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The story
Chunichi Dragons manager Kimiyasu Kudo has banned young players from saying “I’ll do my best,” a move that sparked discussion after it appeared in the Chunichi Shimbun’s official YouTube video documenting fall training camp drills. His reasoning: “Trying hard is just normal — there’s no one who doesn’t try hard.” Kudo has been personally demonstrating grueling lower-body mobility drills alongside the players he’s putting through them. On 5ch’s Nanjitsu (live sports commentary) board, reactions came from multiple angles — some backing his results-first philosophy, others pointing out that Kudo himself will get mocked if he says “I’ll do my best” about next season, and still others criticizing the “lukewarm” culture that took root under the previous manager, Tatsunami.
A camp feature video posted on the Chunichi Shimbun’s official YouTube channel.
The 63-year-old Kudo personally performs and teaches lower-body mobility drills to the team’s young pitchers.
But the drills are tougher than they look, and a few players can be seen struggling to move their legs the way they’re supposed to.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Doesn't matter how hard you tried if you don't get results.
Results depend on the opponent too, you never know how it'll go.
Pitchers just need to get outs, batters just need to hit, field, and steal bases.
Basically, put up the numbers.
Pro baseball is a world where results are everything.
If it's all about the numbers, Kudo himself looks like he'll get fired within a year.
Still, apparently Kudo was out partying until he was 30.
He regrets that himself, so his stance is he doesn't want the young guys to feel the same way — he wants to push them hard while they're young so they can play even one more year.
He's not really talking about personal life/partying here though, just stuff during practice.
It's basically a retirement hobby for a star player who's already set for life money-wise.
Commanding a bunch of young guys who can't talk back to you must give you a serious dopamine rush.
Win, and it's all thanks to you.
Lose, and sure, on the surface the manager takes the blame, but
everyone understands a manager's actual influence on the outcome is pretty limited, so
even in defeat you're not really shouldering all the criticism alone.
Don't all managers end up looking gaunt and emaciated though?
Dragons fans: "Trying hard is a given! Just win! You're gonna finish 6th again!"
Yeah, easy to picture that one lol
in a way, the boss is stuck babysitting them.
So it makes some sense for a boss, acting like a parent, to be a bit tough on them.
Baseball players, though, are a strange case.
No results means instant termination, straight to the bottom of society as a loser with zero safety net,
yet players act like they expect to be doted on and taken care of.
You guys are on equal footing, aren't you?
I guess each player is basically a one-man contractor.
A boss's job is to work out together how to hit this month's target. If all they do is light a fire under you and pile on pressure, you don't even need a boss.
Well, the big factors are probably Tatsunami and Inoue.
Apparently last year at this same fall camp, the manager said "win rock-paper-scissors and practice's over from here," and everyone got hyped going "woo!"
That video, by the way, seems to have been deleted from the official channel.
Most of the coaches probably secretly think "ugh, I want to go back to the lukewarm days."
He was getting scolded for a lazy throw home, but if the point is valuing every single out, then every lazy throw is a problem —
I get the sense he's trying to improve things bit by bit, starting wherever he can.
Motivation really kicks in once you've tasted frustration, so if they win the pennant in just one year, it might end up half-baked.
You really think Yamai or Dōgami could do that?
Lol
How do people even keep cheering for this team, Nagoya fans must be saints.
In a way, it was a wonderful team — everyone was looking in the same direction.
Would he also ban saying "thank you" or "I appreciate it" because gratitude toward others is just a given?
"Don't say it because it's a given" doesn't really follow logically.
It's not like "checking for safety is a given, so don't say you checked for safety" either.
Right now they need to do more than the bare minimum to make up for what's lacking, so if someone says "I'll do the bare minimum!" the obvious response is "that's not enough."
It's basically the same level as proudly announcing "I properly pooped in the toilet."
He could've just said "show me what comes after 'I'll do my best.'" Saying "that's just normal" as a manager only kills your own team's morale.
Why though.
How many years are they gonna keep repeating this?
Probably just because the players are actually practicing properly for once.
Especially for people whose dreams and goals are huge but whose actions don't match — they end up just saying "I'll do my best" and nothing more.
If you're actually putting in the right kind of effort, anyone will get at least some minimal results.
That's the same kind of myth as "if you're truly smart, you can explain things so even an idiot understands."
That's just the "just-world hypothesis."
If you never compromise, you'll never be able to move at all.
I wonder if people who love this kind of thing are the type who get drunk on words alone and never act.
They love quote collections, but they just get high on them without ever actually taking action.
Context and Talking Points Behind This Story
Kudo Kimiyasu has been known since his playing days for valuing results over words, and this latest “no saying I’ll do my best” rule is seen as an extension of that philosophy. The Dragons have struggled under years of poor results during the Tatsunami era, and the thread includes voices anticipating the taunt “you’re gonna finish 6th again,” suggesting fans remain deeply anxious about the team’s performance. The thread split between those praising it as “an entirely reasonable instruction to just deliver results” and those worried that “banning the phrase itself just saps the players’ morale.” One easily missed nuance: Kudo isn’t rejecting the act of trying hard itself — he’s warning against using the phrase “I’ll do my best” as a substitute for actually achieving the goal, a point some in the thread compared to junior-high-level motivational thinking. The piece also cites testimony from former Giants pitcher Makihara that Kudo himself was out partying in his personal life until his early 30s, suggesting his own regret may be behind the tough coaching he now demands of younger players.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Nanjitsu board) thread “Young player: “I’ll do my best” → Manager Kudo: “Trying hard is normal. There’s no one who doesn’t try hard. ‘I’ll do my best’ is banned.”“.
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