Hey guys.. WELL DONE FOR NJCC! It was really a great experience watching everyone row AND cheer their hearts out for each other. And definitely, I think, we have really gelled together as a team over the past year. Keep it up, guys! And work hard in the coming months!
Here's another quote from the movie Eugene posted before.
***************************
(The team won the Pantheon Cup and the coach is talking to his star player, Beamen, after the match)
Coach: Well, glad to see success hasn’t gone to your head too much, kid.. Coach: It’s your moment, really. Savour it. But never forget, on any given Sunday, you’re either gonna win or you’re gonna lose…
Beamen: But can you win or lose like a man. I got it, coach.
Coach: You know, there was this great quarterback in the 70s that I knew and this guy was one tough son of a b***h. He fought for every inch he ever got. I mean, he didn’t have your natural skills, but he could make it happen. He could win. Anyway, I ran into this guy a few weeks ago in LA and we got a few beers and started talking.
Coach: You know what he told me?
Coach: He said when he looked back, he didn’t really miss the Pantheon Cups, or the girls, or even the glory. You know what he missed..? What he missed were those other guys looking back at him in awe. Those 11 guys, every one of them seeing things the same way, all looking down for you, together. That’s what he missed..
***************************
So guys, continue to support each other with everything you've got, because I know it's something I will never forget in the years to come, and I believe that I can say the same for the rest of you.
as you all know, i'm not much of a speaker at big events but yeah, i hope this message will get around to all of the guys, both j1s and j2s alike. so yeah here goes, (:
firstly, i would like to thank the j1s for all the hard work you guys have put in these 2 days. they say it is tiring for the competitors but i know it is even more tiring for the supporters. competitors race their own races but supporters race every race for the team. the cheering, the support, the food. our success won't have been complete or even achieved without you guys. so thank you and congratulations on a job well done. rest well and it will be time for you guys to step up soon.
~~~
j2s, 1 word: beautiful.
that is the only way i will describe our performance. from the team coming together to cheer to the way each rower pushed and fought for every single inch, every single stroke, powering our way towards our goals; it was simply beautiful.
i want to say that as your captain i'm really very proud of you guys as my team. you guys showed macritchie what RAFFLES CANOEING really meant today. the way our team stood by each other is the way of a champion team. win or lose, we are always a team. i think that today, you guys have proven it beyond doubt. i believe that if we continue to show this support for each other, we will go very far guys. we must continue to bing this spirit of holding up each other into our training, keep pushing each other and we will climb this summit together guys.
for the victors, you deserve the 100% elation, 100% joy and 100% satisfaction. you guys have trained hard and fought well. for the others, all that is left is 100% resolution and 100% determinaton to do better the next time. the second part of our dreams start now guys. we've been given an excellent chance to make history guys. the chance to leave an inspiring legacy, a motivating story is being handed to us on a plate. we have a chance to put raffles back amongst the big 4 of canoeing. we may have been trodden by others last year but this year we have shown that we've got the grit and the courage to come back and face these giants and that we're not afraid of them.
guys, today i saw a team that was ready to fight to the ends of hell for each other. we race not as individuals but as a team. today i saw a team that believed in themselves. i saw a team that was focussed on what they want was willing to fight every single meter to achieve it. i saw a team that was not afraid of others, a team that knows that they are here to fight and prove a point. but most importantly, i saw a team of 19 individuals held together by a common dream and goal and working together as one single solid unstoppable force to achieve their dream, their goal. this was what we were guys. and this is what we are going to be forever.
4 more months to the biggest race of our career as canoeists-it does not get bigger than that and the only way we are going to be standing tall and victorious on that day, guys, is by pushing ourselves as hard and even harder than we have for the past months.
Know what you want, stare at it hard, and work hard everyday to achieve it. EVERYDAY.
winning is not about going faster than the rest, it is about slowing down less than everyone else.
ps. listen to this with your headphones ya? seriously
honestly ppl, for all my talk that 'anything can happen', i didn't dare believe it until the past two days. the turning point came when we were halfway through the 1k heats - while the 2 acsi pairs were charging ahead, i looked right expecting to see hci creeping up on us and instead saw nobody at all - it was like 'hey! we're actually going to qualify!' even after that, after the semis which we thought we got owned in, getting into a final, even the C final, came as another a shock to us.
so it's true guys, anything at all can happen between the sound of the horn and crossing the line, and that anything includes winning. you know that pause between 'start within 10 secs' and the horn? it's pregnant with possibility =D
well the medal didn't come our way, but we can understand why - it's like how jiaolian said that how we raced pretty much reflected how we normally did during training. we know our weaknesses, and we have plans to correct them =p
that said, well done everyone =D marcus especially, for his epic k1 final in the driving rain.
hey rafflesrow, you guys are probably sleeping now..(you guys better be-.-) anyway today's been.. both good and bad at the same time. but we all rowed like champions today and for that we should be proud. every boat fought with every stroke all the way till the end, "pump" button pressed and held throughout, everything we had squeezed out from every fibre.
today, we were a champion team.
we supported every rower from the shore. we cheered so loud that we could be heard from the 1km mark. for victor and i, the only thing we heard on the race to the finish was "RAFFLES, RAFFLES!" it was my proudest moment in rafflesrow.
what makes doing well in a race special? its your team on the shore cheering for you. its the "well done raffles!" and the pats on the back you get when you dock.
winning a race with your team there with you at the finish is what makes winning winning. that's why in raffles row, every race you row your heart out in is a winning race. there's simply no other team which is there as much for each other as rafflesrow.
tomorrow. we own.
greg
Updated@9:40 PM
Friday, March 28, 2008
Hello all, not sure how many of you are hanging around online, catching some last minute moments of flatwater videos, facebooking or hanging around this blog frantically clicking "refresh" every 5 mins hoping to see a new post. It's less than 12 hours to our penultimate competition big day, so I'm here to post some stuff for those lonely cyber-souls out there who, like me, have nothing better to do at home than to await tomorrow.
It's heartening to hear all the input from yesterday's team talk, some regarding fear and how to overcome it, some encouraging us to cheer for our teammates, some ensuring our fearful hearts, that our opponents are as scared as we are. It's equally amazing that such an event, NJCC, can cause jokers and crapheads (me included i guess) to straighten up and give their best for just this once. All in all, i feel that we have really grown as a team in the face of adversity.
There's a chinese proverb which goes 台上两分钟,台下十年功(directly translated), "10 year's of work off the stage, for 2 minutes of performance on the stage". Indeed, for most of us in this team, we have spent 2 years scooping oil off our soup, hardcoring gym, dedicating our mornings to stroke training, returning home at 8plus pm only to coerce ourselves to finish that bloody tutorial; only for that short 2 minutes (applicable to 500m rowers) in the water. Is it all that worth it? For your info, that was a rhetorical question and the answer better be "yes". For that short moment of intense excitement and fatigue, we have forked out so much more as compared to the usual RJC student. I believe it pays off. I'd rather join canoeing, torture my body using metal bars and carbon fibre sticks, burn my ass off with the sun on my back, for two minutes of thrill and glory, than to sit in an aircon library reading tintin and decompose at home on youtube. All of us have chosen that path, all of us have dedicated our energy to this cause. And without regret, we're going to channel all that we've trained for, into this very two days. We are going down to macritchie tomorrow and show a sportsman's attitude. Win with humility, lose with grace (not really applicable, since who says we're going to lose?). As for nathan and i, we're going down to make friends with our opponents, and show our friends that our wash is bigger than theirs yo!
Have you got the spirit? More importantly, can you SHOW the spirit?
hi all. i think with NJCC so close we're all starting to feel the pressure?.. its great we still keep our spirits up while we're back on land resting or after trg. I guess after pumping our hearts out in the water we can find comfort in each other.. i think nathan agrees with me on this cos we've got to pull 2 fat slackers behind us so we've got to pump our kidneys out along with our hearts hahahaha-.- k la no la. im sure chinks is as great a rowing partner to nathan as victor is to me(: perhaps knowing that everyone else was experiencing the same amount of burn you felt during the time trials and sprints helps to make it seem lesser.
anyway, toughen up k guys. fortify your will. impregnable. we're all in this together. row it hard. rawr.
greg.
Updated@9:44 PM
Friday, March 21, 2008
With all the competition and harsh reality kicking in for all of us, we've lost sight of the real essence and spirit of our sport, that which constantly drives us and motivates us to excel.
Our love for the sport.
Haven't we forgotten how we fell in love for what we did at the beginning of last year? Have we forgotten the feeling of pride and joy in what we were doing? Have we, in the push to get better timings, smoother strokes, and meeting expectations, let go of the very thing which drives us to greater heights?
Have we merely remembered the pain of defeat, and forgotten the sweetness of putting in our all into each stroke, pulling faster, pushing harder and enjoying this sport, this livelihood that all of us share as a team?
Let us not let go.
Let us press on.
(And to the K4 people. These are people just slightly older than us pwnzing. Let's catch up. :D )
Hey everyone, i know emo and chinks do not go together, but i've been taking long bus rides lately and been thinking quite a lot. Today, I took the usual bus home, but i noticed many old people and i began to ask myself, gosh come to think of it, we'll all grow old like and be just like that, sitting on the green seats in the bus, digging our noses without shame, wearing asadi slippers. And i began to ponder, what is life all about? I know, for religious people, it's about touching lives and showing love to everyone on earth,. And for some, it's about enjoying company with family and friends, up till the very day we leave this earth. I know it sounds melodramatic and after all, we're 18 (or 17) years old and how can i be preaching to you all about cherishing your youth? Take a different perspective and you'll see how precious life is now. The average human lifespan is around 75 years old, and 18/75 gives us about-whip out my newly conjugated GC with polysmlt2- about one quarter of our lives. In the blink of an eye, we have already walked a quarter of our lives and have never bat an eyelid. What i have come to conclude, after this week of emo busrides and seeing lots of old people, is that our first half part of life is like a moulding and learning period. We learn skills, meet people, become wise, become fit, make girlfriends/boyfriends. And for the second half of our lives, we'd put our skills to use: impart to children, use them to serve society, inspire others to follow suit, etc. That's an ideal case, but how many people have actually done that? Al Gore, Einstein, Michael Jordan, just to name a few. Whereas many others spam fun things in their youth, pick up the bare minimal skills, and grow old, not knowing how to contribute to what, and eventually walk their last stretch on this earth, doomed to oblivion and footsteps on the sand washed away by the swash. All that talk brings me back to canoeing. We joined canoeing with all that enthusiasm and eagerness to try something new, to feel the wind in our hair when we do that 30 stroke burst, to balance in a k1. But now we've already done all those umpteen times and the enthusiasm fades. We've did a lot in canoeing: made friends, learnt how to balance, got strong, became hot(esp llj), but ultimately, do you want that all? We're going to grow old and fat (sorry lj), lose our balance, forget our strokes, so what's the greater purpose in this CCA? Resilience, tenacity, discipline, passion. These are the qualities which i expect to see in myself and in everyone here, at the end of our walk in canoeing. These are the qualities which will see us through, all the way till we die, and which will make the difference in our lives as we go to work, have children, move on to inspire others. Let this upcoming NJCC imbue us with a winner's attitude; we're going in to show them who's going to rape ass.
"A true champion is someone who wants to make a difference, who never gives up, and who gives everything she has no matter what the circumstances are. A true champion works hard and never loses sight of her dreams." ---Dr. Dot Richardson
And one from Spiderman
We need a hero, courageous sacrificing people, setting examples for all of us. Everybody loves a hero, people line up for 'em, cheer for them, scream their names, and years later tell how they stood in the rain for hours just to get a glimpse of the one who told them to HOLD ON a second longer. I believe there's a hero in all of us, that keeps us honest, gives us strength, makes us noble. And finally gets us to die with pride. Even though sometimes we have to be steady and give up the thing we want most, even our dreams.
-Aunt May
Let us not be that mediocre canoeist, always rowing just enough to keep jiaolian happy, or just to finish the race. We want that medal and we want to shove it down our opponents' throats so badly. So why not start making the effort to do so, one inch at a time.
Updated@10:34 PM
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
here's the video guys.
i hope it helps you guys to put things into perspective.
and this
train hard guys. lets give in everything we have and rip our enemies apart. show them no mercy for they will most certainly give you none. great athletes become great through sheer hardwork and determination. there is no shortcut and no other way. it is time to bring your committment and take it to the next level. take your committment and make it a leap of faith.
can you put everything on the line for this team? for your goals? for our dream? if you can, show me the fire and the desire in your eyes and put in that 100% effort 100% determination 100% resolution in every stroke, every set, every timing, every inch.
its not whether we can or are able to, it is a question of how willing you are ?
hey guys, i just watched some show and this thoughts came to me so yeah i just wanted to like share it with whoever still views this blog.
do you still remember the first time we canoed? the exhilaration that you felt when you stepped into the boat and managed to row your first 500m, 1000m, 2000m, 2000m timing? i guess many of us have forgotten what that felt like. when we first "met" canoeing, all of us loved it and wanted to row because it was fun, it excites us and we didn't care whether we were slow, fast, capping, stable; we just kept rowing cause it was all we wanted to do. but everyone started getting absorbed into the competition. when we started rowing for medals, placing, we became afraid of making mistakes, canoeing became a scary thing. a thing that must be done perfectly. i guess i made this mistake too. but i know now, i should row because i really want to. and i know i really want to. i've been doing it for so long yet i know it still excites me. it still feels really good to be in a boat and this is going to be what that will drive me on. i want to keep rowing cause i want to keep feeling that joy. i hope that everyone of you who reads this post will try and remember the first time you guys came for training and canoed. the fun. the rush. the excitement. the anticipation and the fulfillment. but most importantly, the joy. and keep that joy in your hearts guys. and for this last 5+ months till July, let's row our hearts out. let's not be afraid to make mistakes, let's row because we love rowing not because we are always pressured to perform. let's not dwell on our mistakes but always look forward to the next training cause we really love rowing. let's not be inhibited by our fear and let our true potential shine through. no more regrets guys. raffles!
Luigi
Marcu
Bowser
Kennedy
Willie
Kee Guan
Xiao Bai Cai
Vic
Bong
Greg
Michael
Maggie
Mohan and das
Xing Da
Jerome
Jeremy
Hong Cheng
Powderman
Eugene
Feng Shuo
Nehthan
Beng Hong
Marc
Aaron
LJ
Shawn
AhD
