Student_Voice : Beyond game point: Finding my resilience
Published: 17 Mar. 2026, 00:05
Updated: 17 Mar. 2026, 09:21
Koh Taehyun
The author is a student at North London Collegiate School Jeju.
The volleyball court was deafening that night.
“One more point!” the crowd chanted.
The stomping of feet seemed to reverberate off the walls. I glanced up at the scoreboard: North London Collegiate School Jeju were tied with our rival middle school, St. Johnsbury Academy Hilltoppers. The next point would decide the game. I saw the ball floating toward me. It was a perfect set. An easy spike, one I had perfected during training. I jumped and swung my arm. Then, my heart sank as I watched the ball fly off my hand, slap the net and roll down to our side of the court. Game over.
I knew I had committed a fatal mistake and lost us the game. I wanted to sink into the crowd and melt away. My teammates were sighing and looking away from me. What was going through their minds? “Ted’s the reason we lost,” they were probably thinking. “Why did he even try to do that spike? He should have passed it. Ted wanted to be a hero.”
![Hitting training before a match [KISJ (KOREA INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL JEJU CAMPUS) ATHLETICS]](https://koreaseafood.online/data/photo/2026/03/17/e96247a9-c52b-41d4-a84b-61de6521610c.jpg)
It was harder than I expected to get over this. For days, the play kept repeating itself in my mind. I questioned everything: Was it the right time? The right judgment? Did I even deserve to be in that position? Should I have passed the ball? The more I replayed that moment, the smaller I felt. Part of me wanted to hide in the next game. I shouldn’t be the one to take an important swing.
But I also knew that if I hid, my fear would just grow stronger. So even though I still wasn't sure of myself, I went to practice with the determination that I would not be defined by my error. I asked for more reps, fighting my fear that everyone would be watching and waiting for me to make another mistake. I adjusted my hand position, perfected my approach. But the work I had to do was in my head. Every time I messed up in practice, my frustration grew.
Studies in sports psychology have found that mental resilience, or the ability to bounce back from adversity, is what sets world-class athletes apart from the rest. Research in the German Journal of Exercise and Sport Research showed that athletes who can control their emotions and refocus after a mistake are more likely to perform consistently. A study in Frontiers in Psychology found that athletes who practice mental reset techniques, like breathing or refocusing their attention, do a better job of living in the moment and bouncing back from errors.
The voice of my coach rang out across the gym: “Breathe back! Grab your mind. Start over. It’s a clean slate!”
I took my position behind the service line, took a long, deep breath, and let go of the frustration. The next serve came my way again. Instead of dwelling on the previous swing, I focused only on the ball. I went up for it, hitting it cleanly. It was enough to reassure me that the previous swing would not dictate the next.
Errors are always going to be a part of competition and life. We can’t always get the outcomes we want. What we can do is succeed in how we respond to errors. I used to think that a missed spike was the moment that defined me as a player. But what defined me was when I walked back into the gym the next day and asked for the same set of reps, swinging again and again despite the doubt that was in the back of my mind.
Weeks later, we played against St. Johnsbury again. When it was my turn to serve late in the game, I tossed the ball, swung and watched as it floated just over the line. Error. For a brief moment, the old feelings crept in. Frustration. Fear. But this time, I caught the feelings before they caught me. I stepped back from the serve, took a deep breath, and reset as I had practiced. Clean slate.
The next serve left my hand easily and landed in the back of the court.
The author is a student at North London Collegiate School Jeju.
The volleyball court was deafening that night.
“One more point!” the crowd chanted.
The stomping of feet seemed to reverberate off the walls. I glanced up at the scoreboard: North London Collegiate School Jeju were tied with our rival middle school, St. Johnsbury Academy Hilltoppers. The next point would decide the game. I saw the ball floating toward me. It was a perfect set. An easy spike, one I had perfected during training. I jumped and swung my arm. Then, my heart sank as I watched the ball fly off my hand, slap the net and roll down to our side of the court. Game over.
I knew I had committed a fatal mistake and lost us the game. I wanted to sink into the crowd and melt away. My teammates were sighing and looking away from me. What was going through their minds? “Ted’s the reason we lost,” they were probably thinking. “Why did he even try to do that spike? He should have passed it. Ted wanted to be a hero.”
Hitting training before a match [KISJ (KOREA INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL JEJU CAMPUS) ATHLETICS]
It was harder than I expected to get over this. For days, the play kept repeating itself in my mind. I questioned everything: Was it the right time? The right judgment? Did I even deserve to be in that position? Should I have passed the ball? The more I replayed that moment, the smaller I felt. Part of me wanted to hide in the next game. I shouldn’t be the one to take an important swing.
But I also knew that if I hid, my fear would just grow stronger. So even though I still wasn't sure of myself, I went to practice with the determination that I would not be defined by my error. I asked for more reps, fighting my fear that everyone would be watching and waiting for me to make another mistake. I adjusted my hand position, perfected my approach. But the work I had to do was in my head. Every time I messed up in practice, my frustration grew.
Studies in sports psychology have found that mental resilience, or the ability to bounce back from adversity, is what sets world-class athletes apart from the rest. Research in the German Journal of Exercise and Sport Research showed that athletes who can control their emotions and refocus after a mistake are more likely to perform consistently. A study in Frontiers in Psychology found that athletes who practice mental reset techniques, like breathing or refocusing their attention, do a better job of living in the moment and bouncing back from errors.
The voice of my coach rang out across the gym: “Breathe back! Grab your mind. Start over. It’s a clean slate!”
I took my position behind the service line, took a long, deep breath, and let go of the frustration. The next serve came my way again. Instead of dwelling on the previous swing, I focused only on the ball. I went up for it, hitting it cleanly. It was enough to reassure me that the previous swing would not dictate the next.
Errors are always going to be a part of competition and life. We can’t always get the outcomes we want. What we can do is succeed in how we respond to errors. I used to think that a missed spike was the moment that defined me as a player. But what defined me was when I walked back into the gym the next day and asked for the same set of reps, swinging again and again despite the doubt that was in the back of my mind.
Weeks later, we played against St. Johnsbury again. When it was my turn to serve late in the game, I tossed the ball, swung and watched as it floated just over the line. Error. For a brief moment, the old feelings crept in. Frustration. Fear. But this time, I caught the feelings before they caught me. I stepped back from the serve, took a deep breath, and reset as I had practiced. Clean slate.
The next serve left my hand easily and landed in the back of the court.
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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