Volleyball

[Giver]

I forgot to post my sports story
I've been rowing for about 7 months now, at one of the top rowing clubs in Canada.
A week after arriving in my boarding school, we were given arts options. We have arts days on Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays while sports are on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Rowing, strangely, is on an Arts day.

Rowing is huge at my school. Everyday, at least once every hour you hear someone mentioning our yearly regatta (which is actually happening this weekend) or how their last practice went. It's a part of our culture; our daily lives. So naturally, I was curious about this sport and decided to join it.
Rowing amazed me. It was painful, and I felt and learned what teamwork was like. Every rowing day, just hopping into a boat you have to be in rhythm, you have to go at the same rate. Your teammates become comrades, people who share the love and burden of rowing, who support you and work you hard to improve your rowing.

Truthfully, I wasn't expecting it to be as hard as it is. I had been in competitive and hard sports before, but I can honestly say that rowing is the hardest sport I have ever done. It's especially tough for me because I'm the shortest person on the team and around 2-4 years younger than all the other people on the junior team. I have bad knee injuries, where they start to swell up after practice and I can barely walk without burning pain. You need mental toughness, incredible physical endurance and fitness, and most importantly a passion and love for the sport. A will that'll get you to go to the gym to practice just a little bit more, wake up early in the morning, pull just a little bit harder on your stroke even though you're pulling your hardest, or just endure the pain for your love of rowing.

My first 2k erg test was full of pain. Probably the hardest thing I'd ever done in rowing. An erg test is where you hop on a rowing machine and row as fast and hard as you can under a set distance, and the feeling is like sprinting at full speed lifting 100lbs weights without water for 7-10 minutes, depending on how fast you are. Naturally, I threw up at the end of the race.

Fast forward to my school's first club regatta. I wasn't selected; I was crushed and disappointed with myself. Even though I spent the day alternating between being mad at myself, sad or just downright depressed, I used it as motivation and swore to myself that I would be selected for the next regatta. After weeks of extra workouts, long talks with coaches and my knee injuries, I made it. It was the happiest and best moment of my year. I raced in that regatta and savoured every moment of it. And now I'm going into my school's famous international regatta, the largest high school regatta in the whole of North America.

Rowing has brought out a new determination and sense of motivation I had never felt before. I practice as much as I can, I row through the huge pain that my knees bring, I work as hard as I can to shave off seconds from my erg times. I've improved my time by 5 minutes since December, my technique is improving rapidly, I work myself as hard as I can.

One day, I'll make it to nationals c:

I love how passionate you are for rowing Amber. I can tell you really, truly love it. And I think the determination you have in you will bring you to do great things! Keep up the great work, and I think one day you will make it to nationals.

I've played all of the basic sports that you can think of (baseball, basketball, soccer, swimming, etc.) and while I'm fairly decent at them, I found tennis to be very fascinating and stand out from all the other ones. Ever since 7th grade, I have been playing it and although I'm not the best, I'm getting there. I really wish I could have played volleyball more, but they don't offer it at my school! I love playing it whenever I have the chance, though.

I've always been fascinated with tennis as well.. I haven't gotten many chances to play it, but when I have I always have a great time.

I played soccer for 10 years, then tried out cross country and fell in love with running c:

I've always wanted to try cross country! I'm glad you found the thing you love though. <3

 

[LunarPlays]

I play golf c:

 

[UndeniableZombie]

I love to play cricket! I have been playing since I was 3! This sport hasn't bored me. Even if I am in poor form, six games 9 runs -_- and I was dropped from the team, I shall try my best everyday. Also, volleyball isn't taken seriously at my school. Which is sad.

 

[Nikola]

It's been 2 weeks since I started home workout. I love doing it! It's amazing, the first week it's tough because you're not used to it but after.. you can feel the difference

 

[Maso]

Personally I enjoy soccer and cricket. I have tried many others sports which I was fairly decent at, but they no longer interest me.

I started playing soccer when I was in the 2nd grade. I was one of the only people who actually knew how to play because I had older brothers who would always played with me in the backyard and such. I continued until I was grade 4 I believe, I still loved the sport, but the lack of friends I had who played soccer basically drived me away from the sport and I started developing a liking for Rugby. I continued playing Rugby through until last year (9th grade), when I realized I no longer liked the sport. I found myself skipping training, this was due to the lack of enjoyment, it became more of a chore to train.. Earlier this year, I re-discovered my love for soccer. I thought it would take me ages to re-develop skill, but I found myself picking it up quite easily. Since the start of the year, 1st XI (Top team at my school) trials have been and gone, I attended each training, and I was selected as shadow. I was not disappointed with my efforts as it was the first time I have played in many years. Lucky for me a player left the school this term, and I was put into the 1st XI.

I am now playing in Under 15 A's (Right mid) and 1st XI (Right back).

Now for my cricket story, (as if my last story wasn't big enough )

So, for all of you Americans, cricket is this -

Spoiler

not this -

Spoiler

Okay, my cricketing experience started in the fourth grade. Unfortunately, where I lived we did not have a cricket club, this was because I lived in a very small mining town. Anyways, my parents had to create one. We could only compete in one age group as we did not have enough players to enter in any other age groups. So we entered in the under 12's if I can remember correctly. (This was because our oldest players were 12) So basically I was playing 3 ages up. I was still managing to score alright.. for a 9 year old. When my family moved in 2010 I was faced with a proper competition and I loved it. I was scoring almost 30 runs each game. it came to 2012 and I was still playing, I was now captaining the district team to victory each week and was really impressed with my personal achievements. In 2013 I decided to take a break, to focus on Rugby. (big mistake) I made a return in 2014, and lost almost all of my batting skill. I was no longer captain but I still managed to make a strong contribution to the team each week with bowling.

I am now a pace bowler, my height gives me a bit of an unfair advantage in my age group (6'2") . I am playing under 16 A's, my team came second in the local competition this year.

Thanks for reading, sorry for the length lol.

 

[Giver]

Personally I enjoy soccer and cricket. I have tried many others sports which I was fairly decent at, but they no longer interest me.

I started playing soccer when I was in the 2nd grade. I was one of the only people who actually knew how to play because I had older brothers who would always played with me in the backyard and such. I continued until I was grade 4 I believe, I still loved the sport, but the lack of friends I had who played soccer basically drived me away from the sport and I started developing a liking for Rugby. I continued playing Rugby through until last year (9th grade), when I realized I no longer liked the sport. I found myself skipping training, this was due to the lack of enjoyment, it became more of a chore to train.. Earlier this year, I re-discovered my love for soccer. I thought it would take me ages to re-develop skill, but I found myself picking it up quite easily. Since the start of the year, 1st XI (Top team at my school) trials have been and gone, I attended each training, and I was selected as shadow. I was not disappointed with my efforts as it was the first time I have played in many years. Lucky for me a player left the school this term, and I was put into the 1st XI.

I am now playing in Under 15 A's (Right mid) and 1st XI (Right back).

Now for my cricket story, (as if my last story wasn't big enough )

So, for all of you Americans, cricket is this -

Spoiler

not this -

Spoiler

Okay, my cricketing experience started in the fourth grade. Unfortunately, where I lived we did not have a cricket club, this was because I lived in a very small mining town. Anyways, my parents had to create one. We could only compete in one age group as we did not have enough players to enter in any other age groups. So we entered in the under 12's if I can remember correctly. (This was because our oldest players were 12) So basically I was playing 3 ages up. I was still managing to score alright.. for a 9 year old. When my family moved in 2010 I was faced with a proper competition and I loved it. I was scoring almost 30 runs each game. it came to 2012 and I was still playing, I was now captaining the district team to victory each week and was really impressed with my personal achievements. In 2013 I decided to take a break, to focus on Rugby. (big mistake) I made a return in 2014, and lost almost all of my batting skill. I was no longer captain but I still managed to make a strong contribution to the team each week with bowling.

I am now a pace bowler, my height gives me a bit of an unfair advantage in my age group (6'2") . I am playing under 16 A's, my team came second in the local competition this year.

Thanks for reading, sorry for the length lol.

Love this story, I hope your love for soccer and cricket continues. Good luck to you in the future!