Pro-Sports

When I was in Melbourne for a holiday, I paid a visit to one of my uncles who had not met my son.  As we were talking, I jokingly remarked that I was going to make my son a pro-golfer and become his manager.  In fact, it has been a running joke since before my son was born.  My hubby and I often poke fun at the idea that pro-sports people make so much money that we felt that academics was no longer the way to go.  Get a child who can enter pro-sports and play fairly decently and you could have a pretty comfortable lifestyle from the prize money and the product endorsements.

Although I began the conversation in jest, I was quite taken aback by the seriousness of my uncle’s tone of voice and his negativity annoyed me considerably.  His first retort was that pro-sportsmen who had parents for managers never got along with their parents.  It was evident with all the tennis players, he had said and he proceeded to name a few examples to make his point. 

Just when I thought the subject was over, he went on to point out that Asians made poor sports people because we are poorly built as far as physical attributes go.  We lacked the height, the speed, the talent and so on.  He was convinced that if a person did not have the talent for a sport, it was a waste of time to even try.

I think it was that last comment that got me riled.  There are a lot of very successful sportspeople who are not necessarily the most talented nor do they necessarily possess the physical attributes for success.  If they relied purely on talent or their physical attributes for their success, I am certain they would never have succeeded in making a name for themselves in sports.  Michael Jordan, for example, was rather short for a basketball player, but he was also one of the best.

Back when I was rock climbing, I recall an incident when one of the climbers from Singapore watched me climb.  When I later went to his bouldering gym, he remarked, “How is it that you can’t boulder but you can climb 7A?”  Even though I wasn’t the strongest female climber around, and certainly the male climbers in the Rockrats were all stronger than me, I could still climb routes that some of them could not.  Perhaps it was because I climbed four times a week and lived my entire weekends at the crag. 

My uncle underestimates the power of heart.  The race isn’t always won by the swiftest - it is won by the most determined.  So if my son truly possesses the heart to be a professional sportsperson, he can succeed, even if he lacks the talent or the physical attributes to be the best.

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