I was definitely taken aback. It was a reaction I never saw for such a long time, the entire time I have played squash. Sachin was the fattest amongst all of us in the training team but he still wanted to play squash very badly. I can't blame considering both his elder brothers are very good squash players playing for the state. I was only natural a kid like him at the age of 11 would look up to two elder brothers who were up there in the high rankings.
He wanted to be like them, be strong, be fast in the court, to hit hard, to hit accurately, and most importantly to be a winner in the arena of squash! Just like his brothers!
If I recalled rightly, it was about 5 weeks before the PJ Open squash tournament in the last year I was planning to play competitively, we had a grueling training session to prep our minds and bodies for the tough tournament ahead. It was one of the biggest local tournaments with players from other countries joining in. We had been training for 6 days in a week, court drills followed by court runs, then match play to get us in the right state of mind.
It was one of the training session when we were all literally pushed to the limit to up our fitness levels dramatically, I literally went flat like a punctured tyre, while Sachin literally rushed out of the squash court and found himself emptying his stomach by the drain outside the courts from severe dehydration and from pushing himself physically too hard.
I think he was bent over by the drain for a good 10 minutes just puking himself "happy" before he came back in looking pale. To my surprise, Sachin continued with the court runs while one by one, each of us just gave in to the fatigue and exhaustion. None of us completed the 100 court runs with the exception of Sachin.
It was a forced time out for all of us. Picking myself up from the ground was literally a pain in the arse! Looking at our miserable faces, the coach called it a day but not without some pep talk. Judging by the look on his face I figured he wasn't too satisfied with our progress considering the tournament date drew closer and we were not as polished as he hoped for.
"Look here guys! The tournament is in 5 weeks and you guys need to work a lot harder if you guys want to do well. The guys from India and Pakistan have it much tougher and they sure as hell don't plan on flying all the way here to lose to you guys! 100 court runs and you guys are as good as soft beans. You guys are going to have to give in more to beat the foreigners."
We all looked down with embarrassment.
"Sachin, our fattest player completed the 100 runs although he had to unload some weight unwillingly but we came back in to make sure he finished it. You all could learn a thing or two from him. I am not asking amazing fitness or massive power plays, what I want from you guys is determination. When it comes to the high level squash play, the difference isn't always about skill or fitness because at your level, the skill set and fitness are quite similar. It's the determination between opponents that sets the winner aside."
We all still looked down reflecting on ourselves.
"Sachin, tell me what is it that'd make you work so damn hard while the rest of these guys here are falling down one by one?"
"My brothers always told me one thing, 'be the best!'"
I couldn't believe my ears and my eyes. All of us were beaten by the fattest guy simply because he wanted to do better more badly than any of us. It was good lesson for me, winning sometimes isn't about who'e better or who's fitter, but about who wants it more badly.......... Like Sachin put it, "TO BE THE BEST!".
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