masterwordsmith-unplugged

With so many friends and loved ones dying in 2010, I decided that if I want to live to see my grandchildren, I had better exercise everyday! I just came back from a squash session with my younger boy. I beat him in three games and the poor guy was so discouraged that he just lost his concentration and his ball control. As a mom, I did not want to mollycoddle him too much, especially since teenage angst has slowly but surely been detected on the radar.



To be honest, I am not a good squash player. I can say I am fairly fit at this point, a definite improvement since I made it a point to work out everyday instead of just rotting in front of the laptop. In the mid 1980's, I used to play with a girlfriend after her lesson with her coach. With their permission, I observed their lessons and that is how I became a fairly good player. However, I lack speed and if not for that, I would have been a very good player indeed.

Actually, I was not that keen to play today as I had just attended Bootcamp yesterday evening and was worried if I would be overdoing it. Thankfully, I did my stretches before I started the game. The first set was a breeze for me and I won it hands down. However, by the time I was leading 8-3, my boy remarked that he would not fight and 'waste' his 'strength' trying to catch up. Of course, momsy here tried to talk his out of that defeatist fatalistic attitude by coaxing him to give it his best shot but he just let it go :-( My boy fought back in the second set and he was leading 6-0. Halfway in the game, I decided to make a comeback to show him that it IS possible to catch up if and when we will ourselves to win and make all the right moves. So I won the game and junior was quite discouraged at the end of the game.

I decided to let him train on his own - after all, that was the fourth time he played squash and he was faring pretty well except for the fighting spirit bit.

Sitting outside, I made friends with two boys who were waiting for their lesson with Coach Peter to begin. Keshava, 8 years old, is such a sweet boy who has been training for 2 years whereas Anil, 11 years, has been playing squash for 6 years and was last year's MSSP gold medallist.

Anil looks like a Form 2 student as he is quite big. I thought it would be good to let him play with my boy so I invited him to play with Nick.

He sauntered into the court and introduced himself and then when he served, my heart nearly popped out cos he whacked the ball with very little strength and yet it moved at lightning speed with a resounding boom sound.

Stunned. I was completely stunned and so was my boy. After a while, I played with Anil and of course lost. The good thing was that he could not take some of my service and so I gained points there.

A while later, I played with Nick and by then the poor guy was so saddened that he just gave up halfway and I won the game even though I kept goading him to give me drop balls.

Honestly, life is all about attitude.

The minute he decided that he was going to lose the game, he lost it.

At that point, I felt I had failed as a mom.

:-(

From young, I tried to encourage him to take up tennis or squash but he was more into football, basketball and last year, he took up badminton and played along the road with us. Occasionally, we would cycle around the neighbourhood together.

Now, I really regret not pushing him in sports - a field which can really develop our grit, determination, resilience and never to crack under pressure.

I took him aside and told him why my footwork was good - cos I learnt it the right way with people to correct me. Ever willing to learn cos I am the typical 'kiasu' character who plays to win, I always try to push myself in whatever I do slowing down only when I took up blogging as I adopted a sedentary lifestyle. But now, all that has changed.

I told him that bad habits have to be corrected and nipped in the bud as soon as possible for otherwise, he would find it a chore to deal with those weaknesses. Finally, he agreed to have lessons with a private coach. Later, I spoke to Khoo at the Squash Academy and scheduled private lessons for my son with one of the coaches there. With that, I hope that he will develop that fighting spirit in him and climb many seemingly insurmountable mountains.

After that, we went to the cafetaria there and made friends with the owner - a very nice young man who makes his own cream puff, curry puff, swiss roll, walnut cake and lots of western and asian dishes. So if you are in that vicinity, do check out the cafetaria there in the squash complex at Bukit Dumbar.

In my younger days, I was a very sporty person and badminton, squash, swimming, aerobics and hiking were my pursuits. I suffered a major setback with my spinal injury (L4, L5, S1, S2 and S3) in 2002 from a hiking accident and I took two years to recover. That was the worst time of my life but I learnt precious lessons which I remember till this day. Resistance training and working out at the gym helped me to regain my strength and strengthened my back but after blogging mania set in, my exercise routine just went haywire but since last month, I have been trying to have a comfortable balance in my life doing what I love most without getting fat :-).

Life is not an easy game to play but with the right attitude and skills, we will survive be it in squash or in any part of our daily lives.

Do leave a comment if you would like to share your experiences. Thanks. Next post will be up later. Have a lovely evening!