Toss to Hands Liberty

I was in total shock when I heard our grp stunt came in 2nd runner up during cheerobics. Our full around stunt failed and hence our tick tock low tick tock high also did not get to do. I would say we absolutely did not train for it.

People will go, you must be kidding, how can be never train at all... Well if you let me explain what training means in my point of view and you will understand. Training is when you put in effort to learn to do a new stunt or to perfect it. For us the training part was way before cheerobics, where we learn those stunts, and after that short period, the skills where just put aside. (Its like I know how to do shoulder stand but I never did it since a long time ago.)

For us, we did not train, we merely join the counts together to form that routine. We ran through that grp stunt routine like only 2-3 times with music and off we went to compete, just for the fun of it. I am not trying to sound boastful or talk big here, but its the truth, and if one were to ask people around us, they will tell you the same thing.

This is also one of the reason we were dumbfounded when the result were announced, the main reason still being because we failed stunts. After everything settle in, I thought to myself, how come we won? Then after some thoughts and viewing the routine that we did with "eyes" from few years back, I realised how difficult our routine actually was.

Lets just talk about the simplest stunt of all that we did, 2 toss to hand liberty. It has become a everyday stunt for us, something like a shoudler sit, which you know will not fail. But in actual fact, it is something that most in Singapore cheerleading scene will find it a huge challenge. This is when I realised how come we won, we won simply with the ease of doing toss to hands single lib.

I never fail to emphasize on basics over and over again, and I guess some people are bored of hearing it. Even few years down the road, I will still be talking about it, just because it simply is so important, and safety comes hand in hand with it. Basics is a chore, but if you do it well, you will definetly see progress and the level of your basics will raise us well. (Basics for a start may be elevator, then as you improve, your basics may become toss to hands, then as you move on your basics is now single extension, then maybe next to liberty, then to cupie, so on and so forth. Each person's basic will be different from another, depending on the level you are at.)

For us the grp stunt win was merely a showcase of our basics. It is not the training prior to the competition that really mattered, it is the years of training way before it that mattered. Competition training merely help you boost your confidence and help to take you to another level.

On a side note, I know I should not say this, but I do not feel any sense of achievement with this win, we did not work hard for it, nor did our stunts go up nicely. The feeling is a vast difference from winning the open team catagory, where we train our hearts and souls out for it. If given a choice, I rather not have this grp stunts medal, it should go to a more deserving team that trained hard for it. It does not feel good to win by going out there to do "shoulder sits and elevators", if you get what I mean. Afterall winning is not everything, the process matters much more.

Again I am very sincere and meant what I said, and I am definelty not trying to be boastful nor a hypocrite here, just doing some self reflection and writing about my thoughts and feelings.

I want to truely feel what it is like to be a winner (Grp Stunt), I will take this year and train real hard for next year. Its going to be a different game next year. I will show it!