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.

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.

another sprained finger

managed to stabilise our assisted full up by quite a lot yesterday, its slowly feeling more smooth and its relaxing to hit this stunt already. catching the flyer's turn early really is the key to getting this stunt right, even the 540 we tried subsequently didn't feel too much different. tried a heel stretch retake to another heel stretch and surprisingly manage to hit it within 2 tries, I'm really starting to like group stunts even more, the variety of stunts that are possible is quite mind-boggling.

still trying to get the right feel for my btoss with gary, hopefully I'll remember to stop sinking down and just move faster. huishan really seems to take a long time to fall when when we manage to hit the basket right. sprained my right middle finger during one of the btoss backtucks after ramming my entire hand into gary, acks shall just keep pulling it till it feels okay again.

my popping in for cupie feels more natural already but somehow I still can't seem to hold the stunt up, not too sure if its my inability to fight or my delay in catching the flyer's cg, but it feels like the stunt is beyond saving by the time I try to stabilise, hmmm. tried lo hi tick tock another time and it feels much better with a more stable lib. changed my lowering and it is already a non-issue, just need to be able to catch the shoe more quickly I reckon.

need to recover from my flu and cough soon, really limits my strength and stamina.

time to start training my hands

I'm starting to slowly realise that most of the time when I'm doing stunts, all the power comes from my legs to the extent that I really have to charge for a long time before being able to burst/blast. makes me much slower than almost everyone and when I try to use my hands, the direction gets a bit wonky sometimes and my arms get tired really easily. guess this means that I really need to start training my chest, shoulders and arms already.

quite glad that my feel for assisted full-ups is getting better, even did a 450 retake after that but I'm not too sure how much of that is due to my main base being zai.=P.managed to do more 2 to 1 exercises and I can really feel my pstunting stamina improving already, and its nice that my lib is finally starting for feel very very stable already. perhaps next diy I should start trying some lo-hi tick tocks.

there will be proper gymnastics training at a proper gym with a proper coach too, looking forward to that, should be super exciting after neglecting that portion for quite long.

training muscles I didnt know I have

went for wc training again ytd and what struck me most is that they really cram in as much as they can within their short training period, doing everything from stretching to pt to jumps, pyramids and pstunts training. they dont really have a target they have to hit for each segment, just have to try their best before moving on. it seemed much less stressful and I was able to pick up a lot of the stunts fairly quickly (granted it was off season).

zl made everyone do this leg lift exercise which I havent tried before, apparently its supposed to help with the height of our jumps. its super tiring for the abs and this band of muscles around the groin/inner thigh which I didnt know existed, much less know their name. shall include this in my daily personal routine, seems to be quite helpful.

was doing the backspot role for assisted full up and retake, and I'm slowly getting the feeling. really have to give a lot of credit to ken, isaac and huishan, think I managed to get it fairly fast cos they were all quite zai with this stunt already. quite liked their versatility drill after that, especially the pop from shoulder stand to hands part.

tried this pstunt drill called 2 to 1 which is basically 3x extension + lib (and apparently this is level 1 of 3), and the first time I tried I only managed 2x and apparently it was due to me holding my breath too much haha. much better after learning how to control my breathing. really need to be more aware of my pulling backwards during the toss, and aligning my legs such that I'm using both legs equally when stunting. gary was trying to explain how to use my wrist to flick during the toss, shall try that tomorrow then.

will try to get my cupie within 2 sessions and improve my pstunting stamina.

lots more to learn

went for wildcards training on saturday to take a look at how they conduct their usual trainings and to learn new techniques and stunts. I must admit that it was really an eye-opening experience. have always been hearing/watching youtube videos of some of their players doing stunts and finally getting to learn first hand from these guys was truly valuable.

started off doing backspotting for elevator pop twist before moving on to assisted full up+retake. the assisted full up part feels very similar to a 360. tried the retake part a few times but I still cant seem to get the repositioning of my hands, do understand the basic idea behind it so its just more practice. this stunt isnt too complex, but it really involves a lot of control.

got to do btosses with gary after that and he taught me yet another method. apparently it was what the kentucky cheerleaders taught them the other time and it feels very powerful especially when I catch the timing properly and use all the strength from my legs. this method seems to remove the strain on my knees and ankle which I felt constantly last time when using the close-legged method.

I must admit that my impression of gary has changed a lot since the first time I saw him glare at the pstunts spotters during cheerobics 2009. he's actually a very approachable person who's very willing to teach and explain the finer intricacies of stunts repeatedly. ahaha and at the end of the day, he's another one who's trying to slack as much as he can. i'll really want to emulate his tossing strength and power, he really makes it look so effortless!

relearnt my lib during pstunting sesson at the end of training, they do actually have a fairly structured pstunting training programme which seems quite beneficial judging from the stability and locking tightness of the bases and flyers in general. i think it was joline who noticed that I was taking a long time to move my left hand into the final leap position, and simply changing this really made the stunt almost totally stable. zhiliang also taught me how to use my entire core to control the stunt should the flyer's cg start wandering.

tried a bit of lib hi lo tick tock after that, i have no idea why isaac just started teaching me that instead of asking me to try a cupie which seemed more logical. I seemed to have some problems lowering the flyer into the low position, which was due to my elbows' positions (haha I only realised this much later on the way home). I'm quite looking forward to trying this stunt again for some unexplained reasons haha. my toss to ex is getting better too!

got chided a few times for unnecessary loading/cushioning by various people who all emphasised that its important for flyers to do their own things properly so that the stunts can be executed properly. really havent seen things from this point of view as I've always thought that doing a bit more to help flyers/bases is a good thing, but come to think about it, compensating unnecessarily for them will just hinder their learning progress. this seems to reiterate what the nbu cheerleaders were saying the other time, when everyone does their part properly, stunts will go up much more easily and effortlessly.

really learnt a lot in this short 5 hr session and would really like to thank everyone who gave me the opportunities to try, and helped me with pointers+advice. looking forward to magnum's training later on.

group stunts

there were quite a few people who could take a break from their studies to stunt a bit yesterday so we organised a small group stunting session to try out some group stunts. the focus for unofficial trainings have always been pstunts so I wanted to try out some new stuff just to develop overall technique. I remembered learning and improving a lot last year when we were trying out all sorts of group stunts for cheerobics (which we didn't take part in in the end), so was looking forward a bit to trying those again.

we ended up just trying out 270 with variations and its quite nice to see everyone starting to get the hang of it, py finally knowing what's letting the weight sink in, yx controlling his extension much better, and the flyers knowing how to step and turn at the highest point. I was tossing more at the start, which was also beneficial as I can slowly feel my tosses feeling more effortless.

managed to hit a 270 to direct single lib with amanda which was quite surprising cause it was meant to be a 3 base stunt but somehow py and yx didnt know how to catch so it became single base. it really felt super good and I should think it looks super good too, didn't use much strength at all going up into the stunt! even though its may be a simple stunt to others, it really proved to me once again that most of the time we end up erecting mental barriers even before we try certain stuff, convincing ourselves that its not possible/will not be stable/doesn't seem to make sense even before we try.

I remember I was once like that in spectrum and it really hindered my progress, I really started learning when I just decided that its okay to keep failing cause eventually I'll be able to hit stunts. I did for a point in time think that round offs will probably be my max for gymnastics cause I was heavy, and that the only pstunts I can do are those two handed ones. Maybe I should think less and be convinced that I can get my cupie, left lib, tick tock and round off backtucks in a matter of time.