LO4: Commitment – Showing Perseverance, resilience
LO5: Collaboration – Working together to achieve an outcome
Season 3 badminton was quite short, but definitely intensive and interesting. This year, our team was promoted to Division 1 in ACSIS tournaments, meaning our opponents were a lot stronger and some teams even took part in SEASAC. This not only needed us to more than 100% devoted to the trainings and matches, but also required us to work closely and collaboratively as a team and reflected frequently on matches and opponents.
As the first single of our team, I was always the first one to go on the court and play matches. Also, first singles in each school tended to be extremely strong and competitive. Surely, this put a lot of pressure on me. I met opponents at completely different levels. One of the matches was extremely impressive; my opponent and I were at about the same level and the scorings were really tight. My opponent was really good at smashing and her reaction was really fast. Usually, I served high. Whenever I did so, she smashed at my backhand. At first, I lost some points because of her smashes, but later, I found out this pattern. Hence, right after serving, I just immediately got ready for defense. This was effective for several shots. However, it was hard for me to ensure the success rate and got a chance to attack back since I lost my initiative. I also tried a few shots serving short, but my opponent was too fast and just stepped up to immediately to kill the shot… I attempted to grasp all the possible chances to attack and hit her backhand. I gave my best effort for every single shot and tried hard not to miss any shot because of my own mistake. The match went into the third round in which the score was really tight; I won a few shots and she won a few right after me and again I won a few… The pattern just kept repeating. There was a shot that my opponent hit the shuttle right at my right eye. “Ouch”, it was painful, but only after a few seconds, I pushed myself back to the match; I did my best to ignore the pain and concentrate fully on the match. I was exhausted, but I pushed my limit. My teammates were all supporting and encouraging me during the match; this boosted my confidence and made me feel less exhausted. Finally, after struggling, I won the match. (LO4)
Within the team, I had always experienced the warmth and team spirit. Before and after each match, we cheered; we cheered for the success; we cheered for our team spirit; we cheered for our hard works… Moreover, during the break of each match, after the match, we encouraged each other. We always stayed and supported our teammates for the entire matches. When the player from our team hit a good shot, we clapped or shouted “Nice”. Even though sometimes we lost, we never blamed anyone; we instead showed full support and praised each other, “Good job”, “Well done”. All these had allowed me to strongly feel the belonging to the team and the unity. Winning was surely important, but friendship, team spirit, support, and collaboration were what we valued greatly.
Apart from being supportive, we were also “coaches” to each other. Since there was only one coach leading us for each match and he was not able to focus on several matches at the same time, we “coached” each other and gave each other suggestion. While supporting our teammates for the matches, we also observed their shots, as well as their opponents’ shots carefully. Then, during the break, we just told our teammates our observations and suggested some strategies. Personally, this helped me a lot since hearing from different angles and perspectives was effective and sometimes on the court, I could not focus that much on the shots and did not have much time to think about and come up with strategies immediately. (LO5)
This badminton season was definitely amazing. I appreciated being part of such a united team and fighting for our matches together collaboratively. I was also glad that I was given the title of “Most Valuable Player” at the sports recognition evening. I would like to say thank you to everyone who was beside me and gave me helps during the season. Thank you, my coaches. Thank you, my teammates. Thank you, my teachers. Thank you all.
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