A real champion. there isn't any doubt regarding it, you are a real champion' my faculty teacher and coach, Mr Wilson, would say with conviction. These encouraging words strengthened my belief that i used to be doing one thing phenomenal as captain of the under-nine Seaford State faculty Australian Rules soccer team.
In spite of my size, I knew my strengths. after I got hold of the ball, nobody might catch me. just like the wind, i might run that ball to the goal sq. in a very flash from anywhere on the sphere. the matter was, i used to be the world's worst kick and had no manner of knowing where the ball may find yourself once it left my boot. I countered this tendency to 'spray' the ball by striving to kick my goals a foot faraway from the goal posts - or setting somebody else up to kick them on behalf of me.
No one appeared to notice this serious shortcoming as a result of I kept obtaining the scores on the board. In their eyes i used to be a real champion. I fervently shared their belief.
A second-rate player. however with David Stelling on the soccer field, it absolutely was a special story. He was resigned to the very fact that he was a rotten kick and he knew that everybody else felt an equivalent manner regarding him too. despite how arduous he tried, the ball simply never appeared to go where he needed it to. As a result he might solely ever be a second-rate soccer player.
David remembers the day he was sitting on the bench as twelfth man within the inter-club semi-finals with very little probability of enjoying within the match. At the tip of a nail-biting second 0.5, each groups were tied with 2 points every. This concerned a penalty shoot-out of an alternate five kicks every team. The pressure was such that despite superhuman efforts from either side, nobody might break through.
Forced to show to the dregs. As a winner should be established in a very finals match, the five-kick penalty shoot-out had to be repeated. what is additional, an equivalent player cannot have 2 goes within the one sequence thus, as David place it, 'They were forced to show to the dregs.'
It was with a pounding heart that he walked on to the pitch because the team's last-ditch effort. All eyes were on him as he ran in to kick the ball. The thought ran through his head, 'You watch me botch this.' And true to make, his toe dug deep into the turf simply as he connected with the ball.
Expecting an explosive conceive to breach his defence, the goalie was already spread- eagled to dam it. however the ball had alternative ideas. It lazily skewered sideways and, to the utter amazement of everyone, dribbled past the desperate clutches of the defender and into internet.
A match-winning hero. the gang went fully beserk and David was chaired off the sphere as a match-winning hero, his wobbly kicks of the past instantly forgotten. In their eyes, this penalty shot was one for the history books. A master stroke of sheer genius - and that they never let him forget it.
David Stelling now had a fine reputation to live up to. He was a champion kick and a semi-finals winner! The following year, not only did he captain the team to success, he also won the club's Best and Fairest award.
David learnt two things from this experience: you don't have to be the best to be a winner, and you most certainly are what you believe you are.
Post a Comment