Chapter 1: At the beginning

so ytd i went for my very 1st water training at SDBA.

The time of trg was 2-4pm.

I reached at 150pm. (gd improvement, i say..)

we chat quite abit before heading to the boats. i was told to take an SDBA paddle and a lifevest frm the shed, which i did.

Funny if u'd ask, why didnt i bring my paddle? well, i dun have an answer for tt.

Lesson Objective No. 1: how to 过船? thankfully, the coach heard the whines of some gals (not me ok) on the pontoon and said, "ok dun nd to cross..we shall row over"

I was quite sad when they assigned me to row left, after finding out last wed tt i have rowing experience and was a left rower.

Cmon..i really wanna try smtg new. Let me be smtg i wasn't last time. Drummer, Coxwain (dun laugh!), right rower, back pack..

Guess where i was assigned to sit?

Left. 4th seat from the front.

Yea. laugh all u want. i also found it hillarious.

Yr 1: pacer
Yr 2: 2nd pair
Yr 3: 3rd pair

Now..4th pair.

Argh.

we did some light warm up row. aft which we did many 5 min sets. I'm supposed to unlearn what i've previously learnt but its a lil tough. very tough i mean. Let's talk abt the stroke.

Previously, we'd end the recovery with a slight wrist twist. Now however, the coach asked me to lock my left wrist, and immediately bring the paddle to the front to execute the next stroke.

Of course, there are many similarities as there are of differences. After 7-8-9-10 comes a loud and resounding, "stretch out..long pull"

Obviously, i was super apprehensive when it was the 1st time someone shouted 7-8-9-10. Cmon, i so dun wanna be that kuku shouting 'stretch out..' all by myself.

Imagine the horror! -_-^

We had cool down and debrief aft rowing. Coach evaluated our strokes.

Team Culture:

When debrief was over, doreen integrated the newbies by sharing, "we'd end every trg with a whoosh, it goes like tiz.."

'ocbc 杀!'

Impressive.

I left SDBA with a smile on my face :]