You are 30-40 and 3-5 in the deciding set of a crucial tennis match. The sweat on your palms isn’t the result of physical exertion alone. The heart is racing and thoughts are flooding your head. The pressure from your parents to win weighs down heavily on your mind.
Not the ideal situation to be in - yet, all sportspersons, in their respective sport, WILL find themselves in such predicaments. Such is the nature of sports.
When people ask me if I knew, ten years ago, that my son Pankaj Advani would become a world champion in snooker and billiards, my answer is, “No, I did not know he would, but I believed he could.”
When I was asked to write an article on the business of sport, its impact on children and the importance of having it as part of school curricula, I immediately thought of one line – Not every child is born with a silver spoon. But having said that - as an exercise scientist and a perfectionist - I do subscribe wholeheartedly to the importance of practice and hard work above talent.
Having both relished and survived twelve years as a school head and fifteen as the mother of a champion in a difficult, solitary game like chess, it will not be an exaggeration to say I have experienced a lot, both of the competitive sport, and the world it encompasses.
Are certain individuals born to be teachers and can only those be truly competent? Or can people without such aspirations develop to become ‘great teachers’? Are there certain conditions, the presence of which foster such development?