The player who achieved the most dramatic turnaround in professional baseball this season is KT Wiz foreign batter Sam Hilliard.
Hilliard suffered a serious setback early in the season as he was unable to adapt to the KBO League ABS (Automatic Pitching Assessment System) strike zone.
In particular, he was unable to respond properly to balls from high courses, and his batting average was only 0.232 until April.
At the time, he achieved the poorest performance among foreign hitters from 10 teams who filled the required at-bats.
Some even called for Hilliard to be kicked out.
However, KT coach Lee Kang-cheol called Hilliard aside and advised him to play the game with a relaxed mind since he had no intention of leaving the team, and Hilliard regained his confidence and enjoyed a remarkable rise.
In 142 regular league games, he performed at the MVP level with a batting average of 0.304, 44 home runs, and 139 RBI.
‘Correction of swing trajectory’ along with mental recovery played a decisive role in Hilliard’s revival.
After finishing the first game of the Korean Series (KS, 4 wins in 7 games) with the Samsung Lions held at Suwon KT Wiz Park on the 3rd, Hilliard said, "I had a hard time adjusting to the strike zone at the beginning of this season, but I was able to adapt by modifying my swing trajectory. I think I achieved good results with my changed swing in today's game as well."
By changing his swing trajectory, he improved his ability to respond to balls on his body, raised his correct hit rate, and became one of the league's top hitters.
In this process, ‘rubber ball training’ played a decisive role.
Ahead of the opening of this season, kt introduced special rubber ball training used by Major League Baseball (MLB) clubs.
The KT club has prepared training rubber balls of various weights and colors, including 350g and 450g, as well as a 150g rubber ball, which is similar to the weight of a regular baseball ball (about 145g).
And many players, including Hilliard, used it for batting training.
Rubber ball training is known to have a positive effect on batters' bat control, maintenance of swing trajectory, concentration on the ball, and improvement in pitching vision.
A coach at KT said, “The rubber ball is heavy, so it helps you learn the feel of the swing,” and “In particular, it helps you maintain consistent bat control and swing trajectory.”
He added, "Our club uses various types of rubber balls for training, and hitting a heavy ball and then a light ball has the effect of increasing the rotation speed of the bat. So, many players practice hitting with a heavy rubber ball right before the game."
Hilliard consistently batted toss using a rubber ball before games in this year's regular season as well as in KS.
By reorganizing the swing established at the beginning of the season, he increased his batting concentration and showed threatening hitting at every at-bat.
He recorded 3 hits in 4 at bats, 1 walk, and 2 RBI in the first game of KS, and also went 2 hits and 2 walks in 4 at bats in the second game of KS on the 4th.
He reached base four times in both games.
Hilliard, who boosted his confidence with his hot hitting skills, also made good plays on defense.
In the top of the first inning of the first game in KS, Hilliard jumped and caught Park Seung-gyu's batted ball from the opposing team at first base with no outs, preventing a run crisis.
In the 2nd game of KS, in the 10th overtime inning, with one out and runners on first and second base, he threw his body to catch Park Seung-gyu's hit to right-center field.
As KT lost 2-3 after a close overtime match, Hilliard's defensive scenes received relatively little attention, but his presence on both offense and defense definitely stood out.
