Kia sent five pitchers to the Seattle Driveline Baseball Center in the U.S. late last year. It also dispatched young promising players in their early 20s to Jeong Hae-young, Kwak Do-gyu, Hwang Dong-ha, Lee Eui-ri and Yoon Young-chul.안전놀이터

The team has achieved better-than-expected results. Jeong, who was considered less powerful as the closing pitcher along with declining ball power last season, recovered ball power and confidence to become the "save king" (31 saves) and lead Kia to victory. Left-hander Kwak Do-gyu stood tall as a must-win pitching team in the first full-time season of the first team, and Hwang Dong-ha joined the starting lineup, which left an injury gap, and made a critical contribution to Kia's enduring crisis and winning the championship.

In June, Kim Ki-hoon, Yoo Seung-chul, Kim Hyun-soo and Cho Dae-hyun returned from a monthlong trip at Tread Athletic Training Center in the U.S. Among them, Kim Ki-hoon and Yoo Seung-chul, who were considered promising players for a long time but failed to make a big break, finished the season with a clear improvement. Kim Ki-hoon also played an active part in the Korean Series entry. Expectations grew again after next year.

The dispatch of DRIVELINES and Tread Athletic is a kind of special training program overseas. Both of them use different training methods by checking physical characteristics, physical conditions, and pitching form of players. Major League and Japanese players also became famous saying that they had been successful, and the trend has also gained popularity in Korea. DRIVELINES draw dramatic increases in speed while Tread Athletic undergoes more personalized training for each player. In the KBO League, this special training program overseas, which many players from various teams have experienced through support from teams or individually, but rarely achieved dramatic effects, is evaluated as a decisive driving force for KIA to win the title.

Shim Jae-hak, Kia's general manager, who checked in advance at the center, first asked which player has the best chance of success. Young players with potential before their training routines became more effective than experienced players, and the team picked players. "Our data team has an employee who knows well about driveline. We have studied the process and various injury cases. As it is off-season, I get injured while trying to build up my body. I increased my physical condition by 70 to 80 percent so that I could throw a heavy ball right away," Shim said.

Kwak Do-gyu, the pitcher who had the greatest effect this year, said, "Even after going back, I trained the team throughout the season incorporating that training method. There are so many differences from training in Korea, and the coach respected all of them and discussed them together to make the schedule. He told me to continue the training schedule well. I think the reason I was able to succeed is because I continued the training even after going back. I think the know-how of new baseball and good veteran coaches was mixed to produce good results."

Kia has been trying to change its image in recent years, far from its data and scientific approach. At the team level, Kia has been continuously working to acquire what it has learned at the U.S. center and incorporate it into its system in our own way. "We will send (the dispatch) this year, but we will also send the data team," said Shim Jae-hak, the team's general manager. "It is our dream to set up a performance lab in Hampyeong. There are many players who want to go and learn. Thank you for your enthusiasm. Our goal is to establish a system so that the team can provide scientific support directly within the team without sending them to the U.S.," he said.