Issues in Sports - Changing different coaches, the kid suffers (Part 1)

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 M.Rameshon
Bsc (Hons) Degree in Physical Education, Loughborough University (1992-1994)

Masters in Education (University of Western Australia, 2005-2008)

Changing Coaches - Young athletes confused by coaching pattern with different coaches taking them over time. 

I took about 6 top runners, in the past, in the year 1990, who joined me for running when I was an athlete cum coach. It was my best years of learning on coaching. In one of the 3km race, organised by the former SAAA, I did 9min 02sec for 3km race held at Seletar. (The best runner was M. Maran, 3km, with a time of 9m 00sec. He was the talk of the town, at that time. He is still currently holding the 3000m steeplechase national record, with a time of 9min 11sec. Maran has a personal best time of 3m 53sec for the 1500m). 

In that 3km race, one of my former runner Harpreet Singh, about 15 years old, at that time, came in 4th in the race, with a time of 9min 06sec. The admirable thing about him was that he beat N. Ganesan, former national record holder, previously, with a time of 14m 51sec for 5km. All Gurkha runners lost to him, although the Gurkha runners were fast at that time. Harpreet is one of the best genetically endowed runner that I have seen in my life. His studies improved through running. Later on, he stopped running as his father was not supportive of it at all. His studies dropped when he stopped running. 

The interesting thing that I saw in coaching was that if I train a runner who has not been trained under anyone, the runner does not easily argue at all or debate much. Harpreet, trained with me from young, listened to me word for word in training and his improvement was tremendous at time. He could have gone for the Olympics. 

I have seen in life, that a runner, who has been trained under someone, will be prone to argue most of the time. My own runners, trained by me, in the past, who went under others in the past have argued with other coaches. N. Ganesan was coached by two coaches before being trained by me. There was a certain pattern of training methods that he followed that created confusion in his mind, while Harpreet and others who trained when they were young, being coached by no one, did not have any problem. I had a lot of problem explaining about Arthur Lydiard training method to Ganesan. My enjoyable easy runs usually ended up in a big argument, hence usually I do my best to avoid running together with him. However, I must also say that it was with Ganesan that I was also motivated in running, as we keep talking about breaking the national record. 

I assisted N. Ganesan to do a 15min 41min from the time of 16m 46sec when he was in the National Service. I left for further studies after that. Eric Song and Paul Rainer trained him later. I saw Eric and told him to continue training Ganesan. Ganesan and I were great friends at that time, although we debated and argued on training methods, for me, I felt that he has been programmed and it takes time to deprogramme. 

The problem was that I used to feel my energy drained after an argument. I realised that if a kid was coached in primary school with a certain pattern, it will affect the kid when the coaches keep changing when they go through secondary, college and university with different coaches. 

That is the reason why I was, in the past, and even now, reluctant to take a runner into my fold although the runner has tremendous potential when I come to find out that the runner was earlier trained by someone. Deprogramming has to take place and it is not easy so that coaching takes place in a structured manner.

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.

Story of Ego - Stories From The East

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 Rameshon
Bsc (Hons) Degree in Physical Education, Loughborough University (1992-1994)

Masters in Education (University of Western Australia, 2005-2008)

Inspirational Stories- Ego - Comes before failure

Once, there was a master and he gave a practice on silence to his group of inmates, who were staying in a monastery. The silence program was for 3 days. The inmates of the monastery were told to remain silent, which means the inmates were also not allowed to read books and also communicate by sign language, plus they were not allowed to have eye contact with each other, verbally or non-verbally. You can stand or sit beside a person, but there must be no communication. They are supposed to practise silence in a continued fashion for 3 days. 

In the monastery, there were some flexibility to the rules as well. The inmates were allowed to go where they want during dawn or dusk for an hour to look at nature. 

It so happened that there were three inmates who coincidentally were near each other, at a seaside, sitting and were looking at the sun setting in the evening. They were looking for half-an-hour at first. 

Then, one of the inmates spoke suddenly, "What a nice scenery to watch." Seeing this, the second inmate immediately uttered, "Hey, you have broken the silence rule, you are not supposed to talk." 

Seeing this taking place, the third inmate laughed and said, "Now, the only one who is not talking is me, and I am going to report both of you to our Master."

Meaning: The ego in a person has made the third inmate speak out, as he felt better by comparing against the two. Seeing the two inmates talk, at least the third inmate could have kept quiet, but he did not. Therefore he is the same as the other two inmates to break the silence rule. Silence is not easy to follow. How do we know whether our mind is under control, it is good to do a silence test for 3 days and see. It is not that easy! 

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.

Contributing To A Child's Success In Their Chosen Sports (Part 2I/3)

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 Rameshon
Bsc (Hons) Degree in Physical Education, Loughborough University (1992-1994)

Masters in Education (University of Western Australia, 2005-2008)

Lesson From Star Wars - May The Force Be With You (The full story)

Yoda, Master of Obi Wan Kenobi

When I was a secondary 2 student at St Joseph's Institution, we had our school holidays in November and December. That year, in 1978, we did not have any CCA after our exams. This was due to an influenza epidemic in 1978, the National Schools' Cross-Country Championship was cancelled. All my training for secondary 2 were in vain. It was the only year, to date, till now, the National Schools' Cross-Country ever to be cancelled. (Maybe, it was due to this cancellation that our school's cross-country teacher-in-charge, Mr Joseph Varghese, decided to cancel all our November and December training. This was unlike when I was in secondary one, we usually had trainings during the holidays). We were so free as we were not bogged down by any academic programmes from our parents too. My class-mates, then, suggested to me to work during that holidays. Since I had no CCA activities at that time, I decided to take up an offer as a sales promoter.

While at work, my managers were promoting on Star Wars products and I had to promote the sales of expensive Star Wars products, like the droid R2D2, Bounty Hunter etc. We had to show the customers how to dismantle and assemble the products and demonstrate how to use the remote control for the droid R2D2. To my amazement, at that juncture, I realised that I was able to sell many of the Star Wars products. That experience built up my confidence and later on in life, it gave me the conviction that I can be successful in life. (However, given the choice between training and working, I would definitely have chosen running instead of working during the holidays, as it was, to-date, I missed my very important improvement in running). Moreover, my mother was also not in favour of me going to work. 

As a sales promoter, I had to also set up a laptop, like a video to show a 20 mins trailer on Star Wars. It was compulsory for us to show at least 2 times per day. So I watched it again and again too without feeling any boredom.  Star Wars film was very interesting for me at that age. This film, in fact, inspired me a lot to the point that I also watched, " The Empire Strikes Back" and "The Revenge of the Jedi". I have already watched all the series/parts of Star Wars. My running too became a lot influenced by these films. 

The movie characters like Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan, Kenobi and Yoda amazed me a lot. In the film, Obi-Wan, one of the masters of the Good Force will be killed by his own student, Darth Vader, who joined the Dark Force as he was greedy for power. 

Darth Vader was helping an evil Emperor to win wars in the galaxy over the Good Force. Actually, Darth Vader was a good student earlier on, who was to be groomed to assist the Good Force. The evil Emperor used temptation to succeed in making Vader join the Dark Side. Darth Vader finally relented to selfishly gain immense power, which involved psychic, occult, supernatural and clairvoyant power.

The story goes on and it is good for the children to watch this movie called, "Star Wars". It is actually a fight between the Good Force versus the Evil Force for dominance of power. It is a power struggle. In The Empire Strikes Back, the Good Force will strike at the Evil Force and the story goes on again. 

Over time, when Luke Skywalker grows up, he will go visit Yoda the Master of Obi-Wan, for some physical, mental training and other training in a faraway planet. Luke will learn some intricate knowledge used in warfare, especially on using the Light Sabre like a Jedi, so that the Good Force will finally triumph over The Evil Force. 

In the film, Yoda was at first very hesitant in taking Luke as a student. Yoda was very worried that Luke might end up just as Darth Vader, joining the Dark Force, slaving to the temptation of power, benefits etc. Obi-Wan, in spirit form, without a body, strongly encouraged Yoda to take Luke into his fold. Obi-Wan felt that Luke could be the main character to defeat the Evil Force, Darth Vader and the evil Emperor. 

In order to win the Evil Force, Luke will go through various kinds of tough physical, mental, intellectual and spiritual training to develop love, patience, truth, righteousness and peace. In one part, Yoda will show Luke on how to use one's mind over matter, It was at this point that Yoda will show that belief is important, which Luke did not have at first. In that film, I realised that it is important to control one's anger, and not to lose to anger at any and every instance, in order to make the right decision. (Anger can burn 3 days of food. When one is not angry, one will harness the energy and feel the inexhaustible energy that one has).  

Finally, the story conveys a strong message that Good Force wins ultimately. It is the only belief that we need to have. From the film, I learned, it is easy to go to the evil side anytime. However, to go to the Good Force, can be a challenge. Many, when facing a dilemma between evil versus good, they tend to choose the Dark Force over Good Force and lose themselves. Values are needed to be with the Good Force. Also, in the film, I learned that one's desire, anger, greed, attachment, ego, fear and hatred can sap the physical, mental and spiritual energy away. Definitely, Star Wars stories are inspirational and it is good to watch. May The Force Be With You! 

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.