SIGHTS SET ON THE GOAL

By the time you read this, national hockey player Lieutenant (LTA) Johnson Sivalingam might have added a South-east Asian (SEA) Games medal to his collection.

What separates armchair sportsmen and elite athletes is a line drawn by their strength of commitment. Countless training hours weekly, diet-watching and repeating drill after drill - how much a person achieves really depends on how much he keeps at it.

No one knows this better than national hockey player LTA Johnson. He recalls painful training sessions during his polytechnic days. "It was torture, I couldn't even climb stairs properly afterwards," said LTA Johnson, who started playing for the national team when he was 17.

During his school days, training started with running 28 laps (about 7km) around the hockey pitch, followed by intense dribbling drills. "It was times like those that I asked 'why am I doing this to myself?'" said the 24-year-old, who has been playing the game for almost 16 years.

"But when I saw myself getting fitter, stronger and faster - that was when I knew it was all worth it."

Heady win

As a forward, his job on the pitch is to score, but it's not all about personal glory. He knows full well that a team that plays well together is one that excels. He recalled the Hockey Junior World Cup (HJWC) jointly-hosted by Singapore and Malaysia in 2009. The HJWC is held once every four years and sees international hockey heavyweights - from the likes of Australia, the Netherlands and Germany - compete with their under-21 teams.

It was the last match. The team was one game away from being last on the table of 20 and they were up against the United States (US). The Singapore side had been training almost daily for the past six months; lose this game and it would have all come to naught.

The team played their heart out during that game, and won a hard-fought 3-1 victory against the US team. "It was make or break. If we had to put our bodies on the line to block the ball, we did," said LTA Johnson, who scored two of the three goals.

That game stood out for him because the team put their all into it and believed in each other. "I could see everyone just being very focused. We had to win it. We just didn't want to be last," he added. "When we won that game, it was so emotional for me...I could have almost cried on the spot."

Part of the team

That sense of achievement is the biggest draw of being in a team sport, said LTA Johnson. "With team work we can overcome more than what an individual can achieve." And this is the attitude that the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) officer brings to his work as an air traffic controller.

"Up in the (control) tower, we can't do everything alone no matter how good we are. Everyone is important; if one link doesn t work, the whole operation doesn't function," he explained. LTA Johnson joined the RSAF as an Air Warfare Officer, Command Control and Communications, three years ago.

And for that crucial period before the SEA Games, it's the team at his base that has given him a lot of support. "My superiors and my peers just told me to play hard, do my best and not to worry about work," he said.

"I'm very grateful for that kind of support."

Golden dreams

The team has set their sights on Gold at the SEA Games, which will be held in Naypyidaw, Myanmar, from 11 to 22 Dec. In addition to their gruelling training locally, the team had an intensive training session planned in Australia in mid-November.

"It's also a chance for the team to get used to tournament tempo - to watch our nutrition and really focus on the game," explained LTA Johnson of the trip to train with the Australian teams.

On the upcoming SEA Games, he said: "There are some strong teams. In particular, Malaysia is ranked quite high in the world hockey standings. They are the ones we are looking to beat.

"We are a little far from them but we believe we can do this - otherwise we'll go in with zero motivation."

According to LTA Johnson, the Singapore team is younger and can be more creative during game-play than their Malaysian counterparts. "Our captain has played in a few international tournaments and he's a skilful, hard-to-predict player."

And himself? "I'm fast for a hockey player. Usually I'm the one who charges down the flank to score," he said.

Sometimes the difference between Sunday sportsmen and top athletes might also be a line drawn by the strength of belief.