I believe that everyone will develop a good character once they participate in team sports. I experienced a major change in my life because of sports at the beginning of eighth grade. Although I don’t have a great talent in sports, joining our school’s sports club gave me a memory I will never forget.
Our British school has a competitive sports team called FOBISIA, which stands for “Federation of British International Schools In Asia.” Many such teams get to host a sports week at their school. Different sports events are held such as girls and boys basketball, boys and girls soccer, and individual matches. Since many students would like to join their school’s FOBISIA team, they go through weeks, or even months of training in order to make the team. In my case, the Under 15 FOBISIA girls and boys team started their tryouts the second week of school. We had about two full months until the team had to go to Hong Kong, since they were the hosts of the FOBISIA U-15 games this year, and about one month for the teams to get elected. As usual, I didn’t want to try out because I never had a talent with sports and didn’t have the confidence to improve. Our school took sports extremely seriously and trying out for the team felt as if I would slow down their training. However, friends encouraged me, saying that giving it a try wouldn’t be that bad since it would be our last FOBISIA and we would be graduating the British School this year and moving on to the High School division. After days of thinking, I decided that trying out for our team would give me a chance to test my sports ability.
As I had expected, the first week of training/trying out wasn’t easy. Participating in team sports such as basketball and soccer, there were times when I disappointed myself due to the feeling of letting the whole team down. Although everyone on our team was encouraging me, there was always the thought of giving up. However, thanks to everyone who told me that I was doing great, the thought always vanished after a few days. We also had a chance to test ourselves in individual events, including swimming, athletics, and running. One activity I found absolutely difficult was the cooper run that required running constantly for 20 minutes. I only ran about six laps the first time, being very slow compared to others. By this point, I was determined to improve and tried my best whenever we trained.
After a few weeks, our team list came out and as expected, I wasn’t on the official team. However, surprisingly, I was placed as a reserve! This meant that one still trained with the official team in case someone had to be replaced or got injured before the week of FOBISIA. I was happy with my result because it gave me a chance to train for another month and get in even better shape. The excitement of looking forward to the next few FOBISIA training sessions was tremendous because this meant that I was having fun in sports.
By the end of FOBISIA training, I was quite surprised with my progress, both mentally and physically. After a few weeks of doing the cooper run, I was able to accomplish 15 laps around the field in 25 minutes, much better than before! Not only did trying out for this team help me improve in sports, but also find confidence in myself. From now and on, there will be a higher possibility for me to tryout for other things I usually didn’t do. Through this experience, I learned the mindset of never giving up, leading a group, encouraging others, and trying one’s best. I will never forget FOBISIA because it helped me in a variety of ways which will help me all my life.
No comments:
Post a Comment