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Having played a variety of games, mostly outdoor I think I have a huge advantage in using my experience to argue out this topic. My participation extends to basketball, athletics, cricket, swimming, football, rugby and badminton. I have made a genuine contribution to my school teams in the games that I have listed, but have given more of my time to some such as basketball and athletics. This first hand experience is what I will call upon and I will proceed by relating certain events in my life.

In my experience, I have seen coaches favor the larger sized kids. When I was in middle school I was considered tall for my age. This gave me an opportunity to be a basketball player as the coach seemed to like my long frame as opposed to my vertically challenged peers. I must say my long arms helped me in dribbling the basketball better and I was given the uncanny ability to reach for and steal the basketball from my opponent's hands. Other advantages of towering over the other players at the time were I could shoot without the fear of rejection and I was able to rebound well. One of my friends who was rather hefty was preferred by the coach because he could be really physical in the game but not get hurt.
In athletics, I noticed that long legs gave the benefit of being able to make long strides and thereby cover distances faster. Even in cricket, height made the ball get up higher upon leaving the bowler's hand as a result of being delivered at a higher level. I then encountered problems such as the coach selecting the Principal's grandson, being biased towards the fairer skinned players. Having gone to an international school, there were a few foreigners. One student was from Canada and I saw a lot of preferential treatment being given to him. It is something in this part of the world where the westerners are still given respect even with the colonial days being long gone. It was evident in that the coach would hit the Sri-Lankan students when punishing them but not once had I seen him lay a hand on the white students of the school who came for practice.
However I cannot undermine an entire country and must say that inspiration can from just about anywhere. On a certain day meeting a man on a bus in Galle Road with a general conversation about sports convinced me that a good attitude is indispensable. His ideas that anything could be achieved if you set your mind to it though apparently clich stuck in my head and gave me a reason to continue pursuing sports.

Learn more about this author, Howard Hughes.
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