Badminton Philosophy (part 2)

One of the greatest lessons I learnt from badminton is... until your opponent reach 15 points (or 21 points using the new system), you still stand a chance to win. I have watched hundreds of badminton matches, and some of the matches that I still remember until now are usually the ones which one player fought back until the very end of the match without giving up. He may end up losing gracefully, or winning dramatically. However, one thing common for those matches; after the match, the audiences will give that fighter a standing ovation, or at least a genuine hand-clapping. Noone will support a quitter, someone who does nothing but give up. Even if you play against world's number one, so what?! Fight!!! Don't give up...

In everything I do, I always play to win. When I represented Indonesian students in my university to compete in inter-country game, I played against the second best player from Vietnam. I played for 3 sets for more almost 1 hour. I lose my first set to that player. I got a knee injury and I only slept 4 hours the night before. However, I decided not to give up. I continued to fight back and I won. In the semi-final, I played against the best player from Malaysia who used to represent my University in Singapore level. Was I afraid? No! I stepped into badminton court with only one thing in mind, which is, I am going to win. Finally, I lose. However, losing gracefully is almost as nice as winning. When you fight till the very end, you win... in your own terms.

Giving up is a vocabulary of a loser, and in my life, that word simply doesn't exist. Badminton teaches me that lesson more than anyone could eve teach me.

Winners never quit. Quitters never win.