Friday, May 29, 2009

No time to train, or plain lazy, or needs a break?

I guess I know why I'm always stuck with the same level of progression.
No use complaining when the fact is there that I don't even practice my flips much, neither do I train them properly. Repetitions, doing them everyday... There was once my flips improved quite fast because I was doing them alot, but I still have the thought that they are very 'big' and would need alot of power to do them or something, so I'm lazy to do them. Its unlike PK where you can just do the things after awhile but flips, its alot more technical. That's only because I'm not used to it and I should just do them more without excuses.

I said I wanted to work on my flips hard for this year but I don't think I'm anywhere near that goal yet. It's not because my flips sucks, but that I'm not working towards it. Like this, whats the purpose of that goal... handstands are still shit, the only reason why I took so long is the short amount of time spent on it, nothing else. I don't wanna rush progression and all and I know it isn't easy to gain progress, but of course, with practice comes natural progress, something that I've not been doing.

This week was incredibly packed and rushed. Really tired although there're some good points. The first day, I was released from school only around 5 then I went straight to gym. After that eat, bathe, use comp all the way. Never study or practice handstands. Ok, flips, maybe understandable, although its still shouldn't be an excuse. Wastage of time?
Tuesday I went out with friends to watch movie.
Wednesday I was dead beat tired because I'm again released after 5 and I knew if I were to go to gym I would be tired and wouldnt be able to complete the routine. So the whole day was rest. Didn't do anything the day before and this makes two rest days in a row, not good.
Thursday went for the routine, was sick, very happy with squats, 70kg x 6reps x 6sets done quite damn well, but pullups was pure shit, 20kg x6 x only3sets, with already lowered weight. Maybe endurance is not a thing for me with pullups, needa start training them for abit, after this routine.
Friday I went swimming (now sunburnt) and then went to eat at Seoul garden, wasting alot of money and stuffing myself with food overly, then went on to train with Richie. Nothing much just abit of drilling, my movements are pure sloppy still, the Stephen's Wall is kinda irritating as it always ruins my mood for wallpass.
Today (Saturday), I went for strength training for my routine. Was ok, but sometimes I feel my form somehow sucks, but I shouldn't stress about it that much. And now I feel my routine is a little bit tiring and getting in my way of training flips, but I shouldn't give too much excuses.

In school, although studies are stressful and boring, I managed to get some fun time with friends, more this time. At least I'm closer with friends and can talk to more people without awkwardness, although I wanna interact more with girls. That is also the reason why I went swimming and ate with them - to spent time out with friends, at the expense of Richie waiting for me (so damn sorry man, another habit I need to get rid of - being Zahid alot). And my results, 7 in class, 19/187 in level position. Maybe its stupid to compare rankings, because you are studying for better grades not to be the best, in the end what matters is the L1R4 which I got 10. My goal is anything <10 for L1R4, Chinese Olevels this monday wouldn't be so important as I know I would be using it for L1R4, but I'm trying my best to pass.

Strength training routine, hmm. Will be getting alot harder this week, pure maximal power output in the next week especially, and this week stuffs will already be alot harder. If I were to get the goal of the routine of a single rep 92.5kg squats, then I'm considering the fact that I'm halfway there. I'm not sure what routine I can go next but probably I'll peak at that routine in my 100kg squat. Maybe too early to plan, but I'm not sure anyway. I'm abit pessimistic of getting the OAC (due to the lack of work for it) by this year, so instead I'll plan to get like 40kg pullups as a substitute, that'll be good enough. Just gotta keep training hard, practice OAC now!

Nutrition needs work, I'm putting too much calories then needed. Protein is all good but just too much unneeded carbs and fats, calories too. I should cut down on oil. That day at Seoul Garden, just ate alot of stuffs. Been eating KFC and stuffs like that more often and not caring about the chicken skin. Maybe I was thinking that once in a while it doesn't matter, but I've gone way too far. What's more all these wastes money, I should control myself a little more, you gotta save whatever you can, so save up man.

Got a thought of swimming though, my swimming sucks to the core, I can barely swim. Somehow not very confident to swim to save my life. I need to learn the essentials, practice more, especially the technique to tread water, and of course the front crawl. With it, at least I wouldn't be scared to drown if I were to dive off cliffs in the future, or for survival.. I went to flip into the water but get caught by the lifeguards, bloody hell. It sucks to know just one flip that I did (gainer), and I almost got kicked out the second later. Lame swimming pool with the lame gym in it, the next time I swim I make sure I go to somewhere where diving is allowed, like Jurong or something.

Don't know why I'm feeling kinda stressed and tired nowadays, probably because I'm thinking too much about things that don't need too much attention.

All I know now is that I should put more work on things that I want to improve (which includes studies) so I should stop being lazy and waste my stupid time on the computer too much. Hais.

Friday, May 22, 2009

Slight deterioration?

This week I did abit more training, which means more thoughts.

Monday was my last day of exams, unofficially. So after that 3 papers, met Zahid in boxfit so he could help me film stuffs. After that, about night time, I went to film some timelapse, all night cars timelapse. Only like one or two turned out good though.
But theres one guy who randomly spoke to me upon seeing me with my (awesome) camcorder. He was finding young videographer and photographer to help him out with some community project and stuffs. I was not really interested but just got him entertained. I'm just so lazy to go for all these shit, unless there is money involved. I admit, I tend to be a little tight fisted, and stingy, but I really need the money for my travel funds and I must start to save up if I don't want to get a job. I think I'll start to pay back Ashton some cash and get my track pants and probably a Kalenji. That will then mean 0 travel funds again..

Money is abit too big an issue to handle. I would probably need to work after my O's, which I would definitely hate to do, unless there is a really good high paying job that I could find... and then I can satisfy my travel funds. So many destinations to go to. I hope I can get about 3k -5k. And another thing that I wanna get now is a bicycle. And an Ipod too... See first.

Tuesday was training day, but was quite impactful and I was really tired that day so I ended up doing nothing much. I just trained sideflips abit and went for the wallsideflip and failed miserably. I feel that the variations of the moves are so much harder, like almost a different flip altogether. Simple thing such as landing one leg and a time or going into another flip straight after seems so difficult. Even roundoff back I have problems with, probably the roundoff. My height in my fronts are still inconsistent. Sideflip is good, but it can be better. I want to get new flips soon, I need to widen my repertoire.

And I totally lost my double kong.

Wednesday was the real last day of the exams, went to school same timing just to take a 30minute paper. Went straight to gym after that, where Zahid came again, and distracted me again... and he went to my house and I uploaded the video. Which I finished the day before, but got problems with internet. My computer currently have no space for more video so I need to really clean things up. Good thing June holidays are around the corner, although its fully packed still.

Now the video... I would be fast to say I did not put in my all to it. It's just a simple compilation of normally filmed clips and it did not turned out super great. Especially with the voiceovers which I had overlooked the difficulty. So it was a total fail on my part, failed attempt on a 'documentary' in which the idea did not fit too well either. Like mixing Sydney Parkour in my own thing. So it was also a wrong move. Indeed I rushed it alittle too much because I did not have enough patience. But I think I put in quite some effort and the editing fitted well too, so whatever, haha. I'll try to make better videos, with filming needing the most work now.

After the gym on wednesday with Shaheed, went on to Clarkequay for abit of training and filming. Before that I did some training at my house void decks, glad to see I've nailed the low to high precision jump that I was aiming for, and abit of progression in jumps. But I forced myself too much time and time again at this really far 7.5 footsteps (of mine) SDC2LP. I always thought to myself inside that it is impactful and bad to push limits when it is just obviously too big, but still thought I could give it a small try just to note progress or something. See my poor self control in action.
OK lets stop digressing, Clarkequay now. My SDC haven't been too good in terms of progression and especially in control. I can no longer control the sdc2p and my sdc2cat was barely made it as well. My shoe is also gonna wear out so soon, the freaksion is deteriorating fast. Haven't tried wallpass for a long time, gonna be making it my weakest again. Tsk tsk. Was really tired halfway through, again. My focus now is to get controlled landings and precisions (including SDC2p). The running precision I did in the "this is me" is bullshit now I can't even do it. I guess I can only do it on certain days when I'm hyped. This usually occurs in jams, which I find weird. On those days I feel I have added power but the day after I felt like I lost it all. Weird shit. Flips training was also bullshit, I don't know what is so hard landing it one foot at a time man.. Gonna need to work on it...

Thursday was a good rest day.
Or not.
There's a little bit of progression in terms of socialising and friends now, I felt I'm closer with the friends I am with, and we managed to share the ups and downs of life together. They could understand me which I'm really happy about. But still I have trouble at times about talking to (certain) girls, which I must, just, speak up to now. Time's running out, what, it's June already (soon).
And.
I got back my results that day. Wasn't that great, but was still good. Not satisfied with Chinese (as usual), Amaths and Chemistry. The rest was fine but of course can still improve (like c.humans and english). Maybe my expectation is high, as I think I'm already considered very good among my peers, I just wanna get a one digit L1R4, or the least <11. I wouldn't say I performed very badly, but my Chinese, Olevels coming so soon, and I must pass it at least. Just get it over and done with, WELL.

Friday, which is today, I went to gym I got my 70kgx5repsx6sets which is good, but my pullups were total crap and I stopped after like 4 sets because I knew I'm too tired. Next week would be the final week of the volume phase, with the toughest of workout left to go.
Right after that I went to castle. Did more training. I think it was even more impactful as I did stuffs that I had poor control over. I was wanting to train my mind by doing the "one new thing each day" thing, and I got one of them. Which I think I'm satisfied with, but the another thing that I was quite frustrated over is the precision that I did last week and today I seem to take alot of tries. Which sucks when you know its a high elements and I must aim to get it in the first go. And all this missed drops seemed to build up alot of impact. My precisions lack control and I'm not fully confident with them at heights. It felt like I can no longer estimate the distance up high and I'm not sure how much power I need to use when I know the jump is really simple. I need more repetitions. But I'm getting back my confidence with rail precisions. Goodie.
Did not do runs today as well.

I got a really bad habit about the stuffs I do. Like flips and the seemingly big stuffs, I just take too much time to prepare and focus, and some unnecessary 'hyping up' on top of it all. Just breathe in breathe out, focus, thinking of how you're gonna do it, and then, DO IT. No need for so much preparations. Too much ain't good.

(UPDATE)
Saturday.
I woke up late two saturdays in a row, 1pm. So I was late for DB's jam and I was kinda lazy as well since over there is raining. Anyway, I still went out to train, rather unplanned, but since it didn't rain and I was itching to do something. In the end I went to castle AGAIN to drill stuffs. My pharkhour had improved but flips are still the same, rather bad. I'm happy of the stuffs, mostly leg power, that I could nail, the running cat is consistent now and I can land 2 hands nicely now, without totally alot of effort and the wallpass at the hdb blocks at castle are easee.
I felt my flips never improve, and the feeling sucks to the core. Its like, despite how easy the backflip is, when I learnt it like 1.5 years back, my backflip is still low as hell. I think others can do it much better with least time spent as well. Frontflips and sideflips shows no progress. Might even be 'deproving'. Sucks, but I really need to start practicing them more since they are my aim for this year.
-
So movements, few goals.
More control in movements.
Faster.
More confident - stop taking to long before a move.

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Exams finishing soon...

but I can't really slack after it. There's still prelims, and finally O levels. And it gets even more stressful... I hope I did well for my mid year, but I'm not fully confident. After this year, it is finally time to slack! I'll finally have so much more freedom, not sure about the life in poly, but definitely some time off from studies. So main thing now is, work hard this year, and get this year over and done with, well.
But I wonder if I would need to work for money, so, I really can't say.

This week, I started my (strength training) routine, looks to be a really tough routine soon to come, but I'll have to endure. Of course I must learn from my past mistakes - listen to your body, don't force yourself to do reps just to keep your workout clean or what. You just work towards your goals, if really can't, don't think too much for it. Take things slow. And of course, keep the form good all the time. I'm starting to feel good progression from all the workouts.

Movements wise, I think I'm starting to feel much better in flips. Not getting frustrated, bad landings - so what, all part of learning and training. Its really a sacriface if you wanna flip, i'm just gotta put in my all in each movements and get better landings. But all's good now, sideflips are quite soft, but whatever it is, I need like so much more practice to get all my flips to the next level. I'm gonna start properly practicing my backflips soon. Solid basics!
Actually I didn't really train movements this week, only Friday, where I went to Bishan when its raining. But I still did some productive training, flips. And some small movements. I guess I'm gonna be up for some more training this week, maybe more time alone though, I wanna change things.

I'm abit lethargic nowadays, mentally, because I got no rest, right after 3 papers, once I come home, I don't have much time to rest, I have to go straight to studying again. And I gotta study again later for 3 papers tomorrow again. But after that I get to have a good rest, but not for long.

That's how school have been. I'm trying to get even closer with my friends by going out with them more. Don't forget, its the last year together, and I should seriously start spending some time with them. My social life isn't that fulfilled, I've been misplacing priority. Interaction between friends are still little, I'm still wondering whether anyone take me seriously, or treats me as anything more then a typical friend. And I still can't talk to girls. This sounds emo, but thats how the public sees one pouring out their thoughts. Sometimes people (including me) just couldn't help but to see things how the rest sees.

I'll started editing the video, but I'm not sure whether its good or not, so I'm gonna spend some time brush it up. Gotta need to film one or two more timelapse, then it should be roughly settled, probably done this Friday. I lost my mic foam windscreen, like wtf. I don't know how did it dropped off, it sucks. Not sure whether I'm gonna get a replacement...

I can't help but to say this, but I think alot of the community is still competitive, and showoff. Yeah, we all know its bad and all, but we still do it. Maybe its just human, and its not very wrong too, as competitive helps to push you and showing off raises your self esteem, albeit in a 'wrong' way. And because of this, we all you such excuses to reason yourself thats its okay to do all this. We have in our mind, thinking that we are better then some guy, especially towards newcomers, then when he does something you guys don't believe he could, then you would be tempted to try it, sometimes to a extent where you try to nail it all because he could. Or say/think stuffs like "he can, I should be able to as well lah." Don't wanna say names, so I'm just addressing everyone because I'm somewhat guilty as well. Probably some competitiveness and won't hurt bad, but yeah, you know where I am getting at.

UK standards are really high, everybody is getting so good, nothing compared to Singapore's standards. Gotta need to train harder before we head there!

Time is wasted, so much, hais.

Saturday, May 9, 2009

What've I been doing?

I have mixed thoughts.
Exams approaches, this is the first step, am I gonna prepare yet? Olevels hitting us hard in 5 months, and just 5 months, not too long man. What do I actually want now? The whole point of your secondary life is to prepare for this major O's, after that, you have overcame the one of the huge hurdles of life. No matter what your thoughts is, whether it being rational or not, does not matter at this point, because there is no choice, as there is none for opt to not enter national service, to get this major exams done and WELL. There's no other option but to score now. For that to happen, you gotta study, you gotta work, instead of wasting your time, procrastinating, slacking, doing nothing.

What have you learnt over the past 2 years mistakes in training? Mistakes after mistakes, time and again. Where's your self control, what's the point of yourself regretting over and over again, and then rant those regretful thoughts out here (letting people like Zahid making fun of you in the end)? Forget about bails and injuries, but how you keep pushing yourself doing things too big and somewhat reckless, which results in the former? Do you want to live long, stay healthy? What purpose does it serves to progress fast, impacting yourself in the process, when you got all the time in the world? Have you remembered what happened just a year back when you ended up with some knee problems due to forcing yourself to nail something which is not well within your reach? Control before everything else. Respect your body, please. And this must be your last time saying this.

You got about 5 months+ of school life now. And this will be the last year of secondary school, last year meeting your friends, but are you cherishing it? Or do you just wait and wait for the time to past, and when things are all over, you start regretting again, which is pure pointlessness. Forget about thinking that you sound stupid, or making yourself worse of then before, its obviously worse if you don't talk at all. Moreover, this is the final year. Time flies, fast.

Golden goals? What are goals if you don't even work towards them. I don't see you working towards handstands and such. All the time you say you are studying but are you? Or are you just blankly staring at the papers, giving excuses to yourself to do something else, and in the end, nothing gets done, and you try to fight against time for it. Whats the point of thinking that you will finish up all your work but at the end of the day you are only satisfied with just half your work done, due to the fact you are playing computer aimlessly for hours. Why settle for a small score when you know with discipline, you can go big? Its just the lack of fighting spirit. If only you can push as hard as you do in pushing your limits in training. There's a right place for everything.

Somethings gets done, good. Fred sampler is finally done and dusted, 1 new scary thing each training session, interaction between friends. But its not good enough man, never good enough. Never settle for something small when you know you could do better, in stuffs like this. You got quite a good mindset in lifting and flipping, but why not in pahcore? You shouldn't aim not to be bail, but not to recklessly push limits and impact yourself, because with that, you won't be bailing, provided you give due focus. Time for this is limitless, so take things slow.

I don't want to talk too much.
I don't want to waste too much time.
I don't want to write craps here but in the end, mean nothing to it.