“I almost didn't do volleyball as my parents disapproved…” – an interview with Eleanor Chua

Interview by Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports.

Volleyball, gymnastics, studies. That’s what Eleanor Chua Chih Yin has to manage as a Secondary Three student in Nanyang Girls’ High on top of the expectations and requirements set for her as a student. Some time back, Nanyang Girls’ beat Ngee Ann Secondary to clinch the National Schools B Division Girls Volleyball Championship. As the centre spiker and anchor player for the team, she put up a sterling performance and contributed decisively to the team’s win.

This 15 year old started playing volleyball in Primary Four, but it was not the only thing that she was getting herself involved in. She took up ballet, artistic gymnastics, choir and wushu, starting from as early as Primary One and Two. The former Ai Tong student said, “I wanted everything so I joined everything. Then later, I continued on those with the more obvious results.”

Red Sports caught up with this remarkable athlete, and got her to share some of her experiences with us.

Red Sports: Tell me about yourself.
Eleanor: I came from a sporty family where my father is a ballet dancer and Wing Chun (branch of chinese martial arts that specialises in close-range combat) master. My mother also did ballet and athletics. I was influenced a lot and got into Ai Tong Primary as my father was also a ballet teacher there. Ai Tong was where I first got to know about gymnastics and volleyball. I almost didn't do volleyball as my parents disapproved since I was already in gymnastics. But I persisted so they let me. I also took up violin in primary two just for leisure.

How did you feel when Nanyang qualified for the final?
I was thankful to God, my parents, coach and team mates. I felt that the crucial match (semi-final) was already won thus I was confident of getting the championship title.

Was the run towards the final tough? How was it like?
Of course. I learnt to have confidence and to be able to keep negative feelings to one's self during a match. The other schools' stamina is stronger than ours, thus it was quite tough when the rallies got longer.

The B Division as compared to C Division standard is very different. It gave me quite a shock at first. Other schools had girls who were two years older. But the funny thing was that I didn't feel training in school got any tougher. I think the toughest thing was to cope with the pressure and the exhaustion during the match.

Any intense / memorable moment you had throughout the entire season?
Our loss in the zonals. I think it was the lack of confidence. Well, it's not a really memorable thing, but our most intense match was definitely the semi-final match. For me, my most memorable moment was the match against Cedar Girls' as throughout the whole season, it was the time I felt most on form.

What sort of preparations did you and your team make while preparing for the B Division season?
It's more of adapting to yourself. Training was more or less the same. Actually training seems even tougher now than during the competition season. All of us have our on and off form times so we have to find out why we're off form and change accordingly. Always remember what the coach says and it'll come in handy.

What did you do to prepare yourself and your team mates just before the final?
To me, Nanyang’s girls sometimes have less confidence as compared to those from Raffles. To overcome this, we always boost one another's confidence by saying we can do it.

During the final, this is very important as the pressure is higher so we naturally hold back. I think we shouldn't hold back at all as competitions are not the measure of skill but confidence. In the nationals, everyone's skills are around the same.

How did you feel after beating so many schools, your team has finally overcome the last hurdle and emerge champion?
During the final, I was confident of winning. But I don't think this last hurdle was harder than the hurdle we faced at the semi-final match when we played Bukit Panjang Govt High. However, the final was definitely tough on some of my teammates because of the pressure. Pressure really makes it tiring.

The run to the final must not have been a smooth one. What sort of challenges did you encounter during this time, and how did you overcome them?
The part we had to overcome was our lack of confidence during our zonal matches. I think we started to climb uphill since the 3rd/4th match win against Jurong Secondary. We lost to them once and lost to Bukit Panjang in the previous match, but my mother told me to have more confidence, and I guess that helped a lot.

Anybody in particular you would want to credit this win to?
My coach, and seniors from Ai Tong who came to help us though our training was early in the morning.

You are also in the Gymnastics team, how do you manage to balance your CCAs, your personal life and studies?
I admit there are tiring times when you just want to break down and cry. I do one thing at a time, which means training well for gymnastics during gymnastics training. It's the same for volleyball and studies.

I think the toughest part in this "managing process" is the gymnastics part. Gymnastics training for me is much tougher than volleyball training, not to say scarier since the risk of getting injured is greater. Actually it's all in the mind. The human body is weird. It can do crazy stuff but it's the mind that tells it what it cannot do. Change the mindset and it's all taken care of.

What about your studies?…
Studying for me was never really a problem… until this year. Secondary Three is completely different from Sec One and Two since we are separated into different classes according to our abilities. My class is the Math and Science talent class and I think what affected me was my Math results. Last year I did pretty well, but this year I was FAILING. I could understand concepts but we were going at a very fast pace so I couldn't remember so much. I feel that Sec 3 Math is more of memorising than understanding as compared to Sec 2, and memorising requires time. What I did was talk to my senior. She told me she did really badly in Term 1 as well, but managed to get third in class anyway. Just focus on the next test.

I think the problem most people have is that they cannot finish their work on time. Just do the worksheet. Procrastinating means having expectations which are too high so we don't feel like doing it at this moment. I think it's better to finish and edit later on than get it right the first time. I haven't really quite mastered this aspect but at least I don't have overdue homework.

The Gymnastics competition was right before the volleyball final, were you affected by any way?
I focused more on volleyball this year since I knew there was a higher chance of getting something. Still I was quite happy with my gymnastics results though I could have been more consistent if I had more training. Just before the gymnastics competition trials, I had stopped training for two weeks due to volleyball.

Actually this year was much better than the last. I had missed the vault event due to the clash with the volleyball final and the first part of the gymnastics competition. Actually I felt there was a high chance in getting first for the team event this year, but there were a few mistakes which cost us quite a lot.

What are your future aspirations?
First, I want to get a scholarship to England to study Science. I've thought of a few professions but haven't really decided. The world is full of smart people so what I do to "comfort" myself is to say that if I ever fail in doing what I want, I'll still survive as I can be a tuition teacher or coach either in volleyball or gymnastics. I can even teach lower grade violin if I wanted! But to earn something we have to pay a price. It's usually the effort that counts.

Any advice for aspiring young players?
Be humble, look and listen.

Complete this sentence: “If I were able to turn back time, I would…”
I don't think I have any great regrets that need a time machine.
The most I would do is go back in time to see dinosaurs or attend the rock band Queen's concerts when their leader Freddie Mercury was still alive! :p