Aiming To Be The Best Soccer Player In The World With The Skill I Got From Gacha ~ [Skill] That Grows With More Effort ~

Childhood Chapter

Episode 04 Swimming, Taekwondo or Aikido?

Good morning. Everyone, let’s wash our hands and gargle. I’m Kei Ninomiya, 3 years old!

My parents’ house is in Saitama Prefecture. Since there are quite high-level slopes everywhere, I originally thought that it would be great for training!

“Geh ⋯ ge-eh ⋯ geh!”

I think this is a noise that a 3-year-old child should never make, but I direct it toward mommy who is staring at me so anxiously. I’m thirsty, please give me water.

“Ma, mama … wa-ta pweese.”

We have to go back to the scene from a week ago to explain why my toddler self has become this tired.

◆◆◆◆◆◆

One week ago, Ninomiya family.

“Daddy! I really wanna be soccer player! So pweese buy soccer ball!”

A 3-year-old child with limited vocabulary is utilizing his cuteness and perfectly round eyes he inherited from his mother to plead his father to buy him a soccer ball.

His current face most likely looks just like the youth with gleaming eyes depicted in manga.

As if his cuteness isn’t enough, he’s tilting his head and activated his puppy-dog-eyes!

Sure enough, daddy is faltering and yields. The dignity of a president is nothing when confronted with this cuteness.

He’s taking a lot of damage.

Come now, give me the ball, dad!!

“I’m impressed, Kei. You’re so determined even though you’re only 3 years old! Okay, daddy will do his best to cooperate! But there’s a condition. Daddy will decide a course for both of us to run together. If you can complete the course every day for a week, I’ll buy a soccer ball for you. Of course, I’ll buy all the other necessary equipment as well!”

That’s my very best Godfather! It’ll be a piece of cake! In my previous life, I was an excellent long-distance runner. (Because I was too inadequate to be able to participate in practice or games, I was constantly running).

Or so I thought. My daddy has a pretty stoic personality.

As expected of a manager, he’s definitely from a different race.

Then for a week, I woke up at 7 every morning and went family jogging with mommy and daddy.

Well, of course, it’s tough. The burden imposed on this child’s body is pretty heavy.

Correction … it’s crazy hard! What the hell?! However, thanks to my skill, even when I’m about to vomit due to exhaustion, I immediately think positive and continue.

Well, I’m not feeling bad.

But why, why does Saitama have so many slopes?!

I feel like these slopes are toying with me. Whenever the slope becomes less steep, I feel encouraged. But just when I think it’s getting easier, the slope steepens again. I become desperate looking at the slopes.

I found out later that daddy intentionally chose this course with these difficult slopes for me to jog for a week.

Everything is to measure my resolution in becoming a soccer player.

In the end, I cleared the one-week hellish jogging challenge and received a soccer ball, as well as various training equipment.

“… Daddy is the best. I love you.”

Oh, looks like daddy is in a complete KO. He crashed on the sofa.

Let’s leave daddy be for a while. I can stare at this glittering brand new soccer equipment forever! Yeah!

Honestly, my bones and muscles aren’t fully developed yet, so I should refrain from doing excessive exercise. But when I look at this collection of new equipment, I’m tempted to throw the rulebook out the window.

Of course, I still participate in jogging after that. However, I’m taking my time running the course with a lower difficulty level.

And starting next week, I will join taekwondo, aikido and the swim clubs.

Well, daddy is being very supportive, so I got his permission easily when I said I wanted to join all of the above clubs. Thank you, daddy!

The reason I chose taekwondo is to learn how to use my legs. It seems to be mainly footwork but is also good for core training since it teaches how to use the waist firmly; assume a firm posture, put pressure on the hips, transfer the momentum to the leg, and kick.

It’s the best way to learn how to use the body. Will my cumulative time of physical activity increase?

My main reason for joining all those clubs is so I can have an acrobatic play style in the future. Ibrahimović’s style of play is also acrobatic. He’s been fond of taekwondo also since childhood.

In addition, researches have shown that challenging as many things as possible during this childhood period promotes brain activation and significantly affects brain development. Of course, it affects brain development in a good way.

Learning martial arts also promote the secretion of male hormones.

In particular, the aim is to increase testosterone, which is one of the male hormones.

In men, 95% is produced in the testes and the remaining 5% is produced in the adrenal glands. This hormone is released into the blood, circulates in the body, and has a positive effect on various organs.

And this hormone increases rapidly around the age of three.

All things considered, it is best to put myself in an environment that readily promotes the production of male hormones. It has a tremendous advantage for physique formation, especially increasing the number of inner muscles that are difficult to train.

In addition, it improves memory and challenges the mental aspect to promote fighting spirit and perseverance.

According to [Cutting Edge Soccer Studies], there are research results about the ability to judge a situation in an instant and detect crises to make the most effective decision.

And most of all, higher testosterone levels will result in a longer life.

Knowing this, there’s no way I will pass on the facilitation of testosterone production!

Moreover, learning Aikido will help me thoroughly train the technique to disrupt my opponent’s center of gravity. It is said that “absolute scoring ability” is necessary to become the best soccer player in the world.

This is because goalkeepers and defense players chosen by Ballon d’Or can be counted on just one hand. After all, most of the selected players are scorers, strikers, or midfielders.

Therefore, knowing aikido will give an advantage when I’m on the front line or the opponent’s field. I will be able to disrupt my opponent’s center of gravity by simply touching them.

Of course, the [Cutting Edge Soccer Studies] recommends selecting the best three sports to learn in early childhood.

Swimming is the first recommendation, while aikido and taekwondo are the second and third recommendations, respectively.

My reason for choosing swimming is, of course, because it’s the best sport that promotes the development through a wide range of motion, as well as increasing the vital capacity and flexibility of the body.

Why don’t I join the soccer club, you ask?

This is because I want to thoroughly train my basic skills and movements during my early childhood. I think rough contact sports at this age, such as practice games, are useless.

The gain is too little with the risks involved when kicking a ball around with a bunch of other children who don’t yet understand what they are doing. It simply isn’t worth the risk.

Moreover, the ability to judge a situation and other abilities that can only be improved in a group should be done after entering youth.

Before that, this childhood bonus time should thoroughly be used for 3 things: 1. basic skill traning, 2. basic skill training, and 3. more basic skill training.

— Stop, kick, dribble.

Have you ever heard of the expression “the basic is a secret technique”?

That being said, no professional soccer player is bad at these three basic techniques. Of course, in order to pass the youth and professional selection, there are other indispensable techniques as well.

However, these three techniques have been used for scouting and selecting players for decades. The evaluation is completely different depending on how well the player masters these three techniques.

Besides, I have [Cutting Edge Soccer Studies] as my guidebook, so it’s better to organize my own training menu than to join a local soccer club and practice inefficiently.

And it’s about time [Effort ★] utilization registers 10,000 hours cumulative time of physical activity. I’m looking forward to what kind of [Skills] I can acquire.

[Effort ★]

– Physical activity cumulative time 9,937 hours