Squat Squat Squat

Yup.... not going to walk properly for the next couple of days, that's for sure. Thanks to all the squats and lunges in the gym. Thought having manjan next to me when i am working out would give me the required ego boost to push myself and look pro at it, but she is manjan.... she saw through me as if i was standing stark naked. So there was no point in holding it in, all my whimpering screams and mini howls in pain came out as i executed each movement.. I can only thank God for the endurance to hold my fart in as i did my squats.

Funny thing is that i can bench, squat, pull, row, push, lift weights well and above my body weight, but only this nasty little fella called the crunches and planks collapse me at the thought of it. Sadly manjan is good at it and most likely she is not going to let me get away with it..

Who is the *&^*&^*&^who came up with the gymming concept... sadly its me.. i proposed to pay money to torture myself and endure humiliation from manjan... sigh

Take away from Greece.....

I was having coffee with the head coach from San Marino while watching the other countries played. We exchanged information on training techniques and type of selection criteria that each of our countries employed when selecting the players for the team. One key point that I took away from our conversation is that its vital not to tell the athletes about the importance of winning medals or honor or national pride. If possible it is better to instill in them an attitude that all they have to do is just put in their best effort. In a quirky way its beneficial to train them and instill in them that personal gratification followed by coaches and the loved ones happiness is above the medals .The good thing about this strategy is that if a particular athlete is involved in more than one event, and he botches up one of the event , he would not be too engrossed and pressurized to win a medal in the next. Instead he will just try harder to please himself or his coach in the next event. I have personally witnessed this when the team from San Marino were playing and they did do very well and their athletes didn’t show any negative behavior even after losing one of the games badly. Of course, for this technique or attitude to take effect, the coach and the athletes need to have a good understanding and synergy, else the coach will only come across as a dictator like figure. This strategy must also be adopted at a personal level for the coach, as it is easy for the coach to preach in the spirit of competition but have his subtle body language reinforcing the winning of a medal. This will thrust the athletes into dissonance which will affect their performance.

The following day, I was engaged in a conversation with the coach from Australia, a very experienced and wise man well into his fifties. I asked him, if there were any strategies that he could share with me, to which he gladly obliged.

His main point was that Singapore was too result orientated. That we placed too much emphasis on the results we wanted to achieve at the end of the match rather than appreciating the entire process. Our trainings were too result orientated as well. No doubt that we (coaches) keep telling them that the medals are not important, our body language and other subtle non verbal cues strongly contradict what we tell them. This process is the key culprit which stresses out the athletes and depreciates their performance further, especially if the athletes did not have a very good start in their game. Unfortunately we have been conditioned to seek competition in all situations and this places an enormous amount of pressure on the atheletes. For successful training to occur, the coach, family and the loved ones of the athletes have to change their perspective on the spirit of competition first.

He also pointed out that if there was too much emphasis on the outcome of the match or training, it tends to kill the passion the athletes have for the game. Passion is the vital for motivation and in improving their respective skills. Once the training session kills the passion for the game, the performance of the athletes also tends to suffer a lot. He gave comparative examples in the sport of soccer. He highlighted the difference in performance outcomes of the Singapore national soccer team which is struggling to make its mark in the international scene and the Special Olympics Special Lions which won Chile and achieved a gold medal in the games. He highlighted the psychosocial impact of pressure and expectations on the athletes.

I learnt that in field of sports and performance, Singapore generally is lagging behind slightly as compared to other world leaders. The mindset on how we approach sports and how we train for them requires some tweaking and in some areas, a lot of updating. We are still very much result orientated and that ironically affects our ability to achieve that results that we are pursuing. It is about time to put behind and ineffective model / approach to training and get up to date with current practices. Having said that, it is also very important to bear in mind that change does not come easy and is not readily accepted as well. A large portion of the Singaporean population are conditioned to the result orientated approach. Breaking them away from it requires time and small steps of innovation and adaptation that allows the people experiment with new ideas while still being in their comfort zone. In this, lies the greatest challenge.

Having received this tremendous amount of knowledge, I have realized what is lacking in Singapore and that oversea exposures are vital to broaden minds. The best way to learn and to move forward is to compare and contrast our practices with those around us to know what works and what doesn’t. Through this attachment, I have also managed to find a bearing in which I want to steer my professional development.

Happy 9th Anniversary

9 years ago today at 8.30am, i set foot on the grounds of Basic Rescue Training Centre (BRTC) to commence my National Slavery.. Good ridden.

The anticipated better 29...

More than a year has passed since the last entry and not without reasons. Reasons that had prompted subtle and insidious changes to my perceptions and had significantly altered my perspectives on Life as a whole.

It can be labelled as a holistic experience or rather it is. One thing is for certain, this blog is going to get interesting after over a year of slumber.

I see that the last post ended in somewhat a very negative tone. Now when i am finally able to sit and recall, i believe that post had cost me some valuable friendships. I had not anticipated the ramifications of that post and quite frankly there would have been no way i could have predicted its far and prolonged reach. But i live and learn. I hope that my new found wisdom allows me to re-establish the lost bonds.

29.... was surprisingly small... just the 6 of us. Although out of the norm, i am taking a liking to it. Hopefully, i would be able to arrive at a point that all it is just me, myself and i. I rather meet up everyone one on one. But then again this could be one of my spur of the moment thoughts. Besides, the PS3 has been keeping me busy... especially God of War3.

Anyway, so much has happened and its impossible to set a chronology to it. Greece is still fresh in my mind and thats where i am going to begin with...