The Turning Point in My Life - Yi Han Chen
Yi Han Chen is a student at the Ethel Walker School in Simsbury, Connecticut.
My sports journey contains a lot for me to talk about. The first sport I played was badminton, and it began a long time ago when I picked up the sport at the age of 5. I played with my parents on the weekends and I practiced with an amaetur coach a couple times a week. At that time, I thought badminton was fun. This enthusiasm fueled me for several years. One day after school when I was 10, my mom told me that we were going to a special place. Going with her, I stepped into a huge venue with many badminton courts.
“What are you doing!! Put your elbow down when you are hitting!!”
The yell from the nearby coach scared me. “Why did you bring me here?” I asked my mom nervously. Instead of answering my questions directly, she led me to the coach who had been yelling and introduced me to him. I nodded, not yet realizing that this was going to be the place that I would stay for my future badminton career, eventually becoming a professional athlete. Little did I know, this place would be an unforgettable place for a lifetime.
I stepped into the court the next day, and my first practice was really tough. Even the warm ups for the badminton team was a hard task for me. Running seven laps, doing three whole laps of frog jumps without stopping, and then sprinting for another three laps. I remember being so exhausted that I threw up after the sprints. However, this was only the warmup. The coach then gathered everyone together and distributed our tasks for that day: running fast paces, hitting the shuttlecock back and forth. I couldn’t catch my breath, but I still completed the tasks. When I got home after practice that day, I realized that it wasn’t easy to excel in a sport; doing well required tons of hard practice. At the time, I was sure that I was not talented. In the following practices, I kept working hard, trying to reach the coach’s requirements, and I improved a lot.
Just when I felt confident in my improvement, catastrophe fell on me. I reached the bottleneck period of my athletic career. During the 2019 Shanghai Sports Games preparation period, the coach trained us much harder than before. The coach needed to focus on the players that were participating in the game, and because of my young age, I could not play in the game. This result shocked me when I heard it. As a professional player, I worked hard in every single practice, doing exactly what the coach said, and even persevered through bullying from my teammates. I sat down and had a long talk with my mom. I was frustrated by the decisions, but I couldn't do anything to change it. My mom felt sorry for me, but there was nothing we could do at the time.
The turning point on my sports journey was when I was in 7th grade. My school’s volleyball coach was picking new players for the team, and because of my height, he chose me. This was the first time I played volleyball, and I followed the team into practice with a trial mindset. The result turned out to be fabulous. Volleyball requires much less running, and I had a very stable physical foundation that was developed while on the badminton team. I gave strong hits and high passes, and the coach was impressed. Later, he recommended me for the district team where I could have stricter practice and have a chance to play in the 2022 Shanghai Sports Games. I joined the team and started practicing. I was impressed by my teammates and began to realize how teammates actually work together. Here we practice together, communicate with each other, and express our feelings directly. The practices were hard, but I really enjoyed them. It was not until the summer of 2022, when the Shanghai Sports Game took place, that I experienced one of the most memorable games in my life.
Our first game was won in three sets as our opponents were not too strong. As an outside hitter, I jumped high to hit and block, and dove quickly to save short balls. Me and my teammates cheered for our first triumph of the tournament.
However, the turning point came quickly. Our opponents for the quarterfinals were the champions of the 2019 Shanghai Games, and everyone got shocked when we heard that we’re gonna play them.
“OMG we’re playing the Huangpu team???”
“Their hitting is so scary, how are we going to defend them?”
“That number 2’s jump serve is so scary! What if I miss it all the time?”
Seeing everyone was in panic mode, our coach stepped in to calm us down. “ If you keep thinking about how strong and scary they are, you are not going to win the game. The point is not to think how good they are, but how good we are. You guys are right, this is a tough game, your opponents are strong, but don’t forget that we are not a weak team. They give strong hits: dig it up. They serve hard: get low and give it a good pass. Trust yourselves, you got this!” After hearing our coach’s speech, we relaxed and got prepared to face this match.
However, it was not all smooth sailing. Just as we initially feared, their strong serve broke our first pass, and it was much harder for our setter to adjust and set the ball into the right position for the hitters. I tried to hit it hard, but the middle blockers of our rival were tall and my hits were solidly blocked by them. After missing three hits, I was switched out for another hitter. I felt disappointed, frustrated, and nervous. I sat on the bench, watching our team keep losing points. Unfortunately, we lost in the quarterfinals. For a long time after that game, I was afraid of getting my hits blocked and my hits started getting lighter and lighter.
I turned to my coach and asked her what I could do to solve this problem. She told me that my skills are still there, I just have to overcome my mental battle. Losing wasn’t easy, but always backing down and not moving forward is the biggest block I stumbled into. I followed her suggestions and tried to hit against the wall to imitate the circumstances in a real game.
As I started to overcome my mental barriers, my volleyball journey started to get smoother and smoother, directing my life like a compass. Volleyball is a team sport, and this meant that I got to communicate with teammates and I learned to develop my cooperation skills. Unlike badminton, everyone on the team has to work together to get the ball over the net. Throughout this process, I learned how to care about my teammate’s feelings and adjust the ball for each person. Now, whenever I feel confused or in a loss of direction, I go to the volleyball court, pick up a ball, and hit it against the wall.
This sport has taught me how to work well on a team and has given me direction into an organized life.
