Chapter 698: Breaking Through the Bottleneck
With his arms straight out, holding the ball with both hands, and his body in a half-squat, Lu Ke was drenched in sweat.
Lu Ke was in a horse stance. The muscles from his calves to his arms were all tense, and he could clearly feel the burning sensation of his muscles, like a needle prick. It penetrated layer by layer, with a tingling and itching feeling. His body's balance seemed like it could fall apart at any moment, and he was only holding on with his sheer willpower.
"Now, start the clock." After holding the horse stance for a full three minutes, Lu Ke's private strength and conditioning coach, Andre Richardson's, voice rang in his ears. "One, two, three..."
At the same time, Lu Ke's body muscles tightened even more, and his concentration reached a high level.
"Bang!"
A dull thud came from his calf. A volleyball-sized yoga ball hit Lu Ke's left calf hard. His entire body's balance immediately wavered. He had to make a corresponding adjustment, bending his left knee and lifting his right heel. His sense of balance instantly moved back and forth like a scale, and then it returned to a calm state again.
This was just the beginning.
"Four, five, six," hit the left side of his chest. "Seven, eight," hit the back near his tailbone. "Nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen," hit his left knee and right ankle. "Fourteen, fifteen," hit the center of his abdomen. "Sixteen," hit his left shoulder. "Seventeen, eighteen," had four different parts of his body get hit at the same time.
In 2009, there was a documentary called "Man on Wire," which truthfully recounted and presented the incredible feat of the French acrobat, Philippe Petit, who walked on a wire between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York in 1974. Later, in 2015, the same story was made into the movie "The Walk."
Right now, Lu Ke felt like Philippe Petit, standing on a high-altitude wire rope between the Twin Towers. The wind was howling, and his entire body began to sway violently, like a withered leaf in late autumn, clinging to a branch, stubbornly refusing to fall in the cold wind. But in the end, falling and rotting was its fate.
The center of his body was swaying back and forth in the storm, but Lu Ke couldn't clench his teeth and focus his strength because he had to maintain his breathing rhythm. He could only do what was said in martial arts novels, sinking his energy to his "dantian" to lower his center of gravity.
He wasn't sure if he had found the right position for his "dantian," but he could clearly feel that all his core muscle strength had settled below his abdomen, steadily controlling his body and working hard to maintain his balance in a precarious sway.
"Nineteen, twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two."
Just then, Andre appeared directly in front of Lu Ke. At this time, Lu Ke's arms were straight, and his hands were holding the ball. The weight of his upper body was slightly tilted forward. Andre's hands firmly grabbed the football and even adjusted his grip to make sure he had a good hold before he suddenly pulled his entire body back and began a tug-of-war with Lu Ke over the ball.
"Twenty-three, twenty-four."
In an instant, Lu Ke held his breath and gritted his teeth, doing his best to avoid being pulled down by Andre. The strength in his abdomen continued to sink. The tension from his calves to his thighs reached its limit, causing his entire body to tremble slightly, but Andre had no intention of letting go. He constantly adjusted his center of gravity, pulling and swaying from left to right.
This was a professional quarterback drill. It seemed simple but was incredibly difficult.
Andre was a "strength and conditioning" coach in name, but in reality, his job was far more than that.
Every day, Andre would follow Lu Ke to the training facility, where he would learn from professional quarterback coaches like Kip Crist and Norm Chow, as well as the specialized football physical trainers, to form a systematic quarterback training system.
Andre was in the learning phase now. In private, he would also proactively learn new skills to create a personalized training plan for Lu Ke, playing an important role in Lu Ke's growth.
Strictly speaking, he was a personal trainer.
The quarterback drill they were doing now was an improvement that Andre had made based on Kip's training methods. In Kip's training, there was only the last step, which was one person and the quarterback pulling the football back and forth. Andre went a step further, using a yoga ball to disrupt the quarterback's center of gravity.
This was a multi-faceted training.
On the one hand, it trained the quarterback's ability to observe, allowing him to catch the movements on his left and right sides so that he could make a timely judgment and prepare before a sack came. Even if he couldn't avoid a sack, he could at least protect himself and avoid injury. On the other hand, it trained the quarterback's stability, allowing him to maintain his center of gravity and rhythm in the face of crashing waves and avoid having his throwing motion get messed up.
On the one hand, it trained the quarterback's focus, allowing him to have both the ability to observe for a pass and to avoid tackles. On the other hand, it trained the quarterback's patience and endurance. For a pass, there was a difference between hesitation and a pause. Hesitation was being unable to make a judgment, while a pause was a keen observation. But no matter which one it was, it took time, and the quarterback must not panic before throwing the ball.
For an outsider, it might just seem like holding a horse stance, but only when you were in it could you truly feel that violent, unpredictable, and bumpy chaos.
"Twenty-seven, twenty-eight."
Without any warning, Andre let go, and a powerful backdraft came rushing toward Lu Ke like a tide.
Inevitably, the center of gravity of Lu Ke's upper body leaned back violently. The front of both of his feet almost simultaneously left the ground. Following the force of gravity and inertia, his entire body uncontrollably lost control. It looked like he was about to fall backward.
This was the most difficult part of the entire training!
But at this moment, his chest retracted slightly, and then the strength in his abdomen suddenly pushed forward. With the force, his chest straightened up again. That fluid strength instantly penetrated his feet like an electric current. The entire center of gravity tilted forward again, and the opposing forces of front and back canceled each other out. His body became as still as a mountain, and he regained control.
"Twenty-nine, thirty! Throw!"
With Andre's shout, Lu Ke's waist straightened up slightly, and his body stood up without any obstruction, just like in a real game. He quickly took a step back, looked left and right, and then raised his right hand. His biceps didn't mindlessly exert force. Instead, he pulled his strength back a little. His forearm quickly swung, and his wrist flicked lightly. The football quickly flew out, like a cannonball.
"Bang!"
With a muffled sound, the football accurately landed in the net fifteen yards away and then hit the backboard behind the net, making a sound.
The diameter of the net was only slightly larger than the football. Any control error could be clearly shown. An error of just one-third of a palm would result in the ball not entering the net. But this time, there was no error. The ball was sent into the net accurately and cleanly. You could even hear the pleasant swoosh of the ball hitting the net.
Before Lu Ke could react, Andre immediately raised his hands high, showing an excited expression and cheering loudly. "Hey, man, beautiful! That's a perfect score! An absolute perfect score! Ten points!"
Standing on the side, Lu Ke didn't join the celebration. He was trying to adjust his breathing rhythm. Although the thought of completely relaxing and collapsing on the ground had taken over his mind, and he didn't want to move a single finger, he knew that was the wrong thing to do. The recovery and adjustment after extreme exercise were even more important than the exercise itself.
Andre rushed over, gestured with his raised right hand, and looked at Lu Ke excitedly, hinting continuously. Finally, Lu Ke had no choice but to raise his right hand. The two of them gave each other a high five, and then Andre cheered. "Oh! A breakthrough! This is a breakthrough!"
Andre clapped his hands, applauding Lu Ke. "This is the first time I can be sure that the success rate of this set of ten passes is one hundred percent. This is the first time since we started training in the offseason. Amazing! Truly amazing! Although I can't reward you with a cup of coffee, I can give you a round of applause and allow you to smell a cup of coffee later."
Lu Ke had no energy or desire to retort now. He just gave Andre a middle finger to show his response.
This offseason was crucial for Lu Ke. He tried many new training methods from the system, from Kip, and from Andre. The challenges filled his daily life, and this drill was one of the many difficult ones.
In every training session, the most challenging part was undoubtedly the last one, controlling his center of gravity after a sudden release.
Sometimes, if his muscle control was slightly off, he might fall on his butt, which was the most frequent situation. Sometimes, even if he controlled his body, his center of gravity would be severely shifted, and the next pass would be a ridiculous mistake.
Sometimes, all the movements were in place, but the previous exhaustion was too much, causing his focus to be scattered. The moment he threw the ball, it was inevitable that there would be a deviation in his control. The net was already small, and even a small deviation could lead to a miss.
Each set of training was ten passes, but Lu Ke had never hit all ten. The difficulty was far beyond his imagination.
In the early stages of the training, he couldn't even hit one of the ten passes, with a zero percent success rate. That sense of frustration was indescribable, but it ignited Lu Ke's burning fighting spirit.
Although he was exhausted now, and it looked like Lu Ke had just been pulled out of the water, and his T-shirt had been wrung out again and again, and the accumulated sweat could be used to wash his face, the fun of exercising was in this. Pushing his limits again and again.
Just now, after he successfully completed the last pass, Lu Ke had a faint feeling that he had finally broken through the bottleneck.
🗒️NOTE:
Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/MistaQuartz
Explore up to 30 chapters in advance!