we r off.. but we can do it

hello.. i realised that a number of us (im tokin abt guys here) are off-form... and that of cos includes me as well... but really perhaps we have been overstressed and we are too tired. But in any case, i think there are a few remedies for this.

1) start working hard for your sch work... and im referrin esp. to leslie and jiawei. STOP SLACKING!!! This may seem irrelevent but seriously when u are lagging in terms of sch work and u start flunging tests u wont be in the best of moods and ur mind will be off... currently, im lagging like hell cos of orientation but i will work twds solving that. (thats da main reason why im so DEM off-form)

2) Stop having unrealistic expectations. And im referring to the entire team here. Lets face it.. we will NEVER reach the standards of NY within the next 3 months... but that doesnt mean we r lousy and that certainly does not give us any excuses to slack. As beginners we should not be expecting much.DONT expect to win the championship. DONT expect to jump as high as hariharan. DONT expect to ease into the 2nd round and the semis. COS THATS NOT THE WAY THINGS R GONNA BE. Lets be realistic and not give ourselves unnecessary pressure. We should aim to beat teams like MJ (who lost to a secondary sch team in some VAS open) and against the likes of NY and AJ, we should aim not to get thrashed. Even if we are to lose to them, we will give them one hell of a fight before we lose.

Honestly, this mental thing here called belief is very important. we must believe that we can beat the unseeded teams... and we really can... its possible! But dont ever assume that we can beat them easily, they will surely give us a good run for our money. (And thats why marvin has been emphasizing seriousness during drills) We have to believe that when our opponent is serving we can receive his serve, we have to believe that when a teammate of ours screws up a receive we can still save the ball, we have to believe that when jose or jiawei sets we can slam the ball to win the point. WE HAVE TO BELIEVE IN OUR TEAM. I want to bring everyone back to christmas eve when a few of us wrote on the wishing cards at esplanade... i dont know if evryone knows about this. we wrote in chinese: "we can crash the semi-finals". i think the wishing card is still dangling by the river along lovers' lane... And remember wad marvin said one day after training? "Bu yao rang qiu diao!" (dont let the ball touch the ground). This is a mantra that only those daring enough will believe in.. those who are willing to tumble, roll, dive, sprawl and do whatever it takes to save the ball. I think our team has no lack of guts.

And finally, if ever the going gets tough, if ever u end training one day aching in your muscles feeling shag and having lots of homework left to do, remember: Pain is temporary but Glory is forever.