trainings and performances

gym training on friday left me really sore for a few days, was simply just backtucking over and over again into the foam pit before trying on the ground. I need to be more conscious about jumping up straight with my heels on the ground so that I dont end up throwing my knees forward and losing power. apparently I started getting the feel at bazgym but I keep reverting to my old ways on cheer mats for some reason, perhaps I'm just afraid cos I'm not used to the new feeling yet.

was quite happy with president star charity performance, felt that the stunts were hit very cleanly so I didnt have to end up using a lot of energy to fight stunts. and tried pstunt heel stretch and scorpion with biyi for the first time and it felt quite good. the photos taken also looked quite impressive even though its basically just a lib for me hahaha.

macs performance was quite fun and a bit confusing too cause it was finalised at the very last minute. was quite happy as my lib went up very comfortably even without warm up before that, think I'm slowly getting used to stunting without having to warm up stunts prior to that. dropped my single take extension with biyi early for the final stunt though, acks.

was doing a lot of btosses during training on tuesday and I'm quite sure I've gotten the feel for btosses already, to the extent that it feels quite relaxing and second nature for almost all the tosses. I'm slowly enjoying watching flyers do their elements in the air instead of fearing injuries like last time. 7 cupies at the end was still not stable, ochi had to help me support my wrist, have to keep gymming to get more strength.

weekend performances

was involved in the BT55 celebrations and *scape opening on saturday and sunday respectively, and we had to wait for a really really long time on both days before getting to perform.

really glad that the pstunt+pyramid segment for the BT55 performance went well but for some reason my shoulderstand with chengyee went up a bit late. felt that what eric said was very true, no one will be interested in the reason why stunts do not go up, all they will remember is that something went wrong. and that particular incident stood out like a sore thumb (at least to me) when we were looking at the video recording after that. surely getting the shoulderstand eventually would be better than not going up at all but this is no consolation, not too sure what I could have done to ensure a higher hit rate.

wasnt supposed to be a involved for the *scape opening but went early instead just to support and to play, in the end gary and I were btossing alan and it was really fun for some reason. the baskets were really really high and alan has amazing body control, just that the landing were a bit heavy cos I think he's not too used to cradling. its the first time I've seen someone do an arabian kickout (??) anyway.

since we had so much time before the performances, we diy-ed as usual. managed to hit my left cupie for the first time with perle, and at the same time stabilising my right. I'm able to hit my right cupie fairly consistently already, but I'm still a little perplex how some of the cupies seem to slip out of my hand. perle said that she doesnt feel like the platform's tilted or she's tipping, perhaps will get someone to take a look and get some pointers soon.

started trying toss to ex with closed legs to try to get the feeling for toss cupies, its still a lot of work in progress hahaha!

gym+more yog

went for gymnastics training at bazgym on friday, and for some reason I had this bad feeling before going for training that I may get injured during training, so was just being extra careful. thankfully everything went fine and I didnt get any injuries at all, besides the fact that my body was aching tremendously all over after that.

alan really emphasized a lot on stretching and I do feel that he has a good balance of when to have fun and when to be strict. any kind of fun will surely end when an injury happens and I'm quite sure he wanted to stay away from that.

spent the first half of the time doing more basic gymnastics like rolls and cartwheels so that he could get a better gauge of our abilities, and it was also a good time to revise and clean up my basics. almost everyone can do a cartwheel, its just who can make it look nicer.

did roundoff before jumping onto a crashmat to get both the height and the feeling of the ride, must try to get this one ingrained before going for all the tucks so that the stunt will be nice and high. have always wanted to do my gymnastics like the thais/taiwanese or even the DECS tumblers, they really make it look so effortless.

sat and tuesday trainings were just more of the yog trainings and the more I practice the more comfortable I feel with the performance. thanks to gary and eric and everyone who have been giving me small pointers about smiling and enjoying myself so that the audience will feel it too. have to stabilise my shoulderstands and pstunts more I think, and work more on the delivery for toepitch.

finally tried being part of a pyramid during training yesterday even thought I'm still pretty raw, but its really a huge sign telling me to keep improving on my personal profficiency.

on a side note, I've reached zhiliang's target of toss ex before the stipulated deadline, next targets: left/right cupies, low/high, tick tock, toss cupie and toss lib! this is pretty exciting.

yog routine

spent the whole training on tuesday practising for the yog routine on 19 jun and for some reason I was thoroughly tired after the end of training. I was trying to be sincere every time we ran routine, and even though most of the stunts went up I felt that there were still quite a lot of room for improvements.

opening partner stunt segment feels quite shaky, even for the initial extension, not too sure if this is due to me or biyi or perhaps just due to us having to do with timing. still need to work a little on the transition to shoulder stand and the moment back into pyramids.

apparently my shoulder stand is done with my back arcing back quite a lot, which results in the midtier tipping quite a bit. this leaves a dull ache at my lower back after training which hopefully is not a strain. the tips given to me were not to tilt my head up so much just to look at the stunt (rather just rolling my eyes upwards to see), and to hunch and roll my shoulders inwards to keep my upper body compact. shall keep trying to improve the next session.

feeling quite confident of my full up and btoss already, and its a nice time to catch my breath during the routine.

toe pitched for the first time yesterday in a really long time, the last time I did that was perhaps during ACES camp. was glad I didnt lose the feeling at all, just that the first time I tried it I overestimated the strength required and ended up almost throwing biyi over nellie =P. subsequent tosses were more controlled and much better.

inspired

Eric from Vancouver came down for saturday's training and even though we didnt have a place to train cause of some admin miscommunication, I must admit that I probably learnt the most in one single session. its even quite awe-inspiring just watching him do stunts and I thought he was a little limited by the standard of our flyers!

shall just list out the things eric taught me in one single day:

1) all the power from tossing comes from the legs, keep your back straight and try to jump off the ground when tossing

2) visualise every single stunt and control my strength to just hit it, not too much not too little

3) try to toss extension every single time and your toss will improve. this really worked as I was able to toss nellie and huishan almost to an extension towards the end of the session.

4) relax, before and during the stunt

5) full ups are just mega tosses with a small flick at the end.

6) press upwards with the balls of my palms, I should be able to counter any flyer tipping forward

7) pop down and catch my own flyer as if there are no spotters at all, not being able to do so is simply wimpy

yup that's almost everything, and I am still very very inspired.

diy

I'm slowly hitting and holding my cupies more consistently now and it feels like my training has been paying off. even though I must admit that I am pleased with myself, there is still a lot of room for improvement. as ochi says, I have no stunt feel at all so its either a nice hit or a spectacular fall, which will put flyers in unnecessary danger too.

seems like the trick I have to work on now is opening my thumb and pressing it upwards during the cupie. realised that when I'm doing that the entire platform feels very flat and stable. most of the times when the stunts fail, its due to my keeping my fingers closed together. much more confident of popping already and there was one particular time yesterday when I managed to catch the stunt even though I overpopped.

toss extensions are getting more consistent too already, seems like I'll be able to hit zhiliang's target early! need to concentrate before the tosses though cause sometimes it feels like all the force disintegrates halfway up the toss. my legs and back are aching from all the tosses but I guess that is a good thing haha.

backtuck

apparently I'm not jumping straight up first before going for the tuck resulting in me jumping straight back into the tuck. not enough height.


keep practising.

diy

diy at smu was shifted to yesterday as jayson's enlistment is this coming thursday, and we wanted to give him a chance to hit a toss ex before going to ns. ken and kahau's ite cheerleaders came down too to play.

was just experimenting and trying my toss ex with carmen for most of the session and it's slowly getting there. still feels like I'm pressing the last 10-20% up but there were a few tosses which I manage to catch at a full extension height. not too sure what I did differently but with more practices I should be able to get the feel. much more confident about catching the flyer at extension height already, almost feels like second nature, which is surely a good thing.

ochi challenged me and carmen to hold a 5 sec cupie, the reward being an ice lemon tea but sadly we didnt manage to hit that all night. felt that I managed to catch her cg and get my hand in the sweetspot but somehow there'll be a tipping action which I wasnt able/strong enough to counter. apparently if I use the gripping method I should be able to control the tipping but ultimately cupies are supposed to be held with a flat palm, not too sure if I should learn both methods.

ended the night hitting a few very stable cupies with huishan and was feeling quite happy about it for the rest of the journey home. I think I get satisfied quite easily hahaha. hopefully we'll be able to do more pstunts later during training =)