Kym with her first athletics winnings.
Here’s what went down this morning: There was an impromptu plank-hold competition held today at the racecourse by her athletics coach. And the prize money was Rs.250 for boys and Rs.250 for girls. I had been prepping her for this for the past 2 days (she only runs twice a week now, since she has her summer vacation) and her target was 4 minutes (her personal best was 3 minutes before this) and though I did not mention she must win, I secretly hoped her best would be enough (I am human, after all).
But there’s a side story to this: It so happened that her coach called her ‘useless’ the other day. Not her specifically, but just addressed the whole team and told them they were ‘nikammas‘ and were not putting in 100%. This has been causing some heartache (and much crying) at the Bear household. While Mamma bear wanted her to know that she isn’t useless, and that nobody is, and that perhaps she should tell the coach not to call her that, my approach was that in real life, she’d get to hear such taunts and words thrown at her, and she needs to toughen up.
Also, as she moves from merely practising to actual competitions, she’ll see her coaches and tutors (she’s been having some problems with her chess teacher who has suddenly stopped being Ms Nice Lady, and takes Kym to task for silly mistakes, of which she makes more than her fair share, unfortunately) giving her what can only be called ‘tough love’, where they will push her and use all kinds of techniques to get her to push herself. In Hindi, this is called the साम-दाम-दंड-भेद नीति, meaning the technique of using everything from cajoling/love to bribery/incentivisation to punishment/disincentivisation to threats/fear to find a way that works and makes the student more likely to win. I told her that sports coaches across the world find ways to instil ‘josh’ (enthusiasm/vigour/passion) into their student-athlete/player so that this can be translated into an effort to win, and eventually, a probable victory.
In line with that, we had this conversation about what winning is and how (which is something her mother and I agree on) it is a constant competition with oneself, and bettering one’s personal best, using the occasion, the competition, and the ‘josh’ to leverage that effort to give one’s best performance rather than try and look at it as a competition in which the competitor and their game takes precedence.
So, with this in the backdrop, when I dropped her off today, I told her to shoot for bettering 3 minutes, and to ensure that she uses her coach’s admonishments and her competition’s performance positively towards finding that extra energy and ‘josh’ to give her best, and not get bogged down by it, which kind of defeats the entire purpose of what the coach intended the effect to be. ‘Yes, Baba bear,’ she said in her small, sweet voice, adjusted her heavy yoga mat on her back, her bag in one hand and her helmet in another, and trotted off towards the centre where her team had gathered.
I shifted the bike into first, raised the throttle, and let go, hurtling down to the top of Bopdev ghats, with an interlude for tea, and some social observation, on which I wrote this morning, and the petrol pump on the way, timing myself to be back there to pick her up in an hour and a half.
When I came back, she was outside with her team, being treated to nimbu-paani. The coach was excited. He said that the competition was fierce and the plank challenge was a grand success. The boys’ winner held the plank for 10m:00s:07ms, coming in first overall. The second boy held it for 8m:30s:31ms. Kym came in with a timing of 5m:24s:49ms, coming in first in the girls and third overall, and winning Rs.250 from her coach! Apparently, even though everyone told her she’d already crossed 4 minutes (which was her target), she just looked at the boys, gritted her teeth, and kept going. That’s my girl!
Plank timings for the top 3. The first 2 are boys. The third is Kym.
Oh, and by the way, during the pre-competition warm-ups, she also ran her fastest km today, running 4.45km with an average pace of 6m:00s/km and the fastest one at 5m:18s.
I am just so proud!
A brief breakup of today’s run.
P.S: On Eid, Kym received Rs.100 ‘Eidi‘ from Mohammad bhaiyya’s sister-in-law, where we had gone for biryani and sewainyaan. And Aji gave her another Rs.250 to match the amount she won today. So, now, Baby bear has a grand total of Rs.600 in hand, out of which Rs.500 will go into our bank account and the expenditure for the balance Rs.100 is being meticulously planned. Baba bear has been offered a Rs.10-lollipop out of the money. So, he’s happy.
