ASTC KL development camp

Just a few days back (Friday 24th-26th Aug 2012) Luc Morin of ITU and Mr.Kee of ASTC visited KL for just 3 days to help out us Malaysian athletes and Singaporean athletes, as well as the coaches in the technical tips and most importantly, the development of us athletes and coaches 'correctly'- Thank you guys very much for your time to teach us so much within such a short period! We appreciate it huge!

During the camp I learnt a great deal amount of what they had to offer- that included the body positioning in the water, or what Luc wanted, ON the water. We also taught on the arm recovery to "throw the ball", reach out far and keep a high stroke count. Kicking was just as crucial to keep to relaxed torso afloat, while the emphasis went on looking straight at the bottom of the pool.
Running side, I learnt how important it was to have a slight lean, with the arms up and right against my chest, "scratching my chest" and keeping the arms bent and "punching your chin" on the arm swing.
On the bike it was basically balancing skills that included dead still balancing, cornering, bottle pick-ups- I was pleased to say I absolutely nailed it! The fooling around during bike sessions have paid off!

We also had a 400m/200m swim TT and 1600m/400m track TT.
We weren't told of our swim results but I was pretty chuffed with my runs, clocking 5.07min and 1.07min.. No I wasn't anywhere near the Brownlees, but no hint of disappointment to do a 5min mile on my very first TT ever!

The final day came with a blink of an eye. It was a cool Sunday morning, which started off with the 4th discipline- Transition.
We worked mount/dismount, Helmeting, and manoeuvring around obstacles. I was glad to be able to go through them smoothly from all the transition training we went through in the past with Peter's aid.
Had a good swim later continuing the taught drills (kicking faced down, relaxing entire body till back and butt surfaced the water, small unforced rotations, "ball throwing" recovery, exaggerated high stroke count...)
The rain poured straight after and we were forced to delay the mini-triathlon. 2hrs later it finally stopped and we pulled our suits back on for the 100m-4km-1.5km super sprint race. My god it's no where near as easy as it sounds!! I put all my focus on what we had learnt (swim tech, transition, bike skills on drenched Tarmac, run tech) and it ended very well. I'm hoping it put a positive impression on Luc and Kee.. What a way to end the camp!

Another great part, which I'm sure was also part of the camp, was the get togetherness, socialisation and friendship we built between us, out teammates and the Singaporean buddies! Nick and Joel of SG were the 2 boys with who our relationship really blossomed.

It was very pleasant when Mr.Kee also kept a high interest in constantly coming up to me with a bucket of encouragement and wise words of his mind that I will be an Asian champion above Japanese and Koreans, as well as a future olympian. It was more than just cracking up a smile for me, to have been told such things by not only a coach of the korean national coach, but also an ASTC member/(I think) president..

All in all it was a very educational and great 3 days, excluding the few little problems that surfaced which were caused be none other that the ones who had the job of organising the accommodation and plans and some naughty naughty athletes (won't mention names!).

Got some pics up as well!

Riki

Joel Being Joel

Joel's personal request to use my new blog opening to advertise his beautiful face

Bright London Flames

Just to start off a more "official" blog..

So just recently the world had spent two weeks of their lives gathered and glued to the TV screen despite the deferences in time zones just to watch what I can't deny was one of the most spectacular sporting event in the world. (Yup, I was also having sleepless nights!)
From the very moment the Opening Ceremony began (3:50am where I was) I got up, rubbed the sleep off my eyes, got some toast and got right into it, before going for a hard morning training right after!

London Olympic Games 2012 was one of the most amazing events I had ever witnessed so far. Watching the worlds best athletes gather together and compete, as well as exchange and share culture and experience was such a spectacular thing and it really implemented a burning desire to reach that dream and do my country proud at the Olympics one day. I've also noticed the amount of tears of joy as well as heartbreaks which I guess you could say was the magic of the Olympics -A once in a lifetime event.
You could really see in their faces how emotionally involved the worlds best can be at such an event.
Listening to what the athletes had for say in their devotion in the lead up to the olympics, It really made realise the kind of discipline and inner strength (not to mention balls and guts of insane tolerance) I needed if I wanted a chance to live up to the dream.
It seemed like a long shot.
Don't get me wrong, I say it seemed like a long shot, but I also had a feeling inside me telling I could definitely do it, that as long as I put in what needed to be put in, nothing was impossible. I felt that 'highs' the olympians got as they crossed that finish line, broke that record, achieved that perfect somersault. It truly has awakened the Michael Phelps within me, and Chuck Norris Round-house kick of motivation to my head, especially after all the gutting and absolutely frustrating politics I just HAD to be the centre of.
Politics.. Something I guess you could say I'm lucky enough to know about and be smart enough to take in responsibly and ignore it when necessary at a young age like me. It's something you never want to be involved in, but at the same time just can't avoid for your own good.
It's been tough, but everyday I've been able to just ignore it and go on pushing myself hard, if not even harder in these past few weeks.
As I've been told: "focus on your performance, enjoy racing and training and try to ignore this bullshit as much as possible"
Not bragging or anything, but that's actually been relatively easy to do for me! (Well at least the ignoring bit)

Riki

Fresh start

My very first blog will just start with a little familiarization of how this works. Honestly, I have no freakin' clue how this works! been spending loads of time trying to work out how to set up a background, but no idea how to set up links, or anything else.. -at all.
On another note, may as well get on blogging my life and stuff going on while I'm at it.

Well, that's all I got for now.. Back to playing around with this blog page.

Riki