How Sports Changed My Life!

Hello, my beautiful people! How are you doing today? I hope all is going fantabulous (yes, this is a word I just added to my vocabulary from Wordhippo.com… fantabulous). Me? I just got done with a long day of work but I finally feel like I am flying, because now I get to talk (!!) about something I love, freely. Today I will be talking about how sports shaped me as a person and changed my life. Read till the end for a treat. 🙂 

History

I was 3 years old when my parents decided “great idea!! let’s get Ahmad to the club and enroll him in swimming practice”. I don’t know how I felt about that but I am quite sure my 3-years-old self preferred watching Winnie the Pooh over going swimming. During the summer, my mom (shoutout mama) would always keep me busy; most days of the week I was going from one practice to another practice back-to-back-to-back. Even if I wasn’t in practice, I would always be kicking a football (soccer) with some random kids. By the time I was 14, I almost tried every sport there was out there. Looking back at this now, it gave me great exposure socially, mentally, and physically. 2016 came and I was pushing myself to go to one swimming practice out of 10 a week and I hated sports. Then, someone took a life-changing decision for me.

The transition

*Flashback* my father (shoutout pops) and I getting ready for a relative’s wedding.

Pops: “Ahmad, you’re going to kickboxing practice tomorrow”.

My innocent self, who would never hit or want to get hit, thought this was the worst day of my life. Me? “ferocious? violent?” I thought martial arts were only about blood and hurt (I later figure the opposite). The next day I went to the first practice, but it was mainly fitness not boxing *phew, no hitting*. In the second practice Mohamed Aly Reda, the head coach and silver Olympic medalist, was warming up the team (I didn’t know who he was). After I warmed up, I asked him for the kickboxing coach.

Mohamed Reda: “why kickboxing?”

Me: “I don’t know, my father told me about kickboxing”

Mohamed Reda: “you’re doing boxing, tell your father to come later if he wants to talk”

I agreed because I don’t stand a chance against this monster. He took me to Coach Karim Elbadry, whom I owe a lot, and asked him to make my hands like “bullets”. I immediately got so close to the coach; he treated me like his son and made me fall in love with boxing. After this session, I never missed a session and I joined the advanced team after the second week. Weeks passed then months passed, I fell in love deeper with the game and participated in the Cairo Championships after 5 months.

The transformation

Disorganized. Inconsistent. Undisciplined. Egotistic. Insecure. You name it. These were all of the traits engraved in my personality. With boxing, I learned, the hard way, that sports won’t reward the people who possess these traits. By the hard way, I mean that I got beat until I was humbled. With that, I realized that boxing is exactly a mirror of how life is. The person who is most consistent, disciplined, humbled, confident, confident to say “I don’t know how”, organized, courageous to take a risk, experimental with new things, patient, and open-minded to learn (the list doesn’t end here) will be the one at the end of practice who is happy with how they fought.

I started to push myself to change. Someone is better than me? Admit it. Ask them how they did it. Ask them to give me feedback about how I do it. Practice. Practice more. Wake up early to practice more. Complement the habit with other good habits. I learned that good habits come in a domino effect-like way. I realized that going out until 2 am the night before morning practice affected my performance, so I went back home at 10 pm. Then, I realized that ordering Mcdonald’s twice a week affected my performance, let’s make it once now and then. I realized that waking up early gave me more motivation and discipline to go on that morning run and eat a healthy breakfast. Domino effect. I didn’t wake up one day to realize that I’m a completely new person; undoubtfully not, it took me months or even a couple of years to change the habits that formed my personality. 

Anyways, I made this read long enough, let’s leave it here. 🙂 Despite all that was said before, I am adamant that I am not perfect. That’s the point. No one is, we’re just trying our best. If you want to talk more with me, it would be my absolute pleasure! Shoot me an email or reach out to me on social media. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to my mailing list so you can get notified whenever I post! If you reached the end of this blog, you deserve a treat. These pictures are 5 years apart. I changed in so many ways but I kept the same posture. 🙂