Uma Musume: From Being Knocked Ten Meters Away

Chapter 393 Haven't you practiced enough yet?

In the following training days, Kita Genko continued to focus on track training, and Yasui Makoto gained a clearer understanding of Kita Genko's various performance indicators.

Overall, as training continued, the girl's peak instantaneous explosive power remained dazzling, but the numerical curves for sustained acceleration and maintenance showed obvious sawtooth fluctuations.

However, Yasui Makoto is not worried about this.

Sustained acceleration and the ability to maintain speed have always been weaknesses of the Northern Black Horse, and previous training has not been without efforts to strengthen this aspect.

However, the weaknesses of female racehorses are often related to their natural talents, and training can only compensate for them to a certain extent, rather than bring about a complete transformation.

The best way to deal with this situation, besides training diligently, is to provide tactical instructions based on the actual situation of the game, which has always been our approach.

Even with countermeasures in place, this weakness is not without its impact.

On the one hand, if the tactical instructions are influenced by the opponent, the weaknesses will be highlighted to varying degrees, which will affect the team's tactical performance and ultimately the outcome of the game.

On the other hand, if it's a venue they're not good at, their weaknesses will naturally be exposed without the opponent needing to do anything, as was the case in the mud training match in Dubai.

Grass and dirt surfaces share many similarities, so it's not surprising that the data fluctuates so much.

To address this, Yasui Makoto quickly devised a new training program, taking into account the performance of the Northern Black Horse in the first two days of the special training and the characteristics of the racehorse girls who had come to assist with the training in recent days.

On this day, at the edge of the Tokyo track, which was still flooded with water, Makoto Yasui checked the real-time data on his tablet while giving instructions to runners on the track.

"Core! Tighten your core! Maintaining high speed will greatly deplete muscle endurance, so you must keep your core engaged throughout the entire movement!"

"Lower your center of gravity! Adjust your running form to resemble that of the Golden Ship and the Zhongshan Celebration!"

"You need to increase your stride frequency and pay attention to the angle of your forefoot strike!"

As he shouted, the three figures on the track shifted subtly from time to time.

On this day, the Golden Ship and Zhongshan Festival were still in charge of assisting with the training, and among them was the Northern Black Horse, who was receiving special training.

The three female racehorses are practicing the same marker-based running as on the first day, but this time they're also incorporating S-shaped slalom training:
At intervals along the track, there are cones coated with fluorescent paint. They really need to do this at Anjing, and they need to pass through with a fixed stride. This training is to avoid losing speed due to disordered stride in heavy terrain.
Each time a horse passes through a cone, it must pass through the next cone from the other side. This makes the racehorses' route appear as a flat zigzag pattern when viewed from above. This is to improve their ability to stop suddenly, change direction, and maintain balance in muddy conditions.

To complete this kind of training, in addition to the stride frequency and power generation method mentioned at the beginning, the center of gravity and the angle of contact with the ground are what Yasui Makoto emphasized last.

The more challenging the track conditions, the more important it is to maintain speed while lowering the center of gravity as much as possible to reduce drag at the moment of contact with the ground.

Adjusting the ground contact angle to minimize the angle between the forefoot and the ground maximizes cushioning and reduces pressure and impact on joints and muscles such as the ankles and knees.

On the track, clearly sensing Yasui Makoto's demands, Kita Genko gritted his teeth, forcing himself to ignore the protests of his legs, and tensed his waist and abdomen like a fully drawn bow.

As she navigated the cones, she felt that the physical exertion was much greater than when walking in a straight line, but by carefully controlling her stride length and cadence, she felt that she still accurately stepped over each marker.

At the same time, she had a vague feeling of unease.

Running along a zigzag route, the slippery grass made sudden stops and changes of direction extremely dangerous. With each turn, she felt that she might slip and fall at any moment due to loss of balance.

Following Yasui's instructions, she quickly glanced to both sides out of the corner of her eye. Unlike her, she could feel that her tail was swaying erratically, because she hadn't fully mastered the rhythm of the current track.

The two seniors' ponytails were almost parallel to the ground, and each turn was like sliding in a swamp, smoothly flicking and then remaining taut and straight.

And their center of gravity, as Yasui Makoto said, was clearly much lower than his.

Clenching her teeth harder, Beifang Xuanju tried to lower her center of gravity further. She could feel that doing so slowed her down, but the feeling of her feet on the ground became more and more solid.

After a while, her breathing became rapid, and each step felt like dragging a heavy weight, but she continued to grit her teeth and persevere.

When she passed the last cone she could remember, she noticed that the two seniors had slowed down. She felt a great sense of relief and slowed down as well, then looked back, slightly out of breath.

On the muddy grass, there is a curve formed by three neat crescent-shaped marks.

Two of them were noticeably smoother, like a continuous series of S's, winding around the sides of each cone-shaped barrel.

The curve that stretched to his feet was clearly not very attractive; compared to the curves on either side, it looked like a child who hadn't yet learned to write had scribbled something on the ground.

Staring at the route he had taken, the Northern Black Steed clenched his fist in frustration:

"...Is there still a gap between me and my seniors, but..."

"Hey! What are you muttering about?"

A cheerful voice interrupted Beibu Xuanju's thoughts. She subconsciously looked over and saw Jin Huangchuan wiping the mud off his face with a towel while tossing her another towel.

"Here you go! Quickly wipe your face, and then take a hot shower later, otherwise you might catch a cold."

"Oh, okay... Thank you, Golden Ship Senior..."

Somewhat flustered, she took the towel and wiped her cheeks. Beifang Genko glanced to the side and saw Yasui Makoto jogging towards her from the edge of the field. She bit her lip and suddenly ran towards him.

As soon as she reached Yasui Makoto, she asked somewhat anxiously:
"Trainer, what's the next training session? I'm ready to start anytime!"

Upon hearing this, Yasui Makoto was taken aback: "Next?"

Then, he chuckled and said, "So... that concludes today's training? What, haven't you had enough practice yet?"

"Well...I..."

After stammering for a moment, he looked again at the crooked path he had taken, and Beifang Xuanju bit his lip: "I want to practice some more..."

Following the gaze of the Northern Genko, Yasui Makoto pondered for a moment and quickly understood what was going on.

"You're in such a hurry again," he chuckled, then looked back at Beibu Xuanju and said, "Are you already thinking about how to surpass your seniors?"

(End of this chapter)