Yamamoto was a workhorse for the Dodgers in 2025, leading the team in the postseason and regular season innings, coming in relief during the World Series and providing reliable production throughout the season.
He claimed the World Series MVP award for his efforts, along with a new national spotlight in his home country of Japan and America.
Despite having achieved so much in his second season, the Japanese star seems unlikely to change his intensity.
Yamamoto’s trainer, Osamu Yada, known as “Sensei Yada” around the clubhouse, has worked with the pitcher since he was a teenager and broke into the Japanese league.
Yada has pushed for a program full of unconventional workouts, with Yamamoto never having to lift weights but instead going through an unorthodox routine.
Yamamoto’s Long Winter
This offseason had Yada Yamamoto pushing hard, even after all those innings and the pressure he put on his body.
Dylan Hernandez of the California PosT reports that Yamamoto trained six times a week for six hours straight in December and January.
“In December and January he pushes himself to the point of complete exhaustion,” Yada told Hernandez.
Despite the heavy workload Yada placed on the pitcher, manager Dave Roberts isn’t concerned about his approach.
“It’s been from the day we signed him how intentional he is about his work and his body care,” Roberts said.
“There is no science about ramping up early.”
For Yada and Yamamoto, winter preparation is the competition that lights the fire for the season and serves as a period of planting a seed that will grow come fall.
“In the spring the plant germinates, in the summer the flowers bloom and in the fall the fruits appear,” says Yada.
“The same thing happens here. After a number of years you start to understand how the cycle unfolds throughout the year.”
The relationship between Yada and Yamamoto
As a high school student, Yamamoto sought out Yada to help him become a professional baseball player and get his body ready, but then told by The Chosun Dailythe trainer offered him a blunt assessment.
“You are from Bizen, Okayama? The sea is beautiful there. Isn’t it a place where many fishermen live? With your body, it is impossible to become a professional. Completely impossible. Your physique seems perfect to go back to your hometown, get on a boat and catch fish,” Yamamoto was told by Tada.
Not taking no for an answer, Yamamoto begged Yada to help him achieve his goal as he finally offered the only way forward.
“There is only one path. Change everything. From beginning to end, completely, completely. Can you do that?” Yada asked.
Yamamoto, in turn, answered with a resounding yes, and ever since he’s been throwing javelins and weighted balls and doing yoga on his way to baseball’s mountaintop.
#Dodgers #Yoshinobu #Yamamotos #brutal #training #routine #detailed