The 24th FIR World Racketlon Championships have just concluded at the grand Victoria Tennishal in Rotterdam, Netherlands. It’s been an intense event where 437 competitors have battled it out over the sports of table tennis, badminton, squash and tennis. In the sport of racketlon, opponents play these four sports to 21 points so a one-sided match may only last 30 minutes with one opponent winning 21-0 in all four sports which would add up to an impressive 84-nil victory. And matches where competitors are closely matched can last close to two hours with fine margins resulting in tight nervous scorelines of, say, 21-19; 19-21; 21-19; 18-21 [78-80 points overall].
So the tournament has concluded and Leon Griffiths is this year’s World Champion and best Racketlon Player in the World (see my last article). I witnessed the final, which will probably be made into a top ten must-watch Netflix series because it’s so far fetched you will think its all been made up! In very short summary, Leon played his younger brother Luke in the final. Luke is the past three times World Champion and twice defeated GOAT Jesper Ratzer on his way to the title last year. In case you didn’t get that, the two players that are arguably the best current Racket Players in the World happen to be brothers!
The Photo shows Leon overtaken by emotions as he won the match and once I too had dried my eyes, it made me think about chasing these Gold Medals and World Championship Titles and what does it all mean and why do we do it?
Because, if by some stroke of luck, I had beaten Luke and made my way to the Final, would Leon have been so emotional in winning Gold? I’m no Luke Griffiths, but I am the current Men’s Over 55 British Racketlon Champion. But if I had wiggled my way to the final the scores against Leon might have been an optimistic 1-21; 0-21, 1-21; 0-21. [There’s going to be lots of comments here from the people who know me !]
Would Leon’s victory have meant so much? Would winning the World Championships have been satisfying for Leon, if indeed, satisfaction is what we are pursuing?
Or in another fantasy scenario, what if young Luke had suffered an injury with just a few points to go in tennis? If he had withdrawn and conceded the final match, would Leon be overcome by emotions we love to guess and speculate about?
Of course not!
And so like me, hundreds of competitors are leaving the tournament without medals. Most may be upset or disappointed or even devasted. But I want people to pause and think. It isn’t simply a title we are pursuing. It’s just part of a story of your life. Where you train and you play, and you dream and you train. And you put yourself in difficult, challenging match situations. Where your Heart Rate is at the limit of “Zone 5” – that’s 100%. Or in intense moments you will have gone beyond 100% maximum Heart Rate, into the so called Supra-Maximal Zone 6. Your cardiovascular system has maxed out, your gasping for breath, your body should be in pure survival mode. Your body is telling you to STOP this supra-maximal effort and sit and get some critical oxygen. But your head is pushing you to these limits and beyond and pushing you to press on. To make coherent tactical decisions and minute instantaneous precise muscle adjustments and analyse the chaotic play and predict the future position of a high speed ball in three dimensions.
This, I think, is what it’s all about. It’s not the titles we search for but the challenges we dare rise to!
Roll on next year’s tournament!
Simon Lau
