How to be a good sports?

IZ has difficulty admitting defeats. Absolutely nil sportsmanship.

Let him win in a game, he'll smile happily.

Let him start losing lose in a game, he'll sulk.. even cry.

And so the cycles went.. we tried very hard to make him lose in almost every game if we could help it.

Teaching him to be a good sport has been in vain.

Then I thought of a good idea..

To show him how it feels to lose, for real.

The 28th SEA Games in Singapore is the right place to start.

So I had to choose a game. Long enough to let him see how hard the players played, short enough for him to still be engaged.

Naturally, I chose the cheapest one, the free one. Naturally, I chose my favorite, the field hockey.

And so I chose the day when SIN was going against MAS. 

An almost no-fight match. I knew MAS was going to win.

But it was utmost important to let IZ see by himself, what "losers" do after a game.

We reached at half time and there was queue. We were denied entry as stadium was full. We were told there was no guarantee we could go in. We queued anyway, and glad we did.

Started to queue

During the game, he asked 1001 questions.. about hockey.

And I kept bringing him back to the point that SIN was losing, but the players were still playing hard.

SIN was defeated 1-4.

The most important moment arrived at the end.

The players from each team shook hands with each other. The "losers" didn't cry. The "losers" was applauded by the crowd for trying. The "losers" did not say "I don't want to play again!"

Both IZ and I clapped and cheered along that they worked hard. That's the spirit, my son.

How much has he taken away? I can't tell now.. until the next losing moment.