My BEST partner

This post is dedicated to Ah Siew:

Ah Siew walked over casually & said, ‘Ah boy, u want to play Steven & Ah Teck? I partner u.’

(note: almost all the people in my club don’t know my name, so everyone calls me Ah boy because I’m the youngest regular there)

I had just lost to Ah Siew in an earlier game 21-16, & it was far from my effort; My partner pretty much controlled the game, & I think he wasn’t too happy with my performance. So when Ah Siew asked me to partner him, & play against Steven Oh, the ex-national player-cum-my-mentor, I was really excited & said ‘YES!’ immediately.

It isn’t everyday that I get to play against top players in the club, & when I do, they usually don’t play seriously enough because they thought we won’t be much of an opponent to them. Different story when Ah Siew is on my side, because he’s one of the top players in the club, & the definite first or 2nd doubles on the team list. He usually partners Steven or Timothy, another ex-national player in the team. When he on my side, it’s pretty much guaranteed that the opponents will play up to their max ability in order to beat him.

I was really psyched up & as we waited for the courts to clear, Ah Siew pulled me outside to discuss the strategy to be used later. He asked me for my plan, & I told him that Ah Teck would be the weakest link among us because he doesn’t have any special shots at all. His face suddenly lit up, ‘That’s all I need to hear. I think we have exactly the same game plan.’ He told me to calm down as I was visibly nervous, but the truth is I can’t wait to put a few hard smashes onto Ah Teck for his cockiness throughout the time I was at the club.

A little sidetracking here. Ah Teck is the unofficial team captain, who manages the logistical sides of the club, ie booking courts, buying shuttles, as well as arranging friendlies with other teams. He’s ok as a player, but he is the Mr-I-think-I’m-so-darn-good in the club (a bit like that bulky guy from MUBC. Peeps from the club should know who I’m talking about..). Anyway, he always looked down on my partner (who was my senior back in my Indonesian club (I know, what a small world!!)) & I, & whenever we got down on court, he would make a bet with other people that we were going to lose the match. It is true that we are off to a bad start, as we lost a string of matches in a row, but our results finally picked up and we won against a few good pairs. Nevertheless, I still couldn’t take the insult of getting criticized by someone whom I regard as a few levels below my standard. I mean, getting comments from Steven about my mistakes in a game would be normal, because I knew he really wanted me to improve my game, but from someone who can’t even play? What’s the world coming to??

& so the stage is set. We did our warm up hits and were ready to start the game. I had my eyes fixed on Ah Teck all the time, trying to be alert and put a few shots onto his head =) Ah Siew served to Steven, and he lifted the shuttle all the way to the back court. I moved quickly to get into position for a smash, ‘WHAM!’ The shuttle landed 2 inches away from my feet, & everyone watching was saying ‘what the hell is he doing?’
Ah Siew smiled reassuringly ‘don’t worry about it, just try to play your normal game’.

It was service over, and I was the receiving party. I took the shot so late that it was impossible for Ah Siew to retrieve the smash from Steven, & I apologized to him for the bad play. Still no reaction from him. He only smiled and said, ‘Believe in yourself, like how I believe in you’.

The next ten points were lost mainly on my mistakes, because I was shaking all over and kept missing easy shots that should have been won. Ah Siew on his part managed to cover for me pretty well, and got the points for our side. I was serving well at this stage, but to say that my general play was bad would be an understatement. I needed time to calm myself down, & I remembered what Ah Siew told me during the discussion earlier, ‘If you needed time during the game to adjust yourself, don’t hesitate to get out of court & get a drink’. I did. I was looking for signs of discontent from Ah Siew all those time, but there was none. Instead, he spurred me on further. ‘I’ve seen you play plenty of times before, & when you weren’t under pressure you were much better than this. Show me that you can do it!’

I nodded and got back into the court. The next point was the one that turned the game around in our favour. There was a long rally for that point, & up to a certain stage nobody was giving anything away. I was starting to get my rhythm back and could take whatever they threw at me. Ah Siew tried to move in for one net shot but was caught out by the surprise drive from Steven, & he only managed to return it weakly. Sensing danger, I came back to cover for him, & Steven angled a drive at my body. I didn’t know how I did it, but I managed to counter-drive it back with my backhand to an empty spot, & when it landed, the massive pressure was lifted off my back. The audience clapped, & Ah Siew looked over to me & said, ‘I always knew you can do this’.

The opposition kept on their attacks on me, which was an obvious choice because Ah Siew was the better player. However, once I got my rhythm back, I kept on hitting winner after winner, & we were playing on even field. Ah Siew grinned & said, ‘Look at the worried look on their face. They were much more confident than this when the game started, weren’t they? That look is already worth it even if we lose this game later, so just play to your max ability, & don’t worry about the rest’.

How long has it been since I heard that sentence? ‘It doesn’t matter if we lose the game, as long as we play to the max ability’. That really lifted any lingering doubts off me. Soon after that, we won the game 21-16.

This was really an important game for me, because it reignited my passion for the sport, as well as boosting my depleted self-confidence. Since young, I was aware that I had some talent for the game, & many people confirmed that, but these same people also told me that I’m not good enough to make it into any teams I was ever in, because I was inconsistent. They always told me, ‘we won’t be taking you with us’. These rejections were really hard to accept when I saw that the people in the teams weren’t exactly more talented than me, & yet I had to sit out everytime. My partners in the past didn’t really believe in my ability as well, & they would think, ‘come on, don’t drag me down with your lousy performance’. Ah Siew was the first one to really believe in me, & even when I was stuffing up so much at the beginning, he kept his cool and calmed me down. When it all ended, he told me, ‘Isn’t this what I told you from the start? Believe in yourself, like how I believe in your ability.’

Ah Siew, I know that you may never ever encounter this blog in your whole life, but let me say my sincerest thank you for your belief, & never giving up on me when I was dragging you down. Because of that, I won’t be afraid to take on better players as well, because what matters most is to play to your max ability, & have no regrets at the end of the match about what you should have done.

Two very contrasting days, don’t you think? I had one of the best experiences in my life today, to make up for the crappy one yesterday. Did I also mention that my idols Tony Gunawan & Candra Wijaya won the Korean Open, with virtually no training at all?? Hopefully they will go on & win the HK Open as well, because they are simply the living legends of the Badminton world right now!