ooooops. wrong flag ar. |
Month: December 2011
make up? yes. i do =)
WHO SAYS GUYS DONT KNOW MAKE UP? WHO SAYS STRAIGHT GUYS CANT DO MAKE UP? thats because u havent dated a rockstar before. sucks to be you~~ hahaha!! heres some pics of me doing my makeup before i went out for a show. |
before i started! |
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after my liquid foundation! |
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time for some powder foundation! |
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time to add the bronzer! |
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TADA! |
Xmas Party 2011
We had lots of fun joking, chatting and just to enjoy each other’s company.
I love my bros. =)
so here are some pics from the night!
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nice lighting effects! |
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my dartslive member’s card that records every single game played! |
rules and condition for the membership |
Even kids are having a go on the darts machine! its that fun. =p |
michelle and the gigantic Carlsberg! ok. the beers does look so big in this photo. hahaha! |
My pretty stylist Lilian won herself some hot gifts for the night! |
More gifts from iDarts! |
Truly having a good time at iDarts Senso! |
Bryan and his mummy!! =) |
Pub filled with darters! iDarts!!! |
and the X’mas Countdown begins!!! |
I regret sitting next to handsome. Shall not reveal his name. MUAHAHAH!!! |
SMILE!!!! =D |
Lots of pretty girls playing iDarts. Guys, you know what to do! |
Mr Liu hosting the show! |
merry xmas!
My darling’s last day@ SD
my crazy drummer. Mr purple liu. |
training: endurance, strenth, power, hypertrophy?
So i’ve decided to write a post as a form of guide for everyone to follow. Feel free to drop me a mail or message regarding what should be done if you have any questions =)
Before we begin, it is advisable to consult your doctor for your current health status and to ensure that you are fit for gym training as it may be really tough.
Here are some some short forms which will be used in this post:
sets = 1 set consist of the number of reps allocated
reps = repetitions
RM = maximum rep (maximum weight one can do, one single effort)
Muscle Endurance
High reps, Low load.
2-4 sets, 15-30 reps, 50% RM
Duration: 2-4 weeks
resulting body shape : lean
sporting purpose: endurance athletes
referencing: Bruce Lee
Muscle Hypertrophy
Health: Best Cardio Machines in the Gym.

Treadmill
Elliptical

Rowing Machine
Youâll burn major calories on this piece of equipment while also strengthening your back, arms and shoulders to cement your upper bodyâs âVâ shape.
Bike

Stair climber

VersaClimber

Basketball: how to improve accuracy
The free-throw shot, also known as the foul shot, is one of the many ways to score points in a basketball game. It is a vital component of the game and players should make it a standard part of their practices as anybody can be fouled during a game and hence have to make a free-throw shot. One of the methods discovered, in increasing free-throw accuracy, in recent years is the âQuiet Eye (QE)â technique. In addition to basketball, literature has also been published on the efficacy of the QE technique in different sports skills (e.g. Putting in golf, kicking a soccer penalty).The QE technique has shown to be a characteristic of elite athletes in a variety of sports such as golf, basketball, volleyball, rifle shooting, table tennis and ice hockey (Brown, 2007) . The QE technique has shown to be effective and relevant to the various sports and thus should be incorporated, where possible, into many more. This review will look into the credibility of the QE technique, the differences between the elite and the amateurâs use of the quiet eye, the development of the quiet eye technique, how anxiety affects the quiet eye technique and the necessity of the quiet eye technique in enhancing free throw accuracy.
The credibility of the Quiet Eye technique
The QE technique has shown to be useful in a variety of sports. One would understand the doubts if it were only used in one sport or two, but truth is, that it is and has been used in a variety of sports. One of many examples – Vine, Moore, & Wilson (2011) found that the putting performances of elite golfers improved when under pressure and in competition, after the intervention of a brief QE training.
Besides the visible and physical results which can be measured, neuroscience and cognition theory believes that the brain has billions of neurons that have to be organized in order for us to perform motor skills optimally. QE provides the information that the motor system needs, to get organized (Posner and Raichle, 1994). Sports psychology believes that information given by QE puts the athletes in focus more often hence reducing uncertainty, ambiguity and fear (Vickers & Williams 2007). Cognitive-physiological facilitation, also known as the Setchenov phenomenon (1905-1935) states that more physical work can be done when attention is focused externally than internally (Wulf, McNevin, & Shea, 2001). This is a major bonus to athletes, as looking inwardly can more often than not cause unnecessary anxiety and too many uncertainties which could affect the athleteâs performance. The QE technique is not something that was
created out of the blue. According to Brown (2007), Joan Vickers, one of the foremost authorities on sports vision, found that elite athletes in almost all sports, whether they know it or not, use their eyes quite differently than less skilled athletes. The concept of being âin the zoneâ or âin complete controlâ has been around for many years further adding value to the QEâs reliability and its need to be taught to players.
Duration of fixation on the hoop between elite and non-elite basketball players In addition, vision is equally important for the co-ordination of movements for our body. The brain
needs to organize more than 100 billion neurons and these neural networks are informed by your gaze, which in turn controls your hands, arms and body as an action is performed (Vickers, 2007). It was found that elite basketball players fixate their eyes on the hoop for an extended amount of time as compared to their less-skilled counterparts (Ripoll, Bard, & Paillard, 1986; Ripoll, Papin, Guezennec,Verdy, & Philip, 1985; Vickers, 1992). Similarly, the extended gaze control, QE, has also been demonstrated to have a positive effect on the accuracy (Vickers, 1996; Oudejans, van de Langenberg, & Hutter, 2002; Oudejans, Koedijker, Bleijendaal, & Bakker, 2005). Thus the QE technique, which is already a practiced characteristic by these elite basketball players gives them an advantage over non-elite players or players who do not use the technique. This only adds to the notion that if elite players use the technique and it enhances their performance, would it not then enhance the capabilities of normal players? Especially considering that the development or training of the quiet eye is not an extensively arduous or rigorous process.
Development of the Quiet Eye technique A form of the QE training program involves watching video models of elite athletes and getting video feedback of their own âgaze behaviorâ to help athletes develop the same QE focus and motor control used by world-class athletes (Vickers 1996). After the video feedback session, the 3 step QE routine was taught (Vickers, 1996 a, b, c):
1. Take stance at line with head up and direct gaze to hoop.
2. Hold ball in shooting stance and maintain QE focus on a single location on the hoop for
approximately 1.5 seconds.
3. Shoot with a quick, fluid action.
The simplicity behind the training enhances the possibility that more players can benefit from the QE technique. Even without the technological equipment, the basic instructions of QE can still be taught and practiced.
The effects of anxiety on the Quiet Eye technique Despite the simplicity of the QE, there are factors that can affect it negatively. Anxiety is a condition commonly felt by athletes during competitions. Coaches are often frustrated by their athletesâ inability to perform under the influence of anxiety. Eysenck and Calvo (1992) suggested that when performers are feeling anxious, the processing and storage ability of the working memory is compromised, hence resulting in a reduction in attention resources which leads to poor on-court performance. Williams, Vickers and Rodrigues (2002) reported that the state of anxiety can cause a reduction in quiet eye duration which could affect the accuracy of a free-throw shot. This could be one of the reasons as to why low free- throw percentages exist even at elite levels. This finding is found to be consistent with the study conducted by Wilson et al. (2009) to find out whether anxiety has influence on visual attention control. However, quiet eye training is still an important component that cannot be overlooked while planning for training as statistics show that basketball players trained in the QE technique have shown improvement in their shooting accuracy during basketball matches (Harle & Vickers, 2001).
The necessity of Quiet Eye technique in enhancing oneâs free-throw accuracy Official statistics from the National Basketball Association (NBA) in 1999 presented an average accuracy of 75.08% in free throws on a team level (National Basketball Statistics, 2000). However the individualâs percentage of free throw accuracies ranged from 40% to 90%. The low range of 40% suggests that there are areas for improvement even at elite levels. As free-throws can be vital in winning matches, one dimension to improving the accuracy can be the training of the QE. During a basketball free-throw, the performer is required to coordinate the visual information collected by visual search and arm movement so as to pull off the necessary movement effectively. Harle and Vickers (2001) reported that incorporating quiet eye training with regular basketball training routines resulted in significant improvements of free-throw shooting accuracy by 22.62%. This suggests that QE training can and does have a significant impact on the levels of free-throw accuracy. This finding is found to be consistent with the other studies that are of comparable nature (Frehlich et al., 1999; Vickers et al.2000).
Conclusion
The QE technique has shown to be effective and relevant to the various sports and thus should be
incorporated, where possible, into many more. It has been shown to be credible and reliable in its testing and in the results. Furthermore, teaching this technique is not extremely difficult and can be done with or without equipment, thus making it a very viable option for coaches. Even though anxiety has been shown to affect the duration of the quiet eye thus making it difficult to perform under pressure, Vine et al. (2011) showed that despite the effects of anxiety, QE training still resulted in the QE-trained golfers putting more holes than non-QE trained golfers. So there is a possibility that the QE, though affected by anxiety, may still benefit a free-throw shot. After all, QE training showed to be extremely beneficial in improving oneâs free-throw accuracy as shown by the improvement of 22.62% in Vickersâ study.
Though QE training has shown to be beneficial, much of the studies have been done with athletes at elite levels or athletes who have come of age physically and biologically. Future studies could therefore explore whether QE training would enhance the skills of athletes at the secondary school levels (ages 12 â 16 years). In addition, further research could be done in exploring if anxiety does affect the basketball playerâs free-throw shot and if QE training can improve the accuracy of the free-throw shot even under anxiety.
Written by:
Ranald Joseph s/o Rajakanthan
Leow Zi Xiang Zac
Tan Shunde
University of Western Australia
ME: training and planning
Its really giving me a different point of view in my life, my training and made me understand why i chose to go through all these, just to race.
Heres some lines from his book that i would wish to share with everyone:
“If you want to win something, you’ve got yo have single-mindedness, and it’s all too easy to wind up lonesome while you’re at it.
A race is an exercise in leaving others behind, and sometimes that can include the ones you love.”
-Lance Armstrong
so true. so true.
The amount of hard work one has to put in daily just to build up to a good race is unimaginable. Recently, my classmates have been asking me “Zac, how do you wake up early in the morning every other day, just to clock your mileage?” My reply would be “I just wanted to have a good race. I know that every single training plays a part to the final result and i am just trying to bridge the gap.”.
This amount of focus, dedication, commitment and obsession is something an athlete must do and he/she must sacrifice the fun, the late nights and probably the junk food just to achieve this.
This is the price I am willing to pay, to get what i want.
In fact, i have been planning my next season’s training plan with my mentor recently. It is gonna be a well detailed plan whereby i will choose my races carefully to lead up to the main races and i will be focusing on what this coming season will be targeted at. It will be a 1.5 years season for me. Hopefully training in australia will bring me up another notch.
Plan well if an athlete wants to get the best out of the training.
Train well if an athlete wants to get the best out of the race.
Race well if an athlete wants to achieve what he is set out to do.
Zac.
trying to beat my best
me.
Dont i need to have a little more control over my emotions so that i can be a better and happier person?
Does that mean that i will have to be seriously involved in a religion?
Pain. I love Pain.
Just yesterday, we had lab to some game analysis and i was given the GPS tracker to track my movement on the court. Ran my hearts out, played my hearts out. Was it really for the data? or was it for the fact that for the 10 minutes i will have no emotions. Even if there is, the only emotions will be towards the game, towards the situation.
Pain. How i do without you.
Accident happens and i scraped both my knees, leaving a trail of blood down my legs and into my white racers, making them pinkish.
Do i feel the Pain? I do.
Do i love it? Yes i do.
Am i sick in the mind? I really have no answer to that now…
The pain made me feel… alive..
Made me feel that whatever i am doing is not a bad dream. This is the reality, because i can feel pain.
I am so lost in my own world.
The world whereby i struggle to understand charlene.
The world whereby i struggle to let go of emotions.
The world whereby the scholarship may fall through due to recent events..
The world that might just have made me a worst person.
Who doesnt inspire to be a good man. A BETTER man? someone that others can point their fingers to and say “hey, i wanna be just like him! He’s awesome!”. I want to be that man. Not because i want the fame or recognition. But for the very fact, i know that i am doing my best not to hurt the people in my life. The very people that shared my ups and downs. The very few people that i love.
Then again. LOVE. I guess at the end of the day. The only LOVE is that from a parent to their child. Even parents do not love each other 20% as much as they do for their child. Even parents do not love themselves more than their child. So. I have finally understand why the ang mos do not say “I love you”. cause love from another party other than your parents is bullshit.
The reason why we all love something that is non-living (music, sports, food) is because they will never leave us when we are in our worst slump. Come on! They are non-living things, of course they will be there! as long as you have the cash to burn, they will be there. surely!
I am beginning to see on point in this what-so-ever LIFE. It is so shallow. It is so fragile.
Is it made up of dreams? passion? love?
i seriously doubt so.
I have yet to figure it out. But maybe, just maybe, this is the reason why there are people who are so into religion. People who are willing to give up their “live” to become nuns of churches/temples and monks or pastors. To unfold the mystery of life.
Do i need some alcohol to numb my soul? yes i do.
I have never been a fan of alcohol. especially since my car accident. However, in recent times, this baby, this alcohol crap, has been making me so much better. It has made me more calm.
I guess a little is no harm.
Just a can a day. Something for me to look forward to.