A week ago I bumped into a gentleman named Stan Lee –slim, tall and fit looking uncle in his mid 50s — who kindly asked me if I could spar with him using half the court to help him get warmed up.
And as I was free because I went to the badminton hall earlier that morning, at 8:30am, I gladly obliged. Interestingly enough, after about a minute or so, I faintly remember I’ve played with this man before, about a year back, so I asked if he played around in the west side of Singapore. (where I was playing)
He got curious and started to fill me in on his story and it instantly struck me; he was that frail, hunched back, veteran player I played with in the Bukit Gombak stadium about a year ago! Back then I went down with my dad and I partnered Stan Lee in a friendly game against his friends.
The Struggle:
I clearly remembered Stan Lee had difficulties doing all the basic things in badminton; he trembles a lot and could not serve well, was always short of breath after every few points (with minimal rally) and couldn’t execute shots with power. And when we were at the showers he explained to me that back then he was once a F&N junior player/trainee (to be trained as potential representative of Singapore) and plays in many competitions and trained regularly. But ever since he got diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, he was so affected by it that he took 3 hours to shower and couldn’t even change his shirt himself. He described how the things like the jump smash that was once child’s play is now just a dream for him.
Now, a year later, he was this fit looking man who was capable of taking on your typical secondary school kids (13-16 year olds) in a game of singles! I was totally appalled and had to learn how he did it.
Blood, Sweat and Tears:
He was forced to retire from his job but thankfully, has wonderful children to help support him, leaving him free to follow his passion.
He started from basics all over again. He wanted to prove all his competitive friends wrong, that he ‘Will be Back’ to challenge them. He started to train; from jogging at a slow pace to moderate pace, alternating for 10 rounds in the badminton hall instantly, even though he had not been jogging for years. He remembers those training days where right after jogging, he had to continue to do push-ups, sit ups, frog leaps, running and jumping on the spot with the knees lifting toward the chests as close as possible (Tuck jumps), shadow badminton (footwork drills), etc. He also had to put his ego aside whenever he made mistakes and was told off by a much younger player that he partnered with.
It’s amazing how he had to go through so many falls (I meant literally he fell down, and at his age!) and the dedication it took to travel by LRT train and MRT train from home to Gombak Sports Centre then back home all by himself daily, even when he was very tired.
It was a daily struggle.
He always goes to the badminton hall late, sometimes even when the game time is almost over. This was due the unpredictability of his medications and health condition that caused him to freeze; which slows him in preparing breakfast and packing the badminton necessities into his bag, etc. But no matter how late he was, he always makes sure he goes the badminton hall.
And on that morning when I was “warming up” with him, he had already ran 10 rounds the hall and did 30 minutes of stretching exercises, footwork and wrist work. My Jaws literally slammed the floor silly, and I knew I had to write about him to spread his message as he is a true inspiration! We can learn so much important values from him, to aim for the stars and work your butt off.
Currently he felt he is not ‘up to mark’ yet, and aims to become Bukit Gombak Best singles player and has set sights to try to beat a couple of the more skilful players around the area. He is also going to be filmed by the Chinese media (the media team will fly in from China) as an inspirational story to the disabled and chronically ill people in China too! As of now, he prefers to keep a low profile and I totally respect that.
With grit and determination, this man has managed to overcome extremely challenging situation to achieve something valuable to him, all without private training. And if he can do it, everyone can! We just need to believe in ourselves, set challenging targets and work our butt off to achieve our goals.
And if I do see him again, I’ll be sure to take a video of his game to show you how he plays! In the meantime, Peace!
Edit: He read through my article and added in some points. As we do keep in touch via Whatsapp, he shared with me how good he felt when breaking his personal best and he also sent me a video of himself playing singles against one of his friends, with the rest by the bench commenting in awe of his improvements. And I can totally relate to him of how it feels when you’ve hit the target that you set out to do, and after all the hard work and sacrifice, that feeling of adrenaline flowing through your soul is just indescribable.
And as promised, here’s a video of him playing before his medication took full effect.