World football star and RDFZ students:
youth is smiling while working hard
From: RDFZ photography club
Author: Jiayi Chen, Jike Lu, Xinyu Huang
Editor: Jiangbo Sun, Wenjiao Xu
Time: 2016-09-21
Translated by Dara Duan
On September 3rd, 2016, the Peak Star Basketball Training Camp opened in RDFZ. The NBA superstar Dwight Howard came to cheer up.
At 10 o’clock in the morning, although the weather was really hot, many students have waited a long period of time just to see the NBA superstar.
The DJ of today was Yida Zhang from ICC S2C4, and after his passionate speech, there was cheers from the crowd—Howard finally came! Howard clapped his hands with students waiting, and held a bright smile on his face, and because of his height, it was easy to see him through the crowd.
Howard was easy-going just as he was in NBA—at the start of the activity, he spoke Chinese to greet the students, and then he talked about his story of realising his basketball dream in English to motivate students study hard and pursuing their goals in their lives as well.
In his speech, Howard gave 3 great pieces of advice to RDFZ students:
First, work hard. Howard mentioned that he started to play basketball when he was 2 years old, and had been in NBA for over 13 years, however, these were still not enough for his basketball career. Although he succeeded in playing basketball, Howard always told himself that he should keep on working hard. After all, hard work is essential for success.
Second, have self-discipline. Howard stressed that it was important to control yourself if you wanted to be the one you wanted to be—“if you always go playing instead of go training, not doing the thing you ought to do, you would never reach your goal”.
Third, be positive. Howard hoped everyone could treasure their goals and interests, and live happily everyday. Life could be long or short, and it depended on how we viewed our lives—we should enjoy the things we love (for example, basketball).
When his speech ended, Howard started to do some simple basketball skill training with RDFZ students. When teaching the students how to play the basketball using left hand, Howard even used Taiji, which was very familiar for Chinese students. This not only made the training skills better to understand, but also increased students’ interests in basketball.
After teaching, Howard coached both red and white teams of RDFZ ICC students during a real basketball competition.
In the photograph above, Howard raised his hand with basketball. Seeing their idol being “cute” like this, the students were even more excited.
In the end, red team won with scores 18: 10. However, when deciding the MVP (Most Valuable Player), Howard gave this praise to all students of red team. At the same time, he praised the white team for their wonderful performances as well.
Finally, Howard interacted excitedly with student audiences nearby, he even took a selfie with students! Then he gave his blessings to the “basketball guys” in RDFZ: smile, be happy, control yourself, sacrifice yourself, love your life and do the things you love—when you keep on doing the things you love, you will gain much more! At last, after a brief interview of television, Howard left RDFZ, continuing his journey in China.
All in all, this activity motivated teachers and students in RDFZ to play sports and enjoy it. An amazing competition also gave the students a strong impression of the importance of a team working together. Even in the future, the students might remember Howards words: believe in yourself, be what you want to be.