Blog Post of the Month August '11

For BPoM August we have a total of 3 entries and they are:

1. Blogged by Ken
2. Blogged by Alpha Verve and tagged by Biyi
3. Blogged by TP Blazers and tagged by Ken


As there were no entry for BPoM July, therefore the prize was rolled over to BPoM August. Further to that, to match the VoM prize of $100 for Kentucky Special VoM, another $100 was added to the prize for BPoM August. Therefore this month, the grand total prize the winner of BPoM August'11 will win is $200.

Lets not delay anymore and announce the winner for BPoM August'11, and it goes to the post by Ken,"Cheerleading in Singapore". Congratulations Ken for the post, you have won yourself the total prize of $200.

Ken's Blog Post: Cheerleading in Singapore


Comments by Chaang:

"Ken touched on some controversial topics in his entry but was still able to give an unbiased point of view, which I felt was important.

''Aside from the 5 points Ken has touched on cheerleading that is instrumental for us to keep developing this Sport

1. POSITIVE ATTITUDE
2. VISIONS & DREAMS (GOALS)
3. FOCUS
4. PLAN & DO IT
5. LEARNING and CONTINUOUS LEARNING

Ken has mentioned about critics trying to play down the efforts of those who are proactive in contributing to the local cheerleading scene, which I agree. Such critics add zero value and is not constructive at all! Robert Kiyosaki mentioned in his book ''Rich Dad, Poor Dad'' of the essence of ''give, and you shall receive''. Don't take my word for it. If you do your homework, you will realise it is those who have been proactively giving to our cheerleading industry that are the ones benefiting in one way or another.

'Old school 'cheerleading mentality has to go. If you build your goals based on hatred, everything you plan will eventually backfire. If you purposely hold back information to your cheerleaders for the fear of your own inadequacy, your actions will eventually be the downfall of your team. Do you really think you can deny the influence of social media?

Instead of being resistant to changes, we must learn to use changes to our advantage. At least for cheerleading, help is available everywhere. If you have financial difficulties, VOM and BPOM are two readily available sources with no bonds attached - all you need to do is blog/video' . If you need advice on how to coach a certain stunt, there is a fb forum for Singapore cheerleaders to interact. If you want to learn advanced partner stunting but feel that you are being held back for whatever reason, Gary has set up a dedicated partner stunting session which includes almost all cheerleaders in Singapore - once a week. Gymnastics lessons for all cheerleaders are also available at Jurong Safra gym at $15/session - where i see cheerleaders from at least 3 different teams present. Help is always available. So either you grab the hand that is stretched out for you, or you learn to swim on your own (assuming you do not drown in the process). And if you really have to drown, pls do not bring your friends with you.

I apologise for this somewhat harsh tone (this was supposed to be a BPOM prize award comment) but i think it is important to build on the points Ken has pointed out. For the benefit of the entire cheerleading industry, we need to up our game. To up our game, cheerleaders must be given proper cheer education. To receive proper cheer education, we must accept changes and learn to let go of the ''old-school'' cheerleading mentality that is hindering our process.

To end my long commentary, I would like to present you with a case study to summarise all the points that i just covered:


''Imagine that you are a new P plate driver. It is your first time on the road. Being new and inexperienced, you got into an accident and got someone killed because you were not fast enough to react. Yes someone got killed because YOUR CAR knocked that person down. Being inexperienced and new is YOUR problem. That guy got killed by YOU anyway.

Painful? This is reality. Not everybody will get a second chance if you take too long to ''learn how to swim''.

Cheers,
Chaang"


Congratulations once again to Ken. Give and you shall receive.