To bring out the best…

… get injured!

I have been playing (Cricket, Badminton, Table-Tennis, Football, Volleyball, you-name-it…) for whole of my life. My earliest memories comprise of playing a cricket-match with my brother in a 10×8 room. At best I can claim to be average, and sometimes above average, in all my sporting endeavours; I have never been Tendulkar-esque, or even Dravid-esque, or for that matter not even Kaif-esque. No claims to glory But one thing I can claim with conviction – sports injuries!

Injuries generally mean time-out, but me being a sports-maniac, injuries have never deterred me. If I have one hand, or one leg functional I will most probably be on field. And I have noticed one peculiar thing when playing with an injury. I play better, not just having-a-good-day better, but whoa-wth-happened better. My performance improves by leaps and bounds and suddenly I am a force to reckon

I think it was 1997, when I broke my right-hand index finger. I was playing badminton doubles and my partner instead of hitting the shuttlecock hit my finger. That time I did not know that I had 207 bones instead of the customary 206 and carried on the game ignoring the searing pain. The subtlety of the drop-shots I hit that day still reminds that I had the potential to beat Gade

Then during a Volleyball match in 2000, I scraped my left hand badly, the whole left palm had almost no skin left and for about 15-20 days I played with a bandage wrapped around my left hand. The spikes I hit during that period had immense power and almost all of them were precise, and all this when I had just one hand functional. Friends were ecstatic to see such form from my side, but the bandages came off and so did my form. Have never hit a powerful spike since then

And recently, while playing football, I was better on the days when I played with a sprained ankle. I was passing perfectly, I was at the appropriate spots to take the passes, I was pouncing on the loose-balls with more ferocity, and I was playing a much smoother game then I have ever played.

Injuries seem to unleash some hidden talent in me. The injuries, the deterrents bring out the best in me.

So now you know, if I am not playing well, injure me