Post Nationals 2011

I remembered promising Ken that I'll blog about this once I finally have the time and am in the right state of mind to do so.

Wildcards won Nationals 2011 this year, successfully defending our championship. What was most important to us was: we finally concluded the tie we had with NTU ACES during Nationals 2010.

Like all other seasons, the road to Season 2010/2011 was a very different and tough one. Similar to what I did in 2010, I would like to evaluate what I did right, and where I could have improved for Season 2010/2011.

What I did right for Season 2010/2011

1) Pushing out several Wildcards as coaches/ participants for NTU HO. It is through coaching/working with other cheerleaders that one can really understand and appreciate the sport.

2) Introduced Xingwei to NUS Alpha verve - The only way for our local industry to truly grow is to have quality coaches to push the limits of the local scene. XW is definitely a man of talent. Alpha really performed a great routine for this year's Nationals!

3) Worked with Xingwei and started to give back to the local cheerleading scene by sponsoring Blog Post of the Month cash prizes.

4) Pushed Gary and Jasmine to higher limits, and proved that you do not need a rewind to win this year's partner stunts competition.

5) Worked out a record number of cheerleading exchanges with external teams. This enabled cheerleaders to mingle and get to know other cheerleaders. I felt that it was also instrumental that Wildcards learn from other teams in terms of their culture, attitude and mindset. There is still so much for us to learn.

6) Finally convincing Biyi to join Wildcards after 3 years of nagging =P. Biyi's presence as a senior flyer truly guided our girls in terms of maturity, technique and leadership.

7) Announce that Biyi and Jen will take over the coaching of Wildcards. And for Vincent and myself to take a back sit next season. It is important for old geezers like myself to step aside so that the new generation can foster and grow.

8) Entrusted Jon to do our Nationals routine music this year and took the back sit of just doing the editing. He is definitely a better cheer DJ than me!

9) Was able to get Shi Xing University down to Wildcards to help!

10) Managed to get Coach Akane and Coach James to help tie up some loose ends in our routine.

What I did not do right for Season 2010/2011

1) Was unable train perle, felicia and carmen to be competition ready for SNCC 2011. In particular, I felt quite bad that I had to remove Perle from Group Stunts category. Afterall, she was the flyer i personally recruited from VJC.

2) I started to relax my 'military style' coaching, but realised that the team was not at a maturity level where they could be fully treated as adults yet. I have failed to educate some members the vision which I saw.

3) We have bigger stunts this year but we were messier than last year. This means, I have yet to rectify this team's problem of neatness. As far as I could remember, we scored 2/5 for arm motions. 2/5 for jumps. 2/5 dance. 2/5 for gymnastics.

4) We only completed our routine in late January. Our neatness suffered as a result.

it's 2.15am and my eyes are closing..... I know I did more screw ups than this.

Let me come back to this post again. =D