Sports – TRIPLETS plus ONE

Cobrats & Tanglin 2017

By admin on October 12, 2017

Just got back from Harith’s rugby tournament in Singapore over the weekend.

Yes, a normal reaction from all parents would be “rugby? safe ke?” , Syauqi and I have that worry too of course. However, after more and more trainings and tournament that we went through, I tend to fall in love with it even more. My kids play soccer too, but somehow the atmosphere, the feeling is just different with rugby. The kids on and off the pitch are lovely. The spirit they carry with them despite being from various team, somehow reflects unity among them. Ahh..something I can’t put in words. You just gotta experience it yourself. In fact, last week I was just telling myself “Gosh what am I putting myself into?” when the logistic for kids became crazy. Juggling the send off and pick ups between 4 kids’ schedule. Their usual once a week training, increased to 3 times a week the last 2 months. But as I witnessed the kids on the tournament day, all the tiredness for past two months felt sooo worth it.

The teamwork during game time is something I would highly speak off. In the game, you really need great teamwork to move forward to the trying line. They were in high spirit on the first day, a good start when they started off wining the first game of the day. On the second day, they had a tough first game. The opponent team was ahead with a comfortable score to win the game and they had about 1/2 time away. One boy shouted to their teammates, motivating others “Come on! I don’t want to go home early”. They continued playing as best as they could to ensure the winning gap is not too big. It wasn’t a good first game. The kids were not fully “awake” , making it easier for the opponent to score. Despite the lost, once the referee blew the whistle, with high spirit the Cobrats shouted out,

Three Cheers for Tanglin

Hip Hip…Horayyy

Hip Hip…Horayyy
and the Tanglins return their cheers 🙂

After the game, they gathered and coaches briefed them. It was a good experience for myself, seeing how the coach handled the team. No shouting, screaming or scolding the kids. I was attracted to the part where the coach asked “is there anything that I just said that isn’t reasonable…everyone agrees on that?”. He understood exactly how the kids feel, frustrated from the lost and stressed from the extra note, and so he open for a feedback. Voices of the kids are being appreciated too.

Uwais requested to tag along for the games, I was worried he would give me a headache ” mummy I’m bored” , “mummy it is hot” and such. But as it turned out, he kept himself occupied pretty well. He didn’tt need any gadgets to keep him occupied. Happily he walked around in the mud. My kind of happiness, seeing your child comfortable in muds and dirts. He walked around barefooted for both days.

Even an umbrella could keep him busy for an hour, before he moved on to play with the rocks pretending to start a campfire.

Having him around also means, we have waterboy! hihi

At the end of the 2nd day, they had debrief of the game and one of the player spontaneously said “Thank You Coach” followed by all other players, it is nice to see values and manners the boys carry.

and good luck to the moms to clean their kids attire (another post shall be on this perhaps)

Activities | Sports | Uncategorized

Sports and Character Building

By admin on September 14, 2017

Dear Brother and Sisters,

Today I am going to talk about the benefits of playing rugby. I would like to encourage all of you to join this sport. Let me tell you the many benefits of it. Definitely outdoor sports are better than playing video games and ipad.

Playing rugby makes one fitter and stronger. As social skills is important, we develop this team-based activities. Communication and listening is crucial. WE communicate about the strategy on the field. Being selected to be a caption is an opportunity as a leadership role.

During games, we get to learn over a bad outcome, such as losing and failure. Failing means accepting loses, to move on and recover quickly before the next game. We also learn to take constructive criticism from coaches and work harder to improve. The joy of winning is the reward of doing the hard work and the effort we have put in.

Time management is just as important. We have to use our time wisely because time is limited, especially when we have games over the weekend, you have to find time to do homework. We have to find time to do solat in between games. We usually solat by the field because there is no surau nearby.

In rugby we learn development of personal self-esteem and confidence by getting compliments from coaches and parents of the success we achieve. It took me awhile to understand the game but I didn’t give up.

We instill discipline by listening to instruction from our coaches. We have to be on the field on time. We have to eat healthy food and have enough hours of sleep. We have to prepare our gears. This is discipline character is being proactive in all walk of our life. In school and at home.

It is an amazing leaning experience. We get to understand the importance of hard work to success. We also learn that it is okay to lose. It is also great to make new friends from various background.

Above is Harith’s write up. He did it for his Public Speaking Holiday Programme. As I read through his write up, reminds me of my friend who once asked me:

“You send your kids to all these sports tuk apa, nak diorang be athlete, sportsman ke camane? ” (you send your kids to all these sports with intention for them to be professional athelete / sportsman?)

Nope, I don’t aim for that but I believe there are so much benefit to sports. And seeing Harith wrote the above, Im glad he sees all that through his own eyes. Mashaa Allah.

The part where he wrote “During games, we get to learn over a bad outcome, such as losing and failure. Failing means accepting loses, to move on and recover quickly before the next game” , reminds me of my kids preschool sports day, where everyone is a winner. I did ponder over this…I believe kids should also experience loses. I know in the name of ‘fun’, all the children were given a prize for taking part and somehow I felt that the emphasis has been taken away from winning and losing. Well,of coz it’s a debatable argument. To some, losing lowers these young children’s self esteem, especially young kids. However, my personal opinion, it is okay to have winner and looser, this is where parents n teachers plays important role in handling this. Teaching the kids on sportsmanship, despite winning or losing. And also to teach the winner not to boast. And when kids are prepared in advance, they might handle the situation better. Daily life example we can see among siblings nowadays, where it’s the brother’s birthday…but the mom ended up buying the younger sister present too…”just because she might cry and throw tantrum”. Thus, I feel that when they experience losing…kids learnt not everything goes their way.

Perhaps it is okay for the spirit of fun for the school Sports Day every children gets present, however I believe the present for winner should be different, a lil more than the rest.

In our own household, I used to have 2 kids who somehow tend to avoid joining any activitiy if they knew they had slim chance of winning. It was quite an obvious character when they were young, Harith n Uwais. Even during birthday parties, a simple game as musical chair…they tend to skip out the moment they see they have competitor. This was actually among the major reason I put them in various sports.To overcome the “fear of loosing” . The minute I saw Harith wrote “get to learn over bad outcome”, I smiled. I guess I successfully achieved what I wanted to from sending them for sports.

My youngest tend to have low self-esteem too if he is unsure whether he can perform or not. It took me almost a year to get him to settle in his rugby team. And also a year into his soccer team. There were days he decides to sit at the corner and just watch. There were days, I had to bribe him extra ice-cream if he played. Now, we entering his 3^rd year soon…he gets ready all his gear for practice on his own and enjoying every minute on the field. For his soccer, he was selected for the intensive training of Under-8, he was the only 6 years old in the team. And now he has no problem trying something new.

my youngest

So yes, back to my friend’s question. I don’t do this aiming for them to be professional sportsman (but if they happen to be, why not…;)) but there are more to it, the character building they gain from doing sports is what im looking forward the most.

And the kids, they are blessed with such dedicated coaches, mashaa Allah. Despite all the screaming and shouting on the field….at the end of every session, they are given reminder of good behavior, respect parents, say thanks to your parents for the meal they cooked etc. Oh, do your bed every morning as that is a form of morning stretching, haha.

Oh by the way, between rugby and soccer ( my kids play both) I find that the values from rugby are more than soccer – nope im not being bias…just a personal opinion..dont bash me! hihi

It is common to have friendly matches with your “rival” team, isn’t it? But what is uncommon is seeing the “rival” team coach come over during our team training session to help out, in the name of “Rugby Development”. How cool is that? Despite the maximum body contact they have during the games, they shook hand at the end of the game. And off the pitch, they became friends with other teams. They be heading for hotdogs n icecream stall together while waiting for the next game.