stunting with insufficient sleep is a no-no

was pretty disappointed with my performance on saturday. granted I was very zoned out due to my lack of sleep after orientation camp but looking back I think I could have gathered more energy and strength during that short 2.5 minute performance. didnt really get a good stunt feel while warming up my stunts, it just feels as if I had to use a little bit more strength to toss and stuff, resulting in a pretty huge and unacceptable drop in control. even my toss shoulder with jasmine failed once which was really the low point for me for that day.

tried to fight for my opening cupie but ended up still dropping simin 1 count early, dismount timing for group stunt was late, the 270 was successful due to jasmine, candy, jen and gerard fighting for the stunt. dance was totally flaccid, which made me-the-not-so-good-dancer look even more pathetic.

probably should have expected camp to be this tiring and perhaps opted to sit out of this performance. oh wells, lesson learnt I guess, if I am going to put up such a dismal performance it would be much better if I dont perform at all.

on a better note, managed to get my toss lib during the subsequent stunt fest, still working on my toss cupie. really want to get my left cupie within two weeks if possible. direct right cupie lib feels awesome when I hit it with perle, more practice needed to bring up the hit rate.

stunt fest practice

training with simin did pay off in the end, managed to hit the cupies with her on saturday and it really felt quite accomplishing, went on to try toss cupie with biyi subsequently and was quite surprised chaang didnt stop me. have forgotten to ask him if I could try the stunt but he seemed okay, at the end of training eric did say something about "being responsible for our own training curve" which I found quite meaningful. =)) still havent succeeded for toss cupie but it should be coming soon, shall work more on this and my left cupie.

did lots of backtucks too and it was quite fun doing it with jen, weihoe, isaac, though we all did get dizzy really fast after 4 consecutive backtucks or so. my round off feels much higher and controlled, perhaps I'll ask alan about a robt this friday.

learnt and finally managed to get the hang of being the assistant for the assisted full up, i'll have to remember to move more or less together with the flyer, instead of waiting for too long. toe pitching with biyi and gerard for pyramids feel much better and controlled already.

its nice seeing hardwork translating to performance once in a while.

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.

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.

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.

Top Gun Unlimited Co-ed 2009 Worlds

this team won second at the co-ed 2009 worlds but reading the comments, they had the most difficult routine by far and yet lost cos of their execution and certain errors. but nonetheless, there're still many positives that can be taken from their routine.

they are really neat considering the number of cheerleaders in this routine, their jumps and gymnastics especially. even though their pyramids may not be as difficult as some of the other US teams, their left right coordination is almost perfect for most of the stunts.

their gymnastics really wowed me, especially the part where the entire team's doing front tucks in every direction. probably not a high level gymnastics move but done together as a team, the end result made my hair stand. same for the double toe-touch+back tuck.

imho, I really do think tightness and neatness is really just part of stunting discipline which u either get very early in your stunt career or end up standing out in a negative way during routines.