loss

three days ago.

this story is supposed to be about my two kids'  taekwondo tournament but it's gonna segue into a totally different, devastating story.  that is a forewarning.

it was the bulacan taekwondo championships held in marilao convention center in, where else, bulacan.  the kids were psyched for another fight and so were hubby and me.  i can say that we live for days like these.  it just makes us plain happy.

little girl was sent to the mats early and won her first game without a sweat.  (that's me, the mom, talking.)  second game was a breeze.  (again, proud mom moment.)  

her finals match was unexpected.  she was up against an older girl but with the same height, the younger sister of a veteran champ in clraa (central luzon ahtletic association or something) and although wearing a white belt, we expect has been training way longer than my little girl.  little girl overwhelmingly lost her finals match.  and her tears of furstration and hurt were overwhelming as well.  i consoled her of course that it was not something to be ashamed of and that we're all still proud of her.

...ooOoo...

little big man's first game was a breeze too.  then finals match was definitely not hard but sadly, he lost by 1 point.  he was disappointed of course, being hungry for another gold again but i guess, luck wasn't on his side.... yet.  coach told hubby that the little big man already has everything -- skills, form, speed -- we just have to be a little more patient and we will harvest soon. this guy's time will come.  i've said this time and time again, everytime he loses, because i strongly believe so.

...ooOoo...

towards late afternoon, the intense games of the kids' high school teammates got us all worked up and cheering on the sides.  it became an opportunity for some nitwit to steal my handbag which i left on a chair together with our team's bags and equipment.  the thief singled out my bag because i left our low bat iPad®  inside.  he must've been around already since morning, checking out who would be neglectful of their belongings, and i turned out to be the unknowing victim.

when i found my chair without my bag, i told the hubby and we informed coach who announced it over the microphone to please be mindful of belongings since a parent (me!!) lost her bag.  a little while later, coach's wife when she found out, told us she noticed an abandoned bag inside one of the stinky toilets.  and there it was.  my ransacked bag without the iPad and my wallet.

three lessons in losing today:

1)  the little girl's loss tells me that despite doing your best, if the other person who beat you is way ahead of you, you have to accept.  but you better train harder so you will be as good as her, if not better.

2)  the little big man's loss tells me that being the winner is not a one-time thing.  the process of getting there, overcoming obstacles, learning and maturing marks the true champion.  his time will come.

3)  and what did i learn from my loss?  never leave your personal belongings unattended.  God bless that nitwit thief.  and God bless me more.

“Winning or losing achieves the same result-- change.” 

― Shannon L. Alder

tryout

sports is human life in microcosm. 

-howard cosell

i don't know why i found it irrelevant to blog about my little big man being first pick at the tryout last week for the  bulacan team that will compete in the national championships.  somehow, i didn't write about it so i won't seem redundant in this blog, with the lame belief that i had too many readers who might get bored of the same ol' topic.  it's always about him and his taekwondo achievements so i thought i'd wait until the actual championship to write again.

so came the 33rd National Taekwondo Championship, 31 July 2010.  my little big man migo had a fantastic performance in his first game with a 21-5 score and a very damaging axe kick in the first round so his opponent conceded before the second round could start.

unfortunately, his team didn't win in the championship yesterday.  migo severely lost his second game with consecutive roundhouse hits to his head which caused his opponent to break away in points.  coach protested that the opponent must be overstaying in novice category but went unheeded.  but since the team won  3-2 despite his loss, they went on to a third game.  but migo lost again by a mere one point and two other teammates didn't make it so the team lost.  had he won or any of the other two won, they could've moved on to the next fight for bronze and if they won again, it was for the gold.

i felt how disappointed migo was as he held back tears while he slumped beside me at the bleachers.  it was his first national competition after winning many provincial and regional finals, and he failed.  everybody had high expectations of him and he didn't pull it through.

but now i know the relevance of the tryout.  as i look back,  his tryout last week for this competition was one of his major achievements.  being chosen amongst many, standing out from the rest, being personally hand-picked by the top coaches in bulacan.

yesterday's competition was his tryout for the bigtime.  where he did not make it.  YET.  which was what his dad and i told him.  it only meant he still had a  lot to learn and there is  still much room for improvement.  his coach and his dad found where he was weak at and now know where to concentrate in his training.  that next year, he will no longer be in novice and will be fighting in advance category and he will come back next year with a whole new armor.  

yes, it would've been super great had he and his team won.  but it only made him more eager to learn and improve his sport and look forward to next year's nationals.  it was not only a lesson in defeat but a lesson in winning.

my cousin commented in my facebook status that someday migo will go international.

not yet, malynn.  BUT WE WILL, i promise you that.

a lesson in defeat

victory is sweetest when you've known defeat. - malcolm forbes

migo brought home a bronze medal yesterday from another tkd tournament.  he should be happy.  out of 12 tournaments that he has participated in, he already won 3 bronzes, 2 silvers and 4 golds.  that's all in the past 13 months that he's been into the sport.  that's more than anyone who started the same time as he.  and at his young age of 7, that should be a feat.

but as soon as the referee raised his hand indicating the win of his opponent, migo's eyes welled up in tears as he headed out of the court, towards my outstretched arms.  he cried and cried for a good ten minutes, i think.  me and his dad and his coach and his tito benedict, together with his teammates comforted him, patted him on the back, gave him words of encouragement and did everything we could to console him.  you still got a bronze, anak!  don't cry!

it wasn't really a fair fight if you look at it.  but who said life, or this sport, is fair, right?  he won his first 2 fights for the day and we were already looking forward to the finals.  then we found out that he needed to win a semi-finals round with a group 2 opponent.  (migo is in group 1.  group 1's height is 120-128cm.  group 2's height is 128-136cm.)  i became a little anxious but knowing my migo, that he is never  fazed by any size opponent, i relaxed a bit and waited for his call.  it turned out the kid matched to him was about 5-6cm taller, 3 years older and although was a yellow belt, had been training years before migo even started.  but migo put up a good fight, with a 5-8 final score, with some points by  migo not counted.  i have the video!  i can prove they didn't count at least 3 points in round 1!  to me, it was a tied match but then again, that's me, i'm his mom.

in the end, it was a lesson learned, not only for migo but for me and hubby as well.  that we cannot always win.  that at some point in life, we will lose.  that losing doesn't make us any less, but makes us better people.  that we now know how those we defeated before felt.  that it's okay.  that life moves on.  and that there are more things to be thankful for.  that prayers sometimes go unanswered because God must have another thing planned out for us.  that a bronze is better than none. 

my migo became a matured athlete yesterday.  i'm still a mighty proud mom.

"Making your mark on the world is hard. If it were easy, everybody would do it. But it's not. It takes patience, it takes commitment, and it comes with plenty of failure along the way. The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won't. It's whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere."

                                                                                               -Barack Obama