What It Takes to be the Best

When we look at RJC, NJC, maybe even LKC what do we see in common? We have to ask ourselves this question so that we know where we are lacking. I have a few things to say about what it takes.
1. Mental Toughness

This is ambrosia to all athletes. Without it all efforts to improve stops at the point where you feel uncomfortable. This is the most essential ingredient! As a team we force it on all our rowers by peer pressure and exercises so that as individuals we can learn to break our limits

2. Discipline

And you wonder where all the militaristic parts of our training come in; it serves as a way to instil discipline because without basic discipline and focus we will waste resources and time

3. Team Spirit

When you row in a group you have to have team spirit. As individuals you may be able to excel but as a team effort your improvement will be phenomenal

4. Higher purpose

Sportsmen who do very well in their sport often dedicate their sport to a higher purpose than their own glory. This being said, there are sportsmen who compete for themselves and still excel. However most dedicate it to family, friends, fellow team members and God.

5. Technical expertise

Needless to say, this is self explanatory

6. Initiative

The best athletes are not spoonfed the training routines. They do not sit there and wait on their coach or friends to tell them something is wrong but always run critical analysis of their performance in the heads, and then seek the answers for themselves. the Best athletes will look for their problems and find their own solutions to deal with them if no one tells them how. They always seek to improve themselves past their peers. On an individual perspective, this is the second most important element below mental tenacity.

7. Sense of Urgency

Every second of rest means every previous efforts are being wasted. We must bring ourselves back to a short and sharp mentality, and so in everything that we do we must show and make sure we have a sense of urgency. The most pressing issue with us is that we do not have it yet. This also reflects our focus in our training. When you see rowers strolling along what is the impression? to me it gives me the impression that this is a bunch of people who have no goals with regard to their training. Spoonfed! No discipline! No Desire!

8. Desire

AKA Hunger, The Want. Going down in the water to row you must have the desire to excel and be the best. This will automatically give you the initiative and discipline, but only if you have the desire. Not for gold mind you, but for better than gold. Perhaps for dominance and superiority in the water. Therefore getting gold is not enough. We should strive to dominate the race by pulling as far away from the competitors as we can even though we know our race is secured.
BTW, taking it easy at the endpoint because you know you are going to win is a grave insult to all the other competitors and is unsportsmanlike, not to mention it is unbearably arrogant, and warrants immediate expulsion from the team.

9. Humility

We have always said humility is one of the most important aspects of training in the team. Arrogance limits your ability to accept new concepts and feedback. But when you are humble, you learn from any perspective thrown at you. J2's, there is no shame in learning from J1's. There is no shame in learning something from an insult thrown at you from your competitors. Humility is essential for continuous improvement, therefore if any rower now still has not learnt to be humble, the J2's will have to take him one side and teach him humility, in the way we know best, by breaking him and showing him that he is nowhere near the standards.

This list is not extensive. if you guys have anything to add please feel free to continue.

equipment

Reading tim's post, i felt disturbed by the fact that the juniors aren't taking proper care of the equipment. Already, the club doesn't really have the school's support and we are running on a very very tight budget. we do not have the budget to buy new paddles, new kayaks.. nope.. so we have to take care of the equipment we currently have. An extra scratch on a pedal or on a canoe will reduce it's performance on the water. Bear in mind that we will be racing in the canoes we are using now. We have to ensure that equipment is stored safetly and handled with care.We can't afford to damage anymore canoes or paddles.
Juniors, here are three reasons as to why you should take great care in handling your crafts/paddles
1. The equipment is NOT yours. It belongs to the club and we are just borrowing it. If a pedal or a canoe belongs to you, go ahead and scratch it for all i care. You can even use the paddle to dig your garden. BUT, the equipment that you are using now belongs to the club and if my parents taught me correctly, if you borrow something from someone, you should take good care of it and ensure that it doesn't get damaged.
2. By damaging the paddle, you are showing open disrespect to the sport as paddles or canoes are essential accessories in the sport. Also, it clearly shows what type of person you are.
3. You will be racing in these canoes or with these paddles so obviously u want to take good care of it. You don't want to go into a competition with a canoe full of holes or row with a paddle which has full of scratches.
So, guys... please take care of the equipment. You guys aren't the only one using it.
Have a nice day.

One of many missing ingredients

When I coached Bill, Kelvin and Eugene, they all had alot of hunger, and the right attitude. However what they lacked were sparring partners.

I told them that out there, in the water, they had to play it a little sly and find their benchmark; their prey, so to speak and make it their goal to overtake them in a lap and do better than them.

Of course that was nothing as compared to trying to compete with each other in the spirit of friendly competition. B, K and E did not have that because for one, Eugene could not train as often as he should have and Bill & Kel's K2 had no equal in the club. the T2 boats were a different class of boats.

If the rowers of our club can have the kind of "I'll NEVER let so-and-so take me in a lap!!!" attitude I can guarantee you guys that you people will fly within a month! Change your mindset. I told the J2 girls that they must never ever think that guys being guys by right will beat them. I think they get it.

For the J2 guys, if the very idea of girls thrashing you does not give you an idea of how low you are in the food chain and does not hurt your male pride one bit then you'll be slaughtered in the race.

Shiwei, weiyuan, you guys were ahead of the pack in March. Now? Don't you want it back? I'm saying this because I am starting to feel desire burning in zhenghao and alex... And you guys may run the risk of being last of the K2 in terms of performance.

When any of you launch off from the beach, do you carry with you an air of superiority? Not arrogance but superiority. "I WILL BE THE BEST, AND NO ONE'S GONNA TAKE ME IN THE WATER"

If Shiwei and weiyuan, Tim and Terence, Zhenghao and Alex can rev up that predatory instinct then out there in the lap, you will die die won't let go of your lead no matter what. This applies to all rowers, including J1's

Does it mean that if their guys they should beat you? Does it mean if their in K2 they should beat you? does it mean if you're using a powermaster paddle they should beat you? Reprogram yourselves ppl.

BTW, thanks 'James'

wake up

alright. i'll back tim up. take it from someone who's been there.

to the jc1s:

i used to be worse than many of you. couldn't do 30 girls pushups in a row. couldn't do situps without someone to hold my feet. dropped out of every single run for 4 months straight, coming in nearly 5 minutes after everybody else was done. couldn't do more than 25 jumping jacks before just standing there and refusing to move. fell during hanging countless times.

not just physically. if you ask the other senior girls, they might tell you that they were the weakest mentally, but i personally feel that that title rightfully belonged to me as a jc1 last year. i sincerely doubt that there hasn't been a single thing you guys have done this year which i haven't done. dropped while hanging? yes. dropped out of a run? yes. came late for training? yes. lied during pushups and situps? yes. lied during runs? yes. damaged boats? yes. not been humble? yes. broke down during training? yes. cried when i couldn't row my best? yes. the list goes on.

so why am i telling you all this? it's not something a j2 would want to admit to. the memories are painful. the scars will never go away.

i'm telling you all this because i've been in the pit. and i'm alive. and i'm still going on.

yes, its hard to push. it's hard to bite down and plough ahead when you feel every muscle in your arms and shoulders transform into hot wire. it's hard to keep your head down and your butt up and your knees straight when the only thing you want to do is collapse and lie there. it's hard to wipe the lines of exhaustion off your face. it's hard to listen to some distant voice scream at you and tell you that your form stinks, and all you want to do is to make that voice shut up and go away. but its possible.

it all starts with this. the day you stop fearing the pain is the day you will win. you're chasing a shadow cast by the light behind you. you keep running and you don't catch up, because the shadow is always ahead. so what do you do when you've run this far and there's nothing but the dry air burning your lungs away, every fibre in your body stretched tight and twanging?

you turn. you turn to the light and walk towards it. the shadow meekly follows you. only then do you realise that the only person you were fighting was yourself, and that you had everything under your thumb. all you had to do was change direction.

junior guys, junior girls, and some of us seniors too, wake up. i'll say it again. wake up.

the seniors won't be here to remind you forever. wake up. have faith in yourself. tell yourself that you can do anything you set your mind to. it's only you fighting yourself, your own inner demon. but you can't let the demon win. the lactic acid will not beat you down. rise up. take control. if the others tell you that you suck, prove them wrong. take their words and shove it back down their throats. show them what you're made of.

if you feel like crap, just raise your head and look around. we're all doing this shit together. if one, just one of you gives in, how will that make the others feel? cheated, no doubt. angry that you're being selfish, that you just think about your own aching arms and you don't give two bits of shit that they did their sets for you. but even if you don't care about them, do it for yourself. because if you give up, if you lie about that one pushup, if your knees hit the grass for that hang, if you lag behind for that run, you will never know if you could have done it. you will leave and sit and wonder if you could have. in the darkness of your heart, when you've come back from a race and missed your goal by just that tiny bit, you will sit there and wonder. and you will cry.

if you still don't give a shit, then i'll say this. get out. i don't like being mean. i hate hurting other people. but i will not sit here and let you bring down this club which i've put so much of myself into. i will kill you before you do. we've told you, as long as you try your very best, nobody will blame you. as long as you don't give up.

if you sit in your chair and think "oh, but that's just the seniors, they're used to it", i'll say this back. how do you think we got here? how do you think i made it to where i am today? granted, i am not perfect. i am a long way from being the rower i would love to be. my running still stinks, my situps are still weak. but i used to be where you guys were. no, i was lower. but i made it. you can too.

you're not alone. nobody ever is. take courage from those beside you. i can safely say that every member of the senior team would die for each other. why? because no matter what happens, we don't give up on each other. we stick by each other when we all feel like dying a thousand times over. don't just believe in yourself, believe in the one next to you. i told the girls before every dragonboat race: row for the girl next to you, the girl in front of you, the girl behind you. the power of that statement, of what happens when you all truly forget your own suffering and live for others, i leave open for judgement.

juniors. wake up.

Talking Online

was talking to my rj canoeing friend online tonight and well, somehow i always have mixed feelings when i talk to him.

on one hand, i feel envious because his J1s are doing so well. theyre a bunch of crazy psychos. he tells me 4 or 5 of them can hit 30 to 40 pull ups already and that one of them has displaced him from his place in his T2.

apparently, the J1 was deemed to be able to 'work better' with his previous partner as compared to him. feel really sorry for him. apparently the J1 can match his speed. another J1 can surpass his speed all cos theyre crazy.

i look at our own team and i realise that this situation would somehow never happen in our team. not like in his team, where its dog eat dog and only the best survive. i was shocked at his fate but he seemed to accept it pretty calmly like its normal. maybe ive been softened in this team as well. being a J2, the thought of not being able to compete or being displaced by a J1 has never crossed my mind, unlike when i was back there, when we were all fighting to break into the team.

it could be because the ethos here is different from there. over here, team building, character building is emphasized whereas last time it was balls to the walls and you took your partner and your friends and then you laughed about it later on about how you both died.

we all had a lot of fun

and im wondering why im not having as much fun as before. im not trying to put anyone down over here, but i can sort of see that that kinda do or die spirit isnt very solid here.

i remember when terence and me first got into a K2 after sdba. we were the latest K2 pair. i dunt think that ive seen a K2 pair in our team get together that late before and everybody thought we wouldnt make it. i remember nik being dismissive (haha you were a bit lah) and he concentrated more on shiwei and weiyuan's K2.

and right from the very first training i remember telling terence we would beat them eventually and terence, in his usual terence-like manner, went "we'll just trash them man!"

and we were beaten by them in that first training. balance not there, rhythmn not there, stroke not there, cannot coordinate, strokes different.

but i enjoyed it cos finally we had somebody to beat, and so we worked hard. managed to merge better and now we arent far behind them at all.

but to my surprise , on their part, somehow they didnt take us back. they didnt aim to trash us by many boatlengths or do anything out of the ordinary to make sure we wouldnt even see their boat. they just sat there and took it.

look guys, im not putting you down or anything. i love you and i respect you as my teammates but its just that ive been reminded of ol times where it was fun to beat each other. where it was fun to laugh at each other and then buckle down and chiong like madmen.

and i remember throughout my J1 year, i was wondering why couldnt i get the same feeling here. why do we always stop at certain sets or certain numbers and we never go past them.

why do we always do the usual 3 sets 17 or whatever during lunchtime. why not 3 sets 30? or 6 sets 30? or 3 sets 1 min pull till your arms fall off?

and the biggest question of all is why does everyone seem to die at a set moment of time? is it because we always have the same routines? the same challenges, such that it is no longer challenging?

i admit i get very sian diao during warm ups cos its always the same 15 sets pushups, 15 sets situps and i find myself falling into a pattern and not really striving, just hanging on till it finishes and i can get in the water an do some rowing.

personally, i find that when i do my own programmes on my own time, i improve a lot faster and i feel a lot more motivated than when i do the same trainings over again and again. i dunt know if you guys feel the same way or not.

i know that there is a system in place and its better for everyone to follow the system because its orderly and we can get things done faster, but somehow....i dunno, the system is good, but it only takes you so far. i always believed rules and records were there to be broken.

so i guess you could say my hope for this team is for each and everynone to break his own boundaries and travel his or her own personal journeys. and do it fast, cos theres only about 3 weeks left for intensive training, only 3 weeks left for your body to grow before you must allow it rest before competition.

good luck to us guys, the rest are coming at us real soon, sooner than you think, faster than you know, harder than you can imagine.

when you can't stand the heat...

The question of nature vs nurture has always put me at odds with the alumni- I've been told that I'm such a regimental person; another person has told me I'm so "last decade", that I should change my coaching style to better suit the new generation of rowers.

The new generation needs to be motivated, and talked to, rather than prodded along with the rod and cane, and will never accept the old ways where we as J1's were, at the start, given the boot camp treatment. Is that so? has your generation become soft? I do not believe without some convincing that matters much. there are hardcore people around. No difference.

This is the issue which has given me alot of sleepless nights. There are two extremes as to how we can filter the j1's. We can filter and retain only the most mentally resilient, chasing away all the weak minded people who have no desire to train hard, who think competition is just a matter of attendance at training or worse, the points-driven athlete, or, try and nurture them, despite their transgressions, so that this club has a chance to change their personality for the better.

I have a huge problem with the latter method. My arguement is this: How long do we have to take to bring out the best in these novice athletes?? A long term holistic approach would be to take as long as it takes to get a person's attitude right. However, I feel that in the case of this club, we do not have time for that. If we allow the J1 athlete to take more than six months to get a positive attitude and train hard the ac dragon will NEVER fly again. Why? because each new batch will take the same long stretch of time to wake up. Therefore, we can never adopt the approach of other schools and other eca's we are unique. Militaristic? Regimental? hardly, and these words are not always the dirty words some would like me to believe... not always.

The bad point about this is people may leave because they take the treatment personally and it becomes more of a 'I'm leaving because I can't stand so-and-so. Well, it also means that the J2's may have gone overboard, or that the J1 has no concept of humbling himself, the first value the J2's should instil in the J1's.

Some other people have said that I'm hard hearted. Incompassionate. Too hard headed. Inflexible. Some people have insisted I try to follow Teck Hock's formula for dealing with canoeing training to get the rowers to perform better.

I have always believed and still very much still believe that this club rests on the strength of character of each of its rowers. I believe not so much in the numbers of rowers but the quality of the people. I believe in the bottomline: If the rower cannot stand the heat he should either learn to take it or get out (or be asked/forced out).

I am convinced that 6 months is hardly enough time to nurture a rookie athlete who has never competed in any physical activity in his whole life to suddenly fight as hard as we need to.

I say, "turn the heat on to temper their spirit and will". Those who convert to our way will be able to stay on. Those who can't will leave. Again, the high casualty rate and the fact that we currently don't have much members is an issue for some. It is not an issue for me.

It only takes one, and only one, to ruin the efforts of all, this can especially be seen in the dragonboat. In this club, the mentally weak are NOT welcome. This is my mentality. These people will ruin the club by dragging EVERYONE behind. we used to have a saying that we as AC rowers have to pull our own weight or the whole team has to pull your weight for you, and we used to emphasize that saying alot.

J2's, I know you hated the way you were treated when you yourselves were J1's, and so you chose not to distance yourself from the J1's at the start of the year, and hated to be the one to tell the J1's off, and badger them for good quality pushups and situps.

In some years that may have worked and the whole team may have been motivated, but not this year. the J1 guys have grown soft and become weak pussies. Root them out.

I say, the motivation is a pull factor and my boot camp mentality is a push factor and they should be used together with extreme prejudice to pushing, because until you are sure you can trust them, you should not give them an option to go for the soft approach.

I'm just hoping that when the day comes and if you have to come to a decision to ask someone to leave, do not hesitate. If up to this stage such people are still in the club it will be hard to uproot and remove him once you guys leave. This month if I say someone has to go I will need your understanding. Some painful changes have to be made. harden your hearts and hope that these people can find their niche elsewhere, because they are not cutting it here.

To the J1's, winds of change are blowing. If you can't keep up don't bother staying... but i know, and i hope all of you will grow stronger after all this.

Yours painfully,
Nicholas

The juniors

hey guys and girls.

i took the juniors for a spot of light training today and i must say i am astonished at the vast difference between the girl juniors and the guy juniors.

firstly, the girl juniors were absolutely angels (Judy and Lianna [that how you spell her name?]). they never gave me any problems. the guy juniors on the other hand were living hell. not only did they lag behind the girls for every set of pushups and situps that we did but they also had no spirit at all and gave in to pain very easily.

lianna pushed herself until she couldnt hear properly and her vision had problems (partly cos i think warm ups were a bit xiong for her) but she never once complained AT ALL.

the guys on the other hand kept trying to cut corners and bargain with me in terms of exercises.

also, their form was very bad, had to remind them almost continuously about it.

Furthermore, when i reminded them about not beaching the boats and getting too close to shore as well as not scraping the paddles on the floor a few times, they were either deaf or dense, because they continued to do it even after i told them about 4 times.

as such i was forced to punish them after training and we did a total of 42 sets.

during the 42 sets, i wanted to see how many they could do before breaking point. i think all of them reached breaking point but i must say i was very impressed by the girls because they stayed positive and encouraged each other during the 42 sets. the guys chose to be quiet and die together. cheong has the usual problem of hanging and form. yihang was quiet and did not encourage at all even though he could do it quite comfortably. sherman pushed hard and out of the three guys he gave the best performance during punishment.

terence also reported the fact that he was looking at cheong during the last 20 pushups and that cheong only did 8 out of 20. when questioned, he said that he 'thought he had finished'. i kept questioning him repeatedly and i reminded him about personal integrity and he kept giving me the same answer. as such i had to trust him but this event has made me very uncomfortable inside.

i dunt know what this all means, but i think we have to do something very immediately about the guy juniors. their lack of personal motivation and desire is soemthing which is very obvious. their lack of passion and spirit and the fact that they do not feel for each other is also another very pressing issue that we need to address. i do not know how to instill in them these qualities because it is these qualities that drive the club on and we do not want to see them gone after we leave.

the batch under us is becoming increasingly in danger of being the batch that will bring the club down again. we have to do something very quickly. on wednesday, when most of the juniors were not down, training was great, with high spirits and smoothness but im afraid once they come back, we will be facing the same problems in dragonboat again.

the same people keep making the same mistakes. are we to allow them to continue making those mistakes? they could compromise the team eventually if we keep giving them chance after chance and i think that soem of them are already immune to the 'stay in pushup position properly or we send you home' threat. i think we should send them packing out of the club for good. enough is enough. if they do not wake up their ideas i think its time we wake them up for themselves.

The wheel of excellence (PART 2)

Focused Connection

The second element of excellence centers on being fully focused or completely connected

• for the duration of your task, or interaction;


• on the task at hand;


• in the moment;


• in your zone;


• in the performance;


• totally absorbed in what you are doing or experiencing;


• on autopilot; and


• freeing yourself to let good things unfold naturally.

In a very real sense, focus is everything -- life and in performance pursuits. A positive and absording focus channels your commitment into a series of positive actions, thereby making your personal journey to excellence possible. A fully connected focus releases you from everything irrelevant and connects you totally with your experience or performance. It is a mind phase where nothing else in your world exists apart from being totally connected with what you are engaged in or experiencing at that moment. Focusing is the most important mental skill associated with ongoing learning and consistent high level performance.

Your challenge is to discover and perfect a focus that frees you to perform your best and to live that fully connected focus while you are engaged in the task, activity or performance. The key to consistent high quality performance is to consistently focus in ways that free you to perform to yourcapacity within different contexts. The quality of your focus affects every learning and performance situation you encounter. It determines your rate of learning, quality of learning and quality of performance and quality of life. By guiding your focus in positive ways, you control the intensity, direction, duration and consistency of your actions and reactions.

A best-performance focus is both absorbing and natural, free-flowing and intense, simple and magical. It is a focus that you lived often as a very young child. The ultimate goal of all preparation and performance is to enter this fully connected zone on a consistent basis. By training your mind to connect fully, trusting your connection and freeing yourself to let outside worries go, you can live and perform closer to your capacity in situations that count.

The key to accomplishing this lies in absorbing yourself in the present -- in the here and now -- and gradually increasing the consistency, quality and duration of your focus. When you step out of the performance arena, a simple shift in focus to something less demanding or more relaxing can free you to return with a clearer, stronger, more positive focus.

Your focus is the leader. Where your focus goes, everything follows. Let it lead wisely.

hmmm, for those that are too lazy to trawl the web for posts regarding our sport of sprint kayaking, i have gathered a few links for those who want to look at technical details of rowing as well as some training methods that may be beneficial or specific to our sport.

links:
General fitness and nutrition website(EXRX)


One of the few sprint kayaking websites on the net(videos, pics, technical details)

please note that certain exercises mentioned at exrx are not specific to sprint kayaking. the sport of sprint kayaking requires a constant high intensity output of submaximal power for a sustained period of time. in simple english, this means that if you can shoulder press 80 kilos for 1 rep (as compared to shoulder pressing 40 kilos for 50 reps) you arent going to be of much use in a kayak.

this isnt like olympic weightlifting, where u use all your strength and eneergy for one maximal lift. this is a strength-endurance sport. strength is needed to propel the craft and endurance us needed to keep it moving. sub-maximal (less than maximum) strength is thus used during the sprint. the key is maintaining the amount of power output (barring starts and last bursts in which u use a greater than maintenance amount of power to accelerate your boat) throughout the race to keep your boat speed as close to top speed as possible for the whole race.

no point training with low reps and heavy weights and having a damn zai 6 strokes and then eating crap for the rest of the race. the race is won (or lost) in the last 250 metres of the race course usually so you'd better have the endurance and reserves possible to make it.

to this end, i would recommend exercises with free weights (explain why later) and with rep counts of about 15 to 20 done at high burst speed and with no rest in between reps (in between sets about 1 to 2 min rest) . one of the main problems with some guys is that they rest in between reps. no point. u dunt put down your paddle in a race. if u rest between reps, your body does not adapt to the amount of lactic acid produced by muscular activity and thus performance will decrease during your race. makes sense? damn well it does!

the high burst speed is to train your muscles to be able to contract with maximal velocity. lets put it this way. the faster your paddle goes through the water, the more power is generated and the more force is generated propelling your kayak forwards. you achieve this power output with fast contractions of your muscle, hence the need to perform exercises with fast bursts (and not forgetting good form)

why free weights as compared to machines? well, free weights trains your surrounding supporting muscles. your joints and ligaments as well. strong joints, ligaments and supporting muscles equals to more power being able to be transferred to your paddle and less injuries during training as well. machines are great if youre doing gym alone and you dunt want to have 1000 kilos crashing down on your head with no spotter around but they do not train your supporting muscles and ligaments, joints because their motion is restricted. (i.e, it only goes up and down along a pulley and metal bars) the problem with developing massive muscles is that all that massively muscular power is going to have to go somewhere when you release it. and it goes along your joints and ligaments and supporting muscles. point made. you need them to be strong. and it will benefit your rowing i guarentee (from personal experimentation)

a typical chest program (of mine during non training days) would look like this:

3 to 4 sets of 20 reps dumbbell bench press (i use about 17.5 kilos to 20 kilos)
3 sets of 20 reps incline bench press
4 sets of pectoral flys 20, 15, 12, 8 reps (increase weight as reps decrease)
3 sets of 30 dips (increase if youre feeling like a mother******)

your chest should be suitably fried after this if you
1)do it in high intensity burst format
2)dunt rest more than 1.5 min between sets
3)dunt rest between reps
4)dunt cheat on form
5)concentrate on your muscles when you do the exercises for the all important mind-muscle connection (elaborate later)

The Mind-Muscle Connection:

this might sound a bit hazy to all you unbelievers out there. but it does work. while most of us will never truly experience real mind muscle connection or mind over body connection like that of the hindu ascetics, fire walkers or thaipusam needle pokers (cept kenneth the guru), the role of the mind in exercise cannot be factored out. mind-muscle connection begins with being focused on the exercise that you are involved in. if ure doing lat-pull downs, then you focus on your lattisumus dorsi (affectionately known as "lats") during the exercise. you feel it contracting, how it contracts, how hard it contracts, what contracts along with it----and you will work the muscle more intensively.

the same goes for rowing. the main muscles that propel the rowing motion are the lats, obliques(side of stomach muscles, ie love handles area), shoulders, quadriceps(your thighs), chest and your brain. the supporting muscles are your arms (bis and tris, deltoids, forearm), your lower back, your front stomach muscles and the rest of your legs.

thats a lot of muscles working in tandem together just to push your kayak forwards in a most efficient manner. now, where does the mind-muscle connection come in? well, when u row, you focus on how your muscles feel when you are rowing. all of them working in tandem, all of them working in a smooth efficient manner. how many times have you noticed that when you are anxious or kan cheong, that you use the wrong muscles or you do not use all the muscles in a smooth relaxed fashion? that is because you are not tuned into using all of them at the same time in a relaxed manner. focus on how it feels to have everything working together when ure down in the water and it will become 2nd nature to you in a race.

please note that when i say "relaxed" i dunt mean the smoke-pot-and-chill-out kinda relaxed. i mean that you do not spend excess energy where it is not needed. relaxed muscles will produce more power than tight muscles.

example: look at your arm. relax it. tense your biceps hard.

look at your arm. tense your biceps a bit. tense them hard.

which one produces more power? the first one obviously. relaxed muscles produce more power.
the key idea here is to relax them when you dont need them and tense them to maximal power when you do. for example, when you lift your paddle out of the water, you use your shoulders, but when your paddle is in the water, you can actually relax your shoulders of that arm, thus ensuring that they do not get tired as fast and also are able to contract as hard as they can when u need to use them again for the recovery. the ability to do this will come in time with proper mind-muscle connections. all too often, we see rowers who tense their shoulders or hunch their shoulders all the time. this takes energy and your shoulders become tired and wunt be able to contract at maximal velocity when called upon.


another example would be balance in a K1 or K2. if you have good balance, you do not waste excess energy on your stabilizer muscles in your lower back or hips which contract to balance your body when your kayak is tipsy. world class rowers have little or no balance problems and thus can focus their energies on going forwards as fast as they can; which is basically what you should be trying to do as well.

the main thing here is :if u need to pull hard and whack, then PULL HARD AND KILL!!

but if you dunt need to, no point wasting energy on stuff that wunt benefit you. sounds simple right?

ok, this post is mother long already. ill just leave you guys to digest just what the hell am i saying. if u have any questions, feel free to ask me or your friendly neighbourhood coaches/seniors.

PS. in case you are wondering, when we do gym, we do machines cos its less time consuming as compared to free weights. you could and should do frees on your own. if only for a while.

hello

hmm, yea tim here. just checking to see if this post works.... blogger seems to have a completely new interface and it looks a lot more....fun loving now as compared to last time.

so it comes down to this.

the drops of sun-warmed sea water slide down my forearm with excrutiating slowness. the roof of my mouth is dry and my lips feel like they've been pickled in brine, but it is of no consequence now. i'm perched on the edge of my seat, hunched over and listening to my breath rumble in my throat. involuntarily, i shudder, but not from any passing sea zephyr.

the tips of my fingers are ice-cold as they trace the jagged edge of the notch i've gouged in the handle of the paddle. i furtively wipe them off on my tanktop, pausing a moment to stare at the wrinkled furrows wrought by the water, the rough calluses formed by so many months of rasping against tar and splintered wood. the skin on my knuckles whitens, the metacarpel bones underneath straining under the drum of my skin as i reclench the paddle.

i chew the edge of my lip in a spasm of nervous energy. yina's trying to ease the sudden stabbing pain in my shoulder. i blink and shift position slightly, hoping that the white fire will bank and slowly ebb away. what if it comes back during the race? the thought sends a chill down my neck. the abrasion from the semifinal stings with malicious vengeance. not now, not after all this. let it go. i exhale, breathe hissing through teeth, exorcising the demon.

the tension melts away. we drift under the welcoming shadow of the bridge, gaining a brief respite from the early twilight sun. the weave of the lifejacket in front of me has a new clarity. everything's so fresh now, everything's flowing away into a heightened consciousness. baptise yourself with the salty water, plaster back your hair. the words we shout echo in the eaves of the concrete. the long hours spent charging up and down kallang, the screams and advice and encouragements flung about the confines of our little boat. its all boiling away, down to this moment, where each second lasts an eternity before being whisked away into the neverending halls of memory.

there's a thousand people on shore and they're standing sentinel to our race. there's our name being announced on a crackling, intrusive loudspeaker, electronically magnified and booming over the pounding surf. there's the lurid tanktop of ntu, there's the crimson of njc. but nothing can touch us anymore. ted shouts something, but its all a dazed and blurred symphony now. i mechanically obey, but the marshal roars into his hailer. abruptly, we cut short the stroke and thrust the paddle into the starting position; the coiled spring of the trap, waiting to strike, taut and hovering above seething foam and teal aqua.

we're off and i pull the first stroke too fast, slicing through the water before the rest. no time for regrets. just row. we shout the numbers and they reel off the line so fast it burns, pulled into the water behind. each beat of the drum jarrs us into a trance, the hollow candence ringing through mind and down into the body. the machine has come to life. its nothing but raw energy and the blinding whiteness of stroke after stroke.

someone's shouting a number now. 0.5. the boat snarls and lunges forward, eager for blood. amidst the gliding speed and the exquisite rage, we're rising. we're smashing our inner prison, heaving and shoving everything aside, ploughing through the debris of the storm. we've disappeared. we've become one. we growl and smash the wood down into the flying spray. we're crying out to believe, for more power and suddenly, it's true. we're pulling with a fierceness born of love for each other. our spirits have melded into one razor sharp point in the heat of the fight, and its aimed at the throat of the boat in front. the belief is so strong, its washing over us all, cleansing the pain and the acids of doubt. it fuels us and we rush for it, screaming with a voice no longer ours.

then, its over.

we jerk, released from our perfect moment, and glance around. its faces and faces, but written over each one is a peculiar happiness, a contentment. we know we did it. we know we touched the sky. for the first time, we flew on the wings of the ac dragon. and we're home..

when you dream, when you let yourself go, that's when you'll know.

girls, i love you all.

The Wheel of Excellence(Orlick model)

Something to share abt some of my readings on Sports psychology. Terry Orlick is a very well known sports psychologist. In 1990, he came up with a performance model called the 'Wheel of excellence'. This model is produced from various studies and interviews with top athletes and top business people. It is called the Wheel because it is made up of seven elements which form a shape of a wheel.

There are seven critical elements of excellence that guide your pursuit of personal excellence: commitment, focused connection, confidence, positive images, mental readiness, distraction control and ongoing learning. These elements which make up the wheel of excellence, provide the mental keys that empower you to excel and free you to become the person and performer you really want to be.

Commitment

The first element of excellence is your commitment to:

• pursue your dream or make a meaningful contribution;


• be the best you can be;


• do everything required to excel;


• develop the mental,physical and technical links to excellence;


• set clear personal goals and relentlessly pursue them;


• persist through the obstacles -- even when they appear insurmountable; and


• continue to learn, nurture your passion and find joy in your pursuit.

Commitment is the first essential ingredient. With commitment, you do almost anything; without it, high-level goals are virtually impossible to attain. Excellence is inspired by having, or creating a positive vision of where you want to go. To excel at any challenging pursuit, you must have, or develop, a reason for doing it, a passion for your pursuit. High levels of commitment grow naturally out of positive visions and love for or joy in what you are doing -- but there are also tough parts, and not everything is joyful. Commitment grows from embracing special moments, giving yourself to your mission and loving the experience of ongoing personal growth. If you like what you are doing( or at least parts of it) and are able to remain committed to it, you will become very competent at it. To be truly great, you usually have to love what you are doing.

For most top athletes, their pursuits becomes their passion and drives their lives, at least for certain extended periods of time. Being committed doesnt mean to give all that you can to your pursuit. There are other very important considerations. While you are committed pushing yourself, you have to be committed to giving yourself enough rest and recovery, and commit yourself to constant learning.

Often during difficult times, you might find that the obstacles are too great to overcome, you are right even when you are wrong. At times like this, remember your vision or dream, to continue to find passion in parts of your pursuits and to fully embrace the prcess of ongoing learning.

to be continued

Pics taken at PS..

We are AC dragons

We are AC dragons
All in one boat
once in our lives
two years of our time
Have you ever wondered
why do we row-oh?
Coz we love our sch and we want it to be good
to be good
YA!!!

Drummers rowers coxswain
All in one boat
All in one spirit
Rowing for our school
Have you ever wondered
why do we row-oh?
Coz we love our sch and we want it to be good
to be good
YA!!!

Something tat Ted told me tat is worth giving a thought

Dont't aim at success -- the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must be ensued... as the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication to a course greater than oneself

how do ya all view it? have u pple ever though abt it? in dboat u haf to row fer each other.. whether u understand wad i am saeing anot.. i meant rowing fer each other.. as in leaving all yr pains n body behind.. n row! row yr hearts out! row yr hearts out tml! we can do it guys. we can

how abt canoeing? do u row fer individual goals? or do u row fer da team.. or u haven even thought abt it? -- go think abt it ya :)

Dont't aim at success -- the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must be ensued... as the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication to a course greater than oneself

Why do we train so hard?

A classmate of mine once said to me, "Why do you train so hard for? Do you guys even win?" (This is a rhetorical question.)

So why do we train so hard for? Plenty of passer-bys probably look at us, shake their heads, and wonder why. As a junior, I used to sit at the bleachers, worn out after monday's training, and wonder why.

But now, even as dboat season is about to end, and the seniors are reaching the end of their rowing time in acjc, it is clear to all of us why we train so hard for. It's not something simple, that you can put into words. It's something indefinable, something intangible. That tingle of excitement before training, that rush of heady power during training, and the drained yet contented feeling after training, that's but only part of it. Nothing can compare to the feeling of the team. Everything we do, we do it for the team. (Or at least we're supposed to.) There should be no space for selfishness. Even those of us seniors who once felt separate from the team and on their own, have found their way into the comfy web of inter-connectedness.


I don't know if the juniors have begun to grasp intimately the knowledge of why they train so hard. Or perhaps they only train because they have to. Perhaps it's inertia, that they're merely going along with the flow. But these aren't reasons. And an aimless journey would lead to digressions. And an aimless journey without the will to go on would cause you to say, "It's alright, let me rest now."

There are many words to encourage people in this. Row with your heart! they say. Row the person in front of you and behind you and beside you! This is YOUR TEAM. DO it for the TEAM. But words are but words. They could fly past you and not make an impact. When you hang desperately on the edge during training, about to collapse and die, these words only make a difference if you know what they mean. Only if you believe in them. I don't know how many of you have your heart and soul here in this club. Perhaps only half your heart and half your soul. Half of you is standing out, unwilling, or perhaps afraid to step in.

What is there to be afraid of? Even if you cannot run as fast, cannot row as fast, cannot do as many pushups, what does that all matter if but you try. If only you are but honest with yourself. IF only you dont "cheat your teammates". I always say, if you have done all you have to do, been true to yourself, then there is nothing to be afraid of, nothing to be ashamed of. But HAVE YOU?

There is great joy to be found in placing yourself with this team. All you need is the will, the heart, the fire. The desire to do all you can. This club is about absolutes. Absolute faith, absolute spirit. Absolutely all you have. And when you give your all, you can perhaps understand why we train so hard for. For the medals? Or for the memories gained, the indefinable reshaping of your soul?

When anyone asks you, "Why do you train so hard for? Do you guys even win?"

I hope you can honestly say with conviction, "Yes. We win in more ways than one."

Forum

hey pple juz take tis place as a forum n pls help me out by giving me da emails. of those who i haven added.. cos i dun haf their emails. sorrie abt tat.. thanks..

u all can juz take tis place to post wadeva u want.. n voice out wadeva u wan.. yup.. juz take tis place as a place where u all can communicate among yrselves.. out of training.. yup.. hope to see some tings coming ya :) n also spread da word to da rest abt tis page rite :) thanks i added most of da snrs alr.. juz tat i dun haf qt alot of jnrs email.. n some snrs email.. help me out alrite.. thanks lots. =cheers=

last part alr.. its now or neber.. last trg tml.. treasure it guys.. u will neber be able to row in tat same boat anymore.. yea.. :) all da best.. work hard.. we can do it :)

LET'S GO AC!

Training tips (Material taken from worldofendurance.com)

Need some help with your paddling training? Check out these great articles:

• Training: It’s all about FOCUS


• Training basics


• Why should rest be part of your training programme?


• Raising your endurance threshold


• Stretching for paddlers


• Sprint training


• The basics of sprint training


• How to race sprints
• Weights for paddling: Short and sweet


• Gym workouts for paddlers


• Resistance training for paddlers


• Women’s paddling: How do you improve?


• Eating is a vital part of your canoeing training

A COACH'S PRAYER

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BUILD ME AN ATHLETE, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid, one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat and humble and gentle in victory.

BUILD ME AN ATHLETE whose wishbone will not be where his backbone should be, an athlete who will know You and that to know himself is the foundation stone of knowledge. Lead him, I pray, not in the path of ease and comfort, but under the stress and spur of difficulties and challenge. Here let him learn to stand up in the storms; here let him learn compassion for those who fall.

BUILD ME AN ATHLETE whose heart will be clear, whose goal will be high; an athlete who will master himself before he seeks to master others; one who will learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep; one who will reach into the future yet never forget the past. And after all these things are his, add, I pray, enough of a sense of humor, never to take himself too seriously. Give him humility, so that he may always remember the simplicity of true greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, the meekness of true strength. Then, I, his coach, will dare to whisper, "I have not lived in vain."

adapted from A Father's Prayer
by Gen. Douglas MacArthur
Reader's Digest, May 1952, p. 81

National Canoeing Championship 2004 has been confirmed

Date: 7/8 - 8/8
Venue: MacRitche Reservoir
Events: Men Open

1000m - K1, K2, K4
500m - K1, K2, K4
200m - K1, K2

training

tml trg is @ 9 white shirt :) dun be late

hello!

helloo! ash here

Jude's here!

HELLO!
hello everyone. it's my first time blogging.
so exciting right?!
i'm really excited. heehee... yepz anyway.
see u guys tmw! right?
right! :)
oH. and happy holidays!
heh. how silly. okay! :)

ripped this off del's blog. nice nice right? :)

acjc canoeing n dragonboat 04

hmm i tried starting tis site. cos its seems lyk alot of j1 lyk to blogsurf.. alrite.. i will try to do up da blog.. tis is juz a test one.. cos i haven got enough time.. n i will juz stick to tis plain one fer da time being..

i will invite yr all into tis.. so u all can blog?.. or rather juz another form of communication? where u all can post yr views.. n stuff.. i will also do up da links.. yup :)