground exhausted. Coach Kim revealed the training goal through the club, “I will focus on narrowing the gap between the starting pitcher Choi Jae-hoon and the backup catchers.”
The following is Q&A with Coach Jungmin Kim.
– The intensity of training is strong, but you always have a smile on your face when guiding.
The catcher is a really important position where a single mistake leads to a run. So, the intensity of training is high, and the quantity is bound to be large. As I make them overcome hard training, the coach tends to try to smile rather than frown.
Also, since the catcher is a position where he has to communicate with all fielders, not just the pitcher, he smiles as much as possible and approaches with nice words.
– What was the reason for accepting the Hanwha Eagles offer?
I have been with LG Twins for nearly 30 years, and I learned a lot and had various experiences there. It wasn’t that I wasn’t satisfied with my life at LG, but after being in one place for a long time, I began to doubt whether what I was doing was right.
I was wondering if what I had done would be applied elsewhere and if there was anything more I could learn, then an offer from Hanwha came and I decided to go to the Eagles because I thought it would be a big turning point for me too.
– What do you feel while training with Hanwha catchers?
As with any other club, I felt that the gap between the main player and the backup was large. There is no problem in playing the season because there is a main catcher named Choi Jae-hoon, but as the backup players grow and narrow the gap to become a strong team, my goal was also to develop young catchers. Of course, it won’t happen in a short time. 안전놀이터
It takes a lot of time for the catcher because it is a position where a single mistake not only leads to a run, but also affects the balance of the team. So while I’m there, I want to transplant and teach young catchers what I have so that they can grow into good players.
– In the case of catcher, there are few entry positions, and it is a position with a large proportion of starting positions.
Coach Subero is a manager who provides a good environment for catchers to grow. It is because he is a manager who clearly manages the innings between the starting pitcher and the backup catcher.
In fact, last season Choi Jae-hoon played about 850 innings and Park Sang-eon as a backup catcher played about 330 innings.
These points will definitely motivate our catchers. I want to make good use of those positive aspects and focus all my energy on growing good potential resources for our team.