The Return

Its been almost 2 months since my last post, and a lot has changed since then.

I've finally found time to write this, but I don't want this to get too long so I'll just sum up my last two months.

Aug 24th - Started junior year of high school

It's been much better than last year, partly because I am actually spending a legitimate amount of time studying, but also because last year I had to deal with curriculum changes because I transferred from a different school district.  I've finally started caring about school, and it's actually quite fun.  I'm naturally a competitive person so I enjoy the struggle and the hard work of pushing myself to be better.

September 7th - Finished work as a lifeguard

This was a good experience considering that it was my first job I've ever had.  I met some amazing people and learned some great things.

September 24th - ACL surgery

I was out of school for two days but that completely threw me off track.  Although I only missed a few tests, I was met with a deluge of work when I returned.  It was extremely difficult to get around the house, let alone complete everyday tasks as I was on crutches for the first week after my surgery.  I took painkillers for the first three days and my body was completely messed up by them.  I felt dizzy and I couldn't focus for the entire duration I was taking the painkillers.  I quickly weaned myself off those even though I still had pain in my knee because I didn't want to get addicted to those drugs.

On Friday, I had my 2nd PT checkup at exactly 1 week after surgery.  I had almost complete extension and about 86 degrees of flexion.

Today, the swelling has gone down almost 60% and I've actually been able to slowly walk without my brace.  I have 90 degrees of flexion and I can recruit most of my right quadricep.  I will start lifting again today and over the next two weeks I'll be back to shooting the basketball.  I haven't lifted ever since my surgery but I can still see adequate muscle growth because my body is still healing from all the lifting I did prior to my surgery.  Isn't that crazy?  My body is still recovering over a week after my last workout.  I've even seen an increase in definition in my left calf.  This is probably a result from all the one legged movements I've been doing for the last week.

My diet has been getting better and I'm now eating more fruits and vegetables and drinking more water and juice.

That pretty much sums it all up!  Thank you for reading my latest post, I hope to see you again sometime soon!

Aaron Chan

School?

School is coming up in a couple of weeks, and since this coming year is my junior year, these couple weeks I have before school starts are vital.

My ACL tear has definitely changed many things and shed new light on things I never noticed before.  It showed me that no matter how high up you may be, a few seconds in the wrong place at the wrong time can close that door you were so fervently chasing after.

I've always contented myself with better-than-average grades, putting in just enough time to be able to say, "Yeah, I do well in school. I can spend all my time in basketball because I'm doing better than most of the people out there."

I didn't think I had to actually try hard and get perfect grades because really, I'm getting my scholarship based off my basketball skills and my career has nothing to do with how well I do in school.

But my injury changed everything.  It brought up the "What ifs?".  What if I never get to play in college?  What if I get injured and never come back?  What if I bypass all these academic opportunities that I'll need in the future?

A special someone told me recently that I need to not just chase my dreams but also plan ahead realistically. 

That word stuck in my head for the next few days.  Realistic.  Realistic.  Realistic.

At first I was extremely reluctant about this "realistic" thing.  

You're asking me to give up my passion and live a life of mediocrity?  But I'll never be satisfied with "average".  I can't live like that.  It's not in my nature.  The world is a jungle, and I choose to eat.

After struggling with this for a few days I finally understood what she meant.  It's not wrong to chase after dreams, after goals, after passion.  It's just not smart to put all my eggs in one basket, to say I can just follow that and be sure that I will succeed, to live or die by that one dream.  

I will still put in 10,000+ hours chasing after my craft.  I will still dream to the fullest extent.  I will still set my goal on the edge of the horizon.

But I will also give my 100 percent effort to do the best I can academically.  I won't waste the opportunities God has given me.  I will use my talents and gifts to the best of my ability.  And through that, I will praise and glorify God.

To God be the glory forever and ever! 

- Galations 1:5

Aaron Chan - 99

My Worst Nightmare Come True

Sometimes life just throws you into a wall.

Last Tuesday night, I had an injury that I had always feared would someday happen.  It hurled my life out of balance and threw up an enormous obstacle in front of me.

----

Sneakers squeaked on the dusty court as the late night Tuesday basketball camp came to the last drill of the day.  One on one match-ups.

The ball rotated seamlessly in my hands as I looked at my defender.

"In'n out dribble, right hand finish," my mind told me.

The sound of the ball hitting the floor echoed through the gym as I began my move.

Suddenly, my shoe hit a slippery spot on the floor, and my right leg slipped out in front of me.  I lost control of the ball, and as I was falling, my defender came up aggressively, his knee smashing into the inside of my right knee.  I felt a pop, and immediately found myself on the floor, clutching my knee to my chest as I gasped for air.  Pain shot through my entire leg, and I lay there wishing that it would stop, wishing that this never happened, wishing that this was all a figment of my imagination.

Doubts rushed through my head as I suddenly had questions about everything: my leg, my future, my career, my life.

"How badly am I injured?  Lord why did this have to happen to me?  Is my bone broken?  Are my ligaments torn?  God I need you right now!"

I could only hope that my leg had a superficial injury, that it was all nothing, that it was just a scratch.

Minutes later, in what felt like an eternity, the pain eased up and I was able to slowly make my way to the bench, but I was still struggling with my doubts.

--

The next day, I went to my chiropractor.  He took 5 x-rays of my knee, and assured me that all my bones were fine, but he wasn't sure if the reduced mobility in my leg was due to a ligament tear or just swelling.

We waited a few days, then I took a MRI, wishing for the best, wishing that somehow God had miraculously saved my knee from all serious injuries.

--

Friday at 4:46 PM, I received a message from my dad.

"Bad news Aaron.  Your ACL is torn.  I will schedule you to see an Orthopedic doctor for an assessment."

Suddenly everything became a blur.

I couldn't believe it.

"Me?  No.  It can't be.  There must have been a mistake.  It can't be true!  What now God?  I thought you were going to do amazing things through me. And now THIS?  I don't understand.  This was my love, my passion. And now it's gone?  How long Lord?  How long till I can play again?  How long till it will all be back to normal?  If it ever goes back to normal."

Basketball was my ticket, my pass to a successful future.

And it was ALL gone.

----

But the one thing that I will never lose, the one thing that no man can ever take away from me, the one thing that I will put all my trust in, is my faith in Christ.  He alone is my rock and my redeemer.



Aaron Chan - 88

Stay Hungry

The sun rays pored into my skin early one summer day as I faced off one on one against my neighbor, an athletic man in his early 40's.

Halfway into the game, he stopped and asked,

"Wait, are you left or right handed?"

I turned to him in surprise.  I stood there stunned as thoughts rushed through my mind like a full-blown Tsunami.

I had known him ever since I began playing basketball, so he definately should know my game inside-and-out, most of which, my dominant hand.

Suddenly my mind flashed back to a recent encounter I had with a staff member at my gym who was watching me train.  He had asked the same question, "Which hand are you?".  I had quickly brushed him off, attributing his ignorance to the fact that he didn't know me well, that he just hadn't watched me enough.

Yet this time the question came from my neighbor.  There was no excuse, no reason for his asking.

It was then that it clicked.  I had been training my left hand for more than a year, almost to the point where I was ambidextrous.

While I couldn't shoot three's left handed, you wouldn't be able to tell which hand I was 15 feet in.


"I'm right handed", I said with a grin.

---------------------------

Little moments of success like these keep me going, but as the famous proverb says, "Complacency breeds failure."

In everything I do, I must stay hungry.  I can't ever be satisfied.  I must keep striving for more.


Success is not a final, it is a decision you must make every single day.


Aaron Chan - 62

Thank You

It's hard sometimes when I think about all the what-if's in my life.

What if I had started basketball earlier?  What if I had the best coach in the world?  What if I played for school growing up?  What if my parents valued basketball as much as I do?  What if I was 6 foot 5?

I could sit and complain about my situation in life, but that won't change anything.

All in all, the bottom line is that life is never fair.  It sucks.  At times I want to quit, to say it's too hard, that it's impossible.

I want to say that in those times I fall back into the arms of God.  I want to say that I think of some inspirational quote that helps me get through.  I want to say that I think towards the future and forget the past.

But I can't, because I don't.

Although I do know that God gives me strength to fight through those lows in my life, in my daily life I see him the most in the presence of my brothers and sisters in Christ.

They support me, they reach out to me, they give me hope.

So today I want to thank all of you who have been my supporter in any way(A.K.A. reading this blog).  I obviously can't list out everyone who has helped me in some way or form, but I want to extend a very personal thank you to a few people(besides my family) who have really been by my side through some of my hardest times(my day 1's).

Thank you Clement, Joseph T, Daniel W, Alex S, Ian H, Daniel K, Joshua C, Melody B, Ella B, Rachael M, Anna R, and Coach Drake.

Thank you God for your abundant grace, mercy, and sacrifice on the cross.

And last but not least, thank YOU!  The very fact that you're reading my blog is encouraging in so many ways.  I hope I'll see you again next week, but for now I have Independence day celebration plans with my family, so I'll talk to you next week!


Aaron Chan - 44

Injuries on Injuries on Injuries

To start this off, I hate injuries.

They force me to lose time to train and I can't perform as efficiently.

We can try and try to discover the "cure" for injuries, but for now we just have to accept the fact that no one is ever immune to injuries.

The past few weeks have been frustrating because I kept getting injured.  A pulled hamstring.  A sprained ankle.  A weak joint capsule.  A wrist injury that I have no idea what it is.  The list could go on and on.

It's really scary sometimes when I hear about some injuries that professional athletes go through.  It brings me face to face with the fact that no matter how high up you may be, no matter how "untouchable" you may feel, a split-second in the wrong place or position could leave you crippled and severely injured for life.  We are all helpless.

Yet I know there is one thing in which I can put my trust that will never fail me.  As Proverbs 30:5 says, "Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him".

I don't need to have the best doctor in the world, I don't need to have the strongest body in this planet, and I don't need to have the finest masseuse on earth to keep me injury free because they won't, they can't, and they never will be able to.

All I need to do is put 100 percent of my trust in God, and He will deliver me in my time of need.



Aaron Chan - 30

10,000 Hours

Back to zero.

The new episode of 10,000 hours.

This is a YouTube series that follows the life of a basketball trainer from New York in his pursuit of the answer to a question.  The question.

How many hours of practice does it take for  someone to become a master at his craft?

This trainer believes the answer is 10,000, and he is documenting all his training in order to test his theory.

This new episode follows his visit to China to create a movement there.  The 10,000 hour counter begins once again.  Starting from zero.

Likewise, on monday(the day the episode was released), I reset my counter(probably around a couple thousand hours already) and began to count once again.  In 4 days, I was shocked by how many hours I put in.  In a little over half a week, I logged 13 hours in the gym.  This was without counting the 5 hours I put in on Sunday.  Although I usually play this much, I never really understood how much I train because I never kept track of it so religiously.

From now on, I'll write the total number of hours I've logged since Monday, June 15 next to my name at the bottom of each of my future posts.  That way, both you and I can track how much I train with my performance.


Earlier this week, I pulled my right hamstring, and I had to rest more than usual.  I stretched and massaged it, and I took a few apple cider vinegar baths(I know that sounds weird, but it helps).

I don't know exactly why I injured it, but I believe it might have something to do with muscle imbalances in my quads and hamstrings.  A lot of the training I do focuses on quads, with not enough attention spent on my hamstrings.  I need to start balancing out my workouts so that I don't get severely injured in the future.

Aside from that, there's not much I can do except stretch more.


Recently, I started a new blog.  It covers the materialistic essentials of an athlete, so for those of you who have trouble finding the right active gear, you might want to check it out sometime.

http://techforathletes.blogspot.com/


That's pretty much all I have for you this week, so please come back next week if you enjoyed it!

Aaron Chan - 13