the importance of being earnest

hey guys now that your promos are over, i hope that you passed cos if u didnt, i heard 3% of those who failed are going to be retainees and the 97% left are gonna be expelled.

so well, if ure one of the few people left, congrats

if not, than always remember that you have the power to make the best of any situation. poly isnt a bad option. for some of you, it is a better environment cos its more "free" and "open" in nature. so yea, i guess life sometimes throws you a curveball but that doesnt mean you cant still hit a home run on it.

assuming you still continue in acjc canoeing and dragonboat, i do hope that you will be true to yourselves and hold the flag high for us in the years to come.

you guys are supposedly seniors now but i dont think that any of you will grasp that concept just yet. not at least until your first juniors start pouring in and then leaving cos they find traiing too tough/parents/teachers...blah blah. you wunt feel the emotional turmoil just yet of having your training disrupted for these "lanjiaos"

but thats another matter. really the importance of this post is just to remind you guys of the importance of being earnest. that is, being earnest with yourselves. if you guys stil lack the required standard needed in canoeing, that is, you still dont know your stroke, you still are crap at fitness, then i do suggest u start doing drastic things about it now. starting training again is always a pain in the ass. youll definitrely feel like puking on your viery first , second and maybe up till 5th training. so if u dunt feel like puking, then something is wrong---with you.

please do not make the same mistake as your seniors. we all thought there was a lot of time left till the juniors came in and as such, our fitness was not as ideal as it should be. you guys should have a team benchmark and a personal benchmark.

for me, the benchmark was always my seniors and here are a few stats for you guys:

2.4 run: fastest time by hong cheong, 8 min 24 sec. average senior ran about 9 plus minutes
pull ups:most ive heard of by Ganesh, 50. average senior pulling around 22 to 26
situps:dunno how to measure. make sure u can do at least 150 straight or ull crap out in front of your juniors. and need i mention that the driving force comes from your tummy?
pushups: try to hit at least 10 sets continuosly by end of december

yea that was the team standard back then. individually, its up to you guys to set your own standards. your own standard should be higher than the team standard obviously.

but again, these are all that. suggesstions. i remember i hated my seniors for being busybodies and trying to be smart and giving smart suggesstions but hey, im just doing my job.

just want to warn you of the fact that time is NOT on your side. consider the other teams. if in any way you THINK they are better skilled, stronger or fitter than you at ANY ONE POINT, then i guess you have to do soething about it.

and even if u are better skilled/fitter/stronger, theyre gonna catch up mighty fast.

in any case, nj has a few national rowers next year and peeps from acs i and chinese high may defect to them as well, which means interesting times ahead of you guys.

so train hard, train right and be a good example to your juniors. i wish you all the best.