(no subject)
Today turned out to be rather surprising. Observing Jirou's lack of interest in practices lately, I had been a bit bothered and even slightly insulted that he seemed to find our training so droll. After some pondering, I decided to challenge him to a match.
I admit that the thinking behind this originally could have been considered harsh- I had come to the conclusion that he may have become a bit over-confident in his skills after playing a few of our more talented rivals and since excelling in such matches, caused playing our own team and those who might be a step below him in skill to seemed dull. The solution I opted for was to have Jirou play a match against me. I would prove to him in his defeat that there are still many goals to be attained and that he has a long way to go before he is in a place that would even allow a decline in training, boring and basic as it may be. After all, even a player as great as myself is also great enough to know that one must continue to strive and work toward being the best. Even at the top, there is room for improvement and it can never hurt to put yourself miles above the competition.
In any case, I digress. What I was going to say is that I was pleasantly surprised by how much Jirou has improved. It seems he has surpassed my speculations, which is a feat in itself. Of course I still easily won the match and he has quite a ways to go if he ever plans to match my skill, but I admit it was more of a challenge than I had anticipated.
Also, though I'm convinced it was the best course of action, it was...odd at first, playing Jirou. It has been a long time and though I strongly believe in leaving all things emotional outside of the court...such things are always easier said than done. (cliches would not be such if they weren't true). It felt good. Really good. ...and when it was over, he smiled at me.
I admit that the thinking behind this originally could have been considered harsh- I had come to the conclusion that he may have become a bit over-confident in his skills after playing a few of our more talented rivals and since excelling in such matches, caused playing our own team and those who might be a step below him in skill to seemed dull. The solution I opted for was to have Jirou play a match against me. I would prove to him in his defeat that there are still many goals to be attained and that he has a long way to go before he is in a place that would even allow a decline in training, boring and basic as it may be. After all, even a player as great as myself is also great enough to know that one must continue to strive and work toward being the best. Even at the top, there is room for improvement and it can never hurt to put yourself miles above the competition.
In any case, I digress. What I was going to say is that I was pleasantly surprised by how much Jirou has improved. It seems he has surpassed my speculations, which is a feat in itself. Of course I still easily won the match and he has quite a ways to go if he ever plans to match my skill, but I admit it was more of a challenge than I had anticipated.
Also, though I'm convinced it was the best course of action, it was...odd at first, playing Jirou. It has been a long time and though I strongly believe in leaving all things emotional outside of the court...such things are always easier said than done. (cliches would not be such if they weren't true). It felt good. Really good. ...and when it was over, he smiled at me.