KBO League clubs have been training in Korea for the past two years during the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19). This is because there were too many restrictions to go abroad when considering comprehensive factors such as the risk of infection and quarantine guidelines.
However, as this situation came to an end and the quarantine rules were eased, each club focused its efforts on ‘securing a camp training ground’ from last year. In particular, many teams had their eyes on Arizona, which has the best environment for training because it is warm and not humid, so they competed for the Arizona stadium. There were many teams with limited facilities, so the competition rate was quite strong.
kt was the winner. It won the Keno Sports Complex located in Tucson, Arizona, ‘this year’. Kino Sports Complex is literally a ‘complex’ with a total of 12 usable playgrounds, including 10 regular and 2 auxiliary pitches. The stadium environment is pleasant and there are many usable fields, so many teams are eyeing it, but kt succeeded in defending this field. This year, it has become the club that utilizes the most fields among the KBO League clubs.
KT officials moved quickly and reached an agreement with the Kino Sports Complex. The WBC national team also trains at the Kino Sports Complex, but because the training schedule was decided belatedly, they were assigned a worse seat than kt. It can be seen that the kt side is the effect of moving quickly. A kt official explained, “The front desk and overseas parts worked preemptively to preoccupy the stadium. The team prepared for the season and tried to maximize the effect of training in a stadium with excellent facilities in a warm climate.”
In fact, Kino Sports Complex is the hometown of kt camp. Except for the last two years of training at the captain due to Corona 19, I visited this stadium from 2016 to this year. It is proof that the satisfaction of the club and the players was great. There are many fields, and indoor training and weight training facilities are located 슬롯사이트within a 10-second walk from the team locker room. There are bound to be training that needs to be done outdoors and training that needs to be done indoors, but kt solves everything here.
The distance between fields is only 20 meters. It takes very little time to move from training in one field to another to fit the training schedule. Naturally, all players choose to walk. kt is always using all three sides of ‘ideal’ at any time, including batting, defense, running, bullpen, and warm-up. There is also an observatory in the middle where you can see all four sides at once, which is useful for coaching staff. This is because you can see the training situation at a glance.
Here, in the main stadium (center wall 122m), which has regular specifications to the extent that WBC preliminary matches were held, practice matches with other teams training in Arizona are possible at any time. Team facilities such as the clubhouse, as well as the waiting room for officials, referee waiting room, and press box are all prepared to match a regular stadium, so the officials are highly satisfied.
kt coach Lee Kang-chul, who has been to various campgrounds during his active career and coaching days, gives the thumbs up that the Kino Sports Complex is the best place for domestic athletes to train. Although the facilities at major league ballparks are better, you have to take a bite, and you can’t control training schedules or use of the field. Director Lee said, “The biggest advantage of Kino is that you can use more than three training grounds. And thanks to the Gyeongjang staff who continuously manage the environment, such as grass and soil that are good for training, the players will also have a good spring camp. It seems possible,” he said.
The players are also satisfied. Park Kyung-soo said, “I came to an overseas camp in three years, and it’s nice to be able to do all the training in one place without much movement on the training ground, even in the warm weather and environment. I think we can start.” Park Byung-ho also said, “The facilities are very good. The land is certainly wide,” and “There are many baseball fields that can be used. It is a place with really good infrastructure in terms of facilities.”