Written by Malikah Hamza
Not everyone is good at sport, but everyone is good at something. The challenge is to identify your talent and turn it into a passion. Then, I believe you will excel.
I am a 16-year-old schoolgirl – by far the smallest and youngest member of South Africa’s Under 21 hockey squad preparing for next year’s Olympics. I’m also the youngest player in the Wits University premier league cricket team, and in the Gauteng Under 19 cricket squad.
One thing I can tell you, though: I’m more comfortable facing fast bowlers’ missiles than having to order my thoughts to write a newspaper column! So, here we go…
According to my dad, he spotted my sporting talent when I was two. He bought me a set of plastic golf clubs, and then a soccer ball – and taught me to kick with both feet.
As I grew up I realised that it wasn’t just my dad who was a sportsman, but several generations on his side of the family. His father played cricket and soccer with Basil D’Oliveira, his mother was a swimmer, his brother was a provincial cyclist and volleyball player – and then there’s Zubayr, my cousin, who was selected to play test cricket for South Africa last year.
Last year, I moved to Johannesburg to advance my hockey career because I felt I was being held back in my age group in Cape Town. It wasn’t easy but I felt I had to do it. If you don’t follow your dreams how can you ever achieve them?
In 2018 I played for WP Under 14; the following year I played for Southern Gauteng Under 21 and the senior indoor side. Now I’m being contacted by US colleges with offers of scholarships. I complete my O Levels in the middle of next year. It is very exciting.
What’s even more exciting is being back on the playing field after the coronavirus lockdown.
I think the lockdown was good for me. I was really busy before the pandemic, so it gave me the rest I think I needed. It felt like if I carried on I would burn out. I still had to do fitness, and schoolwork, but my body will have benefit from what has been seven months of relative rest.
It felt fantastic to be back on the pitch again playing a practise match against the Men’s Masters side last week. It was a great honour for me to play for the national senior women’s side.
In a way, the lockdown reinforced my commitment to pursue big things, to push myself all the way. When you compete, your greatest competition is to meet your own expectations. To excel at whatever it is that you do. I feel that does not just apply to sport, but to the whole of life.
* Malikah Hamza is a multi-talented sports star. She is a forward on the hockey pitch, and a leg-spinning top-order batsman when she turns her mind to cricket.
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