Revisiting those teenage years!

Looking at my niece growing into her teenage years somehow reminds me of my own that didn't seem that long ago! Ha ha... :) When I looked at her collection of blisters from basketball training sessions and her current act of juggling school work with basketball training, I can't help but feel her pain. I remember I used to have to train at least twice a week after school hours for.... badminton (a game that I played competitively since primary school). However, in secondary school, our worst nightmare during those training sessions was not just the physical pain that we have to experience but the psychological trauma that we have to endure from our coach. A typical training session would be something like doing 10 rounds of duck walks, running 10 rounds around the school quadrangle and some stretching moves. After which we need to do weight training for our wrists.... perhaps by the hundreds before we could step into the courts. Once we have reached the courts, we would be doing shuttle run routines in the courts alternated by feeding shuttle-cocks to precise positions on court. The last parts of the training sessions were usually stroking with team-mates or playing matches with our seniors. However, it was not merely the physical torture that we were subjected to that put us off ..... what was more traumatic for most of us were the remarks made by the coach who was totally unpredictable. Most of the time, punishment was meted out to the entire team if anyone made a mistake. After two years of being in the school team and playing competitive badminton, I was suddenly struck with appendicitis after one of the training sessions during the year-end school holidays. I was hospitalized and could not train for the rest of the holiday period. When I returned to school as an excited secondary 3 student, I was shocked that the coach decided to close down the badminton school team that I have devoted my entire life into. What made the team so mad was that the coach offered no valid reason for its closure and we were told that we were all "sacked". We were also asked to choose a new sport. I was transfered to the basketball recreation team and missed the badminton school team members and surprisingly the training sessions most terribly. Despite the woes of being "sacked" from the team, we did not lose everything. Most of us in the team remained close. By going through thick and thin together those two years, we have made some dear friends.... whom we have shared our tears and joys with.... whom we have huddled together for support when we were reprimanded, whom we have depended on when the going gets tough, whom we have hung out with at Seah street (for beef kway teow and ice kachang) after each training session, whom we could still call friends even though we have not been in touch all these years..... just because we have survived those memorable teenage years!