MY ATHLETIC SIDE!

I'm a good athlete according to me and my physical education teacher. Due to that my teacher short-listed me for the under seventeen inter-school category. Every athlete who is short-listed(all the athletes are still short-listed)has to undergo a tiring, but useful training. It takes place everyday after school. The training requires a lot of time to get adapted to and therefore requires utmost attention and hard work. Well, for me, it is 'so far, so good'.

It actually started with a normal physical education class where we were graded for our running skills. I got good grades despite being terribly sick that day. I had a terrible head-ache that I hadn't felt in the morning, before going to school. Even after sensing it, I thought I would stay put in class as I thought that my head-ache would fade away gradually. The school clinic could be used for better things. I refrained from telling any of my friends or teachers about the ache. Even though my head-ache was getting severe, I gathered up courage to follow my friends to the field and get my grading done, at the earliest. I ran well, even though it was only a sixty metre race. The teacher praised me and some other boys in class. He was more than happy to have so many choices in his athletic club. Little did he know that all the boys apart from me had to be present in other coaching activities, that would therefore reduce his team members.

That day, I came home and puked, I seriously don't know why, as I had no stomach-ache. No one was at home, so I checked my temperature by myself and found out that I had fever. I contacted my dad, who contacted my mom, who took me to the doctor, despite my refusal. In the end it turned out to be only a minor fever. So much for going to the doctor.

The year I joined ninth grade, my ex-physical education teacher came to tell us about the coaching. He told me to take it very seriously. I knew I had to take it seriously, but just for the sake of reminding, you know how the human mind functions, full of thoughts and memory. It is so complicated. Besides,

'How will there be mystery?

How will there be science?

If everything said and done in history,

Is known to mankind!

                                                                                -adapted from a poem by K
                                                      himself 

The first day of the coaching, I missed due to my prefect interview, which turned out to be a flop. My so called House Master fired me with questions I failed to answer quickly and properly. I wished I had been called instead of my friend earlier, who was asked questions, I was prepared to answer in a jiffy. My ex- P.E(physical education)teacher was annoyed, but he wasn't enraged. He excused me for the day. After all, he had to!

The next day however, I didn't fail to attend my coaching class. It took some time to start, as the coaching teachers waited for a while so that we could rest and conserve our energy. After it started though, there was no stopping. He made us jog around a football(soccer)field five times, so that we were warmed up. I was a beginner then and therefore, I struggled a bit. I've got used to it now, but now and then are two completely different stories. My shin ached the most, but yet I tried to ensue. The best part was that I had forgotten my sports shoes. I tried to drag away my thoughts, but alas, the warm up was all about concentrating. The pain came up to my thighs later. After the completion of the five rounds, we were asked to stride. It means that, we should run with sixty percent speed on one side of the field and walk on the other. After two rounds of striding, guess what!

"Please do not sit or drink water, form a semi-circle!", my ex-P.E teacher shouted, and we obeyed. He was planning to make us do some stretching and rotating exercises. He kept showing us the exercises, and also told us the number of times it had to be repeated. We did as we were told. The exercises were pretty easy to perform, but it was hard to focus with the leg-ache. Our arms were aching too, due to its continous movement. After the so called rotating exercises, in which we were supposed to rotate our legs and hands from here to there he asked to stride once more. This time only on one side of the field. After walking back, we were asked to do the stretching exercises. All the exercises were like dance movements. We were asked to stretch and touch our toes and so on.

It was a relief when he asked us to take a sip of water and move around, so that we don't get to complete rest mode and make our aches worse than it is. Some boys dis-obeyed and drank water as if they were seeing it for the first time. I had no problems, as I wasn't a great fan of water, whether thirsty or not.

Next he asked us to do some knee-driving exercises, first on the spot, and then by moving from one place to another. It would be hard to describe, but we had to lift one knee up stretch the other leg, and keep shifting the leg. It was more tiring as our chest could hardly suck in air because of the speed, and also our chest was involved in the exercise, as it kept contracting and relaxing during the exercise. We were breathing anaerobically then. This anaerobic respiration lasted for more than five minutes. It took lots of time to catch our breath.

He asked to repeat the exercise three to four times. After the tiring exercise, we were asked to come close to the school bus area entrance stairs. He made us do something called as step up(definitely not street dance). We were supposed to climb up and down one particular step with both our feet. That is one foot up and the other foot down and then both the feet up and the other foot down and so on. We were asked to do it at maximum pace. After repeating it once again, we were asked to do split jumps on the stairs itself. We repeated that twice. 

Then he asked us to do the abdominals(or the crunchs)twenty five times. Then the push-ups also the same number of times. After the procedure, we were asked to walk around the football field for three rounds and then wind up. During the long walk, the pain in our legs started becoming less and the pain in the thighs ceased to exist. This time I could do a bit of day dreaming and I kept thinking about the amount of homework I had to do after getting home. I was enraged to know that there were lots. As usual, I'm always unlucky.

Hasta la Vista,

K