Training and Discipline

Political Tidbits : No substitute for training and discipline

, Jan 26, 2006
Updated 00:38amam (Mla time)
Belinda Olivares-Cunanan opinion@inquirer.com.ph
Inquirer

ONE lesson truly stands out from Manny Pacquiao's second fight with Erik Morales: To succeed in an endeavor, there's no substitute for rigorous discipline and training. Pacquiao demonstrated this by undergoing three months of training in the United States where, it must be presumed, he submitted himself to the necessary discipline. His performance in that fight showed a marked difference from his performance in the first fight.

The same lesson can be drawn from the performance of our champs in last year's Southeast Asian Games. Many of our top athletes prepared themselves for the Games by training in China (facilitated to a large extent by the much-maligned Mike Arroyo, but which was not even grudgingly acknowledged by the extremely hostile media).

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The role of preparation and professional training was underscored the other day at the press conference of "The Lettermen," the romantic balladeers of the late 1950s and 1960s, who are performing tonight at the Manila Hotel. At one point, they sang our much-loved "Ikaw" a capella and we were amazed at their mastery of Filipino pronunciation -- the usual American twang was missing.

Tony Butala, the only original of the three Lettermen, told us that in their long singing career they have always made it a point to pronounce foreign words in their songs as correctly and faithfully as possible. But do you know the meaning of what you had sung? They were asked. They instantly sang the English translation, which, of course, was not quite as nice to listen to. Preparation and training are things that we Filipinos are not big on, but should be.

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The Filipino nation, desperate for heroes, went wild for homegrown champ Pacquiao. The other day, we got another hero, albeit a dead one. Capt. Aniano Amatong of the Philippine Air Force chose to first steer his defective aircraft away from a populated area in Paombong, Bulacan instead of ejecting from his plane, thus crashing to his death in a fishpond. Befor