“Marcus what are you doing? Swim faster!” This has been often shouted to me during my CCA Waterpolo training sessions by my coach. Coach has always said that I am very lazy, refusing to swim for the ball or swim faster to catch up with my opponent. Some times I agree with what he says that I really am lazy and slacking but other times I seriously am very tired and cannot move anymore.

However, I am not here to criticize my coach but to do some soul-searching and figure out what exactly went wrong.

Personally, I feel that it is both my attitude and mindset that is the problem. My wrong mindset started when I first knew about ACSI and how strong their waterpolo team really is. Their team has a strong 30 players for C division and all of their swimming and techniques are good. As only 15 players can enter the competition, the 15 players are the best of the best. However, for HCI waterpolo team, we do not even have 15 players in Secondary 2. Only after we have included the 3 Secondary 1 DSA players do we have 15 players. Hence, just by these statistics it is clear that HCI has already lost. I know that it is a wrong mindset for athletics to have even before they started playing with their opponents, but I just can’t get this out of my mind. My wrong mindset caused my attitude to be wrong too. Since we cannot defeat ACSI, for what reason do I still train so hard? This question is always ringing in my mind. That is the reason why I don’t take my training seriously.

After much soul-searching did I realize that this should not be the way. So what if we can’t defeat ACSI? We just have to try our best in it and there would still be a chance in winning, thought the percentage is not very high. If we just give up, there will not even be a chance at all. HCI waterpolo team is a strong team and has the potential to achieve, to win, to be the champion. It does not need someone who has a negative attitude and mindset. Hence, I will try my best to change, hopefully before nationals.