Swing, Batter Batter
October:
"Again."
Thunk
"Step and again."
Thunk
"Step and again."
Tim withheld a sigh and grabbed another baseball. Taking a moment to aim, he let the ball fly and wasn't surprised when it hit the target for the tenth time in a row. The exercise was getting monotonous and Tim didn't know what the point of it all was. He had started a mere ten feet away from the target and now found himself around twenty feet away. He could have hit this target when he was ten and not under the pressure of Batman.
Thunk
He hated to admit it, he felt that it was an entirely useless exercise. He understood that Bruce was getting him geared up to deal with bat-a-rangs, but somehow he didn't think that baseball tossing was going to help. He knew that a baseball and a 'rang were completely different objects. He didn't see, nor understand, how learning to throw a baseball would help him any.
"Step and again."
He knew that Bruce had some sort of greater plan in all this, but it took a lot of restraint not to speak out about the absurdity of the exercise. He felt his mind wandering and knew he wasn't concentrating. He also knew that meant that Bruce knew it as well. Still, suppressing the sigh, he took the baseball and threw it.
Tim heard the thunk and already began to take the obligatory step back when his mentor spoke.
"You have to concentrate," Bruce said as if having just read Tim's mind. "This is not a pointless lesson no matter what you might be thinking."
Bruce grabbed baseball and tossed it in his hand. "You must be able to throw a bat-a-rang with enough accuracy to remove a gun the is being held to a hostage's head from a hundred feet while falling head first and releasing a grappling line."
The baseball was released and hit the target dead center.
"To achieve this, you have to learn how to work with motion and movement." Another ball was in the older man's hand. He released it and, as Tim watched the ball he was surprised to see another hit the first which causes both balls to sail wide of the target.
"This is not only about throwing a ball at the target."
Tim watched Bruce grab another ball and toss it to him. Catching it, the teenager stared at it for a long moment. He finally held the ball and really felt it- its weight, circumference, threading... He bounced it once in his hand and then threw it high into the air, it came down and when it was level with his hand, using his palm like a bat, he hit the ball towards the target.
Thunk
Quickly grabbing three more balls, Tim slowly began to juggle them and then sent all three, in perfect secession to the target.
Thunk Thunk Thunk
Finally, he seemed to understand the lesson a little more.