Wednesday, April 7, 2010

National Inter-school Wushu Championships- Day 1

Tue 6th Apr was the first day of the Inter-school Wushu Championships held at Chung Cheng High School.

Our C-Div boys were first up in the Sword 1st Intl Routine.
Here we have Leonard Tan from 1F:


In the same category, we also have Lee Jing Wei from 2H:

Jingwei put in a great performance to achieve a 3rd Place Bronze Medal- our first triumph of the day!

Later, we had our B Boys taking part in the Nanquan routine. First up, we had Darren Tan from 3I, our incoming Team Captain. Darren has matured greatly in the last year to become a pillar of the team:


Next we had Kong Wei Chung from 4D- Wei Chung is an ASEAN Scholar and although he just joined the team in Sec 3 last year, he has shown tremendous spirit and determination to contribute to VS:


Despite their best efforts and solid performance, luck was not on our side and together with several other crowd favourites, our boys fell short of the top 4 placing in the event. Nevertheless, they remain undaunted and will strive to work hard for their subsequent events

Our final competitor for the day, was Jeconiah Tan from 1F. Jec gave us a solid performance in the C-Div Boys Nanquan:

For his solid performance, Jec won for VS our second medal and garnered a 2nd place Silver in his event.

Well done boys! Let us not let the minor disappointments eclipse our triumphs in our first day and work hard to push ourselves onwards!

Monday, April 5, 2010

National InterSchool Wushu Competition: Day 0- The Eve of Battle

Tomorrow, the VS Wushu Team will be competing in the National Inter-School Wushu Competitions.

For the boys in the team and myself, this is what we live and breathe for- the passion for martial arts that allows us to push ourselves to achieve mastery and perfection in mind, body and spirit.

This year, we have a mature team and are fielding a full turn-out of competitors in both divisions for Individual and Group events. Every year, the competition gets tougher and tougher because teams get more proficient, more experienced and more creative (especially in the Group Events).
To make sure that we do ourselves proud and prove worthy of the challenge, our VS Wushu Team has been working hard and the boys have sacrificed their long weekend on Good Fri to give an awesome 3 day intensive workout.

We had regular training on Thur 1st April, then on Fri 2nd Apr and Sat 3rd Apr, the boys had a full day training session with me starting at 10am and ending at 4pm.
(with lunch break and nap time as well :P)

The boys took turns to work on their individual events:

It was good to see the senior boys cheering their juniors on and giving them pointers and tips.

We also took time to work on the crucial Group Events to tighten up on our timing, transitions and poses:


Apart from that, we also got the boys to do some relays and fitness training to raise their spirits and enhance their endurance:


Tomorrow is the big day! Jia you! VS Wushu- power, PoWeR, POWER!

Friday, February 12, 2010

CNY Performance @ VS


Today VS had our Chinese New Year celebrations, last year due to scheduling clashes and last minute changes, our VS Wushu Team performed for 2 Primary Schools but was unable to perform in VS itself.

This year, we were determined to make up for our absence and practiced hard to wow our home crowd. Our season due of Lion Head and Lion Tail- Ryan Goh from 4A and Tan Yuda from 4I are graduating this year and this would be a great way to celebrate their coming of age in the team.
You can see how seasoned they are now:


Even better this year, I finally handed over all aspects of the performance to the boys. John Png from 3B took over the helm for drumming with the cymbals played by Kang Jie, Saw, Hui Dhar and Zhenyu.
We had our 'gong specialist' Liu Weilie come back from NS to join us today even! Weilie managed to earn a day off for attaining a Silver in his IPPT test! Well done!


After our Lion Dance, we had our wushu performance by the team.
With many of our veteran members graduating this year, we showcased some new talent in the C-Div:


I believe that Kong Wei Chung from 4D made the biggest and loudest impression on everyone.
It is this passion and ROARING love for Victoria that I feel deep in my heart and wish to share with all staff and students this Chinese New Year.
In the year of the Tiger, may we fight tooth and claw to surmount all challenges that come our way;
may we hunt out opportunities to make ourselves something more;
and when we after we crest these seemingly insurmountable odds, may we ROAR our name for all to hear- we will ROAR out loud that WE ARE VICTORIANs and WE WILL ALWAYS BE SOMETHING MORE!!!

RAWR!

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Beijing Wushu Team visit to Victoria School



On 7th Feb, 3 boys from Victoria School will be part of the performance team comprising of members of the Beijing Wushu Team and Kuen Wushu in during the Wushu performance, "The Champion" at Victoria Theatre.

The 3 boys are:
TAN JIA SHENG DARREN 3I
FUNG JIN JIE 4E
KONG WEI CHUNG 4D

Victoria School was proud to play hosts to the Beijing Wushu Team who visited us on Thu 4th Feb to mingle with the boys and have a joint training session to acclimatise themselves upon arriving in Singapore
First all, we had a brief introduction of the team and our VS boys and then both groups, began to do their warm-ups and basic exercises:


It is immediately apparent that the level and proficiency at which the Beijing Team members execute even the most fundamental movements set themselves in a whole new level of skill:

Even casual warm-ups are executed with a crispness and fluidity that are the distinctive hall-marks of true professional athletes

Later, when the team started to do their more complicated aerial movements, the VS Team gave way to the Beijing Team and watched attentively as these professionals pushed the boundaries of excellence.

In this session, it was obvious that the Beijing team was not training at their regular intensity but were just limbering to acclimatise to Singapore's hot and humid weather after their arrival here.
Yet, we can see that behind the casual execution of each jump, flip and turn; there is a huge difference in the way their air-time, fluidity and technical poise.

It is not often that student athletes are priviledged to have an inside look at how professional teams train; so for the boys they were thrilled and awestruck by the performance of these highly skilled athletes.

So for those who haven't got your tickets yet, there's still time!
Don't miss the Beijing Wushu Team (not to mentioned JJ, Darren and Weichung from VS!) in "The Champion"