Playing Under No Spotlight - Ricky Liang
Ricky Liang is a sophomore at the YK Pao School in Shanghai, China. He shares his story as an athlete in a relatively new sport - floorball.
My journey in floorball started 7 years ago, when there were barely even 7 teams playing within my city – Shanghai. There have been countless efforts exerted and heartsore moments during these 7 years, making me often question my rash decision to join the sport. But still, looking back my time as an athlete, I see how much I have been changed and taught by this sport. Like many other athletes and their sports, floorball is also not just a sport for me.
The story begins in a P.E class when we were told chose a sport to play. As usual, I was about to choose soccer (I was already on the team), but my best friend came up to me in rush and suggested a new sport – floorball. I paused for a few seconds, and decided to give it a try. Now, after 7 years, I can still remember in the first two practices and how I excelled past the players who had already trained for months. The coach said I was talented, which I believed (although right now I think I have been scammed), and officially started my career as a floor ball athlete.
In retaliation, I was been kicked out of the soccer team for not joining their training sessions, forcing me to give full commitment to floorball. Things seemed to be on the right track, and we had a decent team that won tournaments and have regular practices. In fact, I soon became one of the top players on our elementary campus.
Every year, the best player on our team wins an MVP award. In grade 5, the majority of my team members, including myself, believed that the award belonged to me that year. But, reality gave me a painful slap in the face. My teammate, who in my eyes played worse than me, won the award. I was truly disappointed and frustrated over this decision, and I become reluctant and less energetic in practice and games. However, I soon realized that this anger didn’t solve anything. Instead, it made me get worse and worse as an athlete and teammate, so I compromised. I trained harder than ever, and slowly regained my position and respect in the team.
When I moved up to secondary (middle school) school, a new team needed to be constructed. A problem thus emerged – finding players. The existing players asked possibly half of the year group, but our result was nearly all rejections. Eventually, we formed a team, but there was no specific floorball venue for us, so we had to train in shared spaces. I will always remember the embarrassing looks other peope gave us, probably wondering : “what the heck are these people doing with those sticks in a basketball court”. As teenagers, self dignity plays an important role to us, and the process of adapting to this environment was tough. But now, thankfully we have crossed it.
Bigger problems appeared in high school. Due to COVID-19, the development of floorball itself has not been successful within Shanghai, and there are hardly any new players. During this period, we could not practice or attend tournaments, and after a few months, I decided to quit. It was an easy decision then, but slowly I felt a part of me missing – I thought it was left on the court. Together with my teammates, we toiled through a special (torturous) year without playing any floorball. At last, we we finally joined the high school floorball team, there grew new problems, seeming more and more unsolvable.
As I have grown, my desire for a sense of fulfillment or enjoyment has also reached its maximum. As floor ball is a minority sport that has much less popularity and focus, I often feel envious of others who played mainstream sports, especially watching how they get to participate in tournaments that have hundreds of crowds. It is especially challenging to talk about and engage with other people in floorball. Most people at school play basketball, and even if they don’t play basketball, they still talk about it because it is so mainstream. They watch the NBA, have a favorite team, wear an NBA jersey, or have basketball shoes. Floorball does not have this type of popularity. Although I have never been directly teased for playing such a non widespread sport, I can still sense that people think it is quite a strange decision, which perhaps is more hurtful than direct teasing.
All of these challenges have resulted in daily battles with myself about whether or not I regret my decision. There are days when I wish I had chosen soccer or basketball, and hate the fact that I chose floorball. But there are also days when I love playing the sport, such as when I train with my friends or win a tournament. Such feelings are great and make it all seem worthwhile.
Although when I graduate from high school in three years it will be very unlikely for me to continue this sport, I’m still grateful for floorball appearing in my life. Floorball not only taught me how to cope with disappointment and how to live to be a part of the small group, but it most importantly taught me how to maintain a healthy mindset towards accidents and failures. It might not be the most entertaining and competitive sport that I’ve ever played, but it is surely the most valuable sport that I've ever participated in.
