Category Archives: training updates

It’s been a good few days in Jakarta. No games village here so it’s just a hotel. I suppose it’s a good thing, considering all the reports about the not-so-ideal living conditions at the games village. It’s probably a good idea to have better hygiene over the tangible perks of a games village: each room is only entitled to 4 pieces of laundry a day. The hotel cafe, being a hotel cafe isn’t open 24/7. Other than that, it’s been excellent service and hospitality from the hotel staff.

The rowing venue is about an hour and a half away, depending on traffic. Leaving the hotel early helps avoid what I must say is pretty horrendous traffic. The canoe and kayak races are still going on and getting practice in before races start can be tricky if the bus is delayed, which was what happened today. First couple of days went smoothly. Got some nice rows in, familiarising myself with landmarks and water conditions. The focus is really to nail all those crucial technical pointers. The rest of the crew arrived last night, so this morning was their first visit to the race site. It was a short and sharp paddle in the doubles and was done for the day.

Tomorrow will be about putting full faith and trust into everything that I have worked on. Getting that length off the back and keeping it there! nothing more! It will be about trusting  myself all the way down the course. It will be about breaking new boundaries. I’m ready and eager to go!

Congrats to the Singapore kayak team on the ongoing medal haul! 1 silver, 2 bronzes on their first day. 1 GOLD, 2 silvers on their second day. Keep ’em coming guys!! Whoooop!

It’s another three more days before departing to Jakarta for the SEA Games. Preparations have been pretty full on, but not exactly the smoothest. Spending three months in the Melbourne winter has made massive leaps and bounds not just for my rowing, but for my overall development as an athlete. And it also came with major financial drawbacks. I therefore had to keep on working for pocket money leading up to the SEA Games. I’ve been fortunate enough to get work at a fabulous new cafe, Sarnies. Huge thanks to my bosses for being understanding and supportive!

Having to continue work leading up to a major regatta has certainly taught me a few valuable lessons. In the past, I would have chose to train full time. But I’ve learn that it might not always be the ideal situation nor will it always achieve best performances. Balancing work and training, especially through an intensive training phase, has stretched me all the way in terms of time management. I have had my fair share of missed alarms when I wished I didn’t have to sprint off to work on my bike and had all day to finish off the rowing session. But every day, I value every single hour that I have, bearing in mind I have a responsibility to my bosses, and a responsibility to myself. It has taught me to focus on every single stroke and the importance of nailing every single work piece, because I do not have the luxury of sitting in the boat all day. Just like in a race, I really only have one shot. No rehearsals, no room for error. The ability to do that comes with practice, lots of it. It’s not just lots of practice while in training, the overall approach in every day life in just as important.

It’s also about finding that balance to keep my body free from illness. Let’s face it, Singapore doesn’t have the best of climates. The humidity, coupled with continuous bouts of thunderstorm which is usually followed by a really hot sunny day, isn’t the thing my body needs to recover. Having to miss sessions because of illness is certainly frustrating. But if my body breaks down, I’ll have to bear the consequences. Therefore, it teaches me to value my time in the boat. It cultivates a mentality that every time I come off, I want to have learn something. Every session has a purpose and must be treated with equal importance.

I have learn to accept the fact that circumstances here will never be ideal for achieving optimal performances. Plunging head on into something which is directionless will drain the life out of anyone, no matter how positive he or she is. The past couple of years for me have been a classic example of plodding along. I am glad of the decisions I made to train abroad. For me, I have found that the more quality sessions I have, the easier it is mentally for me to get the quantity up.

It’s a beautiful Tuesday in Hwacheon. Clear skies, sun is out. Been out to the town in the morning for my daily coffee fix. There’s really nothing else to do around here. Decided not to take the bus out to the next closest town. It’s still nice to chill out on the balcony, put on some lounge music, soaking up the sun. Only thing that’s missing are awesome mates to hang out with. You know who you are.

I must say that it was a disastrous last day of racing for me. I totally got my times wrong and I didn’t make weight in time. It was pretty devastating to make such a schoolboy error.  Looking back, I knew what went wrong, but there aren’t any excuses to be made, I screwed up big time. Important lessons to be learnt. It’s my first time not making weight and I’m hoping that it’s part and parcel of being a lightweight to make such a mistake once in their careers. I’ll have to run that through with my mates back at Mercs.

Every regatta there’s so much more for me to learn. I was glad that I got the chance to train through Melbourne’s winter. It prepared me for everything that hit Hwacheon during the week. Rain, cold winds, single digit temperatures. More racing at Nagambie might have been helped me cope with the varying rough conditions in Hwacheon a little better. But like any of the others in the team, I’m very much still learning and I think that’s something management has clearly taken for granted and has openly refused to address. Let’s not get started on how I have been taken for granted. My approach has always been to race the single and I think that’s a fair, reasonable and justified approach considering the floating members who have been occasionally in and usually out, or should I say more accurately, if there were any other rowers in the past couple of years. More importantly, the excuse of lack of funds and support, it makes sense and totally justifiable to seek training and coaching elsewhere on my own. What I feel is most unjustified and irresponsible is the way I have been forced to get into a crew, with the assumption that I have to be the driver. Nothing was addressed: the fact that I have no real experience with crew boat rowing, putting two totally different styles and approach in a crew without any guidance at all? It’s hard enough to put two singies together in a crew because there isn’t much culture/structure/system with rowing in Singapore, whichever or whatever you wish to call it. As much as I would really like to share my experiences with others, it seems like people insist on staying in their bubble and adopting their own approach. I want to constantly challenge myself. Benchmark against the best, adopt an approach that has proven to win medals and I have been lucky and fortunate enough to learn from the best. Now, I’ve been forced into a corner. The idea that my fate lies in the hands of power struggles and politics irks me.  A chat with Farah a month ago opened up a huge can of worms. Will I give back to the local rowing community when I’ve hung up my oars? Besides providing a reservoir to row in, a boat and a pair of sculls to use and sending me to one regatta a year on average in Asia, I can’t seem to think of anything else the local rowing community has contributed to my growth as an athlete, tangible or intangible. I’ll just leave it at that.

Hectic first 2 days of racing at the Asian Championships. Organisers have been doing a good job allocating boats, rack space, spare parts. Can’t say so for the food on the first couple of days. I suppose they weren’t expecting hoards of hungry athletes, rowers in particular. But it’s picking up. The speed at which they adapt is quite commendable. Though we have a translator, communication is definitely a challenge cos he’s only 1 person. We all learn to work around hand signs and object pointing.

Two more days of finals and my campaign isn’t going too well. Missed out on the A final in the LM1X, which really sucks. It certainly felt i was on top of things in the heats. Keeping up on the technical pointers which I have been working on. My mind was fresh and I knew a change had to be made. And it worked rather well. The boat was moving, I was on top of it down the course. It felt fast and strong. And it certainly looked sharp. My time was decent but not fast enough to make it straight to the final. The next day, everything just went downhill. We were dumped in the LM2x in the morning, and in the arvo I had to race the reps of lighite single. There just wasn’t enough in the tank to keep up in the dog fight. And from what John saw from the shore, fatigue got the better of me and I went back to old habits. It sucks knowing that I couldn’t hold it together when it mattered. But I know I have only just started to learn to scull properly.

Every race is an opportunity to learn going down the course. Training is one thing. But there are things in a race, training simply cannot replicate. The plan is to focus on the process, work on the technical pointers and smash out a fast time in the B final.

I have been back a month and day by day it is beginning to seem harder to stay on top of things. Things haven’t really changed here and I find myself constantly having to recollect the banter, the shout outs and the competitive feel from the people at Mercs to keep me going. When there’s so much whinging and soft behavior going around, I reckon the best is to stay away because it can rub off on you. There isn’t any Lachy here who is constantly on my arse for all my 8x1000m pieces, or neither is there a DeLang or Sharpy churning out 3x8km pieces on the erg, or a Wilson coming at you with a 15s handicap.

The one very important thing I have learn is that consistency is key. And it’s that consistently hard attitude that gets us somewhere. It defeats the purpose of taking a break on one of the pieces and coming back again for the last one or two. I suppose some have been fortunate enough to get away with it. But why take that chance? People these days talk lot about perseverance and all that. I wonder how many truly knows what it takes.

When the going gets tough, I’m just glad I have something to turn to. And I won’t let the boys down

It has been an amazing past few months at Melbourne and being able to row out of Mercantile is truly an honor and experience that will go into the record books. To me, you really can’t compare it to what it is like back here because it is simply two different worlds. The vibe it sent out just walking back into the sheds for the first time got me up on your feet, eager to hit the waters. Though 5:15 arrivals on a Saturday for time trials aren’t exactly the perfect pick-me-up.  Sitting on the erg beside tough men and women, got me to pull twice as hard I have ever done on the erg each session. Majority of the time, I never had to complete an erg session on my own. And the chance to meet and exchange shout-outs with World Champions was pretty inspiring as well. Week by week, the distance covered on my 30min rate 20 went up. As Sandy mentioned, there’s a huge part of being tough that I have yet to go into. Being able to sustain high intensity over a long period of time is something I have to keep working on.

Thanks to everyone for the truly amazing hospitality. The warm welcomes when I first arrived definitely helped settled me in quickly and nicely. It’s not just the rowing, the erg and weights, and Run/Ride/Runs that I enjoyed, there are also the little things. Stuff like rolling up on my bike and chit chatting with people outside the sheds, chilling out on the balcony when the sun is out, going out on nice and easy recovery rides along Beach Road. It is also that time spent getting to know everyone that made my time so much more enjoyable.

When I heard that the newly hired head coach in singapore left, even before I got back, i was glad that I made the right decision to stay out in Melbourne as planned. The emphasis, methodology and the attitude on how we approach sport here is very different. I consider myself a fairly inexperience athlete by international standards and had so much to learn, see and experience. I also hope I have been able to give something back as well. If I were to give one piece of advise, it would be to appreciate every single person that walks into the sheds, because to me, that is an elite environment that not many has the chance to be in. I am grateful to everyone for welcoming me back to Mercs. Special mention has to go out to Sandy Mitchell for coaching and mentoring. I will make you proud mate! As Lachy said to me on our last night of pizzas at Lucky Coq, “you’ll be back mate”. Cheers to all, Noodle

It’s my last weekend in Melbourne and some of the guys are coming over to chill, watch some racing and head out afters. Some have commented that it doesn’t feel like I’ve been here long. I somehow think otherwise. Doesn’t seem long when I count back the weeks, but it has certainly felt a long time.

I felt I did rather well on this morning’s time trial. Missed lightweight by 0.1kg so my prognostics were for a heavy single. Not exactly a bad thing considering I have been told i’m racing the heavy single and lightie double at the SEA Games. Yes, i’m confused as well. It’s not a common double-up combination. I’ll just double check that when I get back. But that’s how it works: Do as you are told.

It’s going to be a good few days in the boat before getting on the plane, just packing as much volume as I can.

It’s was a frustrating past couple weeks. The workload on the erg remained high, but work in the boat was at a plateau. Seemed a little like I was dropping back. The technical pointers weren’t going in and the harder I tried, the worst it seemed to become. Nothing going on in terms of boat speed. But things got better at the beginning of the week. It was like I flipped a switch and things started to fall in place. I managed to make some significant changes in body posture especially and I’m starting to work with what I have. I’m not the tallest of scullers, and one of my biggest mistake was that I’ve always tried to scull like a 6feet9 blokes, which ain’t going to happen. It’s having the confidence and trust to work with what I have that will get me maximum boat speed. Of course there is that aerobic base which I still have much to work on. It’s just no where near where it should be. It has certainly gained massive ground and I’ve just got to keep building at it.

So far it has been my best week in the boat and it’s going upwards from here. Looking forward to our in-house 4km time trial to gauge my progress,  followed by the VSA sprints which will add some variety and fun to the training over the weekend. Got to enjoy what you are doing

The past 2 months have been about learning what makes the boat go fast, getting rid of habits that are boat speed killers. Depending on the extent of how much the habit has been ingrained in you, it determines how big a change is necessary. We all want to slip back into what we are most comfortable in. But if I’m not making a positive change, I’m not going to make the boat go any faster. The first few weeks were probably the hardest to get by. Change in body movement and sequence, drop in boat speed, muscle soreness in new places and the frustration of having to deal with something that I’m not used to at all. But I have 150% trust in Sandy and Al. They know what they are doing and they know what they are talking about. It was up to me to make the change. It always feels drastic, exaggerating and awkward. But it’s about forcing myself to stick with it.

Today was no different. In fact, I felt I made my most exaggerating change. Had to make an additional body movement, hands were all over the place. But the boat was actually moving much faster. The challenge for me now is to stick with it.

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