It was a blissful Sunday morning when I went for my Airtel Sports day at the Havelock grounds with bundles of hopes to win the prestigious championship.
When the sports events began I and my team were in high spirits confident that we will win the events. But the reality started to be very much different. However much effort was put to win the events, we were not able to come up the ladder and by the time we had finished 4 events we were firmly at the bottom of the scorecard. All my team members were feeling very low, mumbling that we have no hope to even get the third place.
I being the captain of the team went to a corner and was thinking what is going wrong with our team; we had a good team but still the other teams were beating us; what was the difference between the leading team and us?
Suddenly something crossed my mind, before choosing the players have I done an evaluation over them whether actually they could perform well and have I missed the correct person for the fitting event? Yes, that is the aspect I have missed!!!
I went back to the ground, witnessed that most of the guys were just roaming without aim, least bothered with what was going on. I saw that they have lost hope and desire in winning.
As the captain of the team I urged all my members to gather for a quick meeting. I went through the schedule, started to prepare the players for the events. The next event was the obstacle race and I needed the best runners I did not choose randomly. I made all the good runners practice in front of me and chose the best out of the best and made them practice before the events.
When the events were to restart after the break, I called up all my team members to cheer the players who took part in the event. Before each and every event I made it a point to do a practice session to choose the best, this strategy was the key for our success, some of the games were new to all the team players and as we had practiced before every event and all the teams were astonished to see us back in action having a great spirit and the momentum too. We kept a massive lead in points and from the last place we managed to become first by winning all the games and finally taking the Airtel Sports day Championship.
This achievement would not have been possible if it was not for the teamwork and precise practice. At the end it was a very hard day’s game with physical exhaustion being the norm. But you don’t feel the pain when the thrill of victory is attained.
It is not that you just have the willpower to do anything but also you need to prepare yourself before you do anything. It’s just weakness to quit because something is too hard for you and at times even though you feel practice will not perfect you it will reduce the imperfection of yours.
Always Remember……. you are what you practice the most.
By
Shadrin Safwan