"Ni Xing De!'

The same phrase worked its magic on me, again, 'Ni Xing De!' (translation: you can do it!)

Today I partnered Ah Siew again to play against J & T, two pretty good players in the club. On paper, three of us would be roughly the same standard, with Ah Siew the only standout, so I was expecting us to win around 21-15.

Of course, badminton matches aren't played on paper, so what matters most is the performance on court. Ah Siew told me that he wasn't feeling that well because of lack of sleep, so we must really play well to beat the opponent this time.

Fast forward to the ending. We were surprisingly down 15-20, mainly because I was trying to hard to hit winners at the front, and ended up squandering about 10 pts. Ah Siew then told me to just move them around the court, & don't worry abt finishing them off. My momentum started gathering pace at this time, and with me pushing forward in the net play whenever there was any chances, we drew level at 20-all.

Deuce. 3 more points to be played. Ah Siew was running around busily at the back, because I made mistakes sometimes when I tried to be too aggressive at the front court, and ended up getting counter-attacked. We won the next 2 pts in a row, & with 1 more pt to go, Ah Siew mis-hit a shot and handed the serve back.

We lost the next 2 pts, & they were still on their 1st serve. Ah Siew hit a cross-court smash in the high serve, and it went down perfectly on the sideline, leaving the opponent with no chance. 2nd serve was to me, & before I took it, he looked at me & said that magic phrase again, ' Ni Xing De!'

I smashed right through the centre line, and won the serve back. We won the next pt when Ah Siew set up another smash for me, which I hit down the centre again on his instructions.

Our current record stands at 2-0, & hopefully our winning streak will continue.

More importantly, I learned from him that we are not to give up at any time, & to trust the partner we pick, because that will determine his/her perfomance.

There was a phrase in the Slam Dunk comic series that I particularly liked, which corresponds to Ah Siew's mentality: 'If we give up, does that mean the match is going to end now?' Well, the answer is NO. The opponent will be riding on their superiority, and instead of getting demoralised, we should attempt to play better because they won't be lenient on us even if we surrender at this instant moment. Go for it like there's no tomorrow, & you'll be rewarded for the effort.