Dance little lady dance

It wasn't that long ago when I wrote about Lesley-Anne enjoying JC life, partly due to her love for dance and her Dance CCA. In the blink of an eye, it's time for her to step down as a senior (the JC2s stop CCA from mid of the year so they can focus on the fast approaching A levels).

Joining the dance group was the most fulfillment Lesley-Anne has ever gotten out of any CCA. She has not only improved tremendously on her dance techniques, she has also had the opportunity to perform many different dance styles.

Being part of dance is no walk in the park. People often have the mistaken idea that a dance CCA only dances or learns choreography. The truth is a huge chunk of each three-hour session is spent on technical exercises and each session starts with PT (push-ups, crunches, etc). Dance is a very physically demanding performing art, almost like a sport.

In fact, Lesley-Anne is now the most physically fit I've ever seen her. If you've followed my blog, you'll know that sports has never been Lesley-Anne's forte. For the NAPFA test, she's always struggled with the 2.4km run but from her dance training, running stopped becoming a hurdle. This year, for the first time since primary school, she scored a gold in NAPFA. She was so motivated she decided to try and maintain her fitness by going jogging twice a week. Here she is with Andre. Brother and sister running together! Who would've thought?

It has been such a huge blessing for Lesley-Anne to be part of her dance CCA, in no small part because of the instructor, Dan Kwoh. Despite her not having joined a dance CCA previously, Mr Dan took a chance on her and gave her the opportunity to blossom. He's a terrific mentor to his students and great at identifying potential. Eg. if he feels that a student is particularly skilled at expression, he will give her an opportunity to showcase this. He noticed Lesley-Anne's technique (as a result of her ballet training) and gave her a pas de deux (dance duet) part in the school's Singapore Youth Festival (SYF) item. Ok, it's also partly because Lesley-Anne is so petite - it means she's easier to lift!   

Mr Dan is not just a great teacher, he's a fantastic choreographer. That explains why he's so popular as a dance instructor for schools. He's currently teaching 6 schools and choreographed all the dances for this year's SYF. He held a mini rehearsal/concert for family members of all 6 schools to see the performances and I was completely impressed by the sheer scale and creativity of all the dances.

This is a pic of one of the secondary school items.

And these two pics below are of Lesley-Anne's school dance. Mr Dan tends to pick more abstract concepts for JC and this one depicts the fear and loneliness associated with dementia. I know, right? So cheem! But I thought they totally pulled it off - it was beautiful and haunting.

You can watch the full performance here. Sorry for bad recording - this was taken from our seats and we couldn't find the official SYF video online.

All 6 of Mr Dan's schools achieved Distinction for this year's SYF. I can't say I'm surprised but it speaks volumes of his skills and dedication as a dance educator.

I think Lesley-Anne is very fortunate to have discovered something she's passionate about and been given the opportunity to pursue the passion in a nurturing environment. I've always thought dance to be an exquisite art form and is pure poetry in motion. As pioneer American modern dancer and choreographer Martha Graham put it, "Dance is the hidden language of the soul." Such a blessing that Lesley-Anne is able to channel this language as a mode of expression.

"The dance is a poem of which each movement is a word." - Mata Hari

A season of blessings

Did you have a good Christmas? We did!

The run-up to Christmas was a hectic one, especially for Lesley-Anne. However, in the spirit of Christmas, I've decided to focus my last post of 2014 on the many blessings God has showered us with.

1. A Time to Dance and a Time to Rest

Lesley-Anne embarked on a one-week trip to Taiwan with her dance CCA mates. It was a great experience as she attended loads of dance masterclasses conducted at professional studios. Ballet, jazz, hip hop, street, etc. However, it was also an exhausting trip. Apart from dancing all day, the kids had to walk as far as 1km to get to the dance studios and went out to street markets in the evenings. The fatigue plus the cold and wintery wind caused Lesley-Anne to return home with a fever and sore throat, and she wasn't the only one.

Nevertheless, it was an invaluable learning experience and I thought Lesley-Anne falling sick was actually a blessing in disguise as she was forced to rest at home for a whole week - something she badly needed to do before the craziness of the New Year begins all over again.

2. A Time to Create

We did the final edits for Danger Dan #5 just before Christmas. The schedule was so tight that I didn't have any time to feel nostalgic about editing the last book of the series. Actually, there will be another Danger Dan book but it won't be part of the storyline... hmm...that sounds complicated. Never mind, I'll explain another time!

Anyway, Danger Dan Creates the Ultimate Utama Uproar is both Lesley-Anne and my favourite book in the series, and we hope our readers will love it too! It's scheduled to be out on 16 January 2015. Will post updates.

What a juicy orange cover!

Incidentally, a wonderful reader sent me this photo of her niece who's a huge fan of Danger Dan. She visited the Epigram Books pop-up sale to get her copy of Danger Dan #4. How sweet is that?

3. A Time to Eat and be Merry

We're very fortunate that my mil, despite her years, is still in good health and spirits, and always makes an effort to observe traditions, such as making tang yuan for the Winter Solstice Festival.

And then, there's the annual Christmas eve party with the extended family - an event we all look forward to (admittedly, a large part because of the food. Such gluttons we are!) We're also incredibly fortunate to have a gem of a helper who is so dedicated and familiar with our ways that she's now able to prepare Christmas dinner almost single-handedly.

 Here's the matriarch with her grand-kids and great grand-kids.

4. A Time to Laugh and a Time to Love

I believe in laughter and humour. In our household, there's a lot of good-natured joshing which I feel goes a long way towards relieving the stresses of everyday life. Can't always be taking ourselves too seriously. Whenever one of us does or says something silly (which is frequent), my response is: "Wow, your brilliance astounds me." Or Lesley-Anne would say, "Come, let me slow-clap for you." All in good fun.

For Christmas, I don't know where she found the time but Lesley-Anne made us cushions as gifts. Creative and personalised - how not to smile at this?

Can you tell Andre loves his cushion?

As my kids grew into teenage-dom, one thing I'm always thankful for is how easily I can still talk to them. Having experienced Lesley-Anne's angsty years, I was bracing myself for Andre to turn into the Incredible Sulk but that never happened. He's still happy-go lucky, and generous with hugs and kisses (not in public, though!) I asked him: "How come you're never moody? Are you always going to be sweet like this or are the moods yet to happen?"

His reply: "Aiyah, won't lah. I'm always happy. Just enjoy life as it comes."

I'm also grateful for how Lesley-Anne and Andre have grown very close. When I tell people that the two of them get along really well despite their vast differences in personality, I suspect people either think I'm lying or that I'm the luckiest mum in the world.

And with that, 2014 comes to a close. Where did the time go? As we usher in 2015, I'm not going to  make New Year's resolutions to be better, faster, more patient, more diligent, yada yada, because I know the intent is always stronger than the resolve. Instead, I offer a different approach and leave you with this New Year quote by Neil Gaiman, one of Lesley-Anne's favourite authors:

"I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're doing something." - Neil Gaiman

May you embrace the many mistakes that you are about to make in 2015, and the wondrous discoveries and opportunities thereafter. Happy New Year!

Making the most of JC life

Before Lesley-Anne entered Junior College, she'd heard loads of horror stories about how hectic JC life is, how some kids can barely keep up and find it so stressful compared to secondary school.

Now that she's been in JC for slightly more than 2 months, she can verify that the rumours on workload are all true. She has lessons until 4pm on most days. On CCA days, she reaches home after 9pm, exhausted. There are lecture tests and class tests almost every week, so many that she has lost count. She often has so much homework that she can't finish it at home and has to complete it during free periods in between classes.

But here's the thing: Lesley-Anne LOVES JC life.

I think it's a combination of three factors: subject combination, class and CCA. Lesley-Anne's subject combination came about not without sleepless nights and having to jump through multiple hoops. Already choosing to go to the humanities stream was considered second rate in a crazy system that still values the sciences (unless you're in the special Humanities Programme which Lesley-Anne chose not to try out for because of its over-competitiveness). She wanted to take Literature, English Language and Linguistics (ELL), Geography, and Maths at H1 level. This met with some concern by the school because they felt that taking Lit and ELL would "limit" her options. As the Epigram Books' editor commented, "aren't they the ones limiting her options? She's a writer!"

The school would have preferred her to take the more conventional subject Econs, in place of ELL. Just to give some background, almost everyone in the humanities stream (and many in the science stream) takes Econs as it's considered a "useful" subject and also one that's relatively easier to score in. Econs has a high percentage of A grades at the 'A' levels, while ELL is considered a straight B subject (negligible number of A grades). But Lesley-Anne went for the introductory Econs lectures and she was bored out of her mind (besides being perplexed by many of the concepts).

Even choosing to take Maths at H1 level (in my time, the 'AO' level equivalent) was a controversial choice. Maths at H2 level is one of those subjects that almost everyone takes because it has one of the highest level of A grades. In a cohort where more than 1,000 kids in Lesley-Anne's JC take Maths, only a paltry 26 take Maths at H1 level. And these are mostly the students who didn't meet the qualifying grade (based on sec4 Maths results) to take it at H2. So Lesley-Anne was an exceptional case because she qualified for Maths at H2 but didn't take it. Her reasoning was that to do well in Maths at H2, she would have to put in five times more effort in a subject that she doesn't care about. She would rather dedicate her time and energy to her other subjects.

I agreed with her assessment. I've always found that looking at the percentage of A grades as an indication of whether you would get an A is so flawed. Plus choosing subjects based on what you think you can score in, not based on interest, has always been one of my bugbears about the education system. So at the time when she was going through multiple subject combinations in her head and trying to think about the ramifications of each choice, I told her: forget about trying to chiong with everyone else. JC is 2 years of your life you'll want to remember - choose the subjects you are passionate about and enjoy the experience.

So Lesley-Anne appealed to take ELL, sat for a qualifying test and was selected. Thankfully, the school granted her request to take ELL and Lit together. It's been only about two months and she is enjoying her subjects tremendously. She loves the classes and I think at JC level, the humanities teachers really welcome divergent views, as long as your arguments are cogent. Lesley-Anne loves that the lessons call for critical thinking instead of merely parroting someone else's opinions, as was often the case in secondary school. It's a lot of work but it's interesting work.

The second factor is her classmates. In the beginning of the year, Lesley-Anne was quite apprehensive as to who her classmates would be. In secondary school, she encountered many, for a lack of a better description, what we call "mugger" kids. There's a difference between being hardworking and being a mugger. Hardworking kids understand the importance of diligence and study hard. Mugger kids take this to a whole new level - they consider grades THE most important thing in life, judge others purely by academic results and are myopically competitive. If they get a B grade, they moan and whine that their life is over (whether they really mean it or do it to get attention, it's annoying). So they're always poring over their books and great at regurgitating content but when you have a conversation with them, you often find that there's no depth to their thoughts or views.

I think God really answered Lesley-Anne's prayers for a good class. Her class is a mix of quirky and bright kids, the majority of whom are hardworking but not muggers. They strive to do well but they don't obsess over their grades. Lesley-Anne loves that they challenge her intellectually and constantly broaden her mindset. They have all kinds of interests, from sports to dance to debating, and add so much fun and personality to the class.

Finally, CCA. Over the past couple of years, Lesley-Anne's passion in dance has blossomed. Even though she has completed her Grade 8 in ballet, she wants to continue lessons, just because she loves it. In JC, she really wanted to get into the modern dance CCA but it's extremely competitive as there are limited spaces (mostly taken by kids who had been in the dance CCA in secondary school). So she prayed very hard for this and at the audition, danced her heart out... and was selected. She's one of only four girls who weren't previously in dance CCAs.

In Lesley-Anne's own words, "this completes my JC life." We're very, very grateful that God has been so gracious in answering all her prayers.

I know it's early days yet and we can't tell what will happen. She may end up not doing that well for 'A' levels, for whatever reason. But I've always maintained that the education journey is never solely about grades - it's about the experience and the learning, regardless of the end result. And I know that I've not seen Lesley-Anne this happy and engaged in a long time, so it's all good.

The clarinet cadenza

Next week, Lesley-Anne will step down from the band, her CCA for four years of secondary school. During that time, she learnt the clarinet and became the assistant section leader.

To be perfectly honest, she's not unhappy to leave the band, even though she has made great friends there. She's relieved because the entire process of being part of a performing arts group in school is so intensive and taken so seriously that it has become more stressful than fun (previously mentioned in this post). Which I find a real pity because it's so great to be able to play music as part of a group.

Nevertheless, she can't deny that joining the band has brought about immeasurable benefits, not least of them, the opportunity to learn how to play a new instrument. Thanks to all the extensive practices, Lesley-Anne has grown to be quite adept at the clarinet.

In fact, the clarinet coach was sufficiently confident in her section's abilities to suggest that they try out for a clarinet exam last year. Lesley-Anne formed a group with three of her batch mates and entered the University of West London Music Performance (LCM) Ensemble Level 3 exam (there are five levels in total).  The group managed to score a Distinction, which I felt was such a nice reward to show for the four years of hard work.

Anyway, before Lesley-Anne stepped down, I decided to record her playing as a keepsake, since I'm almost certain that she'll never be able to play at this level again, once the practices stop.  I also made her take some photos of the clarinet (the instrument belongs to the school and she's not interested in getting one of her own).  It's a gorgeous instrument.

And here's the recording.  It's quite difficult to find a concert piece where the clarinet has the melody line but this one, "Concerto D'Amore" by Jacob De Haan, comes pretty close.  In this piece, the same theme repeated throughout piece in three styles - baroque, pop and jazz.  The first video shows Lesley-Anne playing the baroque part and the second video shows the jazz.

Maybe in the far future, she might look back at these and decide that she'll want to take up in the clarinet again.  If not, at least she'll have something to remember this chapter of her music journey.

"No birdcall is the musical equal of a clarinet blown with panache." - Edward Hoagland

Oh, to be bored

Recently, I was invited to a Singapore Conversation session on education and while I was there, I was asked to give a soundbite for an MOE video that's to be produced for teachers and staff.  There were many things I could have said but in the end, what I chose to say within the 2 minutes or so was the importance of letting kids have their free time.

This topic just happened to be topmost on my mind because Lesley-Anne was reading up on the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and she became all excited when she came to Article 24: Everyone has the right to rest and leisure.

"I wish my school knew this!"

When Lesley-Anne first started secondary school, she was full of anticipation.  By the end of sec 3, she was physically and mentally exhausted.  Don't get me wrong, it's not that she doesn't like her school.  It's because her schedule had become so intense she barely had time to breathe.  It's not just lessons. After school, if there wasn't some supplementary or enrichment class, there would be CCA.  If it wasn't CCA, it would be some excursion or project discussion. When there's the rare occasion that there's nothing on or a holiday coming up, you can be sure the teachers would pile the students with extra homework.  If the students protest, they're often told not to be lazy or have better time management skills.  School holidays are a sham. There's never one where my kids don't need to go back to school for something or the other.

CCA is almost on par with schoolwork in its demands.  In sec 1, Lesley-Anne was super psyched to be in band. She got to learn a new instrument and perform in a musical group.  It was fun.  By this year, she had grown thoroughly sick of it. Why?  Band practices are 3 times a week, 3 hours each time.  When the Singapore Youth Festival (SYF) draws near, rehearsals intensify to almost everyday.  The pressure placed on the band for SYF is intense. If they miss out on a Distinction, there is much hue and cry.  The students feel the loss keenly and the school demonstrates its disappointment by cutting the band budget.  Even during non-SYF years, the band is expected to put on school and other performances, again the justification for intensive practice.

This trend is not just for band, obviously. Lesley-Anne tells me that many students in the school choir over-practise to the point that they suffer vocal cord damage and have to go to the doctor to have a tube inserted into the throat to heal it.

Doesn't this strike anyone as ridiculous? I find that our culture is fixated on the maxim that if something is good, it's better to keep doing more of it. To the point where something that used to be fun and interesting becomes detestable and downright unhealthy.

We are grooming a generation of jaded kids.

I recently read a BBC News article on the importance of boredom and enforced solitude for creativity.  Through interviews with authors, artists and scientists, Dr Belton, an education researcher found that free time allowed people to tap into their latent creative energies.

If this is true, then it perhaps partly explains why Singapore seems to have so much trouble in this respect.  Our kids barely have enough time for rest, let alone time to be bored.  When Lesley-Anne was very young, about 3 or 4, I used to see her sitting on her bedroom floor, just staring into space. I never knew what she was thinking about, I like to imagine she was in some childhood fantasy land, maybe with flying teddy bears and talking dolphins.  She doesn't have time to daydream anymore. Today, when she has some free time, she catches up on sleep. She has learnt the art of sleeping anywhere - at the desk, on a cushion, on the bus.

My friend, Lilian, was recounting to me how at the International School in Bangkok, the students get to try out a diverse range of interests throughout their school life, eg in photography or music or art, and some emerge to be fantastic talents in these areas.

My belief is this: it's not that Singapore kids don't have talent, it's just that they don't have the time to discover them. Their schedules are so packed with academic work that any such activity is considered extra and comes out of their own time. Curriculum time seldom allows for non-core subjects, except in a cursory manner.  Typically, by the time the kids have finished studying, CCA, tuition, etc, they're so tired the last thing they want to do is fill their remaining time with more stuff.  All they want to do is veg out in front of the tv or computer because it's a shutting down mechanism. (Note that tv and computer time does not constitute boredom and does not increase creativity).

If children here are musical or sporting talents, chances are it's because their parents invested resources and made their kids carve out time to bear out these talents.  That's why I'm sometimes a little sceptical about the DSA scheme.  Although it tries to be more holistic by recognising talents other than academic, it focuses only on the end result and doesn't aid the nurturing process.

The truth is that passions and skills in areas like the arts and sports take time to develop.  It starts with exposure, discovery, and trial and error.  Then gradually, the child will come to see if he has a passion in it before the honing of the skill.  The process is slow and it requires an extensive amount of time, something our kids don't have the luxury of. Because of the DSA, some parents are pushing their kids to accelerate their artistic and sporting potential for the sake of admissions at pri 6. When we rob the kids of the natural process of creation and development, we risk killing the passion because the objective becomes a pragmatic one and it all becomes too much, too soon.

I feel strongly that schools, teachers and parents alike have to recognise the value of letting kids have their time and space.  What I said in the MOE video was that teachers (and parents) have to stop thinking that whenever the child has some time, they have to fill it.  At some point, we've got to realise that filling time doesn't improve learning, it impedes it.

Less really is more.

The true value of sports

It's time for the inter-school badminton tournament again and this is the last year Andre will be playing for his primary school team.

After 3 years of seeing Andre train and play, here's my conclusion:

Competitive sports is tough.

When parents first send their kids for training for any competitive sport, I'm sure many of them have big dreams. Maybe not as grandiose as grooming a national player but perhaps some image of sporting trophies or medals lining the bedroom shelf.

For some of course, these visions do become reality. But I've come to the realisation that for the majority, these are merely pipedreams. The Singapore sporting scene for kids has now become almost as competitive as the academic one, and many kids who start out playing because of the love for a sport simply don't have the resources or the time to invest in what has become necessary to be among the medal-worthy minority.

When Andre first started playing for the school team, we were cheering for them to win matches. Badminton, however, is not a niche sport for Andre's school so when this didn't take off, we revised our expectations downwards to just winning a couple of games in a match. Even that proved to be difficult.

Three years in a row, Andre's school has drawn to match up against the top primary school badminton team in Singapore. What are the odds? Even the coach was stumped. When Andre signed up for individual competitions, 4 out of 5 times, he's met seeded players or eventual winners of the tournament in the preliminary rounds, eliminating any chance of proceeding to the next stage.

Even though we know that in sports, you win some and you lose some, it's very disheartening to constantly be beaten down, especially by something as random as the luck of the draw. No matter how hard Andre trained or tried, he didn't seem to have very much to show for it, or to keep him encouraged. He grew to dislike competitions and would perform below his usual standards under pressure. When he lost, he would cry or mope and I was at my wit's end as to how to keep him motivated.

I struggled with this last year. I asked God, "why can't this child catch a break? Are you trying to tell us that we made the wrong decision in letting him pursue this sport?" I couldn't figure it out.

And then out of the blue this year, something changed. When Andre stepped up to play his first game against the top school (where he was matched up against the best player, no less), I noticed a spring in his step, a new-found confidence I never saw before. He faced his opponent, who was a whole head taller than him, unintimidated. He ran down every ball and played at a level unprecedented for him. He was demolished in the end, but to my surprise, he strode off the court smiling.

The teacher-in-charge turned to me and said, "You should be very proud of him."

To a bystander, it must have been an odd sight. There he was, having just lost the game and the coach was congratulating him on a job well done. But having coached him for 3 years, she recognised, as I did, that Andre had experienced some sort of breakthrough in his development.

It dawned on me: Andre was finally enjoying playing in a competition.

Sports is a school of hard knocks. It's not like a Hollywood inspirational movie where the underdog will eventually be crowned victorious after 2 hours, against all odds. Real life is not Hollywood - David doesn't always defeat Goliath, there isn't always light at the end of the tunnel. (Neither does love always conquer all nor truth always prevail, but that's another story). Basically, real life can be brutal.

Many kids train for a sport all of their school years and never make it even remotely close to the top. I've heard some parents make their kids take up the school's niche sport or pick more obscure sports to maximise their chances of winning, but I find it a little sad that even choosing a CCA has to be so calculated.

I don't want to rationalise. It's convenient to say God put Andre against all these tough opponents just to make him stronger but I can't say for sure. What I'm sure about though, is that you have to be prepared for the disappointment and the sacrifice. You have to lose so often that you become immune to it, that picking yourself up and trying again is, without thinking, the only option.

But even without planning for it, I cannot deny that badminton HAS made Andre stronger. On the court now, I see his tenacity, his drive, his intelligence, and it's wonderful to see his love of the game shine through. He belongs there. Even if he never wins another game, it's all good. That's the true value of sports.

And in reply to the terrifically supportive teacher-in-charge, I'm indeed proud of my son. Very much so.

"You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take." ~ Wayne Gretzky, professional hockey player.

Jumping on the 'band' wagon

CCA is considered a very significant part of secondary school. It's taken very seriously and the time spent on your CCA can almost be as much as curriculum time, especially if you choose a competitive one.

In primary school, Lesley-Anne was in the library CCA, which she never fails to blame me for. The story behind it was that she was in p4 and had just gotten into GEP. I was worried about the upcoming workload and so urged her to take up a light CCA. Since she wasn't into sports, library seemed ideal - just a couple of hours of duty a week and you perform them in air-conditioned comfort. Quite shiok right? Except she found it supremely boring. I guess wrapping and shelving books isn't exactly heady stuff.

So when it came to secondary school, I'd learnt the error of my ways (basically never make certain decisions for your kid or you'll never hear the end of it). "Go choose whatever CCA you want!" But old habits die hard and mummy always thinks she knows better. So while I didn't force her to choose any path, I couldn't resist planting some ideas.

You see, I always wished that I'd joined a concert band when I was in school. There's something very appealing about playing music as a group - it's a much more dynamic experience then playing solo. So I made the suggestion to Lesley-Anne, even nudging her to speak to my sister who played percussion in her JC band (which if my memory serves me well, was also instigated by me. Once a kaypoh, always a kaypoh.)

Quite to my delight, Lesley-Anne was rather taken by the idea and decided to opt for the concert band as a CCA. Such is the power of suggestion. Or maybe projection. She auditioned and was accepted, thanks to her music background. Initially, she'd wanted the flute but there was only one vacancy and it was quickly filled so she ended up with the clarinet which was her second choice.

Since the sec 1s are newbies, they take almost a year to learn their allotted instruments under the junior band. They stay back after school twice a week, 3 hours each time to have sectional practices as well as practices together as a band. Each section has its own music teacher and there is a main teacher who leads the entire junior band. When they have progressed sufficiently, they will join the main band towards the end of the year, to take over the outgoing sec 4s.

It's been about two months since Lesley-Anne started the CCA and she's enjoying every minute of it. She has already begun to play simple songs although I haven't heard her play as the students are discouraged from bringing their instruments home for now. When she talks about the band, her eyes light up - it's clearly one of the highlights of school for her.

I can see that the appeal is more than simply playing music. Being part of the band means bonding with a small group of like-minded students. The clarinet section (which happens to be the largest section) holds regular bonding sessions and activities, it's like a mini club and the kids form strong friendships. Eventually when the band enters competitions or plays in concerts, I can imagine the shared experience will only serve to strengthen ties.

Before I wrote this post, I asked Lesley-Anne, "So was joining the band everything that you expected it to be?" She didn't hesitate. "No. It's even better than I expected." Well, one thing's for certain - it sure beats library. Phew.

Playing for the school team

The last two weeks of January were the start of the zonal inter-school badminton tournaments. This was the first time Andre was participating in competitive badminton as part of his school team and it was an eye-opening experience... not just for him but for me too.

Andre is in the Junior boys team which is for p5s and below (the Senior team is for p6s and below). This was the first time p4s were being fielded for the Junior boys team in his school, as the coach felt that they had the potential to do well, plus she wanted to let them gain the experience of competing. Out of the 10 players, there were three p4s, including Andre.

In Round 1, each group of randomly selected five schools plays round robin against each other. The top two schools from each group advance to Round 2 and so on, until the semi-finals and finals. The four top schools in the zonal competitions will proceed to play in the nationals. Each school plays five matches in each meeting - three singles and two doubles - takes three matches to win.

I'm going to describe the matches in chronological order, just for my own record so I won't forget the details in time to come. I won't be revealing the names of the schools though, for privacy reasons.

The first match was on 20 Jan 2010 and as luck would have it, they met the 2009 zonal champions. Arrrrggghhhh. To their credit, the kids didn't let the name of the school intimidate them. Or maybe they were simply oblivious to the threat, haha.

The coach fielded Andre and his good friend, Paul in one of the doubles matches. It was probably a strategic move on her part to ease them into competition mode. It was a good call too as both Andre and Paul were a bundle of nerves. Plus they hardly practise playing doubles, so their coordination was completely off, they were like a couple of headless chickens.

They conceded the match but the plus side about being the underdogs is there isn't the pressure to win. More importantly, it gave them a taste of competition conditions.

They met School 2 on 22 Jan 2010 and the coach decided to field Andre in his first singles match. I think I was more jittery than Andre! Would he deliver? Or would he crumble? Much to our relief, he overcame his nerves to win the match in straight sets, 21-12, 21-6. The win was a great confidence booster for him, especially since it turned out to be the only match his school won that day. We found out later that his opponent was the Junior team captain, no less.

26 Jan 2010 was the match-up against School 3. Andre played singles and delivered another win. He had to work harder for this one as he lost the first set, but came back to take the match 15-21, 21-15, 21-8. Here's a short video clip of a couple of points from the match (you can hear Kenneth cheering in the background, LOL).



Finally, they met School 4 on 28 Jan 2010. This was another wipeout as School 4 is one of the badminton niche schools. Luck of the draw, sigh. Andre played singles again and gave it his best shot but he was simply outplayed - his opponent's standard was heads and shoulders above his. Final score: 12-21, 12-21. Another short clip to show the level of play we're talking about.



Unfortunately, the inter-school tournament ends here for Andre's school as they didn't make it to Round 2. But for Andre, this experience was priceless. He loved feeling part of a team and relished the opportunity to represent the school. It was a bonus that he managed to get two wins under his belt and as for the matches he lost, the opportunity to spar with better opponents was thrilling in its own way.

For me, I was just blown away by the standard of competitive play. Some of the top badminton schools had students who played like pros, my jaw literally dropped when I saw some of the matches. They even had the luxury to field reserve teams against schools that were not so strong, to save their top seeds for the big leagues. Amazing.

Through these two weeks, I've learnt more about competitive sports for kids than in the past 10 years. Even though there are many plus points, it's not without its stresses, as I've discovered. I will share my reflections in a separate post.

The comedy routine of sports trials

One of the first things many secondary schools put their newbie sec 1 kids through are sports trials. These often take place during the first week of school or orientation, as the various sports attempt to identify and recruit potential players for the school teams.

The sports trials at Lesley-Anne's school were held last week and every sec 1 student had to undergo them. Basically, they had to try out at the sports stations to see if they would be shortlisted. The advantage is that you get to try out for a ton of different sports, many of which the kids probably would never have experienced before. The downside is that many of these kids, as I discovered, are decidedly unsporty and having to undergo one sports trial after another must be nothing short of torture.

Lesley-Anne was recounting what happened and it was just hilarious. Sports ranks lowly on her range of interests and it appears that she's not the only one. They had to shoot hoops for netball and basketball, do leaps for wushu, run sprints, do a long distance run, flip an opponent for judo, do catches for volleyball, among other tests. The kids huffed and puffed. They complained about how heavy the short putt ball was. For gym, they had to jump on a trampoline and many bounced awkwardly in circles before falling off.

The seniors would call out, "Who's interested in basketball?" *silence* "Who's keen on volleyball?" *crickets chirping* Finally they said in desperation, "You can't ALL be interested in the performing arts, right??"

When Lesley-Anne told me that she recorded one of the fastest times in her class for sprints, I figured her classmates were no Flo-Jos. Then I discovered she was even shortlisted for softball.

"Wah, maybe you got hidden talent! Did you hit the ball very well?"

"Err... the first time I hit the stand. The second time the ball bounced off."

I thought maybe it's just her school with the sports duds, until Elan shared similar stories of the sports trials in her son's school. According to her son, the standards for the trials fluctuated, ie as the coaches got more desperate, the standards got lower. By the time it came to her son's class which was the last one, he got selected for softball even though he didn't know what the sport was, as well as soccer even though he knocked down half the cones he was supposed to dribble around!

The wushu test initially was to squat with one leg in front and one extended behind, then jump up and kick until your leg is parallel to your cheek. By the time the last class did it, the test became: "see how high you can jump".

Thanks for allowing me to share, Elan. I laughed until my sides ached. No wonder schools nowadays are putting more focus on sports DSAs. If they had to rely on all these bookworms with two left feet, the schools ain't entering the Sports Hall of Fame anytime soon.

Andre's in the school team!

The focus has been on Lesley-Anne lately, so it's time to turn the spotlight on my little firecracker. The latest update on Andre's badminton coaching - he made the selection for the school team!

We're very pleased with his progress and this for him is a major milestone because he has been dying to represent his school. Since he's only in p3, he probably won't have this opportunity for a while, but at least he's made the first cut.

Letting him receive additional coaching at the academy was definitely a good decision - he has learnt at a pace that he wouldn't have at school alone, sharing a court with 30 kids. His dedication to training has also convinced us of his passion for the game, which we weren't too sure if it was just a phase at first.

There are several coaches at the academy. One of them who also coaches the school team told us that Andre's progress has surpassed her own expectations. It's very encouraging indeed and we're delighted that he has found a niche interest to call his own.

Here's a clip of Andre doing one of the many different drills at the academy. This one was done in pairs. He's the mini one on the left.



I also tried to record Andre's game play with Kenneth a few weeks ago. It's difficult to get a long clip because Andre is taught to play strategically, ie win the point. Here are a couple of the longer rallies I managed to film. The first clip shows him trying to use his smash to bring home the shot but it's not a sustainable plan because you will eventually run out of steam if your opponent is able to return the shots.



In the second clip, Andre shows more variety of shots and this is what he learns at the academy, to mix up his shots to try and wrongfoot the opponent. Having a height disadvantage means it's more difficult to smash without getting the shuttlecock into the net. His plus point is that he's willing to run down every ball. It's what I call the Michael Chang strategy.



To expose the kids to tournament conditions, the academy encourages them to participate in competitions outside of school. There's one coming up at the end of the year and we'll probably let Andre join just to give him experience. Will continue to record his progress!

The badminton dilemma

As you know, Andre is going for weekly badminton coaching organised by his school. He really loves the sport and his aim is to get into the school team next year, which looked like a clear possibility as he's progressing well.

But you know Murphy's Law, whatever can go wrong will go wrong. When I fetched him to his coaching session last Thursday, I received the bombshell from the coach that the school badminton team is likely to be scrapped next year due to budget constraints. The badminton CCA would still exist but there would be no coach, which to me was just plain silly. What, the kids would just meet up weekly and randomly whack at shuttlecocks?

Since there might be kids reading this, I'll resort to visual swearing - #$!%@!!%#^@!!! That's truly how I felt when I heard the news. It just throws a spanner in the works. You may wonder why since it's only a CCA, right? Well, since Andre is enjoying badminton so much and playing the game reasonably well, we had hoped the school might be able to train him up to a respectable level where he can play in competitions and eventually use it for DSA.

For those who don't know what DSA is, it's Direct School Admission - a scheme that some secondary schools offer to p6 students. That means the secondary school would conduct selection tests and offer direct admission to students before the PSLE results are out. The criteria can be academic or non-academic, depending on the individual school and its needs.

Of course ideally, we hope Andre will be able to get into a secondary school of his choice without relying on a CCA, but no harm preparing for Plan B, right? I admit it sounds a little kia-su since Andre is only in p2, but it's not like we had mapped a path for him right from the start. It was only since his interest in badminton emerged that we thought we might as well nurture it to serve a double purpose.

When I broke the news to Andre that there would be no school team next year, he was so disappointed. He looked like he was about to cry and shouted, "But I've been trying so hard!"

So now, we're at a crossroads. The coach, who is from one of the major badminton academies in Singapore, recommends that we continue coaching sessions at the academy from next year if Andre is serious about the game. Kenneth and I are two minds about it.

Pros:

• At the academy, it's serious training. The coaches are past winners from professional tournaments like the Thomas Cup. No kidding. Andre's game will definitely improve exponentially.
• The academy holds their own competitions so he can still participate, experience playing in matches and hone his skills.
• For DSA sports, the secondary schools usually hold their own trials and look at individual records, so if Andre does well at the academy, it will carry weight.
• School budgets change every year, so for all we know, the school team might be reinstated the following year, giving Andre a second chance to be selected.
• Less tangible benefit but equally important - we feel that kids who are actively involved in a sport tend to befriend those with the same interest, and their activities and conversations are likely to centre around this common interest. Especially in the teenage years when kids are the most impressionable (especially boys, in my opinion), I think it helps to keep them on the straight and narrow path. This view was reinforced by the coach who has groomed cohorts of kids in the sport.

Cons:

• The time commitment is tremendous. According to the coach, we're talking 2-3 two-hour sessions of training a week, in order for skills to reach a certain level of proficiency. Especially with Andre's school workload set to rise at the higher primary levels, we're not sure if he can cope with the extra demands without compromising his academic standards.
• Even if he can cope, there's no guarantee he will ever reach a level good enough for DSA, in which case, is it worth investing all the time and effort for something that will just be a hobby?
• Not just time commitment from Andre, it's time commitment from me too! Guess who'll be the one who has to shuttle him to and fro training sessions? It's sometimes already a massive juggling act trying to fit my meetings and work in between ferrying kids, especially during peak periods like annual report season.

Looks like there's definitely more pros than cons, but the downside is a BIG one. We haven't quite decided what to do. If you have any views, I'd love to hear them.

Badminton, a Chinese coach and a sore loser

I've finally finished blogging about our family trip to Tokyo and it has brought back so many good memories that I have an urge to run out and book air tickets to Japan. Alas, not going to happen.

So for those have been patiently lurking on this blog waiting for the next post, I'm baaaack!

Every Sunday afternoon, we go to a nearby Community Centre to play badminton. It started innocently enough back in October last year when Kenneth decided to book a badminton court during a public holiday for some family fun. After the first game, the kids decided that it was rather enjoyable since they could actually hit the shuttlecock (versus tennis where it was usually a case of *swing!* kid misses the ball.... ball goes bouncing down the court... kid runs after ball... repeat 10 times... daddy starts shouting... kid declares game "not very fun". The only variation is where kid actually hits the ball but ball goes into net.)

Following that successful first badminton game, Kenneth proceeded to book the badminton court for the next Sunday and we've been playing every week since. It was clear from very early on that Andre had a natural affinity with the game. He cuts quite a comical figure on the court actually, as he's pint sized and the racket looks too long for him. Yet, after a few games, he started being able to return shots quite naturally and even winning points. By middle of this year, he was playing a decent game.

It therefore didn't come as a surprise when he came home from school all excited one day with a form and said he wanted to join the badminton CCA in his school. Although children usually join CCAs only from P3, the school badminton team wants to train school players early so they do a recuitment at P2. We let him sign up and as part of the CCA, he attends badminton training for 2 hrs once a week by a China coach.

The first few sessions were hilarious - the coach would give instructions in Mandarin and most of the kids (typically bad in Chinese coming from a mission school), would look blank. Andre actually tried to guess what the coach was telling him and did random actions like raise his arm, put his foot out, put his other foot out, hoping one of them was right. In exasperation, the coach said "I should charge all of you extra for Chinese tuition!"

It has just been 3 months of training so far, but the results are evident. Having learnt the right stance and right techniques, Andre can now play a reasonably good game and his smashes can be deadly. Here he is with a smash and follow-through.
































However, Andre is all power, less strategy. Lesley-Anne, being the ever intellectual, knows she cannot beat him at the power play so she mixes up the game with net play, which annoys Andre because he hasn't quite mastered the art of anticipating shots.

Which brings me to the point that Andre has a lot to learn when it comes to sportsmanship, ie he hasn't any. He hates to lose, full stop. Whenever he misses a shot, you can bet an excuse would come next: "The light was in my eye", "I wasn't ready", "I thought it was out".

Yesterday, we went to my sister and brother-in-law's place and they had just bought a Nintendo Wii set. Andre clammered to try it - wah, the ultimate video game! He tried out the tennis game and you should have seen the concentration and determination on his face. Every time his shot was out, his face would turn thunderous. He started moving nearer and nearer the tv screen until I was afraid he was going whack it. When it became clear that he was losing, he started shouting, "You're distracting me!" (meaning we caused him to lose lah, because we broke his concentration by breathing). He lost the game and it was time to leave, but you could see in his maniacal eyes he was dying for a re-match.

I know the prices have dropped significantly, but I don't think we will be getting a Wii set anytime soon.