Chapter 699: A Fundamental Transformation
After the last week of the regular season, the changes brought by daily training had stagnated. Once again, Lu Ke faced the constraints of a talent bottleneck. Therefore, breaking through this ceiling became an important, even core, task of his offseason training.
In the blink of an eye, two and a half months had passed. They went from February to March, and the first week of May quickly slipped by, but the bottleneck still showed no signs of loosening.
This was an excruciating process because it was impossible to predict when the results would come, or if they would come at all. It was like running a marathon. The physical and mental exhaustion of running was completely different when you knew the finish line versus when you didn't. Striving and fighting without a goal was frustrating, monotonous, boring, and blind.
Fortunately, Lu Ke persevered in the end.
Because he was not alone.
J.J. Watt, Logan Newman, Marcus Lynch, Stephen Curry... and Ted Ginn, who had completely gotten rid of his injuries and successfully joined the offseason training. They were all training diligently, like silent companions walking side by side on the long journey toward their dreams.
Offseason training was undoubtedly tough, even painful, but hard work would eventually pay off.
Last week, his footwork training finally made a breakthrough, with a revolutionary improvement in both completion time and method. A few days ago, his strength training also successfully improved, reaching the next level in both weight and repetitions. Now, his throw-on-impact training had also achieved a qualitative leap, completing a one hundred percent pass success rate for the first time.
Lu Ke walked to the side, picked up his water bottle, and started drinking a lot of water. At the same time, he summoned his system in his mind to confirm his guess.
At the beginning of the offseason, Lu Ke would check his basic attributes every day, eagerly hoping that the training would have an immediate and visible effect. Over time, he became obsessed with it, and it began to affect the quality of his training and his mindset.
Later, Lu Ke simply gave up on it. He devoted himself to training, and every day, he didn't care about any data other than confirming the completion of his daily training tasks. Today was the first time in six or seven weeks that Lu Ke had opened his personal attribute panel.
"Weight: 94 kilograms."
The first thing Lu Ke saw was this data. He couldn't help but lightly clench his fist. His guess was correct. The bottleneck had finally been broken again.
In fact, Lu Ke's weight had been at 93 kilograms for a long time, and it hadn't changed for over six months. The ceiling of his physical talent was obvious. Gaining weight was a major problem for Lu Ke.
Now, his weight had finally changed again. Although he had only gained one kilogram after training his heart out in the offseason and eating nutritional meals day after day, it was enough for Lu Ke.
Because it meant that the bottleneck had finally loosened again, and the quantitative change had finally led to a qualitative change. The offseason training had successfully paid off. Being able to achieve such results in just under seven months of training was a world of difference compared to before. Lu Ke wouldn't be too greedy. It was also because Lu Ke's weight gain had initially completed its goal.
Last August, when he first joined the San Francisco 49ers, Lu Ke was clearly underweight, and his body was too thin, lacking the ability to withstand hits. Gaining weight had always been one of the key points that the coaching staff had repeatedly stressed.
Interestingly, as the season progressed, the coaches were always worried about other players' learning, understanding, and application of the playbook, but for Lu Ke, the coaches were always worried about his weight problem. Gradually, the team started to win, and Lu Ke's weight was also slowly increasing, which made the coaching staff feel a little more at ease.
As a traditional pocket quarterback, taking hits was never the main point. Furthermore, his agile and light footwork in the pocket and his fluid and flexible throwing motion were some of Lu Ke's unique traits.
After some discussion, the coaching staff wanted to maintain Lu Ke's advantages and characteristics rather than making him a physical superhuman like Cam Newton. Therefore, they believed that Lu Ke's weight should be maintained in the range of 94 to 97 kilograms, not too thin and not too fat, as both could affect his on-field performance.
Today, Lu Ke's weight had finally reached the minimum standard.
So, even if it was only one kilogram more than before, for Lu Ke, it was a huge relief and a cause for celebration. It also meant that he no longer had to struggle to gain weight!
Of course, besides his weight, his focused and intense training throughout the offseason, like an ox plowing a field, had yielded much more.
Physical Attributes: 83
Mental Attributes: 88
Among these, his physical attributes had increased by a total of three points, while his mental attributes had increased by one point.
From the numbers alone, the increase didn't seem as exaggerated as one would have imagined, but the premise was that this improvement was achieved in just three months, which was very astonishing. You could even "visibly" see a comprehensive improvement in his personal abilities.
Strictly speaking, this was the result of ten weeks of training.
Lu Ke had a bold theory about this result.
The special task in the conference finals had failed, and he faced the penalty of "10% decrease in offseason training effectiveness, +1 increase in daily training difficulty." These were objective facts. But the decrease in training effectiveness was only a mere ten percent, while the daily training difficulty was increased by a full level. After the addition and subtraction, the training effect had actually improved.
After all, the physical intensity that his body could feel had increased. But the prerequisite was that he had to grit his teeth and complete all the daily training tasks, which was a "hell mode" of training. If he couldn't complete it, the punishment was a real punishment, and all his efforts would be in vain. Once he completed it, the accumulation and breakthrough would definitely be even more intense.
In the end, the system was designed to train a football superstar, not just for a game.
Of course, this was just Lu Ke's personal guess, and since Little Seven didn't respond, it couldn't be confirmed. However, the other sub-categories on the physical attribute panel also showed a series of positive changes, which further boosted Lu Ke's confidence.
First, his basic physical attributes:
Speed: 71, an increase of one point.
Strength: 72, an increase of four points.
Acceleration: 65, an increase of one point.
Explosiveness: 74, an increase of one point.
Agility: 73, an increase of one point.
Jumping: 53, an increase of two points.
Throwing Power: 83, an increase of one point.
Next, his quarterback technical sub-categories:
Blocking Ability: 71, an increase of one point.
Elusiveness: 57, an increase of two points.
Faking Ability: 56, an increase of one point.
Left-Side Awareness: 48, an increase of three points.
Right-Side Awareness: 61, an increase of one point.
Catching Ability: 40, an increase of two points.
Route Running: 18, an increase of three points.
A comprehensive improvement.
This was the best example of a "comprehensive improvement!"
It was clear that he had improved in all aspects, with a total increase of twenty-eight points, which was almost the same as the gains from three games!
This was astonishing.
No wonder people always said that focused offseason training was crucial for any player and could transform an ugly duckling into a swan. The hard and grueling closed-door "hell mode" training could be clearly and accurately reflected in every part of a player. It was obvious how much energy and sweat was put into the training, and it was a complete rebirth.
The premise of all this was that hard work didn't always guarantee a reward, but without hard work, there would definitely be no reward.
Among the sub-categories, catching ability and route running were technical sub-categories for wide receivers, but they were also occasionally touched upon in quarterback training, especially for passing and receiving drills. It was clear that Lu Ke's growth was particularly significant, but that was also because Lu Ke's base score was so low that it left a lot of room for improvement.
Without a doubt, the increase in strength was the real qualitative change. Four full points, which was the biggest transformation in his entire offseason training. The focused strength training that started in September was further enhanced during the offseason, finally leading to a small explosion. Although there was still a long way to go to reach the top level, it was no longer a weakness for Lu Ke.
The results of his offseason training could now be clearly seen. A surge of satisfaction rushed through his chest, making Lu Ke's mood involuntarily lift.
"Andre, one more set of passing drills," Lu Ke proactively requested.
Andre, who was relaxing on the side, was slightly stunned. He had wanted to say that today's training was over, but the words on the tip of his tongue stopped. He caught the change in Lu Ke's expression. He had completely brightened up, as if all his exhaustion had been swept away. He was full of energy and ready to go.
For a professional athlete, this was called... being in a "godlike state?"
"One more set. Five passes," Andre said without hesitation. However, he still reduced the training volume to prevent injuries. Then, his expression changed, and he scolded him sternly. "Get ready, squat! Breathe, hold! Muscles, tense!"
Once they were in training mode, Andre would pretend this was the first time they were training and completely ignore the physical and mental exhaustion, completing every training session with the highest standards.
Offseason training was undoubtedly boring and difficult, but with the company of friends like Curry, Watt, and others, the training gradually became something to be enjoyed.
The only exception was Logan, who strongly objected and protested. "Torture is torture. How can it become enjoyable?"
But no matter what, the offseason training was gradually coming to an end. With the end of the draft and the silence of the free-agent market, voluntary training camps for each team began one after another, and the atmosphere of the new season had quietly started to spread in the air.
It was another new beginning.
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