Softball Tournament

On the 29th of January 2012, the Japanese Community in Sri Lanka held its annual softball tournament. The teams that participated was interesting, because there was an 'International Aid' team (a team consisting of people who came from Japan to Sri Lanka to give international aid), a 'Construction' team (a team of Japanese people dedicated to building bridges and power stations), a 'Japanese School' team (a team consisting of teachers and parents of the Japanese school in Sri Lanka) and so on. I was on the 'International Aid' team, as my father works as a co-ordinator of volunteers here in Sri Lanka.

During the practice match the day before, on January 28th, I played as the team's pitcher. I played softball for a brief period in Junior High school, but I had never played as pitcher before so this was a new experience for me. On the day, I played as the second baseman. The team that I was on had a lot of experienced players so we actually ended up winning 3 of our 4 matches, which surprised us all since we were very outnumbered by the other teams. The experienced players taught me a lot about softball that I didn't get a chance to learn in the brief time that I played long ago, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself!

 

In taking part in this tournament, I undertook a new challenge by playing as the pitcher, which was something I had never done before. I also developed new skills that I did not have before, by playing with the experienced players. I worked collaboratively with others in planned and initiated acitivities as teamwork and planning is a very important part of team sports such as Softball.