Updates Of The Trainings

Getting More And More Tenser

After the training on Sunday,20th of may, i felt worried and disappointed, due to the other Dragon boat teams which were training on that day.On that day, the place was the not the same atmosphere as when we were training on Friday. There were Teams from NEE ANN Poly,Singapore poly,NTU and some other mixed teams. All of the Teams were so strong and good!

The place was packed by the teams, but i managed to find our team. The moment i reached there, Mr Lim said that we just no need to do warm-up already, we can do warm-up on the the boat, wit some slow-long pulls. At that moment, i knew teacher realised that its not a good idea to do warm-up wit the other teams around.

Due to some understandable reasons, of representing the school on competitions, most of our best rollers were unable to attend the training. *I'm not blaming anything arh. haha. Most of our team were all newly joined members. Just by looking at the other Teams doing their warm-up and warm-down, it showed how discipline they are.

It's such a huge difference compared to us. They were so well organise and serious while doing all those training, like for example, the leader of the team shouted change of doing difference excesses, the whole team go wit it, Shouted "CHANGE!". It sounded so confidence and fierce. It's like our heart and confidence were been eaten up by them. All of them was so fit and light weight, so much confidence were on their face.

Guys! u guys saw that too right? Feel the same way as i do right? All i asked for wasn't hard, it can be done so easily. Which was your DISCIPLINE and COMMITMENT! See the attendants of the other teams? They got even enough to form a two twenty-men boats for training. When they were getting up their boat, there wasn't even a sound made by them. Not like us, shouting "Hey! I Should i suppose to sit?" or if not we took such a long time to get everyone to get up the boat and set the boat off from the dock. Secondly, they were so discipline that they all queue up so orderly for their turns to do their pull-up. But think of ours, how our team were when we were doing our work out?

So therefore, I decided! We will start doing warm-up at half an hour before the time. We will get the boat prepared at 10 minutes before, our rollers ready in the boat in 5 minutes before the training time. Does that sound good to you guys? Its easy doesn't it? Come on guys, be more discipline. Our team were lag of discipline. We must do it, in order to show others that our CW Dragonboat team wasn't a no self discipline and a team with vulgarities.

Let us do it together and work hard together! Achieve what we aimed alright? Lets make the team to be strong too alright? =)

IMPROVEMENT MADE!

Impressed and glad on the training on yesterday's training(Sunday,27th of may)! GOOD Job guys! I'm really felt joy and love our team even more! Our hardship pays off, we had a great improvement! Now we had a fix regulars of 20 roller to come for sea training. They were getting more and more better now. We do have a certain standard now compared to the past that we had. I could felt that during the training, we were able to have a strong start of 20 to 30 strokes. i could felt the boat was really starting off we powerful strokes!!

Well done guys! But guys, we still can improve even more. We can achieve even more if everyone putting more 5% effort and achieve and obtain the 5% improvement made by the effort in every trainings. It shows whether a person got put in effort during trainings. A very good example is Jasper. He was been getting more and more fitter now and his body shape was changing to be more and more slimmer. Despite of his extra weight that he had, he could now easy pulled 5 to 7 pull-ups.

Even those who were light weight in our team now, couldn't even do a pull-up. How can that be? You guys should be no much problem of doing the pull-ups! Don't tell me with a body size like jasper, he could even do it, Why cant you? It's just putting more efforts during trainings. Jasper doesn't skip all these and just all of the sudden he could do it. NO!

Even Mr Lim was praising him that he's getting more and more physically stronger! Guys, no man on earth are born wit intelligent and physically strong, it come from Effort from Learning and training! Same for those National players, they were to be able to be so good, it is because of the hardship of their training and learning.

Therefore don't get discourage if you aren't good and strong. Just be like them, put in more effort and believe me, in time goes by, I ensure u that u will same as them! So don't hesitate now! We still have time! Push yourself from now on!

THE DAY HAD COME! THE TWENTIES-FOUR!~

28th of May, The slots for the Twenty-Four had been selected today! They were * (1)EN (2)Xue Yao (3)Ronald (4)Woei Haw (5)Andy (6)Zhen Wei (7)Jasper (8)Benjamin (9)Shawn (10)Lech (11)Jackson (12)Jai Cong (13)Jason (14)Dzul (15)John (16)Sheng De (17)Gabriel (18)Sheng wei (19)Kok Ann (20)Yan Ann (21)Puay Keat (22)Keng Siang (23)Ang Da (24)Shi Xiang. Congratulations to these people! Your hard works had pay off! Those who never get in the teams, don't get disappointed k? You still have next year! Just keep on train hard alright? We were like a big family, so dun get discourage k?

We still need you guys! =) Guys! I personally wanted to thanks you all for putting efforts and care about the team. We cant be done without u guys! We can have all this is because of you all, friends that bring us together and pull us together! Just simply, Thanks for everything!Thanks for the efforts that u guys had put in! THE MOST Person that we all should thanks is OUR MR LIM! he really did alot of things for us! So Guys! We will some how show our thanks to him during coming Teacher's Day? haha.

I JUST SIMPLY LOVE OUR TEAM NOW! =) [Updated by Ronald]

Be strong....

Hi guyz, it's me, En, u can oso call me, YongCai...
me juz wan to say sth to motivate u all...
to come regularly for every trainin...
well....
i noe trainin had been long n tough....
but remember...
we train for our own benefit...
u get stronger n tougher...
if u feel like givin up...
ask urself....
did u put in ur very best??
coz...
MR LIM had put in his very best...
he spend soo much f*ckin time wit us on every trainin...
he had guide n train us till late nitx....
guyz...
he does nt need to do tat for us....
but he trust n believe in us...
tat we can make our way through of bcomin stronger...
look...
every trainin he will b there...
whether is it rain or shine...
sometime he even train together wit us...
even he gt knees injury...
y?? wad for??
all bcoz he wan to c us grow...
c us bcomin stronger n tougher...
achieve sth tat we alwayz hope n aim for....
bcoz nth is impossible....
as long as we try our best...
we will b strong...
juz come for every trainin regularly....
n push ur urself to ur limit...
i assure u tat....
u will as strong as u think u can b....
WE CAN DO IT....
we muz show others...
WE R STRONG....
do train hard n tarhan....
remember...
TOUGH TIME DNT LAST....
BUT TOUGH MAN DO!!
jiayou...
oya, btw....
u all oso muz take gd care of urself...
u cnt affort to fall sick...
coz u will miz e trainin...
therefore eat lots of fruits n drink lots of water...
haaa...
k, tat's all....
c all of u bro for e next trainin....
GO FOR IT....

Post by En

CCA Open House (17of april)

Today is our CCA Open House of Dover ITe. This event took place in the school hall. I, xiao pang reached the school hall about 11:45am because earlier i got class to attend. When i reach the hall, i saw EN, ah yao and sheng de was already busying organising and setting up our DRAGON BOAT booth.Yesterday 3.30 we were gathered to prepare for today's CCA Fair. We were able to prepare quite a few things before the training starts at 5pm.

This morning we wrote out a recruitment list for those students who was interested to join us. We wrote out the training's time, date, and location in a small piece of paper, which were to be distributed to those student who interested to join us for training in future. Just then Ronald came, he just came in time when the event was about to start.

As soon as the event was started, the people were getting more and more coming in to the hall. It took not much time, that the hall was packed with students. This year the respond of this event was much more better then last year. The respond of our recruitment list too. A total of 66 people signed up for our DB club, five of them was girls. We will be keeping track on this new guys and ladies, in order not to let the history take place again, which is same as last year when we just join the club.

After the event ended, we packed our stuffs and carried our bags up to the staff room to find our Dragon boat teacher in charge, Mr Lim. We had a meeting with him at the room. We came up with this idea, of having each of everyone of us to in charge of calling the students who signed up earlier. Each people got equal amount of poeple to inform them to come for training tomorrow.

Hope we were able to see everyone of them for tomorrow's training!
WELCOME to the new comers! hope u will like our Dragon Boat club!

[updated by wei hao & ronald]

Training of the day (16 of april)

Hi guys, I am wei hao, u can also call me as xiaopang.A nickname given by the others.. haha..... Wow Monday training is damn tough, due to the coming competition on the June..therefore training been more and more tense. Starting of every training sure jog 10 rounds in the hall as a warm up, so today sure wont be a exception.... after the jogging will be some warm up stretching and after that we will be doing the rolling machine.... argh!!! lol...

Sad to say, last Friday i did with a 8 min 11sec with a resistance of 4.... but on Monday i broke my own record 7min 53sec with a resistance of 10 WOW!!!! CLAP~~~ hehex.. Andy timing also improve 8min plus sec to 7min 55 sec Ronald our captain also improve alot since last time..... from 9.54sec to today 8.10sec.. haha by the way everyone have improve their timing, pulling that machine.... KEEP IT UP!!!! JIA YOU!!!

After cardio will be gym.... interval we only got 5 mins rest but it could train our stamina.... the faster u recover, the stronger u are..... GYM we got 10 station.... each station train different parts of our body.... but mostly is train upper body because we are dragon boater need more upper body power....

We end the gym training with doing a total of 100 push-ups and a 30 pull-ups, with a cross-interval way. Meaning having doing a 25 push up a set, then own self see how many pull-up u want to do. By the end u should be finished doing the course that u need to do.

The training ends after doing a warm down stretching at the centre of the school hall. *More weeks to go! ENDURE GUYS! See you guys at the next training!

[updated by wei hao & ronald]

Trainning of the day (11th of April)

First of all, today's land training was not as tiring than the last training.. but it's tiring though. Today we start off with warming up by running the hall for ten rounds..While doing the running, we were told by Mr Lim to do some special way of running? We were told to run side ways, twist here and there and to run like crab walking.. The purpose of doing all these was to help us to warm all parts of our muscles, preventing hurting ourselves during training.



Same as last land training, we do the circuit, 3 set of 3. All of ours Strength, Stamina and ours Endurance had reached to our limit..But we did well didn't we? Like en, he having a record of 2 min 56 seconds and gab having a close timing as en, 2 min 58 seconds. While the rest of us done at a average timing of 3 min plus. Those who didn't hit the target, never mind, dun worry about it, just keep coming for training and woke hard for it, eventually u will do it in some day! Believe in yourself!



After the short break, we were to proceed to the cardio room, Mr Lim is going to give us rowing training today. He said that he is going to give a present for those who row more then 8 min 45 seconds, for a distance of 2k.. Well most of us pass that test.. guess only few got the secret present from him.. Xiao pang got the fastest timing for that, his timing is 8 min 11 seconds.. but guess what, Mr Lim's timing is faster then him! A timing of 7 min 35 seconds. Wow..impressive isn't he?



Our exercise process on in the gym. There is a total of 8 station in there. Each station were to have one person at each station. When Teacher said go.. we have to start doing the weight lifting and etc.. each station do 3 sets of 25 per rap, each set duration is 30 sec, after 1st set, we allow to rest for 30 sec and continues with the 2rd set. there is no limit on how much we need to do, but we need to do constantly without stopping.



After that we were to do 30 pull-up.. then teacher asked us to gather.. he asked us to sit in one circle and holds hands with the person beside. Then we hold the hands up and down together as a team to a count of 300.. This is to help us improve our Rowling's timing as a team.



After all of those training, we were to gather round and have a warm down. To help us to recover more faster. Soon we end our Land training right after Mr Lim finishes his history lesson.. haha.. Well we train hard today.. WELL DONE GUYS! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK! WE CAN DO BETTER THEN THIS! JIA YOU!



Cya guys at the next training! Here are a Picture taken today..


[Updated by ronald]

Trainning of the day (9th of April)

Today's trainning is quite tiring. As we first start with warm up by run the school hall for 10 rounds, follow by doing circuit. This circuit is the most tiring exercise as it needs our strength, our stamina and our ENDURANCE... After the circuit, we have a ten minutes break time.

Our exercise process on in the gym. In the gym we were divided into two groups. One group will do the station where there is weight lifting etc... total got 8 stations to do... each station do 3 sets, each set duration is 30 sec, after 1st set, we allow to rest for 30 sec and continues with the 2rd set. there is no limit on how much we need to do, but we need to do constantly without stopping. The other gourp will have to do the 'BAR-LIFTING'. This exercise need alot of strength and back muscles. if you are not careful you will hurt your back easily. This exercise has no time limit but we were told to do 3 sets of 30. Oh one more thing to include, we were also told to do 30 pull-up after the two groups have exchange and done their exercise.

After all these exercise, our whole body is like out of our control. we can't really walk straight after all these excercise, but that's only part of it..... we were told to run 2.4 km after all those tiring exercise. We have no choice but to RUN...... and this running ends our day in school...

Today trainning a lot of people turns up, keep it up the good work... see you all in the coming trainning... : )

[Updated by jasper]

DragonBoating

*THE CREW OF THE DRAGON BOAT
The standard crew complement of a contemporary dragon boat is around 22, comprising 20 paddlers in pairs facing toward the bow of the boat, 1 drummer or caller at the bow facing toward the paddlers, and 1 steerer or tiller(helm) at the rear of the boat, although for races it is common to have just 18 paddlers. Dragon boats vary in length and crew size will vary accordingly, from small dragon boats with 10 paddlers, up to the massive traditional boats which have upwards of 50 paddlers, plus drummer and steerer.

*THE DRUMMER AND DRUMMING
The drummer or callers may be considered the "heartbeat" of the dragon boat, and leads the crew throughout a race with the rhythmic beating of a drum to indicate the timing and frequency of paddling strokes (that is, the cadence, picking up the pace, slowing the rate, etc.) The caller may issue commands to the crew through a combination of hand signals and voice calls, and also generally exhorts the crew to perform at their peak. A caller/drummer is mandatory during racing events, but if he or she is not present during training, it is typical for the steerer to direct the crew. Good callers should be able to synchronize the drumming cadence with the strokes of the leading pair of paddlers, rather than the other way around. As a tail wind, head wind or cross wind, may affect the amount of power needed to move the boat at hull speed throughout a race, a caller should also be aware of the relative position of the dragon boat to other boats, and to the finish line, in order to correctly issue commands to the crew as to when to best surge ahead, when to hold steady and when to peak for the finish. An expert level caller will be able to gauge the power of the boat and the paddlers through the sensation of acceleration, deceleration, and inefficiencies which are transmitted through the hull (ie. they will physically feel the boat action through their feet and gluteus maximus muscles). Traditional dragonboats with 40 to 50 paddlers are so long that the drum is positioned amidships (in the middle of the boat) so that all paddlers can hear it amidst the noise of heated competition. However, for the smaller dragon boats of 20 paddlers which are most often used in competitive sporting events, the drum is located just aft of the dragon headed prow.Some crews may also feature a gong striker who strikes a ceremonial gong mounted aboard the dragon boat. A gong striker may sometimes be used as an alternative to a drummer.

*THE PADDLERS
The paddlers sit facing forwards, and use a specific type of paddle. The leading pair of paddlers, called "pacers," "strokers," or "timers," set the pace for the team. It is critical that each paddler follow the paddler in front of them exactly and match their stroke technique. There are several components to a dragon boat or outrigger stroke: 1. The "catch" at the front of the 60 degree negative angle allows the paddler to bury their blade deep in the water. 2. The "pull" stage generates the power to move the boat, most often by using the strong muscles of the back to propell the boat beyond the paddle. 3. The "release" or "return" is the final stage of the stroke. To release, the outside arm should slightly bend and the blade should release to the top of the stroke. It is important for the blade to return as vertically as possible, with the top hand staying outside the boat. Each of these components of the stroke are equally important and must be done in synchronization with the paddle directly in front. If done correctly, all paddles will be in time with the lead strokes.If paddlers are not synchronized, each successive pair of blades hits the water a fraction of a second behind the blades in front of them. To an onshore observer, this effect resembles the movement of a many-legged caterpillar or centipede; thus, a coach may discipline a team for "caterpillaring." During a race it is difficult to stay in sync as the sounds of other drums make it confusing or unreliable to time off the drum beat. Very experienced paddlers will feel the response of the boat and its surge or resistance through the water via the blades of their paddles, and will adjust their reach, and the catch of their blade tips, in accordance with the power required to match the acceleration of the hull through the water at any given moment.

*THE STEERER
The steerer, known also as the coxswain, helm, steersman, sweep, or tiller, controls the dragon boat with a steering oar similar in function to a tiller which is mounted at the rear of the boat. The steerer may work with the drummer to call out commands during a race. The responses of the oar are opposite to the direction they take - if the steerer pulls the oar right, or into the boat, the boat will turn left, and if they push out, or left, the boat turns right. The steerer has the power to override the caller at any time during the race (or the coach during practise) if the safety of the crew is threatened in any way.