Of Little Athletics

From the outset I should mention that this post is inspired from a great friend of mine, Simon, who wrote a recent post "Of Athletics" about taking his kids to try athletics.

I first started "Little A's" just before my 7th birthday, and right from the beginning I enjoyed it. I was always tall for my age so I didn't do too bad but didn't set the world on fire. This changed when I was competing in the under 9's as at the zone carnival, I qualified for Regionals. That was when I met and started being coached by Mr Hansen. I might have to dedicate a post to Mr Hansen sometime.

The thing with athletics, is that apart from competing in relays, the buck rests no one else but you. If you don't do well, you have no one to blame apart from yourself. This was the reason why my days doing athletics as a kid was so memorable to me. I was taught early on to compare my results with my previous bests. This is a powerful lesson for as kid, when I was middle of the field, to focus on improving my previous best. But it was possibly more powerful when I was winning. Just because you win doesn't mean you gave it your best. When everything is said and done, doing your best is all you can expect.

Thank you Little A's, and thanks Simon for prompting some happy memories.