Out of an astounding 8,000 and counting sports in the world, how many have you tried?
18 was my number and that’s only 0.2% out of the 8,000 sports in the world. With 365 days a year and 8,000 sports available, it might take one 21 years to complete the list.
Besides nurturing a healthy lifestyle, learning new sports also taught me different valuable life lessons.
- To conquer your fear and keep moving forward
My first encounter with sports was at the age of 5. I remember my father coming home one day with a training bicycle that was a little taller than me. He picked me up and placed me on the seat and asked me to start pedaling. The next moment, I remember pedaling and crying, screaming at the top of lungs asking my father how do I stop the 4 wheeler. He never answered me but laughed and maybe for a good 5 to 10 minutes, I was pedaling aimlessly in the openness till I toppled over after striking the bushes. His rationale was that I had to conquer my fear and to keep pedaling and pick myself up and try again if I fall. Over the years, I grew bolder, cycled faster and even ventured onto the busy roads until I got into a car accident when I was 10. That accident took me off the wheels for a year before I regained confidence to ride again.
2. Stay calm and focus to seize the right opportunity
After entering primary school, I was exposed to other sports and got selected into the table tennis and badminton club. For every table tennis training, you’ll see a bunch of 9 – 12 year olds doing the same repetitive move, everyone had to complete 3 cycles of 100 continuous hits (up and down) before we were allowed to train at the actual table tennis table. The teacher’s logic? It trains you the art of “staying calm and focus”. The game of table tennis is played within the perimeter of a table that measures approximately 9ft by 5ft. Trying to serve the ball back to your opponent within such a surface area requires you to stay calm, focus and swift to response. If you panic or lose focus, a slight angle error of your bat can send the ping pong ball flying in the wrong direction and ending the game.
Badminton training was my favourite. It was the most popular sport in school and I remember having to queue in line in order to play the “survival” game. You stay within the 44ft rectangular court, serve the ball back and forth until one of you fail to catch it and then you move to the back of the queue and wait for your turn to play again. Yes, some may think it’s a game of relay but if you are fast enough, you should be able to spot a gap or your opponent’s weakness and send the shuttlecock over in lighting speed giving him no time to react. The sound of smacking the shuttlecock across the court gave me a sense of empowerment; especially if my opponent didn’t manage to catch the lighting bolt. It also came with a discipline set of training of endurance, starting with running around the court, shadow playing and silent footwork training, moving left to right in strides or up and down with our rackets.
3. To acknowledge your fear and come back with vengeance
Swimming was also mandatory in primary school but I never overcame my phobia of swimming after drinking gallons of water from being pushed into the pool by my classmates. Although, I’m comfortable in the waters snorkeling with a life jacket on but secretly, I’m also hoping that one day I’ll be able swim and learn to surf in Hawaii or dive into the waters of Maldives without a life vest. That’s one bucket list item I would love to complete.
4. The beauty of working with others and the key to success is through teamwork.
Volleyball, netball, floorball, softball, soccer, basketball and ice skating rolled into my teenage years. My favourite was volleyball and it is played within a 59ft by 29.5ft court with 6 players on each side of the court. To me, it was like a big chess game where each player had a defending role to play. Bruises came along with the sport, from learning techniques to serve , spiking the ball and physically flying across the court to catch the ball before it lands on the floor.
Soccer was the scariest among them all because I vividly remember getting hit by one at full speed in the stomach . It was the most upsetting feeling ever, it was like someone pulled my guts out. Netball was a little like basketball; minus the jumping while you were trying to shoot the ball into the loop. Dribbling the basketball for me was the hardest thing to master, it took me many many many hours of practice to be able to dribble and bring it across the court. Softball was really exciting especially if you send the baseball flying across the field and hit the homerun.
5. To trust yourself and trust others to do their job
Stepping into young adulthood and having the facilities in school made it easier to learn tennis, squash, roller-blading and rock-climbing. Tennis was a test of my stamina and your battery can literally be flat within minutes if you have poor stamina. Playing squash was a good form of stress reliever; a rubber ball and racket and you’re ready to beat the whack out of the wall. Roller blading involves alot of screaming and falling over and picking yourself up in the initial stage of learning. So you just have to keep trying to find your balance. Rock climbing was a game of trust; you have to learn to believe your belayer, the chap who is holding on to your safety rope.
6. Living life to the fullest
Travelling opened the door of opportunities to try a variety of other sports. The most extreme was skydiving, an experience I will never forget but probably will never try again. Skiing was the most fun and memorable because it gave an adrenaline rush and was also my first time seeing a mountain full of white fluffy snow. Planning to find a chance to visit a ski resort again and maybe this time round to try a new sport- snowboarding!
So what’s on your list to try?
Reference:
TheQuietHappy 