netball!

Darn it!
I forgot to take any pictures of us playing netball, so all I could get was this lousy photo of the netball hoop.
The floodlights had gone off too, so I had to use the camera flash.
Yes, i played netball on Saturday.
6-8pm.

Jac was kind enough to help us organise a netball game and even went to book the court for the full experience.
Initially, I was quite worried if we could play since she said it was an open court, and it had just rained in the afternoon.
Thankfully, the skies cleared up, and luckily the court had some drier.
So we each took turns squeezing the court dry.

Now on to the action!
I played centre, because I was the youngest, so they deduced I would have the most energy.
Oh my goodness, I was so tired by the time the half was over!
I supposed I lacked tactical discipline, so therefore I was prone to running all over the place instead of running smart.
Furthermore, my lack of any netball tactical concepts meant I was running into places, anticipating a certain play, only to end up running in the opposite direction to cover any lost ground.

I also struggled to come to terms with the myriad of complicated rules.
I got fouled like thrice because I decided to launch a long ball forward more than 2 thirds of the court (FOUL!)
I was often caught in possesion of the ball for more than 3 seconds (FOUL!)
Of course, I constantly violated the travelling rule, with my head still stuck in the captain's ball and basketball rules (FOUL!)

The rest of the group kept violating the travelling and the 3 second rule.
If fouls were called for being less than 3 feet from the ball handler, I'm sure I would have gotten called out too.
Thank goodness we can't be fouled out like in basketball.

With the 3 second rule hanging over my head, my passing became very one dimensional.
I kept throwing these lob passes which allowed me to clear alot of distance, but also making them very easy to intercept.
Also it was quite foolish to go for distance since there's a maximum to how long we can clear, a very irritating rule I must say.
If i'm going to keep playing centre, i need to boost my fitness even more.
A centre who is unable to the whole game is useless and is simply not fit enough to play there.

All in all, I really had fun.
No, I had a blast!
Jac says we're going to make it a monthly thing.
Excuse me now while I go research netball tactics from the internet now.

Here we go again...

from (http://www.fas.org.sg/default.asp?V_DOC_ID=853)

So its back to the drawing board again for our national football team.
Sadly, it was not meant to be as we lost 2-1 to Jordan.
Sad.

Although, based on the match itself, we did not deserve to qualify at all.
Our team seemed to have been caught in the Jordanians web of weaving passes.
They were skillful too, pulling off the occasional backheel pass.

I thought that we seemed more intent on pumping all these long balls forward, hoping that Duric would somehow be tall enough to reach them, or that a very determined Alam Shah would somehow muster the sped and aggression to chase those loose balls.
Seriously, for them to have a chance to reach them, the balls need to be nearer to the strikers.
In fact, half of the passes seemed destined more for the corner flag rather than be heading towards the goal.

Our set piece delivery was also mediocre at best, showing how much we missed Shaiful Esah's left footed delivery.
Oh how we could have used some his sweet crosses to devastating results especially if put onto Duric or Bahhaiki's head.

Our foreigners failed to show up too.
Precious was horrible.
He's just this huge rock wall, who's extremely big and strong.
Speed is obviously not one of his key attributes as he got embarrassed by the fleet footed Jordanian forwards.
Besides, i think he did not beat the Jordanian forward to the header from which the first goal was conceded from.
Qiu Li started brightly though, but soon just faded away.
Did we really spend 5 years waiting for his citizenship papers to watch, this?

I remember thinking to myself 'Oh no, not again' when the first goal was conceded when the match had barely begun.
A sense of deja vu filled as i recaled the match against Thailand.

Our team has stagnated.
We need to bring in new blood now.
Forget the ASEAN Championships, lets aim higher.
Lets build on our SEA games success, and start blooding in some of these youngsters.
The older players should step down, and lets prepare for the current cubs to mature into Lions.

Come on Mr Avramovic!
You can do it!

madness at 2am!!

(my shoes.)

List of things every young man should do before he dies.

Number don't know what: Go for a run at 2am, because he feels 'bored and has excessive adrenaline coursing through (his) veins'.

Check.

Yes, i chose to run at 2am this morning.
I was watching some movie at home, and one of the actors gave this speech of not giving up and feeling confident.
Suddenly I felt all this adrenaline flowing through me.
So I just started feeling jumpy and stuff.
I just wanted to play some basketball or hockey, but surely there was no way anyone would play with me at this unearthly hour.

My brother did not want to run with me, so that sort of dampened my adrenaline.
I thought maybe could just let it die down, but 1 hour later, I was still feeling hyperactive.
Not good, considering it was 1.40am.
So thanks to technology, I was able to conveniently message my neighbour, and voila!
I now had a running 'kaki'.

The option of running alone was out, because firstly, it's not very safe to do so.
Secondly, there's the small issue of my astigmatism, which renders me slightly blinded at night.

Running at night is fun, after all, its cooling, and there are so few cars spewing out their ash and smog onto you that you end up breathing it all in.
There's this sense of peace and tranquility too.

I'm not sure though, is this an example of local sports?

Technology

(from singaporepools.com/en/sports/sleague)

Wow, the S league finally has their own highlights show.

How cool is that?

The S league has been around since,maybe 1996?

Only after 14 years have they decided to have its own show.

Well, maybe they did have one the last time, but i probably was too young at that time.

Although i'm a little puzzled.

It's on Wednesdays, at 2.30pm, without any repeat telecasts.

Who's their targetted audience?

Perhaps the only people who are free at that time are retirees, and primary school kids who do not have any cca commitments on Wednesdays.

I really intended to watch it yesterday to see what it was like, but i guess it just slipped my mind.

On another note, to further highlight the increasing embracing of technology in the S league, S League videos are being shown on footytube.

footytube.com/leagues/singapore/s-league.

Another way our league is emulating their European counterparts is the usage of cable television.

Yes!

Tonight, channel 27 is going to show the league cup, Etoille vs Sengkang.

Wow, i'm really set on that huh?

So they take away EPL, and replace it with our very own league.

Talk about patriotism!

Now, after all this copying, perhaps our players could copy their European counterparts skill levels too....

hmmmm..........

Golf vs Soccer

(picture from asiaone.com)

So, Miyazato won the HSBC Champions tournament.
Honestly, i did not really bother.

I'd play soccer any day.

Golf is one crazy game.
Dad says, it a good form of exercise.
Yeah, sure, coming from someone who always wants to use the buggy while playing.

Why would i spend so long, chasing such a small ball, into an even smaller hole?
I have to pay so much money too!!
Dad rebutts that by saying.

'22 players, 1 ball. What are the odds of you touching it?'

You need a course to play golf.
I just need 2 objects to mark as goalposts, and I'm set for a game of football.

Seriously, i tried enjoying golf, but it is, just, too, s-l-o-w.
Even playing PGA Tour on the Playstation goes abit too far with its loading times.
I know gamemakers try to make the simulators as life like as possible, but the waiting times are abit too realistic in my opinion.

What kind of sport doesn't allow you to cheer?
Oh so they need to concentrate?
Right.
So the next time, when Beckham wants to take a penalty, we should all just hush so he would not slip on the turf alright?
Someone should feedback to David Stern too so the crowd would pipe down so Shaq can make his free throws as well.
Hey, maybe that's why he keeps missing.
The crowd is probably too noisy.
Shh.....

Come on!
Whats a sport without jeering and cheering?

Well hey, different strokes for different folks.

On another note, I came across an old article about who young golfers would rather be.
So many said Tiger Woods.
I wonder who they'd choose to be now.

I am a Tiger, here me rawr.
meow.

madness!

(from john's facebook)

Madness!!
Absolute Madness!
John went for the

Tribob sprint series: Aquathlon

We had prep camp in church over the weekend, so our sleep schedule was something like this.
Friday night: sleep from 0100-0600
Saturday night: sleep from 1.45-6.45.

That was MY sleep schedule.
John, the passionate runner that he is, chose to wake up at around 6 on Sunday morning so that he could go for that Sprint series biathlon.

Crazy!
When he told me, i thought he was joking.
He slept so little, and then chose to go for this 750m swim, and 5km run.

As Annette put it on Saturday night,
"all these people who run all these marathons are wasting their lives man."

I know the above picture is not straight, and not a very nice one.
Hey, there were only 5 pictures from his facebook, and i'm not going to have half naked sweaty pictures of him on my blog.

Seriously, John is absolutely crazy.
Does he hate sleep?
While in school, he used to fail his 2.4.
Now, he's a marathon runner.
A frequent marathon runner.
A bit part bi-athlete.

Oh, did i mention the part about him being crazy?
Well, some might say he's passionate.
I'll stick with crazy.