Footage of athletes with their national flags draped over their shoulders and medals in their mouths are aplenty on the internet.
But less seen are clips of them working their socks off during training, and spending countless hours perfecting their craft.
On Thursday (12 Dec), an inspirational video showing a 6-year-old paddler overcoming tears as she trains to become a table tennis pro was uploaded on South China Morning Post’s (SCMP) Facebook page.
The clip has since gone viral with over 23,000 shares at the time of writing. You can watch it in full here.
According to the SCMP video, 6-year-old Li Yiyi from Shandong province picked up table tennis during her summer holidays last year.
Since then, Li has fallen in love with the sport and now trains 5-6 times a week.
In the clip, Li can be seen honing her strokes, executing each move with precision and consistency.
Apart from practising her strokes, Li also conditions her body by pulling against a resistant band held down by her coach.
According to Sinchew Daily, Li would often tear up during training due to her coach’s strict teaching style. Despite this, the young paddler never gives up nor throws a tantrum.
In the video, Li’s coach can also be heard ordering a tearful Li to control her emotions, failing which he would not resume training.
Her coach also insists on her turning around when she’s crying as he doesn’t want to see her tears.
After wiping away her tears, Li continues shadowing her strokes, more determined than ever.
According to SCMP, the 6-year-old aspires to turn pro one day, which is probably one of the motivating factors that keep her going when the going gets tough.
After training for a year, Li came in first during a recent national competition.
She was visibly overjoyed with the medal around her neck.
Li’s coach claims that the 6-year-old is extremely talented and picks things up quickly, reports Sinchew Daily.
However, like most things in life, talent alone is not enough. To become a professional paddler, Li would have to train hard too, said her coach.
We have no doubts that Li would achieve great things in the table tennis realm if she continues to train as hard as she has trained over the past year.
More importantly, we hope that Li’s unwavering determination has given you that ‘lil bit of inspiration to get through this Friday.
Featured image adapted from Facebook and Sinchew Daily.
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