Note:
If you are keen and have queries, please contact Coach Rameshon at 9100 4369 or you can email him at m.rameshon@gmail.com or swift.rameshon@gmail.com. Please refer to website http://flexifitness.com.sg (for more information on him and his programmes)
By Murugiah Rameshon
Bsc (Hons) Degree in Physical Education, Loughborough University (1992-1994)
Masters in Education (University of Western Australia, 2005-2008)
Sara Ng - Balancing Studies with Sports ( Sharing session with Flexifitness athletes)
Picture 1 - Sara Ng, winning in a local Singapore Aquathlon
Recently, Ashley Liew, our local champion of Singapore Standard Chartered Marathon, told our Flexifitness Young Champions Programme athletes on the finer points on how he balances studies and training. As a coach, who have known him for 4 years, I find that he has done his training and studies with a lot of determination. He has obtained his degree from the reputed Singapore Management University and is now going for his doctorate studies in chiropractic practises in the USA. I feel that people can learn from Ashley on how to balance sports with studies.
Ashley gave his salient points on why putting one's energy and effort in training and studies from day one is important, and it is important not to wait and procrastinate, as this will affect academic results and running achievements, eventually. He also told us the value of sacrificing time, money and effort so that one can achieve their goal. There was also the need to discipline oneself in order to focus on training and this may results in less contact with friends, for the benefit of excelling in studies and training.
As for me, in the past, my own friends used to scold me for not spending time with them when I was training seriously. Nevertheless, right now my friends are still intact with me and I have gained a lot of friends. Hence, it is worth it to sacrifice my time, money and effort in running and it has taught me a lot of things, especially on values like humility, sincerity, faith, believe, honesty etc.
The real challenge came this year as Ashley wanted to do well in Stanchart marathon this year. Eventually, the end result came to us when Ashley came in first in 2012 Standard Chartered Marathon which was organised here in Singapore itself. He knew that getting a good time of 2hr 35min 40sec in Gold Coast Marathon 2012, in July, was not good enough. He needs to get his victory in Singapore as well to prove his worth as a local champion of Singapore. That was his challenge. He had to slay the inner dragon in him first.
As a coach, I feel that he has crossed one milestone and there are more to go. I can only say, "The sky is the limit," when I observe on his real capability to improve in running. There is more room for improvement.
At the same time, I would like to draw some readers to my former athlete who is still competing and studying in Singapore. Her name is Sara Ng. I would like to say something about her.
As I know Sara Ng, from the past, as a Hwa Chong student, I remember the day when she came to see me join Health and Fitness Club when I was in that school. At that time she was doing very little activity per week. One of the reasons for this was because of she of her travel to Indonesia to and fro several times of the year.
Later on, she joined Health and Fitness Club when I was the teacher in - charge In Hwa Chong, a few years back. She was at first a passive person in sports.
Initially, she was hesitant to commit more days for Health and Fitness, except for 1 or 2 days per week. Over time, she was starting to get interested in running and she committed herself to training to the point that she was coming for all the days for our running training. She was invited to join our School Cross Country group as she was getting fitter in running. At the same time, while studying in Hwa Chong, she also attained 8 'As' for GCE 'A' Levels. That, I felt was a great feat by this former student of Hwa Chong Institution (college), to balance studies with training.
From a member of Health and Fitness, Sara rose to become a Vice-Chairperson of the club and finally became the chairperson of the club. She became a good role model for others to follow, especially for the next two leaders Haidee Chiu and Michelle Peh. The latter two learnt good values from her and brought the club to another level by increasing the group to three-fold.
Having said, I had earlier on, a few months back, had asked Sara to speak to our Flexifitness athletes on balancing running and studies. The last time she gave a talk was a year back. This was her second time. She gladly volunteered to do this.
Recently, Sara had, in fact, come in first in a local triathlon race in Singapore. She also has represented the National University of Singapore for the Asian University Triathlon Team Championships this year. Flexifitness would like to congratulate her and share some of the content spoken to the kids of our group. We believe that this will benefit all those who want to balance studies with running. We would like to say, "Keep going, Sara".
Picture 1 - Sara Ng, the swim, cycle, and run section in a triathlon race.
Balancing Sports
and Studies
The
rigorous education system often calls for a large amount of time and focus to
be dedicated to studies. For those who have sporting aspirations, a lot of dedication and time is also required to pursue this goal. Balancing the two is
not always easy, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes very much a
lifestyle.
1.
Identify your goals
It
is always useful to know exactly what you want to achieve in both your studies
and in your sporting endeavours. Some have big targets for their academic
pursuits, while others may be chasing lofty sporting goals. Identifying
precisely what you want to achieve in both sports and studies will help you
decide how much time and resources to dedicate to each of these goals.
2.
Identify what you need to do
to achieve these goals
After
knowing exactly what you want, you have to decide how much time and work you need
to put in to achieve these goals while taking into account how much time you
have currently. You may need help from your teachers or coach to help you with
this. Come up with a schedule that allocates the right amount of time to each
activity, don’t forget that you need time to rest and to also spend time with
friends and family. You need to know your habits and what works best for you –
some people study better at night, and so prefer to train in the morning.
Others prefer to get a run in before the sun rises, leaving the rest of the day
free to do their work. Knowing when your body performs best for sports and when
your mind is most alert for periods of study is extremely important – it may
take some trial and error to find out – but once you do, plan your time
according to this and you will find that your time is used more productively
3.
Chasing your goals
This
is the part when you actually put your plan into action. I believe that
achieving your goals ultimately requires 3 things: a hunger to succeed, a
driving force that keeps you going, and self-discipline.
You
need to be hungry for success; you
need to really want to achieve your goals.
You
need a driving force – usually the
hunger drives you to succeed and acts as your motivation, but you need to know
ultimately why is it that you want to achieve these goals. You may want to
challenge your physical limits in sport, you may want to gain as much knowledge as
you can through your studies and push your own intellectual limits. Sometimes,
there is someone who may have inspired you, or you may want to be an
inspiration to others - going back to why you want to do this would serve as
your driving force.
Discipline – the stumbling block for
many. This is however not always the hardest part – once you have the desire to
succeed, discipline comes naturally. If you want something, you need to do what
it takes to get it. Surround yourself with people who are a positive influence
and who share similar goals. If studying with others help you, form study
groups and fix a regular meet-up schedule. As for sport, training with a group
of highly-motivated individuals will help you push the limits in training. Having
people to train or study with would also ensure that you do the work when you
need to – when you are tempted to skip revision or training, it helps that
there is a group of people waiting for you to turn up for the regular study or
training sessions.
When
you have a choice between sleeping in and training, think about that PB or the
spot on the podium that you have been working so hard for.
A
willingness to work hard would get you where you want to be. A lack of time is
not an excuse: you have 24 hours a day, and 168 hours a week – enough time to
put in the work to chase your goals, but not enough time to waste.
www.runningcoachsg.com
Note:
By Narayanan
Rameshon has taught in Hwa Chong Institution, plus several schools, and Republic Polytechnic as well. He has won many accolades and he was awarded Merit Award for 1991 marathon performance in breaking the national record of Singapore, at that time. He has made 22 male athletes do a marathon in sub-3hrs. He has made 7 female runners do sub-4 hours for the marathon, as well. He was inducted to the ‘Roll of Honour’ by the then College of Physical Education, organised by Singapore Olympic Academy, in 1998, for breaking the National record repeatedly 4 times, till he did 2hr 24min 22sec).
He also has a Coaching group and he trains them on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 7pm at Botanic Gardens. Those interested can call him at 91004369 for coaching assistance, to improve performance. There is also personal training that he does for many in a week. You can e-mail him at swift.rameshon@gmail.com.
