Pro-Sports

If you don’t make it into pro sports, don’t worry, there’s still the world championship cyber games!

The hubby discovered the cyber games on TV on the weekend when he chanced upon a program airing the cyber games championships.  The first world cyber games started in the year 2000 and have been running every year since with an increasing pool of prize money and an expanding list of games. 

Looks like you can make a living being a professional gamer after all…

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Although I often profess to be rather poor at sports when I was young, I do believe I demonstrated some climbing potential from the tender age of toddlerhood.  As soon as I was capable of climbing, I started climbing out of my cot.  It seems I also climbed back into my cot to avoid detection that I was ever out of my daytime cell.

When I moved onto kindergarten, I showed the boys how to use the monkey bars the proper way.  Then I moved onto stemming doorways and practicing my skills at negotiating a chimney between narrow doorways.

If I do possess some talent at all for climbing, then I think Gavin’s climbing finesse must come from me.  A few weeks back, he learned how to fit his toes into the slots of his cot, although he doesn’t quite possess the physical strength to climb up onto it as yet.  Then he mounted another escape plan from his play pen by using his Peekaboo Elmo toy for a foothold.  Yesterday morning, he successfully made it up to the second storey all by himself.

Perhaps it is just a child’s instinct for climbing and that every child possesses this innate talent.  If this is the case, you could probably train your kid to be the next Chris Sharma by encouraging him to follow his instincts to climb all objects.  With the ability to pull up on slopers from a sit start, they’re already heads and shoulders ahead of most newbie adult climbers.

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Since having a baby and watching him develop new skills, I have realised that there is a great similarity between how a baby learns new skills and how we get better at a sport.  In fact, if you stop to observe how a baby learns for long enough, you’ll realise that there are actually quite a number of great learning tips you can pick up along the way.  Here are three tips from Gavin on how to get better at any sport of your choice…

1.  Practice, practice, practice.

Before Gavin learned to crawl, it seemed like he was forever stuck in his reverse commando-style crawling and the best he could manage was a rocking horse motion.  Suddenly, he goes from stationary rocking to forward, full-steam-ahead crawling in the span of a week!  It is like his development hits a plateau phase and then suddenly it jumps to the next level without warning.  Similarly, when I was rock climbing, it would seem like my rock climbing improvements would hit a plateau phase where no amount of training would bring about an increase in power or skill.  Then suddenly, out of the blue, I’ll experience an improvement in leaps and bounds that takes me completely by surprise.

The lesson here is focus.  If you keep a laser pointed focus on the goal you seek to achieve, one day everything will just fall into place just as if you were taking a walk in a park.  Just think about it - a baby focusses all his attention on learning a new skill to the point of ignoring all other developmental areas.  A baby learning to crawl or walk might temporarily stop working on speech development because all his energies are being channelled towards mastering how to crawl.  Now that’s focus!  No wonder they can learn so much in so little time.  If I spent as much time training for climbing as Gavin does on learning how to crawl, I’m sure I would be a solid 7C climber by now.

2. When you fall, stand up and try again.

Gavin has been working on pulling up to a standing position.  The number of times he has fallen is more than I can recall.  Yet, everytime he falls, he picks himself up and goes again with a relentless determination to succeed.  That’s a lesson worth taking home.

3. When you have a goal, you have to eat, sleep and dream it.

Gavin’s desire to practice his crawling is so great that at times, he refuses to eat and he’ll scream when we try to put him into his highchair.  That’s because highchair means no chance of practicing.  Same goes with sleeping.  Despite being so tired that his eyes are falling shut, he still rejects sleep, fighting to stay awake so he can keep going.  Then when he’s asleep, he dreams about it.  I’ve even seen him attempting to make crawling motions in his sleep!  That’s dedication for you.

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Exercising at home has been one of the most convenient methods of keeping fit and losing weight.  Having an exercise machine in the house ensures you’ll never have another excuse for not exercising.  You no longer have to fight your way through traffic to get to the gym, you can’t complain about it being too late or too hazy to go for a jog, and best of all, you can watch the TV at the same time - what more could you ask for? 

I’ve always wanted a home gym.  My two favourite exercise machines are the Rowing Machine and the Eliptical Cycle.  I used to like the Threadmill but since I developed a knee problem, pounding my joints on the Threadmill hasn’t been very therapeutic.  However, if you’re on a budget, I reckon the best choice is to get the Rowing Machine because it provides a good cardio workout as well as toning your body. 

One of the reasons why I’ve always been fond of the rowing machine is because they are great for building upper body strength.  Rowing, like climbing, focusses on the same physical attributes - upper body strength versus body mass.  You need to be both strong and light to maximise your competitive advantage on the water.  

Aside from promoting good health, the rowing machine is a great weightloss machine because it helps you lose weight via a two pronged approach.  A good cardiovascular workout burns lots of calories and building muscle mass helps to increase the body’s basal metabolic rate - the amount of energy consumed at rest.  So you not only burn more calories during exercise but all day long. 

The icing on the cake (at least for me) is that it’s fun.  I’ve always enjoyed rowing and when I was last in Melbourne, I was inspired to look for a rowing machine like my Dad’s.   My Dad bought the following rowing machine which was apparently designed by some famous rower athlete.  Set him back some $4k, if I recall correctly. 

The design is pretty interesting because it mimics rowing against real water pressure.  The clear drum below contains water and two paddles so every time you pull on the cord, you’re pulling the paddles through the water.  This machine helps to create the sensation of being in the water because when you close your eyes, you’ll hear the swishing sound of the paddles running through the water.  With a little imagination, you can pretend your on the river racing against the current.

The unit stores away quite neatly when not in use.

I would love having one of these for the gym in our new house except I haven’t seen anything like it locally except for the usual rowing machines. 

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Although it was always the hubby’s and my intention to encourage Gavin into the world of golf, it appears my son takes after Mummy in one respect - he recently demonstrated the makings of a potential rock climber.  From a sitting position on the floor, the pulled himself to standing using no less than crimps.  He has also done what appears to me to be a baby’s equivalent of a boulder problem with a sit start and two slopers.

A son after my own heart.  What can I say?  I’m a proud Mummy.

I wish I had a photo but he took me by surprise both times and I didn’t have a camera handy. 

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