Spirit of Sport

Firstly we, as parents, are more than proud for being lucky to witness the dedication, commitment and perseverance that Adhrit showed today during his match in the scorching sun. And more importantly, we learnt how strong he is by looking at the way he exhibited the Spirit of Sport, while we were in fact waiting for the moment for him to say that he is forfeiting the match.

Let us quickly run through how things unfolded. It was a hot day and not really good for kids playing outdoor games. Unfortunately, Adhrit, along with other kids, had to go through this. We could see the first match, which was a close one, made him expend a huge amount of his energy. And he started the second match with a 5-minute break, and it went well in the first set.

Suddenly in the second set, we could see he was having trouble due to a stomach stitch, probably because of the laborious day he was having. We could see he was not moving at all. During the break, we told him if he does not feel good, it's ok to inform the opponent that he cannot continue. He just said, "Let me try" and continued to play. We were doubtful if he was going to faint due to the merciless sun in addition to the physical struggle he was going through. As we could see he seldom could do anything to avoid losing the second set.

We were not worried at all about the set he lost but wanted him to come out as early as possible. The decider was a tiebreaker and he was moving very slowly whether it was returning the ball or walking to serve or sharing the balls to the opponent to serve. We just could not wait for the match to finish, and the outcome was long gone from our mind.

A loud cry of "yeah..." from Adhrit signaled not just the victory but his way of emoting for the gift he deserved for all the courage, commitment and dedication he showed to the sport and respect to the opponent.

And this moment we learnt something. We as parents should stop worrying about the kids as they know when it is enough or to stop or to walk out. He knows who he is and what he is made of. What else can we ask for as parents than to witness our big guy teaching us a few things and letting us be part of the proud moment.

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