Time

Time time time, where are you?

Everyday has become so routine to me these days. Wake up at 0630, travel to work, reach office at 0815, leave office at 1715, eat dinner at 1800, start training at 1830, train till 0000, travel back to hall and bathe till 0045, eat supper till 0145, prepare to sleep by 0200 and then sleep for 4 hours and wake up to work again.

I am so tired everyday at work that I simply have no energy to go look for things to do. How i hope there can be just 4 more hours each day, so at least I can get more sleep and rest. I have to catch a wink whenever possible, when I am on the bus to work and when I am on the bus back. I makes me seemed like a anti-social guy before and after work, beacuase I am always trying to shun my colleages so that I can catch some much needed sleep.

I am a graduate, and last year I told myself that I will only get involve in coaching, and not as a player. But it seems as fate has it, to pull me back into the thick of the action. Well, since I am in the routine, I thought that maybe I will get less roles, or at least less than Cheerobics 2007, but I was wrong again. This time round, with just 16 man, the roles increased, and since this is going to be my 5th Cheerobics, my responsibilities increased tremendously. I always had to take the more challenging roles, be it gymnastics, tosses, partner stunts, pyramids...

I am not complaining, and in fact I relish the challenge. I want to achieve greater things and push myself to the limits. I want to help the team in all ways I can. Cheerleading is just like any other sport if you were to ask me, plus more fun and entertaining. To excel in any sport, you have to make it your lifestyle; marathon runners run everyday, soccer players kick a ball everyday and some may even sleep with the ball. To do well in cheerleading, one have to make it their lifestyle as well. Sacrifices have to be made, meaning less time for leisure, less time for sleep, less time for friends, and the list goes on. I am glad that I am able to live such a lifestyle now. At the end of the day, the sarcrifices will be worth it.

The above lifestyle is an ideal for anyone who wants to live cheerleading and improve. How I wished that I can fit into the ideal senario, but sometimes things are often non ideal. First of all, how can someone survive through a week with only 4 or less hours of sleep daily? Not with the amount of strenous trainings and work I have. With not enough sleep, the body does not gets enough rest, and the muscles and joints start to give problems. And also the immune system weakens and you fall sick easier. I probably might be able to cope with all these better a few years back when I was just 21 or 22, but now I am older and my body is not as strong and fit as it used to be. It has endured years of hard battering and the scars are begining to show now.

It is my apparent need to lead by example during training and keep doing the stunts and help spot whenever possible. However, I just hope that everyone can help me share my responsibilities in the team, let me take the occasional breather and breaks whenever possible. This is the only way I can let my candle flame burn longer, to let my lifespan increase. Handle me with care, or this 'old vehicle' will break down one day.

I also wish to think that I am super, but I guess I am only human. Sorry to my readers for having to read about my bitching. And also sorry for appearing weak in front of you guys. I guess even the king needs a break.

Injuries

Injuries are part and parcel of any sport. It can be very irritating to get injuries, esp those niggling ones. They are not serious to the extend that you cannot train, but with some protection,(tape) you can carry on training. However, over a period of time, such as a few months, it will start to worsen and till one day every move you make with that joint hurts.

So should a person continue to train in this sort of circumstances? I guess the answer will be no choice... competition is coming up and things are very crucial now. Short of a player at any time will do no good at all to the training. Just have to make do with whatever treatment or protection as much as possible. Ice it after every training, tape it during training, massage it whenever possible.

This is really bad for the body, but I guess this is the sarcrifice everyone has to be prepared to take once you sign up for this. To those carrying injuries of any kind and still training, I wish you guys the strength to endure. The pain will only make the victory sweeter.

Jiayou

HO 2008

My 5th HO... 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008...
Have I done it all??

I hope not...

Lost and Found

In doing an action or gymnastics, when you just started trying, you are very brave to try. After a few failed attempts, you are still undetered and carried on trying. It is only when you failed and also injured yourself at the same time, then you will begin to think twice. Then as you get injured more often, you will start to think thrice, four times and till you just keep thinking, and stopped doing.

Then you decide to give yourself a break. After maybe about 1 month's break, you decide to heck la, give it a go again. Then you realised that your body actually retains the feeling, and even adjust it such that it felt better unknowilling. The fear of injury in your mind also seems to fade away a little. You kept training again, but then the process started again. The more you do, the more the fear begin to creep in again, and your body stops listening to you again. This constant cycle keeps repeating itself, the lost and found feeling. One day you lost it, then after a while, you found it back.

I guess taking breaks is very impt for the body, muscle and mind, consolidating all the training, input and infomation, to coordinate the mind and movement. When you are not feeling good some days, stop doing, let your body and mind take a break. If you carry on doing, your body will only remember the bad feeling, which you do not want.

This is what I found out in the past and experienced it again recently. I thought I had sealed my ROBHS, or even my BHS since after cheerobics 2007. Indeed I stopped doing them for almost a year now, and focused on doing BT and ROBT instead. But recently, there appears to be a need for me to do ROBHS again, and without much hesitation this time round, I did a few BHS, then I decide to attempt the ROBHS. It turned out better than I had expected. I guess my body has since retained the muscle memory and it was just kept dormant inside me, waiting to be called upon. I guess it is also due to the BT and ROBT training I had. Somehow, they fortified and reinforced my BHS and ROBHS feeling.....

When I just started learning the BT, I kept doing it like a BHS, jumping back alot. Then after I got used to jumping up more, and mastering the BT, I totally lost my BHS. I tried BHS, but I kept jumping too high and not back enough, and my body was curled up badly. I stopped doing BHS for a while, and totally focus on my BT. Then one day, after a long break again from BHS, and when my BT was real confident, I tried BHS again. It was not very good at first, but I start to get it back slowly. Then at the end of the day, I tried doing a BT, and not to my surprise, the BT had a BHS feeling about it, as I was jumping too back. However I could still do both, but not as confident in each.

Then with each trial and training, the BHS influenced the BT, and the BT influenced the BHS, slowly they begin to morph and took the best of each requirements to do whatever is needed. For example, in the past my BHS lacked the height, but now, I am able to use the height I got from doing BT to incorporate it to my BHS, at the same time retaining my BHS form. Same goes for my BT, incorporating the shoudlers pull back of BHS for doing my BT.

After lots of training and also rest, my body is now able to call upon either "power" at will now (becoming Peter Pretrelli... haha). BHS and BT no longer hinder each other, but they have "evolved" to aid and benefit each other. The constant lost and found when doing gymnastics, I guess is not bad afterall. It is just a process of your body and mind learning and adapting. Having a rest or a break at times will let you rediscover the feeling.

Quote

"The happiest people are those who are too busy to notice whether they are or not."

-William Feather.

Warm ups

The warm ups for training are getting really tough these days. After some basic stretching, we will start shuttle running to, 20 metres and fro, 20 metres. Then at the end of each run, we will start with toss up hands.

We do this run and toss up hands 5 times. Then we procede to toss up hands liberty after each run. We do this for another 20 sets. So its a total of 25 sets of 40 metres, which adds up to 1 km, and 25 toss up hands, 20 single liberty.

We work in pairs, so one base one flyer run and stunt together, then the other pair help to spot. So we will take turn to run and stunt. If at the end of each run, you fail the stunt, you have to keep doing till you hit it.

This warm up is really super tiring, but at the same time very satisfying, after you completed the 25 laps. I find it really useful, as it really trains you to use the right technique each time, and it simulates the actual tiredness you will feel in the routine. Looking foward to the next run...

Progress

I said its time for me to go back to the days where I try to stunt with every flyer. I had been doing that on a consistent basis for the last quarter of the year and now I am beginning to be able to see the fruits of labour. You do not get to see the effect straight away, but over time you will feel it.

A large part of my improvement I also have to attribute to doing of handstands. Ever since they break for exams last year November, I started to put in real hardwork on my handstands. I knew that it was my left hand that was weaker, hence other than handstands, I also kept doing arnold presses for my left hand. Everyday, repeatedly practicing hours of handstands and arnold presses, I slowly am able to do handstand walk. Then over the months, handstands walk and turn 180, then slowly will procede to handstands pushups without assistance.

My main objective initially to strengthen my left arm is to do left cupie, but what I did not realise then was that in strengthening my left arm, my liberty improved alot also. Now I finally am able to see the importance of training both arms at the same time, not just focus on the master arm. This is the only way one can progress to more advance stunts such as full around, tick tock, full ups.

Another part of my improvement have to be down to the increase in strength of my hamstrings and butt muscles. Not only did they become stronger, my knee pain also reduced because of the stronger hamstrings. I did not purposely go to the gym to train up on them, all I did was climb the stairs to work at my work place. I work at a 4 storey building with no lift, and on the average each day I at have to climb up at least 4 times. The only difference in climbing the stairs normally was that I focused on my hamstrings and butt by leaning back slightly and walk up in a very up right posture. This posture when done well is very beneficial to doing any toss up or press up stunts.

In summary, training with different flyers, doing handstands and climbing up the stairs are the basis for the improvements I made in these few months. It can be a long process, people might give up halfway when they do not see the immediate effects, but I endured and perservered. Hope to be able to showcase some new moves soon.

X-Wonder GO!