The Seemingly Unattainable Dream (January: At A Glance… Part 2)

With my husband as my double partner, we participated in the Mixed Beginners’ tournament.

The club decided to hold the preliminary rounds at the outside courts to (and I quote) “make the most of the cool January breeze.” Well and good in theory, said breeze was non-existent during the night of our preliminary round. Dripping sweat less than five minutes into the warm-up, my husband actually stopped us, stating “we don’t want to run out of energy before our first official match!” as we stepped out of the court.

Lasting a total of four days, the quarter finals and subsequent rounds started at 9 in the morning. A pair of night owls usually going to bed way past midnight and getting up no earlier than 10(!), even the dog protested as she burrowed back straight under the blanket, equally unimpressed with the early wake-up call!

I stumbled upon one of those shorts’/reels once (and for the life of me couldn’t find it again since) stating something along the lines of “Padel: the only sport in which friends become enemies for 90 minutes (or however long the match play lasts).” Though I didn’t go that far, there was a degree of truths in the sentiment as my husband and I competed against those whom we had befriended during a club’s gathering, and had played numerous matches socially since (Armie and Don during the preliminary round, Liza and Joseph in the semi-finals). Below were official photos taken prior to every match; before we had to shed a large portion of our amicability towards one another as we stepped onto the court and put our serious ‘game faces’ on, concentrating solely on playing our best.

For quite some time now, snippets of podcast and movies I have listened to and watched had a single, underlying theme; that of aspirations we dare to set, and the voices – both internal and external – that might hinder us from keeping said aspiration alive, let alone setting the habits to support it.
To this day, a segment of ‘That Was Us’ podcast that continued to resonate within was when three of the stars of the series ‘This Is Us’ discussed about guarding vs sharing your dreams with those dearest and closest to them. Watch the snippet here.
In ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ movie (warning: a minuscule spoiler coming, but hardly a jaw-dropping surprise for those whom had been following the film series), Happy Hogan told Wade Wilson to “find his place” when Wade believed his wish to be recruited and be part of ‘The Avengers’ had finally come true.
One of the things that continued to move me from watching the movie adaptation of ‘Wicked’ was the song ‘I’m Not That Girl’. With lyrics such as ‘Don’t dream too far/Don’t lose sight of who you are/Don’t remember that rush of joy’ and ‘Don’t wish, don’t start/Wishing only wounds the heart’, the whole notion that someone needs to squash her growing feelings for a certain boy largely because she isn’t of a certain standard/appearance breaks my heart every time I hear it.

With this in mind, my one and only goal for the tournament was quite simple; to not completely suck😆! Adopting James Clear‘s idea of turning goals into systems from his #1 New York Times’ bestseller author of ‘Atomic Habits’ (which involves identifying the goals you want to achieve, breaking the goals into smaller habits, and repeating the daily habits over time to create a system), I/we:

1. Focussed solely on each of the three one-setter matches held for the qualifying rounds, and nothing further;
2. Try our hardest not to have a ‘0’ score; and
3. Try our very best not to lose all three one-setter games.

Said goal/habits/system had to be adjusted when we reached quarter-finals; when the one-setter turned into proper best two out of three sets with the third set being a super tie-breaker. Usually performing better the longer we play and knowing that a lost first set could be redeemed in the second (and subsequent sets) during a 90-minute/2-hour social match plays, we were conscious of preserving our energy for subsequent matches and tried our very best to not go into a third tie-breaker set; a goal we managed to sustain until we reached the semis!

This goal changed significantly when we lost in the semi-finals, but still had a chance to compete one last time for third place. Fuelled with an overwhelming desire to achieve the seemingly unattainable dream now within our grasp, we coated our overall “let’s play our best and try to avoid the tie-breaker set” philosophy with a thick and impenetrable dose of determination and enthusiasm!

Our immense thanks to Play Padel for hosting this tournament, and to those community members whom have cheered us on; your ‘Vamos 💪🏼💪🏼’ (let’s go!!!!) messages, conveyed either in-person or through messages, have helped boosted our confidence and morale throughout, and beyond this tournament.

Life Post-Tournament
Whilst I am in no hurry to enter another tournament, participating in one had given me valuable insights about myself, the most prominent being that I actually thrive under pressure (when the ball is coming right at you and you have to keep it in play otherwise you lose the point for your team, you just have to try to hit it any way you can, hoping that even your miss-hit would carry enough power and precision to a) get the ball over the net; and b) not hit any of the outbound areas!).

Now proudly hanging on our wall, the medals serve as a constant reminder that I belong in this sport, and that there are still so many things to learn and master. Like multivitamins you take every morning to keep you feel energised, it gives me an extra boost of confidence to play my best game every time I step into the court, regardless of whether my opponents are friends I have regularly played with, or those I have thus far only greeted in passing.