Chinese proverb time! A similar phrase to an American proverb, there's similar "mother" proverbs in other languages, including "Necessity is the mother of Invention."
This weekend, I had the pleasure of participating in one of the greatest events I've ever watched or participated in: The Ultimate Dodgeball Championship 2016, 5-on-5 dodgeball on trampolines with a $20,000 grand prize for the winning team, thus attracting some of the best dodgeball teams in the country (and even the world! Canada and Australia sent teams) to compete. The organization is one of a precious few that improve every year it is run, making upgrades every year to its format, coupled with the number of teams that are willing to fly out to Las Vegas to participate. This year, I was lucky enough to join when it was at the apex of running smoothly, referee coverage (6 refs on every court reffing 10 total players!) and live result/ social media. And with 52 teams participating, it was similar to the NCAA March Madness College Basketball tournament, except instead of just filling out brackets and watching it at home I was able to compete as one of the teams in the tournament. An incredible feeling, taking on various teams in different regions and watching some of the greatest teams in dodgeball, trying to attain the best seed from round robin play on Thrusday and Friday then scouting out possible opponents when the brackets for single elimination were announced for Saturday. I lived out my boyhood dream of being the "cinderella team" that no one had heard of and upsetting the defending champions Team Awesome (extremely classy team btw) and then JUST falling short of making it to the Top 8 on Sunday losing to a great team in Team Black 2-1 (Best of 3). I had a very intense 3 days but one of the best experiences ever, letting out all my competitive juices and thinking and living the tournament night and day, barely able to sleep, barely able to eat because I was so excited and looking forward to the next match. It beat any vacation I've ever taken and any natural high I've ever had beating Team Awesome, and I wish everyone in the world with competitive desires is able the chance to experience what I experience: The thrill of a tournament. Hopefully I'll be able to go next year and the year after that!
For me, though, I always, always agonize over the final game of any tournament, the game that we lost. I think almost any competitor thinks the same thing: replaying over and over the game in one's head (and in my case, on video because I recorded the game on video). It's a constant battle of "what if?" that lasts until the next time I play dodgeball, and the only thing allowing me some comfort is that this failure might lead to future success. I can learn from having lost that game, having stepped on the middle pad in a careless manner, to little moves that our team should have done. I think that's the beauty of competition: it wouldn't be that fun if it was so easy, just go into my first ever UDC tournament and win it all (although towards the end of the tournament I felt our team was coming together so well that we had a shot against almost any team), it's the journey to get there, the path of tons of failures, lots of losses, but of analyzing those losses (with the help of my trust GoPro that I carry with me everywhere now) and building on them to the path towards success. That's the most exciting part of all this, and eventually if the ultimate success does come, will make the victory that much sweeter.
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
No comments:
Post a Comment