The Joy and Love of the Game

The Straits Time today had an article on page C34 written by journalist Rohit Brijnath entitled 'Amateurs play for the joy and love of the game.

Rohit Brijnath writes mainly about cricket but this piece really strike a chord in me.

The gist of it:

- He first talked about his friend continuous engagement of cricket despite a 'bum' knee and why he continues to play on

- He then went on to talk about why amateurs like us (yes u and me) who don't profit from sports or take it as a career continue to slog on.

- He described weekend hackers as 'charmingly mad', when it come to playing, "they cannot be stopped." Here he is talking about ball games but it can be applied to runners as well. His next words:

- (Talking about golfer) "Professional are expected to constantly construct brilliant shots, amateurs are in constant search of just one memorable one...........and when we hit such a shot, ......., then we can't forget it. We'll tell our wives in excruciating detail, we'll bore our friends, we'll replay it endlessly in our minds, we'll walk around with a private grin. We get joy from ridiculous things, small things, it's why we keep coming back to sport......"

Sound familiar? Even to us non-golfer?Don't we all feel the same when we do a PB or run a race and finish in fine form or complete what seems impossible to complete initially - like a marathon, an ironman or a ultra marathon?

He went on to describe the feelings one get from sports:

• the rediscovery of prayer (Oh God, please let (insert your own desire here)
• the taste of sweat trickling into the mouth,
• the first burn in the lungs,
• the feel of a sticky shirt
• the rhythm a runner finds as she flies through the middle of an evening run
• the nervousness before the whistle
• the cold shower
• the explosion of adrenalin

He described amateurs thus: "because we want to test ourselves, discover parts about ourselves..... Many of us are competitive creatures, we want to....run faster than the next guy on the treadmill. Even if we we lose, if we fail, and we constantly do, it's the challenge that sustains us......"

Don't we have felt all these and more? He wrapped up by talking about Erik Compton,28 who was born with a defective heart, got a new heart at age 12, a heart attack at age 27 and is now into his third heart. Instead of resting, he is now training for the USPGA Tour. His conclusion of this mad man? "Courage, Resilience, Stubbornness." Or something more simple? Maybe just a love of the game?

Is that why so many of us continue to run, despite the injuries, the long hours, the sweat, the grim and for some, the loneliness and sacrifice?

Is this the joy and love of the game?

NB: Unfortunately, the ST does not allow reproduction of its articles on blogs or any other medium so I can't reproduce the whole article here. The ST Online is also only subscription based so no link either.