trainings

went to the gym on wednesday and did some light exercises as I was a little tired.

bench press: 1x8 (40kg), 1x8 (50kg), 3x8 (60kg)

wrist: 3x10 (15kg)

shoulder press: 3x8 (40kg)

snatch: 1x8 (35kg), 2x8 (40kg)

leg press: single leg 3x8 (full rack)

calf raises: 3x30 (both legs), 3x30 (single leg)

went for diy on thursday and my cupie feels much much better already, I'm slowly getting used to the feel of the stunt and can even fight to keep up some of the cupies. ochi says that I'm not stepping forward to use my entire core to support the weight which means I'm just using my shoulder strength to take the weight, shall work on that later during diy. injured my left knee when huishan landed on it, its much better already thankfully.

did nearly 70 toss throws on saturday at the start of training which resulted in my thighs hurting for the rest of the session and even today. didnt know that we had to do so many initially so I really used most of my strength on the first set of 15, had to grit my way through the rest of the sets. it was fun doing shoulder stands once again for pyramids, its really becoming my comfort zone, but I'm not too sure if I'll get to be shoulder stand for long anyway, think I'm a bit too tall. quite confident of my toss to shoulder stands already.

got back my feeling for btosses, really hope that I dont lose it once again. I just have to remind myself not to wait for the flyer's weight to start sinking in before throwing, the trick is just to follow the timing and move up. did a few btosses with xuewei, she really trusts the bases a lot to catch her, and despite not btossing for nearly 2 years, she's still pretty good at it. huishan was trying her layout and got the first half of the stunt, the landing is a bit awkward which resulted in bruises and scratches, acks.

zhiliang challenged me to get my toss to extension by july during thursday's diy session so I started trying just that during saturday's pstunting with biyi. really happy that I managed to throw to a comfortable extension (without pressing up) towards the last few throws. tried toss to hands pop down toss to hands a few times too. thanks biyi once again for your patience and willingness to keep trying until we can hit stunts.

stunt endurance

yesterday's training was mainly focused on practising for the yog performance and I'm learning a lot during the entire process. pstunts to shoulder stand sounded easy but I was trying to get my stability and sharpness which makes things quite challenging. not to mention that I have to hold the stunt for quite some time, which gets pretty tiring after 2 or 3 consecutive runs. thankfully biyi's such a nice flyer who's always so obliging when I want to practice a few more times.

had some time to try walk to glad shoulder stand, and I seem to be able to hit it quite easily. however I think my left right imbalance extends even to my back muscles, my left back seems to be working way harder for shoulder stands for some reason.

tried rewind for a while at the end of training, looks and sounds interesting but I'm only at the theory stage only haha.

gymming

went to the gym for the first time yesterday to start training up my arm strength, shoulders and left side. managed to accomplish quite a lot in 1hr15 mins actually.

dumbbell bench pull: 1x8 (10kg), 1x8 (15kg), 1x8 (20kg), 2x8 (25kg)

shoulder press (free weights): 1x8 (10kg), 2x8 (15kg), 2x8 (20kg)

wrist: 1x15 (15kg), 4x15 (20kg)

shoulder press (machine): 1x8 (40), 1x8 (60), 1x8 (80), 2x8 (90)

bench press: 1x8 (40kg), 1x8 (45kg), 1x8 (50kg), 1x8 (55kg), 1x8 (60kg)

snatch: 1x8 (35kg), 4x8 (40kg)

didnt really do too heavy cause I was focusing more on my left side and posture, will slowly increase the load over the next few weeks.

weekend training + selections

its fast becoming a trend of me coming to office on monday with my mind refreshed but my body aching all over due to weekend trainings haha. we had selections on saturday and I'm quite glad that I made it even though I'm still very raw at many places, really appreciate vincent's effort for frantically writing down all the pointers during the tryouts. it's the first time I've been put through the paces and its a really interesting experience.

lost my feel for btosses after coming back from japan, apparently I reverted to my old habit of sinking too much. it was a little frustrating but I should be able to get that feeling back after a few more practice, it really is hard to unlearn something that I have been executing for nearly a whole year already.

saw my pstunts video for the first time too, and my right biased problem is really apparent. also discovered certain things about myself that I did not know previously, like squatting quite a lot pressing up to libs and cupies (probably due to my lack of arm and shoulder strength), and shuffling around a lot which seem to make the whole stunt very unstable. not too sure how to correct these problems yet but will ask and learn.

gym on sunday was super fun but tiring as usual, and I finally manage to do a straight round off after quite some time. used to be able to do it but for some reason it just got worse and worse. my backtuck on the springy ground felt really good too and I even managed to land standing for a few of my tucks. isaac and weihoe asked me to do on harder ground after that to get used to a jump with less height. shall attempt a robt next gym training if everything goes well, looking forward to it already.

on a side note, I was super glad this morning when I woke up with no pains in my ankles and knees. don't really want to go through the entire experience again, it was really kind of scary.

refreshed!

trained for the first time in one whole week and I must admit my body had a very good rest after the trip to japan. my ankles and knees feel much much better, I practically do not feel any pain anymore, but I'll have to see how well they fair after gymnastics on sunday. of course I am keeping my fingers crossed that they are fully healed!

went to stunt at smu yesterday and my toss feels much more powerful, and I can actually feel my back muscles at work. not really sure what I'm doing differently but my toss feels very straight and fast now.

learning how to fight a cupie now and my right wrist and forearm are aching a little due to the lactic buildup but it should get better. was really happy hitting a toss ex double take lib double take cupie pop down, but I still need to practice more to get the consistency.

missing japan a lot for some reason, and its stirring my desire to compete in the 5th CAIO next year.

4th CAIO in Japan

just returned yesterday from Japan, went there with the senior team who was competing in the 4th Cheerleading Asia International Open in Tokyo's Yoyogi stadium. the competition was held over the weekend (15-16 May) and the scores over both days were combined to determine a winner.

there were a few categories at the competition, most of the teams were actually all girls team, with only a few mixed teams. for the international mixed category, taiwan was represented by two teams (CMIT and TPEC), thailand sent vanquish and there was another team from korea.

got to sit right in front of the cheer mats for the entire duration of the competition as a member of the press, and I must say that its probably the best seat in the stadium even though its cold hard ground. being only 5 metres from the mats just meant that everyone's facial expressions and actions were super clear. there was really a stark contrast between the top teams and the other teams when there were difficulties hitting stunts, most of the girls from the top few teams really had their smiles fixed on their faces even when the stunts don't hit nicely, its really something to learn from. even the bases had their smiles fixed on even though most people wouldnt be even looking at them.

all the competing teams also prepared colour cards which they flash during every team's cheer segment. its really quite electrifying seeing the entire stadium chanting out the team's colours and flashing the corresponding cards. the japanese cheerleaders also seem to boundless amounts of energy cheering and waving their pompoms.

CMIT won first, TPEC came in second while Vanquish wrapped up the top 3. the competition was between the two taiwanese teams for first and second spot as vanquish was quite comfortably in third while aces had a lot to do after the first day to overtake vanquish. both taiwanese teams had double base rewinds, while CMIT had 2 720 221s in their routine. most of their cheerleaders have 6-7 years of cheerleading experience and even the youngest there have at least 4, which is really apparently in terms of their stability and their tumbling.

what I felt was lacking among all international teams as compared to the japanese teams was the short dance segment. most of the jap teams didnt have very complicated dances, yet they manage to execute their dances with a lot of rhythm and neatness which makes even the simplest dances look very refreshing and energetic.

I also had to give it to the jap girls with their tumbling, most of them can at least do a backhand spring and during the whole competition there were some really horrendous headplants but every single one of them picked themselves up smiling and continued with the routine as if nothing happened. ditto the crazy pyramid falls where the shoulder stand probably got stepped on by midtiers and tops.

would really like to be back there for competition next year, but in the meantime, its time to up my training already.

weekend trainings

was pretty exhausted after weekend training this week, partially due to my flu/cough which I have yet to fully recover from. went to see a doctor today to get some antibiotics today, hopefully it will get better before going off to japan.

did more basics on sat and I finally got the hang for btosses. felt much more relaxing and the heights of the tosses seem to be generally higher than those previously. quite happy the jayson is starting to get the hang of the btosses too, when he finally gets it I'm quite sure the btosses with him will be super high considering his height advantage (>8cm taller than me). realised that it can be quite enjoyable when flyers do their elements cleanly in the air and cradle properly, must have done more than 50 tosses on sat without even realising it.

managed to hit a cupie with perle too, which is my fifth time hitting it and the first time succeeding with someone else besides huishan. hahaha I'm pretty sure huishan compensates quite a lot to ensure the cupie stays up so I was pleasantly surprised when I hit it with perle. being a bit more conscious bout dropping my shoulders before going into libs/cupies and it sure works quite well. really need to get well soon so that I can start gymming and improve my left side.

gymnastics was really exhausting on sunday, and most of those who were there were already soaked through after doing the warmup+strengthening exercises. could barely last halfway through most of the strengthening exercises, think it might be useful for me to start doing those everyday to train up my legs are core.

starting to perfect my standing backtuck, apparently I havent been jumping to my max before going into the tuck, which results in my calves being slightly bent and me landing in front of my takeoff spot. looking at a faraway point and delaying my tuck to the highest point feels much better as I can open and almost land standing straight. need to improve on my tuck tightness though, looks like I'm doing a backpike instead of a backtuck now.

played around a little and managed to get the hang for a front tuck too thanx to chris simin and jasmine, I'll probably do that for recreation for the time being considering the most important thing to get now will be my robt.

coach taught me some of the exercises I can do to straighten my round off, and one of the most important one is to get a very stable handstand. he said that once my round off is consistently straight, it will be easy for me to add elements after the round offs. I'll be doing the backhandspring exercises in the meantime too to slowly get it, will need it anyway if I want to do a 3-pass eventually.

on a side note, wearing contacts during training really makes a huge lot of difference.

may!

it has only been a month since I started this blog but I realised that I've made some improvements reading some of the earlier entries. my ankles are feeling much better now, at least I don't wake up in the morning with both my ankles feeling tight. my right knee is still sore though, feels like my knee cap is a little loose, perhaps I need to do more strengthening exercises so that it doesn't get worn out so quickly.

went for 2 diy sessions on sunday and yesterday and was just spending time getting my toss and cupie+stabilising my lib. apparently my right shoulder droops subconsciously a bit in anticipation of a cupie/lib, and the resulting pop is a bit too uncontrolled. popping into stunts feels much more controlled without the unnecessary anticipation.

my right hand is already visibly larger than my left, will be gymming on non training days with much more emphasis placed on my left side. stunting should be much easier with more balanced left right strength.