recognition

didnt do too much during diy on thursday as there were quite a lot of bases around and they wanted to try a different set of trainin meant for the flyers. apparently it has been very easy for them to do liberties and cupies, so during diy this time we were trying stuff like heel stretches, bow and arrow and scorpions.

tried heel stretch and scorpion with biyi for the first time after president star charity performance and it wasnt too hard to hold her stunt that time, it just feels like a lib just that the flyer's cg moves a little bit more. will keep trying these stunts with other flyers too, helps them with their flexibility and aids my stability a lot too.

was really looking forward to gymnastics on friday actually as I wanted to try my round off back tuck that day and learn how to do a back handspring. managed to hit a toe touch back tuck on saturday after chickening out a few times, seems like I just need to get used to the feeling of connecting stunts, apparently robt feels very similar too.

managed to hit more toss libs and chaang asked me to start trying to get my toss cupie. still havent succeeded at all but I'll just keep trying and trying, hopefully I'll be able to get it by stunt fest. yup that shall be my target.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

gym

intended to just go for a short run yesterday but ended up going to src's gym after py said that he was going to train his legs. training up my chest and shoulders is one of the objectives I set for myself after competition, I pretty much have the smallest/weakest shoulders and chest in the team and it probably affects my stability quite a lot too.

reached src and realised that there were so many other cheerleaders there to gym/practise stunts too, so I did some bench press before going to try some pstunts with xw. tried my ticktock again but my lib didn't really feel very stable, xw said that I am relying too much on my right hand for stunts and I'll really have to train up my left hand to match my right. it felt really shuang, however, when I managed to hit a cupie lib on my first try, aye more testament to train up my left hand once again!

practised more cupies too, I'm still trying to get the feeling for this stunt, apparently my wrist, elbow and shoulder aren't aligned perpendicularly to the ground so its much harder to feel the flyer's CG and take her weight. my delivery to cupie from hands still seems to lack control, perhaps due to my hesitatancy to allow the flyer to lift off both my hands. shall slowly get over that.

I'm still pulling the flyer back a little when doing toss to ex, xw said that its due to me using my arm strength to pull to get the extra height, but it is really encouraging to hear that my explosive burst for tosses have improved a lot, and my huan3 cong1 is much better (xw said that her knee doesn't hurt). I really want to master my toss to ex cause it not only helps with pstunts improvements, pyramid deliveries and btosses will be much easier with a better toss.

went for a short run back to hall after that, it has been a really long time since I went for a jog. didnt really run too fast as my heels are still not 100% yet, must maintain my stamina so that I can last through a 2.5 mins routine more effortlessly haha.

back tuck

had a short session doing btoss ytd, and was really glad doing the bare basics once again. we did straight tosses for almost 2 hours, and I tried both types of grips for the basket after being very used to grabbing my left wrist with my right hand. it's been some time doing backloading for btoss too and I can really feel myself using strength during the toss unlike last time when its mostly just loading the flyer into the basket. my left little finger feels very sprained though after getting kicked during one bad landing, its swelling a little today even after i iced ytd.

tried a few standing backtucks after that, sont said that I should keep both feet flat on the ground during the initial jump as he observed that I was jumping on tipped toes resulting in my landing slightly in front of my initial starting point. my jump seems slightly higher now though it doesn't feel that way, guess I have to get used to this new feeling haha. its back to the crash mats again to learn when to prepare for my landing as I'm overtucking pretty consistently now.

round off back tuck

went to do a bit of gymnastics yesterday and since there was the softer blue mats, I decided to try to learn how to do a backhand spring and a round off back tuck. have always wanted to improve on my gymnastics since a few months ago but my ankles were not feeling very good. they were still feeling a little sore yesterday but much better already so I decided to try anyway.

tried backhand springs with the roll mats first to learn how to "open" my body by pushing my pelvis out, I really have to start stretching my back more and get used to that feeling. the feeling is really different when I did subsequently on the crash mats, have to keep doing and work on the takeoff angle which is one of the most important things to look out for.

it really took a lot of courage to try round off back tuck because trying to link a round off and a back tuck together feels totally different. landed on my shoulder and head on my very first attempt and was quite stunned by the impact. my neck feels quite sore now, I'll get it fixed at the jurong east chiropractor during the long weekend, together with all my other injuries from training for routine.

yb corrected my round off cause apparently I was running too heavily and deliberately, and I was taking off with my legs cross which will lead to me twisting awkwardly after landing. will try to change my run slowly, its back to basics again before I try anything more advanced.

have to pull myself up from front hand springs using my hips more and try to land with my body straight, the angle I'm pushing off with my hands also doesn't seem to be very consistent yet. lots of work ahead evidently, but it really feels much better doing gymnastics after losing some weight.