IN any sporting arena, there are bound to be winners and losers. I refer to the ongoing saga of one of our better-known badminton players – Lee Zii Jia (pic).
As a true sportsman, one must take losses in their stride and strive to improve their performance moving forward.
In relation to Zii Jia’s ongoing saga, I would like to share my rather awesome experience meeting up with a legendary badminton player, the late Wong Peng Soon, who was popularly known as “the wizard” when I was a secondary school student.
News got around that the “Great Wong” was in Ipoh for a tournament and our sports teacher took us students to meet up with him.
There he was on the court in full flow of exercise, skipping for almost an hour with sweat streaming down his face and arms.
He then spoke to us in a soft measured voice saying he had a passion for the racket and shuttle right from an early age.
He said that he gave top priority to his physical fitness and mental preparedness to face his opponents.
During training, he stood at the centre of the court and served the shuttle ceiling high.
We watched in awe as it landed on the opponent’s side plumb on the baseline.
He repeated this 10 times and we counted, he had hit the baseline an amazing nine times.
Asked how he managed such uncanny precision he said it was disappointing as he “should have hit it all 10 times”.
As for his net play, it was mostly net kisses and at times when we thought he was going to play the net he would, at the twist of his wrist, flick the shuttlecock to the far corner of the base leaving his opponent flat-footed.
His racket seemed to be an extension of his arm and so closely allied that both body and racket were always working in sync.
He was so attached to his equipment that he would string and fix his own rackets.
How many of our present-day players would do that?
Looking back it appeared like he was AI assisted.
But he modestly explained that it was his work ethic.
He aimed for perfection in his strokes and said it was all the result of practice, practice and more practice.
He said he loved competition and was always looking forward to participating in as many tournaments as possible to hone his skills.
He said he always studied his opponent’s weaknesses whether it was his backhand, net-play or stamina and adjusted his own game accordingly.
He was a strict disciplinarian and said he used to cycle the distance of many kilometres from Johor to Singapore just for training purposes.
Asked what he ate, he said his diet was spartan: mostly vegetables with local fruit such as bananas, papayas and pineapple.
He added that he never ate for a full stomach but just enough for him to get going.
He never kept late nights and made sure he slept for seven hours, if not eight daily.
In 1950, he became the first Asian to win the all-England men’s singles championship, and won the title again in 1951, 1952 and 1955, earning him an international reputation as the “Great Wong”.
He was also the lynchpin of the victorious Malaysian Thomas Cup team of 1949, 1952 and 1955 when he was 38, an age by which most badminton players would be considered past their use-by date.
The International Badminton Federation (IBF) inducted him into its Hall of Fame posthumously three years after his demise in May 1999.
Then chairman of the IBF, H. R. Ward, commented that “Wong was one of the most remarkable players” and “had enhanced the sport through exceptional achievements”.
In a Straits Times poll in 2000, Wong was voted Singapore’s “Sports Personality of the Century”.
The Olympic Council of Malaysia inducted Wong into its Hall of Fame in 2004.
Wong was a self-made man who rose to super-stardom through his own efforts and commitment to the game he loved so much.
He did not ask for government funding or beg for sponsors to get him to train in Europe or overseas.
He stood firmly on home ground and proved his mettle.
Wong was not pampered or mollycoddled by ministers or authorities.
With due respect, Zii Jia must take a leaf out of the “Great Wong” playbook and adjust himself to be his own man.
There should be no patronage and he must, on his own initiative, justify his inclusion in the Youth and Sports Ministry’s Road to Gold (RTG) programme.
He should be left alone to find himself and like water, find his own level one day. We wish him all the best.
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