Last Saturday, while waiting for the bus, i asked Jill whether she's disappointed that we were not able to go through the semis. (not that I'm a sore loser bringing up this issue...continue reading and you'll know why).
She didn't answer me directly but she said "I don't like to lose". Of course, who likes to lose? She was confident that we will make it through the semis...then she said something about mental strength. IF ONLY we could hang on that last 1 minute, we could have won them.
This struck me...mental strength.
We lost (though we drew with them) not because we have no skills, we are not good or lousy, i believed we lost because the lack of mental strength. To me, mental strength is about how we bounced back, how we lift up our heads after a lost, how we continue to fight even we are on the losing side, how we remain calm and confident in a shitty situation, how we continue to cheer for our teammates though they're the one who made the team to do their 50th push-ups, how you continue to cheer for your teammates who are on court when you know the chances of you playing are very slim, how strong you are....pushing yourselves to the limit, the never die spirit and it goes on...we were leading, yet we played like we were losing.
In today's TNP, article titled 'A bunch of softies?'. The article talked about if Singapore athletes really lack mental strength." Indeed, a sportsman's mental strength is as important as his physical strength. Tiger Woods didn't win truckloads of honours just because he has the sweetest swing. Michael Jordon didn't become a legend because he had the highest leap. Many sporting battles have to be fought first in the head.". The article went on with a comment from Abdul Razak Masiran, the soccer master and head for PE for Hong Kah Sec. He said ".....Sometimes, they give up or they lack the focus to execute what they have been trained to do during training sessions. .....Maybe our student athletes are too comfortable, since everything is done for them, or maybe there are too many distraction or personal problems, so they cannot focus when they are doing sports."
That's what Jill told us, to step out of our comfort zone. And I'm learning how to do that.
"lack the focus to execute what they have been trained..." this is just so familiar at least to myself. How i failed to execute what I have trained for during certain games...How I'm trained not to commit to the players, yet I still do it...how i'm trained to properly block shots, yet i failed (not all the time, but sometimes)
Sometime, you don't realised that the little things that you do in your everyday lives actually test your mental strength. For example, no matter how hard or smart you study, your results are still like that or even worst. This test you how strong you are...whether you want to give up halfway or continue to persevere. The jogs we were supposedly do during our trainings, its not just about 30 minutes jog. She told me that actually that you are to increase your speed after every runs..if you just do the run for the sake of running, you are just burning the calories.
Then we went on...how she did not really succeed in one of her objective. Building of the trust between her and us. We came from different playing backgrounds, different coaches and the little time given to her are some of the factors that hinder her from reaching that objective. Plus the little time we had to train as a team. Full team. We may not feel it, but she does. I asked her how she knows, she said "We stopped listening, we were not calm, we were not drinking after a line change..."
On the other side, her hidden objective was successfully met. TEAM BONDING. and yes, she did it. All thanks to her supposedly morning jog that we should have on Saturday morning. The morning jog which we turned to team bonding session. Of course, all this with the effort from everyone in the team. How we all actually wakes up in the morning to make our way down to Harbour Front or Botanic Gardens when we can actually spent our Saturday morning on our comfy bed. Yet, we chose to spend our time with our teammates. We became friends, not only teammates. This is the team which you feel hard to leave (at least to me).
Then she talked about how each of us should rise to the occasion. I don't really get what it means but to me rising to the occasion is doing the little things we see as not important but it actually makes a lot of difference. The little one step to step up and block the shots, the little steps to meet the ball, the one step to turn and shoot, the one look to look for you teammates and options, the little extra energy to run all you might for the ball or after the players, that little mind to tell yourself, its time for a change..all that may seems little, but it makes a lot of difference. A lot of differences. Rising to the occasion? What does it actually means? Hmmm...
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