Living with no regrets: 04/29/06

Saturday, April 29, 2006

Being a Peacemaker

Just got back from a trip to a nearby basketball court. Over the past few weeks I have found a new group of friends to play with there. Today we played for about an hour among ourselves, then later with another group of guys. The game got pretty rough. Elbows and knees etc... I was shoved alot, and also had my head whacked while under the basket. The game became rather heated... fortunately nothing more serious developed.

Once in a rugby game a few years ago there was an all out fight. I was at the bottom of a ruck and somebody threw a punch above me. All hell broke lose and it was a real rumble. I was at the bottom of the pile so there was nothing I could do...I got stomped on (see pics below) and had boot stud markings in my back for a few days. Ugh!

THIS IS A RUCK

WHERE STUFF LIKE THIS HAPPENS (I know the feelin!)

While such games are unfortunate, the key is how we handle such situations. I believe that as athletes such situations are things we will have to deal with some time or other in varying degrees during our years of competition. We must take up the role of peacemakers. NOT JUST PEACE-KEEPERS. Peace-Making is an active role where we go out of our way to make things right. After all, its still a game. After the game I went to shake hands with the opponents. Thats an act of peace-making. Why? Its out of mutual respect, and it shows control over our emotions with positive actions even in negative situations.

Check out my "life lessons from sports" entries on the blog:)

1. Community
2. Learning to handle failure
3. Discipline part 1 and 2
4. Respect for opponents
5. Respect for authority

Young men that I am proud of:)

Here are some of the younger menbers of the basketball team that I am coaching. We just finished a study session where i attempt to help them with homework (which I used to be good at 15 years ago...) and a short computer games session where I attempt to play Defence of the Ancients (DotA) with them.

These guys are absolutely focused in training and at the young age of 13-14 have the self discipline to eat right and push themselves in training. Sure, we the coaches make then do stuff, but without intrinsic motivation, they wouldn't go the extra mile when doing things that are unsupervised. e.g. Physical training and eating.

We go for all around devlopment in this team. Physical, academic, social and even stuff like handling emotions (in the context of sport) but which carries over to life as well!

Our goal is to win a national championship in the U-14 division. Is it possible to fail? Of course! But we are certainly going to put in championship level effort! Season starts late june. Every training counts. Every repetition of drills and physical exercise counts. Every piece of food we put into our mouths counts. Will update the blog as the team progresses!