Lift that bench!

The last two weeks  I have had a significant improvement regarding my gym performances. I'm doing 6-8 lifts with 45-50 kg of weight including the bar. Also I am able to lift 6 times 50 kg on the shoulder press. I'm very happy about these results however I am concerned of my leg work out as my knees have started to be sore. Peter and Stefan recommended that I should'nt continue my leg work outs as long as my knees continue hurting. They don't hurt while I'm walking normally, however if I run the stairs or work out my legs they start hurting a bit.

I'll continue adding weight every time I work out and I hope that my knees will be okay for working them out as soon as possible. For Thursdays instead of doing squads or other leg training I decided to have a more like freestyle day where I mostly train my arm muscles or some other muscles that I haven't paid attention to.

Going for 45 kg.

''BEATBOX MADNESS''

Last friday on the 25th of January I started my beatbox club! With the experience of running the club last year I was expecting to have more people joining the club, however now only 5 students appeared. Although I should'nt use the word 'only' as I discovered that 5 people is actually an ideal amount of participants. However I'm more than happy to welcome new people always whenever someone is willing to join.

The first ten minutes of the 'lesson' was absolutely quiet, however after it, people started to appear. At first I was nervous but later on when the teaching process began I started to have fun because it seemed that the participants were enjoying their time. For this lesson I researched some techniques for learning the basic of beatboxing. The best way to learn the most common parts that combine a beat together is to pronounce single letters or combinations of them such as P - bass drum, T- hi-hat, PFS- the snare. Also I showed them how to do the vocal and thefinger scratch. If these are pronounced in sequences one will have a complete beat and will already be a beatboxer. SIMPLE AS THAT! Besides this, I showed the participants some of my beatboxing and told them some background knowledge of beatboxings including famous professionals.

The participating group seemed to be motivated as they were writing down the names of famous beatboxers and taking pictures of the beat schemes. I was also happy about my performance as a teacher and I actually set them a small homework which is basically to practise beatboxing which can be done anywhere anytime. For the next friday I will need to figure out new beats schemes and perhaps introduce the participants with a new sound to be practised.  Also I could show them a video of someone beatboxing and him/her being interviewed. My challenge has only begun...

MADE POSSIBLE

Back To Basketball!

Last wednesday was the first time since 4-5 weeks that I attended the club which is mostly because of the term break, however my skills hadn't detoriated at all, in fact they had improved for my amazement! I scored several baskets from which I'm extremely happy about.

As the yr 11s and 13s were having their mock exams, the amount of attendants was just enough for two teams and therefore we played a  nonstop full court game which was tiring but super fun at the same time. Though I still prefer more the half court games because they allow to concentrate more on the actual gameplay skills such as coordinating and tactics however it is not as much of an exercise than a full court game and the possibilities to make a breakthrough run all the way across the court to score a layup is impossible. Still I'm fine with the both options as long as everybody is happy.

This time, there was a video filmed of all of us playing and thanks to Han's great effort for editing and uploading it we can use it to reflect on our gameplay. Personally I found out that most of the time I don't know exactly where I should be and mostly I'm doing my own solo which I think is not such a good idea after all. However I managed to find some good positions from where to score or pass on the ball which is a huge improvent when compared to my previous achievements as my aims have always been to improve my coordination skills. For next Wednesday I will try to hold more on my horses and concentrait on playing in the position that I'm shown rather than changing it all the time to non useful positions.

CAS Plan, second shot!

For CREATIVITY I have recently started to play the piano and I have started to enjoy it very much. I have a private teacher who has already thought me the basic rules and signs that a pianist should know. Also I have now learned to play some basic songs and have proceeded to the level where I need to use my both hands for playing. What I have planned to achieve in the following three months is that I want to be able to play relatively long songs with the usage of both hands which personally will be a challenge for myself. I might even post a video of me playing some cool song(s) if I manage to overcome my challenge well enough.

For ACTION I have planned to keep on attending the basketball club every Wednesday right after the school for approximately 1,5 hours. I would like to keep developing my skills in co-operating with the other members of the team and my own shooting skills as well in order to improve mine and the whole team's team operating so that we could develope our skills to adapt to each other's and that we could succeed in making better scores. Also it would be nice to learn some nice tricks that could be added to the gameplay.

I will also keep on attending the school Gym atleast four times a week during the lunch brake for approximately 45 minutes where every day has it's own work-out for a particular muscle (chest, shoulders, back and legs). My aims are to grow my muscles and improve my physichal strength and my goal is to lift atleast between 85-90 kg from the bench press until the end of the whole school year.

For SERVICE, errgh.. is more hard to think of any good one. Although, a one idea is that the whole class or a part of the class could figure out something that would help the local community or even an individual in some part of the world as was done before the term break. Also I have been thinking of starting the beatboxing club once again. However this time the target group will be anyone who wants to attend not only a particular age group as last year. It will be a challenge to maintain the passion and commitment in the students attending as the skill of beatboxing is hard to be learnt and taught. So I will need to have a clear plan and a method of teaching for each time I run the club, also I will need to be able to maintain my own commitment for running it. It will be a major challenge for myself and propably for the students attending as well, however I want to find a way to overcome the challenge so that everyone attending will atleast acquire some kind of skills regarding beatboxing and most importantly everybody should enjoy their time and have fun. The club will be runned once a week for 30-40 minutes during the lunch break.

Bon appétit!

Today after arriving home from school I decided to do something a bit different from what would normally be a part of my daily routine. As feeling hungry I wanted to try to prepare an omelette for the first time in my life and since I do not cook too often I figured out that it could turn out to be a challenge. I got inspired by my mom because she has recently been cooking them.

One could say that an omelette is like a pizza, you can add anything to it that has been leftover in your frige from vedgetables to cheese and meat or anything that is desired only that the outcome should look like a calzone. Frankly, It has been only lately that I have started to eat any form of eggs, before only the smell of them would've made me feel sick (I don't know why). As I like strongly flavoured food I decided to add the following ingridients: white cheese, yellow cheese, ham, pepper, tomatoes and onions and spiced the omelette with pizza basilico and pepper spice.

Cooking an omelette in fact turned out to be a rather easy process, however In order to make the omelette look and taste perfect requires practice. Most importantly I learned how to cook them and as being an easy dish it will help me with my future breakfasts, dinners and especially with the lazy days. However the next time I'll possibly leave out a few ingridients just to not mix too many flavours.