Dreamer

I can still remember the time when I watch the first Rocky movie.
I had goosebumps all over my body.
The moment when Rocky Balboa knocked out Appollo Creed in the ring, you can feel this rush of sheer inspiration in the stream of your blood flowing into every corner of your body.
And for that brief moment, I felt like boxing was my calling. Haha.
I was young and gullible lar.

You gotta admitt that there's always something special about this kinda movies, in particularly, sports related movies.
It's a cliched plot.. How an underdog team goes against the best team in the world.. blah blah blah and in the end wins the final game.
Standard recipe.
Yet, it never fails to tantalize our human senses.
Rocky, Remember the Titans, Mighty Ducks, Any Given Sunday, A League of Their Own and many more spearhead this genre of David versus Goliath movies.
Made to inspire.

I was talking to Kuan Yang, Penang Floorball Captain famous for his "death-turn" (my turn to promo you sikit.. Hehe), about movies like that.
Since our mental tak kuat, we needed some boost of inspiration to raise our spirit up and what better way then to watch a movie.
So he introduced me to this movie call "Miracle".
It's a Walt Disney production based on a true event.

Plot Summary (Imdb):
The inspiring story of the team that transcended its sport and united a nation with a new feeling of hope.
Based on the true story of one of the greatest moments in sports history, the tale captures a time and place where differences could be settled by games and a cold war could be put on ice. In 1980, the United States Ice Hockey team's coach, Herb Brooks, took a ragtag squad of college kids up against the legendary juggernaut from the Soviet Union at the Olympic Games. Despite the long odds, Team USA carried the pride of a nation yearning from a distraction from world events. With the world watching the team rose to the occasion, prompting broadcaster Al Michaels' now famous question, to the millions viewing at home:
Do you believe in miracles? Yes!

I managed to get hold of the movie online through my "researching" skills. Hehe.
Watched it and guess what...

I had goosebumps up until my neck.

It's a movie I could find common ground, unlike Rocky.
Boxing mana aku tau main.
But this movie is about Ice Hockey, the "mother" to Floorball.
It's something I found myself glued to because I could relate.
There were many scenes where I visualise Floorball instead of Ice Hockey, a ball instead of a puck, a floor instead of ice.
There is a scene where the players had to do suicides, or "killers" as we would call it in our floorball training (either way, it serves the same purpose, to "kill"), in which their capacity to go beyond the distance were put to the test.
With each shout of "AGAIN!" by Coach Herb Brooks, the players kept the suicides going.
The severity of how far the players were pushed is mind-blowing.
It will come off as either adrenaline-pumping inspiring or just plain old torturing.

In terms of the "sports" lesson that I have learn from this movie is how essential the conditioning of the body is to the performance of a game.
There's a scene where Coach Brooks will tell his players that the only way to break-down the Soviet Union is to be able to outlast them until the final whistle is blown.
And they did.
They outlast the Soviets.

But there's movie and there's reality.
People always say, movie is just a movie.
Movie merely reflects our imaginings.
Then again, this movie is made because of a reality that has taken place 28 years ago.

I leave you with this quote by Coach Herb Brooks,

"You know, Willy Wonka said it best:
We are the makers of dreams,
the dreamers of dreams,
We should be dreaming.
We grew up as kids having dreams,
but now we're too sophisticated as adults, as a nation.
We stopped dreaming.
We should always have dreams.   

"I'm a dreamer." 

(Herb Brooks)

Here's a clip of the actual game between team USA and Soviet Union.

The original USA Ice Hockey team that beat the once undefeated Soviet Unions.
Mike Eruzione, captain, celebrating after clinching the winning goal.
Team USA won 4-3.
Miracle on Ice.

Whoever said movie is just a movie was wrong.