‘Major League training is extensive,’ says Park Byung-ho

“At first, I thought that training hours in the Major League would be short. But that was not the case. Players prepare by themselves and start training right away. I go to the ballpark at 6:30 a.m. to warm up in advance.”

Park Byung-ho (30) of the Minnesota Twins said training in the Major League is not less than that in the Korea league. One of the biggest characteristics in Korean sports, irrespective of the type of sport, is intense training. Pundits often pick "hellish heavy training" as secret to Korean teams’ Olympic medals or professional league titles. On the contrary, all training is focused on games in the U.S. Be it amateur or professional, teams are not allowed to engage in joint training for more than four hours per day.

Park said, “The coach also just stands by us, and guides me only when I go and ask question about how to improve,” adding, “The coach never calls a player to guide as they do in Korea.” However, shorter joint training does not mean that the amount of training is not actually short here. Players extensively engage in self-training on their own.

Minnesota started joint training of pitchers and catchers in Port Myers, Florida in the U.S. on February 23. Fielders began joint raining on February 28. Fielders exercised through joint training only for four days until March 3 when the first exhibition game took place. Few of the fielders entered the official camp exactly on February 28. Retired players such as Manny Ramirez joined the spring camp on the official opening day, while most active players joined the camp about a week in advance and improved their physical fitness. They do so to start batting exercise immediately from Day 1 of the camp.

The spring camp starts with a meeting of players at 9 a.m. every day, but athletes go to the ballpark early in the morning to complete individual training by then. The joint training session ends about 12:30 p.m, and the rest consists of individual training. Time is short but efficiency is high. Park Byung-ho did not participate in a recent away game given that he needed more efficient training at the home ground.

At the game against the Baltimore Orioles on Saturday local time, Park posted his second multi-hits in exhibition games by garnering two hits from three times at bat. He has hits in five consecutive games since the game against Tampa Bay on Monday, when he hit a grand slam.