Training with my dad from a young age for marathons and competitive swimming really screwed up my perception of sports. They used to be my favourite sports. The sense of self-fulfilment and accomplishment was one of the best moments I had growing up. But sports being sports, or maybe because I used to be a weakling, it became too much and it reached the point where I was old enough to make my own decisions and I decided for one reason or another, I just didnt like it anymore. Maybe 3 years hasn't been a very long time to "grow out of it", but playing touch has been, and still is, extremely rewarding.
5 | The difference a Team makes.
I've always found it hard to grasp favouring team sports. Its brilliant when we work around everyone's strengths (and weaknesses) and accomplish greater things on a higher level. What you lack, someone else makes up for it. Plus having to work not just for yourself but also your team mates motivates you to better yourself constantly.
4 | The difference a Team makes. Negatively.
Every player's decision and choices can make the team, and with that last point being said, an individual could also break the entire team. This is the one thing that makes it hard for me to completely embrace team sports; the amount of trust you put in your team mates. Its like a silent agreement saying, "Here is me putting my 101% for the team and I trust everyone else will do the same." But no, a team comprises of different people, with different goals and unfortunately, sometimes different purposes for playing. I play almost entirely for passion, some play because 'my friends are playing'. It sucks balls (I really have no other way to describe it) when you realise of course, inevitably, different people choose to have different levels of commitment to the team.
3 | What a difficult person I am.
My temper on the field and to my team mates hasn't always been ideal and Im not proud of it. It is somewhat comforting to know I've grown from that push over who gets her bottle filled with pool water and thrown to the bottom of the pool, to being someone who knows what she wants and actually fight to earn it. But I must admit I may have over done it and I guess I'm quite fortunate my team mates actually put up with it. *sheepish face*
2 | "It's not the will to win that matters - everyone has that. It's the will to prepare to win that matters."
The amount of commitment I see being contributed to trainings really speaks for the individual - no hesitation in making time out of honestly busy schedules, contributing effort to analyse matches to work on improvements, investing in friendlies and leagues to gain more exposure, being motivated enough to work on fitness even on non-training days... All that sweat, blood and astroburns do pay off. Just wished I'd worked around the fags though.
1 | How much I've grown to love the sport.
One of the contributing factors I had when deciding whether or not to pick interning overseas was the fact that I had to forgo playing for POLITE. Heck, I could even choose to stop training altogether since it would be a wasted semester. I initially thought it was because I've trained so very hard for so very long, I was just not willing to give it up so easily, as enticing as my interning opportunities sounded. Then I came to realise that I would be extremely miserable if I dont get to touch that oval ball at least twice a week. No more dumps, dummies, switches, fakes, loops, scoops, shots. No more dives and astroburns. I can probably still lie around at home with the touch ball fitting the nook of my neck snugly (contact ball too big), but it just would not be the same as being lazy after training and lying on the field.
It isn't a game that focuses purely on fitness levels and physical capabilities. In fact a lot of moves require quite an outstanding amount of game sense and intellect. When you first learn a move, familiarise yourself with it, that moment when you actually see how you break the defence or when your extra man slots into that gap...
I know for sure that in time to come when I must prioritise other components of my life above Touch, I will find myself missing all the training days, the team, learning new moves and realising how much intellect goes into coming up with these moves, actually being fit, our team cheer, all those hard touches, the mud in Turf City and good ole astro burns.
Quite upset and reluctant once again after finishing this post about interning overseas. Oh god, I've such a fickle heart.
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