对酒当歌，人生几何？譬如朝露，去日苦多。
概当以慷，忧思难忘。何以解忧？唯有杜康。
青青子衿，悠悠我心。但为君故，沈吟至今。
呦呦鹿鸣，食野之苹。我有嘉宾，鼓瑟吹笙。
明明如月，何时可掇？忧从中来，不可断绝。
越陌度阡，枉用相存。契阔谈咽，心念旧恩。
月明星稀，乌鹊南飞。绕树三匝，何枝可依。
山不厌高，海不厌深，周公吐哺，天下归心。
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Franchise and Cheerleading
Franchise and Cheerleading
Let’s start with some definition
Got this from here
fran·chise[fran-chahyz] noun, verb, -chised, -chis·ing.
–noun
1.
a privilege of a public nature conferred on an individual, group, or company by a government: a franchise to operate a bus system.
2.
the right or license granted by a company to an individual or group to market its products or services in a specific territory.
Eg. Subway, McDonald’s, 7-Eleven and etc
How franchising works?
Franchising is more or less like you paying someone in exchange for his or her established business ‘formula’ and the leverage on his or her well established name to get a quick return on your investment
For those who do not understand how franchising works, let me give you a brief description. Typically, you would be needed to pay a certain amount of start-up cost to franchisor. Start-up cost varies for different organisation ranging from less than $10,000 to as high as million. And then you would be required to go through the organisation’s education to be able to fully understand how the organisation works and what your responsibilities are, basically learning their secret formula. By the end of your training, it’s probably just nice the time for you to start running your own outlet. Once the business gets running, you would be needed to pay a % off your revenue or sometimes profit and on top of that, rental fees that can be at a flat rate, % off your revenue or even your profit to your franchisor organisation. Usually, this amount will be used for marketing purposes which in turn will help create brand awareness and other purposes. All you need to do now is to manage the outlet and hire people to handle the outlet when you are not around. This system really varies depending on the organisation. Currently, there are quite a few hot-on-demand franchise names such as McDonald, Subway, KFC and even our own local brand Old Chang Kee is doing franchising.
Businessman and business students please pardon such easy demonstration of the franchising system. I believe that it is definitely a system much more complicated than the above described but I make it easy for simplistic purposes. For the real in-depth information about franchising system, you would probably need to do more studies.
Ok, so let’s talking about franchising and cheerleading. Most of you are probably wondering what kind of relationship I can derive from a business concept like franchising and a popular-yet-be sport in Singapore.
Looking at how successful most of the franchises are doing made me wonder about this.
‘Can we use franchise strategy to spread CHEERLEADING?’
Let’s try to look into more details.
First, just like the franchisor possessing a successful business strategy, there must be a development of a winning formula of managing a team.
In order for people to buy into this ‘formula’, this formula developed would probably have to be put it into practice and achieve a certain level of DESIRED results. Let’s first establish a common understanding of this DESIRED results before people misunderstood the terms used. In Singapore’s case where capitalism, bureaucracy and meritocracy reign, I would like to establish this DESIRED result as winning the National Championships for a minimum of 5-8years consecutively. Reason being very simple, if it is truly a winning formula, it should last for quite some time. Of course it will not be rigid, as just like any business models requires remodel and restructure, I believe this winning formula will evolve as time passes. And also, it would take some time for people to recognise that it is truly the ‘formula’. Let’s call the team that fits the criteria above be Team Z.
Second, just like personal preference for goods, we need to recognise that not everyone would recognise that this is truly the ‘formula’ as a matter of fact, we can’t make everyone happy. Now, let’s assume first that the market is 50 teams. Let’s say Team Z attracted 10-20% of the market (all the cheerleading teams at all level in Singapore) to buy your ‘formula’. 10-20% would be about 5 to 10 teams, let’s call these teams Second Tier Teams. Team Z will be providing coaching services of the ‘formula’ to these Second Tier Teams and providing the assurance of getting into the top three positions. In return the Second tier teams have to pay a certain amount of remuneration for the coaches and also providing one of the best ‘graduating’ base and one of the best ‘graduating’ flyer to Team Z. In franchising terms, these are the so-called rental fees. Should the Best decline the offer, second would be offered the chance instead. Let’s say on average Team Z is coaching 1-2 teams from each category of the 3 categories available (Mainly Secondary, Tertiary and Open). Team Z could get a conservative number of about 2 pairs of best and 2 pairs of second best. Where do I get this amount? Basically, primary school would not be eligible to participate in Open Category due to age limit. So, the only talent pool left are Secondary, Tertiary and Open. Since its conservative number, 8 persons from 3 teams are achievable taking into consideration of influence of friends and desire to achieve.
Third, Team Z would now be receiving about 8-10 players annually steadily. With such a great inflow of players, Team Z would probably have to consider expanding into Team 1 and Team 2 and etc. More teams eventually leads to more exposure to the public as players would share with their family members and friends. More teams would only means more chances to clinch the top 3 positions in the Championships and therefore further enhance the image of their ‘formula’.
There is a rapid development of franchise in China in 2009, and by 2011 those franchise names that could not keep up with competition would be eliminated. Same applied to Singapore cheer industry, more teams would be formed but as time passes by some of those teams without the ‘formula’ would be eliminated and eventually left the ELITES. By then, Singapore would be ready to compete in the world stage.
I admit that there are certain flaws or problems that might arise or I have not taken into consideration. I will do up an evaluation real soon, and meanwhile, do provide me what are the concerns you as a cheerleader might have. For example, humanist concern. And ultimately, I believe that everyone has to WORK TOGETHER in order to achieve the common goal we have with foreigner predecessors, that is to bring cheerleading unto the Olympic stage.
Disclaimer: This theory was developed merely out of free time thinking during study breaks. Just a statement for everyone to think about what can be done for Singapore cheerleading industry.
-Ken Signing Out
Friday, December 3, 2010
Thursday, December 2, 2010
What I thought which can define a cheerleaderPS: ALL SOURCES FROM GOOGLE. I got no copyright
Yeah BUDDY !! LIGHT WEIGGGGGGGGGGHT !
Yeah man, I ain't messin now! Ain't nuthin but a peanut
Not asking you to be as big as him but to have the same attitude as him
your weight plates are your friends
believe that you can do it
confessing it that you can do even though you don't think you could do it
Ronnie Dean Coleman
8time Mr.Olympia
Friday, November 12, 2010
GYM WORKOUTS
As the competition date is coming near, having a NOT-CONDITIONED body for running routine is definitely NOT ADVISABLE. SO, decided to start hardcore gym-ing once again. I was trying to recall what I've always done last time during the hardcore gym go-er period and tried to look for something through internet. Anyway, I don't recall people sharing their their gym routine or what exercises they do for their workouts. So I decided to share some that I've learned.
I don't think I'm the best person to quote from, as I'm not a professional bodybuilder pr has an extremely strong build but, I thought this is by far all that I've heard, learned and trained and which I believe worked for me.
So let's get started.
I believe non-amateur cheerleader would know by now that cheerleading is that kind of sport that required full body strength. Although we always say that our strength should comes from the legs and not your upper body and etc, however, upper body do comes in handy when you fight for your stunts or when you proceed on to higher level stunts.
For example, without a strong wrist and forearms you would not be able to catch and stop a FULL UP or FULL AROUND.
So I believe that everyone should work towards a full body workout instead of zooming in to ONLY your major core muscles which are CHEST, LEGS and BACK.
Shoulders (CORE)
Shoulders are not usually a core muscle, but I include it to be one because we use our shoulders a lot when stunting.
Here are the workouts I do for shoulders:
Shoulder Press
Arnold Press
Military Press
Front Raise
Frot Lateral Raise
Reverse Dumbbell Flyes
Chest (CORE)
I'm not a big fan of BIG CHEST. What I usually do are the normal bench press and inclined bench press. It seems like inclined bench press in some sense helps when you are stunting. You can try it.
Backs (CORE)
Upper Back (Trapezius)
Shoulder Shrug
Up Right Row
Reverse Dumbbell Flyes
Barbell Row
Lower Back
Dead Lifts
Abs (CORE)
All the shoulderstand would have to agree with me that if you want your pyramid to be stable and not hurting yourself, not only that you need to have a strong back but strong ABS is a GIVEN !! Back and abs come hand in hand.
I would recommend what was suggested by a gymnastic teacher and ever since I started doing this, my abs feels stronger (doesn't guarantee you got the 'abs' thou)
What the teacher told me was two simple instructions. I had to translate it into English, try to understand me.
1.) 上固定 Lock your upper body and train your abs by moving your lower body.
For example: Leg raise or Hanging abdominal leg raise (I recommend this for the simplest matter that it can help in doing backtucks)
2.) 下固定 Lock your lower body and train your abs by moving your upper body.
For example: Just normal sit ups and crunches.
Legs (CORE) Legs consist of quite a number of different muscles groups such as quads, calves, hamstring and etc. If you want to get a higher tossing ability I recommend you to train up your calves as well.
Squats (Quads)
Leg Extension (Quads)
Calf Raise (Calves)
Leg Curl (Hamstring)
Romanian Dead lifts (Hamstring)
All of these are just strength training, sometimes you can incorporate your stunting requirement when you gym.
For example, when you are going for a higher toss (require speed), you can use lighter weight and do squat jumps.
Another example would be holding your weight at extended position to simulate extension and train your shoulders' endurance.
Last but not least, everytime you hit the gym, everytime you do your weights and everytime you workout, make sure every single one COUNTS.
Remember that your FORM is more important than the number you carry.
Make sure that you are doing it properly, lest you injure yourself for nothing.
WARM UP is very important !!!!!!!!
Just want to share what Weihoe told me during one of our legs day,
'if you walk into the gym and walk out of the gym after your leg workout, something is wrong'
GOOD LUCK CHEERLEADERS !!
PS: there are so many more exercises you can do, so many variations. FIND OUT something that works for you. FIND OUT something that you are lacking such as endurance? power? strength? These are just my humble suggestions, and sharing what I think would work. You can try, if it doesn't work, you should try something else. You can always use the most powerful tool in the worlds !!
G-double O-G-L-E
GOOGLE !!
GOOGLE !!
PLEASE SUGGEST MORE EXERCISES TO ME THAT'S GONNA HELP !! :)
I don't think I'm the best person to quote from, as I'm not a professional bodybuilder pr has an extremely strong build but, I thought this is by far all that I've heard, learned and trained and which I believe worked for me.
So let's get started.
I believe non-amateur cheerleader would know by now that cheerleading is that kind of sport that required full body strength. Although we always say that our strength should comes from the legs and not your upper body and etc, however, upper body do comes in handy when you fight for your stunts or when you proceed on to higher level stunts.
For example, without a strong wrist and forearms you would not be able to catch and stop a FULL UP or FULL AROUND.
So I believe that everyone should work towards a full body workout instead of zooming in to ONLY your major core muscles which are CHEST, LEGS and BACK.
Shoulders (CORE)
Shoulders are not usually a core muscle, but I include it to be one because we use our shoulders a lot when stunting.
Here are the workouts I do for shoulders:
Shoulder Press
Arnold Press
Military Press
Front Raise
Frot Lateral Raise
Reverse Dumbbell Flyes
Chest (CORE)
I'm not a big fan of BIG CHEST. What I usually do are the normal bench press and inclined bench press. It seems like inclined bench press in some sense helps when you are stunting. You can try it.
Backs (CORE)
Upper Back (Trapezius)
Shoulder Shrug
Up Right Row
Reverse Dumbbell Flyes
Barbell Row
Lower Back
Dead Lifts
Abs (CORE)
All the shoulderstand would have to agree with me that if you want your pyramid to be stable and not hurting yourself, not only that you need to have a strong back but strong ABS is a GIVEN !! Back and abs come hand in hand.
I would recommend what was suggested by a gymnastic teacher and ever since I started doing this, my abs feels stronger (doesn't guarantee you got the 'abs' thou)
What the teacher told me was two simple instructions. I had to translate it into English, try to understand me.
1.) 上固定 Lock your upper body and train your abs by moving your lower body.
For example: Leg raise or Hanging abdominal leg raise (I recommend this for the simplest matter that it can help in doing backtucks)
2.) 下固定 Lock your lower body and train your abs by moving your upper body.
For example: Just normal sit ups and crunches.
Legs (CORE) Legs consist of quite a number of different muscles groups such as quads, calves, hamstring and etc. If you want to get a higher tossing ability I recommend you to train up your calves as well.
Squats (Quads)
Leg Extension (Quads)
Calf Raise (Calves)
Leg Curl (Hamstring)
Romanian Dead lifts (Hamstring)
All of these are just strength training, sometimes you can incorporate your stunting requirement when you gym.
For example, when you are going for a higher toss (require speed), you can use lighter weight and do squat jumps.
Another example would be holding your weight at extended position to simulate extension and train your shoulders' endurance.
Last but not least, everytime you hit the gym, everytime you do your weights and everytime you workout, make sure every single one COUNTS.
Remember that your FORM is more important than the number you carry.
Make sure that you are doing it properly, lest you injure yourself for nothing.
WARM UP is very important !!!!!!!!
Just want to share what Weihoe told me during one of our legs day,
'if you walk into the gym and walk out of the gym after your leg workout, something is wrong'
GOOD LUCK CHEERLEADERS !!
PS: there are so many more exercises you can do, so many variations. FIND OUT something that works for you. FIND OUT something that you are lacking such as endurance? power? strength? These are just my humble suggestions, and sharing what I think would work. You can try, if it doesn't work, you should try something else. You can always use the most powerful tool in the worlds !!
G-double O-G-L-E
GOOGLE !!
GOOGLE !!
PLEASE SUGGEST MORE EXERCISES TO ME THAT'S GONNA HELP !! :)
Friday, September 24, 2010
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
12 GOOD ATTRIBUTES that a GOOD coach should have
1.) Positive
2.) Enthusiastic
3.) Supportive
4.) Trusting
5.) Focused
6.) Goal-oriented
7.) Knowledgeable
8.) Observant
9.) Respectful
10.) Patient
11.) Clear
12.) Assertive
IF you want to have a GOOD COACH, then be a GOOD STUDENTS.
IF you want to have GOOD STUDENTS, then be a GOOD COACH.
Maybe its time for BOTH coaches and players to think about changing for the better.
Sometimes, its really HARD to be positive.
When they just disappoint you
Sometimes, its really HARD to be enthusiastic.
When they just don't care about you
Sometimes, its really HARD to be supportive.
When they take you for granted
Sometimes, its really HARD to be trusting.
When they prove to you that they are not trustworthy
Sometimes, its really HARD to be focused.
When they are not focused
Sometimes, its really HARD to be goal oriented.
When they are not listening and heading towards the goal
Sometimes, its not really that HARD to be knowledgeable.
But they don't listen.
Sometimes, its not really HARD to be observant.
But they just ignore you.
Sometimes, its not really HARD to be respectful
But they don't respect themselves.
Sometimes, its really HARD to be patient.
When they just simply gets on your nerves by doing stupid things
Sometimes, its not really HARD to be clear.
But they just don't listen
Sometimes, its not really HARD to be assertive.
But they just rebel against you.
My personal conclusion is that all these theories are bullshits. You can read them, but I doubt they can help much because, these were written in a favorable situation. Its like the ideal situation where everyone dream for.
These theories can't do shits if they are not even listening or putting in effort.
Then it still comes back to one single question.
HOW MUCH DO THEY WANT IT?
If they want it, then all these theories will comes in place, if not, just read for a good laugh.
SERIOUSLY, why am I doing this?
1.) Positive
2.) Enthusiastic
3.) Supportive
4.) Trusting
5.) Focused
6.) Goal-oriented
7.) Knowledgeable
8.) Observant
9.) Respectful
10.) Patient
11.) Clear
12.) Assertive
IF you want to have a GOOD COACH, then be a GOOD STUDENTS.
IF you want to have GOOD STUDENTS, then be a GOOD COACH.
Maybe its time for BOTH coaches and players to think about changing for the better.
Sometimes, its really HARD to be positive.
When they just disappoint you
Sometimes, its really HARD to be enthusiastic.
When they just don't care about you
Sometimes, its really HARD to be supportive.
When they take you for granted
Sometimes, its really HARD to be trusting.
When they prove to you that they are not trustworthy
Sometimes, its really HARD to be focused.
When they are not focused
Sometimes, its really HARD to be goal oriented.
When they are not listening and heading towards the goal
Sometimes, its not really that HARD to be knowledgeable.
But they don't listen.
Sometimes, its not really HARD to be observant.
But they just ignore you.
Sometimes, its not really HARD to be respectful
But they don't respect themselves.
Sometimes, its really HARD to be patient.
When they just simply gets on your nerves by doing stupid things
Sometimes, its not really HARD to be clear.
But they just don't listen
Sometimes, its not really HARD to be assertive.
But they just rebel against you.
My personal conclusion is that all these theories are bullshits. You can read them, but I doubt they can help much because, these were written in a favorable situation. Its like the ideal situation where everyone dream for.
These theories can't do shits if they are not even listening or putting in effort.
Then it still comes back to one single question.
HOW MUCH DO THEY WANT IT?
If they want it, then all these theories will comes in place, if not, just read for a good laugh.
SERIOUSLY, why am I doing this?
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Started on a few books about coaching. Learned quite a few things, decided to keep a record/reflection after reading one or two chapters everyday. (This should be able to keep my blog alive for quite some time)
These books that I'm reading regarding coaching are being written with the corporate office as the set up. But I guess it should be applicable when it comes to coaching cheerleading. Because basically, it works on the same basis that you're guiding, leading, or raising up someone.
The book started with saying that the employee believe that they have a good idea about how their companies could be run more successfully, but only 38% think their employers would be interested in hearing those ideas.
Thus making the employees' ideas - MOST WASTED RESOURCES
Quoted from Effective Coaching by Marshall J.Cook
Firstly, I would like to say thanks to those has always been there to provide me with necessary assistance and help and advices. Without you guys, I strongly believe that I would have already given up.
The first chapter on the book basically states these 10 questions that every boss, mentor, coach, leader and etc should ask themselves.
1.) Do you ask for your employees' opinions?
2.) Do you listen to your employees' suggestions?
3.) Do you take your employees' ideas seriously?
4.) Do you value your employees' opinions?
5.) Do you check with your employees before making decision that affects their work?
6.) Do you defend your employees in a meeting of supervisors?
7.) Do you explain goal clearly when giving your employees a new project?
8.) Do you welcome your employees' questions about an ongoing project?
9.) Do you give your employees latitude in deciding how to carry out a project?
10.) Do save criticism for a private one-to-one sessions?
I have added in possible questions which a cheerleading coach should be asking him/herself
1.) Do you ask your students for opinions/feedbacks? Listen, value and take their ideas seriously?
2.) Do you ask your students before making decision that affects them?
3.) Do you defend your students in front of other cheerleaders?
4.) Do you explain what kind of expectation you have on them or what is expected from them? If you do, were you SPECIFIC?
5.) Do you allow your students to question/doubt you?
6.) Do you criticise them in front of their own teammates?
Many times we expect our students to do this, to do that.
Many time we want our students to do this and to do that.
BUT ! Have we ever asked ourselves, what do THEY WANT?
Some reflections to be done, AGAIN.
I don't have an answer for your problem.
Stay tune for more !
These books that I'm reading regarding coaching are being written with the corporate office as the set up. But I guess it should be applicable when it comes to coaching cheerleading. Because basically, it works on the same basis that you're guiding, leading, or raising up someone.
The book started with saying that the employee believe that they have a good idea about how their companies could be run more successfully, but only 38% think their employers would be interested in hearing those ideas.
Thus making the employees' ideas - MOST WASTED RESOURCES
Quoted from Effective Coaching by Marshall J.Cook
Firstly, I would like to say thanks to those has always been there to provide me with necessary assistance and help and advices. Without you guys, I strongly believe that I would have already given up.
The first chapter on the book basically states these 10 questions that every boss, mentor, coach, leader and etc should ask themselves.
1.) Do you ask for your employees' opinions?
2.) Do you listen to your employees' suggestions?
3.) Do you take your employees' ideas seriously?
4.) Do you value your employees' opinions?
5.) Do you check with your employees before making decision that affects their work?
6.) Do you defend your employees in a meeting of supervisors?
7.) Do you explain goal clearly when giving your employees a new project?
8.) Do you welcome your employees' questions about an ongoing project?
9.) Do you give your employees latitude in deciding how to carry out a project?
10.) Do save criticism for a private one-to-one sessions?
I have added in possible questions which a cheerleading coach should be asking him/herself
1.) Do you ask your students for opinions/feedbacks? Listen, value and take their ideas seriously?
2.) Do you ask your students before making decision that affects them?
3.) Do you defend your students in front of other cheerleaders?
4.) Do you explain what kind of expectation you have on them or what is expected from them? If you do, were you SPECIFIC?
5.) Do you allow your students to question/doubt you?
6.) Do you criticise them in front of their own teammates?
Many times we expect our students to do this, to do that.
Many time we want our students to do this and to do that.
BUT ! Have we ever asked ourselves, what do THEY WANT?
Some reflections to be done, AGAIN.
I don't have an answer for your problem.
Stay tune for more !
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