Acquaintance With Defeat

As I sat quietly at the side benches of badminton court, I regretted for once being an engineering student and not a psychology student. Faces with perhaps all emotions known to man had erupted within those walls. Excitement, tension, dejection and fear -all seemed to had decided to grace the arena by etching themselves on those players’ faces. The intriguing emotions were all mesmerizing but the face that captivated & left me spellbound was of the boy who had been defeated moments ago and was sitting alone soaked in sweat. I, despite his best efforts to hide, could sense that, though quiet, his apoplectic urges were at their mighty best. With physical pain soaring past his resilience, it was taking him all his self control to keep his nefarious instincts at bay. As my lips curled into a smile I reckoned perhaps unearthing the human psyche in the aftermath of a defeat in sports would be an interesting observation.

A defeated player’s immediate frisson couldn’t had been laid bare any better than by Shelley in his aptly forged lines, “I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!”. Defeat never comes empty handed but brings with it the appalling flood of disappointment leaving one cold and dry. Trepidation & castigation that follows can send the shivers down any one’s spine. It is made all the more gruesome by the sportsman conduct the loser is expected to portray after having succumbed and that too with all his internal mechanism on fire. After being substantially spent in the course of practice and the game itself, asking the loser to keep a smiling face, passion under control and to comply with the customary handshake with the opponent seems a travesty. Quite often even the very best players around the world have failed in this obligation. Illustrious Roger Federer burst into tears after the Wimbledon final defeat against Rafael Nadal. Of course, the master is a human after all. We fail to notice but perhaps when the defeated boxer hugs the winner, it goes on to the show the mettle and the strength of the character of the player which embellishes the true spirit of game.

Striding past the players’ instantaneous reaction, the far more captivating facet is the defeat‘s implication on the player in the long run. The great Bjorn Borg quit tennis after the defeat rendered to him by John McEnroe in US Open final, surprisingly; he left even without attending the presentation ceremony. Defeat can be that treacherous poison which can subdue one’s urge to win for once and all. The blow which a substantial defeat renders could leave the very best down on all fours. It is capable of unleashing that monster which transforms the champion into mediocre. The defeat in an arena where you are watched by million, cheered & jeered by thousands, numerous hopes pinned to you-the trauma that unfolds can be phenomenally devastating. In the squabble of public furore and self belief, all catastrophes fall on the motivation as it bows down to receive the merciless beating.

But the most stunning aspect quite contrary to its damaging nature is a bright one. History has never witnessed any champion without prolific defeats pinned to his chest. Michael Jordan was left out of his school team for possessing only ‘crude skills’ and now history books iconize him as the best basketball player ever. The bottom statement comes down to how one negotiate terms with the blow dealt by a loss. The path less taken is of improvising and of innate desire to come back tough and hard. For sure the never-say-die attitude is what it takes to become Steve Waugh, Federer or Zidane. Mao Zedang famously said, “ Peace time after the war is to prepare for the next war.” Perhaps the compactness of mind, maturity in actions and ability to take loss and win in the backpack alike is what that defines champions. Lance Armstrong, diagnosed of prostate cancer, went on to win Tour de France for 7 times in row after having coped with the burns of radiotherapy. Though ignored later or sooner perhaps it’s the process that underwent in making of the player which counts rather than the predicaments in which he occasionally lands up.

I’ve used a lot of ‘perhaps’ here but to conclude I have only one ’sure’.

Surely, glory does not lie in never falling but in rising up every time we fall.