Pro-Sports

They say that one of the ways to head off trouble with a toddler is to ensure that your toddler gets sufficient active playtime. The idea behind this is to help your toddler release all that pent up energy inside that deceivingly tiny body so they don’t drive you mad when they try to climb the kitchen cabinets (or stem the door frames - as I did when I was a child) while at home. 

Malaysian weather being what it is and child-friendly parks being few and far between in our area, I have always wanted to get a simple jungle gym for our garden so Gavin could run amok to his heart’s content.  Instead of getting the usual jungle gyms they sell at Toys ‘R’ Us (below: Gavin playing on one of their model jungle gyms outside the Toys ‘R’ Us store in Midvalley), I thought it would be cool to get something a little more unique.

I thought I had found just the thing when I saw some “castle” type jungle gyms for sale at York House in Bangsar Shopping Complex.  Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures to show but they’re basically a slightly more elaborate version of the jungle gyms at Toys ‘R’ Us and they are made up like mock castles.

Since then, I’ve seen other “jungle gyms” that even I find exciting and fun.  I first read about the Mobius® Climber on Abnerd.  Created by Landscape Structures, they are basically pretty funky wave-like climbing structures:

While browsing through their website, I discovered that Landscape Structures also makes other climbing structures for kids, like climbing walls, Spacenet™ Climber Models and Natural Elements™ (shown below).  I was particularly interested in the last because it is about as “natural” as a man-made play structure for kids is ever likely to get. 

In the growing concrete jungle that we live in, it is easy for children of today to lose touch with nature and the environment.  Although such structures are artificial, they will at least instil some interest in nature in our children, instead of the brightly-coloured and garish play structures we so often see in parks nowadays.

Speaking of natural structures, here’s another “natural” looking children’s jungle gym that combines both the elements of climbing and a slide created by Blocx.  Personally, I think I like this the best because it gives you the best of both worlds: a climbing structure as well as a slide - a very familiar element in many jungle gyms.  I think Gavin would also like it best because he appears to be quite fond of going down slides.

Although I was fortunate enough to have climbable trees during my childhood, I think I would have really enjoyed playing on these jungle gyms.  Perhaps then I might not have resorted to scaling the corridors at my aunt’s house.

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After my ankle went from bad to worse, I decided it was time to take more proactive measures.  It had gotten to the point where I was limping whenever I walked and my ankle was perpetually hurting.  It was so bad I wouldn’t leave the house without wearing my Merrell shoes unless I didn’t have to carry Gavin and we weren’t going to walk much.  At home, I found ways to avoid having to carry Gavin unnecessarily, but evne then it still didn’t completely resolve the ache in my ankle. 

So I started doing those exercises that the physio prescribed again and this time I persisted through the pain.  After a couple of days of doing those exercises, I felt an immediate improvement to my ankle.  Now I can even wear my slippers out again and carry Gavin without limping.

Isn’t it amazing what a little physio can do?  Yes, yes, I know I had been rather skeptical but I guess I ought to know better than to question the beneficial effects of physio after witnessing my grandma’s marked improvement in physical mobility.  Even my brother admitted to being surprised by how physically weakened patients had been completely revitalised after being prescribed a course of physio.  As a doctor, he never really believed in physio until he saw the benefits his patients were reaping from their physio sessions.

That said, I didn’t have to go in to use the special gym equipment that the physiotherapist wanted me to use.  All I used was the “heavy” Pilates resistance band to create a bit of resistance while I did repetitive movements of my foot in flexion, extension and lateral motion.  Initially, it was difficult to find time to do my exercises without Gavin interfering (he was so curious, he kept tugging at the band while I was using it).  After a while, I worked out how to do them while I was nursing him - how’s that for multi-tasking?

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The power of visualisation lies in the fact that the mind cannot differentiate a real memory from visual images that are made up.  If you create enough visual images and store them as memories, you can fool your mind into believing that these are past memories, rather than created images.

If you still don’t get me, don’t worry, let me give you an example.  I know I have a tendency to talk in circles sometimes.  In the book called, “The Mind Gym”, the author writes about a golfer who was stuck in a POW camp for many years.  The only way he could survive the experience was to imagine himself playing golf.  He would visualise the golf course right down to the breeze that blew through his hair.  When he finally escaped from the POW camp, he played golf again only to discover that his handicap had improved despite the fact that he had not touched a golf club in years!  His improvement was due to many years of playing golf in his mind.

When I was projecting “Pear” and “Chess“, I used to visualise myself working the crux several times before I attempted it.  In fact, during the week before I nailed “Pear”, I was visualising the crux sequence even while I was at work!  So in my mind, instead of having climbed “Pear” the number of times I had done it physically, I had actually climbed the crux as many times as I had done it physically plus the number of times I completed it in my mind. 

If you had been there when I was projecting “Pear”, then you’d realise that I had actually climbed “Pear” a lot of times.  In fact, I climbed it so many times in such a short span of time that I injured my right ring finger so that was another reason why visualisation really helped.  Even if my fingers were injured, I could still climb in my head.

Another benefit of visualisation is that it reinforces to your mind and body that something is possible.  Just like when you watch another person climbing a particularly difficult route, visualisation is like watching yourself climbing that difficult route. 

In a nutshell, visualisation helps you:

• practice climbing a route in your head when you don’t have the time to do it
• practice climbing a route in your head even though a part of your body has been injured
• reinforce your ability to climb a particular route

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There is a route over in Ridsect, Nyamuk, called 800 Bucks Down the Hill.  If you ever wondered why it was dubbed so, this is the tale behind the name…

Sometime towards mid-to-late 2003, the Rockrats decided to learn how to bolt a route.  Under the expert tutelage of route bolter Patrick Andre (whom you will have noticed bolted many, if not most, of the routes in Nyamuk), we set out to Ridsect - a relatively new section of Nyamuk that Patrick was trying to establish at the time. 

From the Rockrats were Holdbreaker, Thin Man, Moo Moo, Lelek Le Grunt, Simian Boy and Combat Girl.  Accompanied by Kevin and Patrick, himself, we set out early that day to accomplish as much as possible.  After briefing us on the tasks involved, Patrick got started setting up the ropes, while the rest of us set to work clearing up the place.

As you can see from the brambles behind Patrick, there was a lot to clean up (and if you think the wall was bad, you should see the ground).  Here’s a shot of Simian Boy trying to clear the access path to the base of the crag.

The belay area is a narrow strip of land with a natural drain between it and the wall and a downward sloping hill covered with brambles behind it.  The picture below should give you a fair idea of what the ground coverage was like:

While we were clearing up, some of the Rockrats got a little distracted and started goofing around.

Below: “Stick ‘em up and gimme all your gear!”  Thin Man threatening to slice Le Grunt and Moo Moo if they didn’t hand over all their rock climbing gear.

After a while, Thin Man decides he’s going to get rid of the evidence - Le Grunt about to be beheaded by one of the bluntest parangs around.

Figuring it was going to get messy and not wanting to have to clean up, he made Le Grunt lean over into the “drain” between the wall and the belay area.

Below: Private Moo gets her hands on a glue gun and starts blasting anyone and everyone in sight.

Lelek Le Grunt runs for cover but is cornered by Private Moo.  She kicks him into the drain…

…”Gimme all your gear or I’ll blast your head off!”

Meanwhile, some real work is being done by Kevin who is setting up a rope to bolt a route that would later be known as Otesanek (the route right of 800 Bucks Down the Hill). 

The FA of Otesanek was by Patrick Andre.  He named the route Otesanek after a story about a couple who so badly wanted a baby that the husband carved a baby out of wood (there’s more to the story but I can’t really remember any more - you’ll have to ask Patrick himself to relate it to you).  Otesanek has some tree roots running along it which reminded him of the wooden baby, hence the name.  You can see the tree root in this picture - it’s the long brown root at the right most part of the photo (it is also extremely tempting to use the root as you get towards the anchor).

I’ll tell you a little more about how to bolt a route in the next post.  This one’s about the route 800 Bucks Down the Hill.

After Patrick teaches us how to bolt a route using Otesanek as an example, we get to work on 800 Bucks Down the Hill.  We all get a chance to climb the route on top rope first and naturally Hold Breaker had to live up to his alias and break off a piece just as he’s getting started…

Le Grunt lives up to his name spitting curses all the way up:

I got the task of marking the spots where we would place bolts and Thin Man did the bolting using a battery powered drill.  Halfway up, the battery ran out so he had to send down the battery and get the spare sent up to him.  While sending down the battery, it fell out and rolled down the hill into the brambles.  We spent the rest of the day combing the brambles for the battery (not that we could do very much without being shredded to pieces).

Below:  The Rockrats combing the area for the battery.  Unfortunately, it rolled into the brambles and although Simian Boy eventually found it, it was out of our reach.

Since the drill belonged to Yuen Li from Summit Climbing Gym, we ended up having to buy a new battery for her which costed us 800 bucks.  Hence the name 800 Bucks Down the Hill - it was coined by the Rockrats, even though the FA was completed by Thin Man. 

And now you know the story behind 800 Bucks Down the Hill…

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I found some old trip reports from our climbing trip to Singapore in 2003 written by the Thin Man and Lelek le Grunt.  Lelek le Grunt’s report is rather comical, actually.  It is a pity Simian Boy didn’t write anything - his trip reports are always good for a laugh, too.

From Thin Man:

Day 1: Artificial wall climbing at SAFRA Yishun.

Excellent enterprise climbing walls with some very long, pumpy, overhanging routes. The walls are set up right smack under the sun, which means it can get pretty blistering hot in the late mornings. Everybody had good fun and performed well on the challenging routes.

Later on, went shopping for climbing shoes and gear. There’s a lot more selection here as compared to KL, and the prices are pretty decent as well.

Below: Cinderella’s ugly step-sister (aka Fearless Leader trying on a pair of climbing shoes at All Sports)

At night, we were back at JB for MooMoo’s house-warming dinner where we stuffed ourselves crazy!

Day 2: Outdoor climbing at Dairy Farm, Bukit Timah

Most of us wouldn’t have guessed, but right smack in the concrete jungles of Singapore is a natural park with very well-maintained hiking and biking trails. Managed to explore some really interesting bolted routes. The climbing gang had a field day testing themselves out against some of the more challenging routes and I guess everybody left with some unfinished business

Spent the night at JB, watched a late-night movie, and then an even later mamak session before trudging home for a couple of hours of sleep.

In all, another fun-filled climbing trip in the record books for the climbing RockRats.

From Lelek le Grunt:

I’m just filling out the blanks…

Day 0, Lai runs out of petrol again. Whatever happened to “I dont make the same mistake twice”?

Day 1, pick up Holdbreakers goods at his suppliers place (me reading map in the car), then on to Allsports and campers (me still reading map in car, getting sick), finally attempted to go to wisma atria to get some goods for mumsie (me still reading map, getting even more sick) gave up because of lack of time and head back over to MooMoos place in JB for makan (Me finally giving up the map reading and conking out in the backseat. Lucky didn’t puke.)

Day 2, Adrian takes a massive dump somewhere off the trail. 2 or 3 days worth if I’m not mistaken. Heres the sequence of events. Leaves car, walkes up trail with the rest of us, feels the urge, turns around, searches for toilet paper, can’t find it, runs back up the trail, asks moomoo where the TP is, gets told its in the glove box (the only place he didn’t look), says “DOH!” in the exact same manner as lai when he found his safety was locked on his harness, gets some tiny piece of tissue paper from Richard, runs back to car, doesnt make it, jumps into the bushes, says “aaaaahhhhhhh”…..

Also on Day 2 was this b**** (edited) of a slab climb. Its a nice 6a all the way to the bloody 1 foot crux move. Yes, just 1 FOOT! And that 1 foot is a 6C by general consensus. A mini matchstick width micro edge to stand on, a sloping mini crimp for the left hand and abslutly nothing for the right hand. Kenneth leads for us, but chickens out and swings over to the scramble on the left to finish the route to set up top rope for the rest of us. Next was yours truly. Hung for a bloody long time and finally managed to haul my sorry ass over the lip using my left foot all the way to the left. (cheating?) Next was Coverboy who tried and tried and tried, but finally asked for a haul. Well, 1 foot of hauling was all it took. Next was holdbreaker who had the same results. Sim tried and didnt make it either. Came off the climb and was royally pissed with us when we told him non of us made it up either. Shen managed to haul herself over the lip after some long hanging and cranking.!

Dunno how she did it though. 5C master tried and made it. All the way to the first bolt, which was his goal for the day. After that, feeling brave, he went on to the crux and died, with the rest of us.

Oh yeah, somewhere around that time, Thin man and Shameless were attempting this deceptively easy looking climb. I heard grunts and moans from thin man that rivalled mine! Later when Shameless was trying, Ho ho, it was a funny sight to look over and see lai swinging out. Look over again, and lai swings out again. In fact, everytime we looked over, we could see lai swinging out… Lai, that was by far, your most shameless performance ever. Runners were pulled, bolts were stepped on… and the best… oh man, pull on the runner, clip in to the bolt using the safety, unclip the runner, reach up and clip the runner into the next bolt, unclip safety, pull on newly clipped in runner…

Hmmm, dun forget the huge cinema we went to, when we were late. I remember someone saying “Hey, we are probbably 90% of the audience, can they delay just for us ar?” Turns out we actually WERE 90% of the audience. They didn’t delay for us though, we missed the starting. We also missed the ending because some lazy prick of a projector operator cut off the last bits of the show just so he could go home.

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Here’s the rest of the trip report from the Rockrats first trip down south:

Adventures of the Rockrats down South…

Our adventure started in PJ when we left the city at 10pm – two hours after our agreed meeting time of 8pm at Centrepoint. Fearless and Thin Man arrived after a little miscalculation with the fuel resulted in their having to push the car to the nearest petrol kiosk. After a hearty meal at the Italian joint, we were on our way…

We made it to Kit’s place by about 3am (with Shameless bringing up the rear and arriving about half an hour later).

Saturday morning at about 7am found Mother Nature’s tears battering down upon the roof tiles, but her weeping subsided to a cheerful sunrise as we sped down the road to Safra Yishun. Le Grunt lent me his car to drive – I was surprised. I thought all guys coddled their cars like an overprotective mother over the runt of her litter. It was fun to drive (aside from the very heavy clutch). The familiar touch sent a wave of nostalgia that brought me sharply back to “K” – the Mitsubishi Lancer I used to own in Australia. I miss that car…

We arrived early to Safra Yishun, though admittedly I pushed them hard to make sure we were there early. I don’t know about the others, but I just wanted to climb and I didn’t really care how much sleep I had as long as I could be out there on the wall. That empty space in my heart was back and it needed to be filled up with the only reality that could bring me peace – where the only thing that mattered was the next wall, the next climb, the next bolt, the next hold, the next move. I needed to numb the pain in my heart with the pain in my hands and shut off my mind from replaying the events I wanted to forget. The closer I got to the artificial wall, the calmer I felt. It was like the wall removed my angst and eased the ailments of my decrepit soul.

The closeness of the walls was comforting and Yishun’s warm presence aroused my senses, bringing me back to life. Our foreplay began on the bouldering wall and continued with a lead up the rainbow climb. I slipped easily into a comfort level with Yishun. I experienced no fear and we dropped to a level of intimacy far more quickly than I ever expected to with a new wall. I was on the girls’ competition route before I knew it, with Ken belaying me. The route was relentless with it power and endurance moves but nevertheless, I achieved my orgasm and got lowered off like a bird gliding to the ground.

I was disappointed that we had to part so soon, but the 5C Master was anxious to check out some draws at Allsports, so we packed and left for lunch. I only discovered the existence of my stomach when we arrived at Peninsular Plaza. The euphoria of the earlier part of the day was rapidly draining because I felt the shadows settling in again. Shameless made a light joke about a revealing picture of me taken at Yishun and I lost my head.

It was a strange feeling of mixed emotions – a cool anger that was like the calm before a storm. I felt like a third party observing my emotions like a scientist recording the results of a failed experiment. The anger dissipated quickly as I stepped into Allsports, looking around with the fascinated wonder of Charlie in Willie Wonker’s Chocolate Factory.

Whenever I read what I wrote about climbing back in the days when I used to climb with such intensity and  passion, it strikes me that I had a rather morbid and morose outlook on life.  Hot-headed and reckless, I think I didn’t really “grow-up” as far as climbing was concerned until much later.  I think it was only when I stopped chasing grades and started climbing for pure enjoyment that I elevated to a whole new mental level in climbing.  In a way, I think it was a good thing.

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Recently, the hubby and I took Gavin to Titiwangsa park so he could play on the playground.  While looking for the playground, we came across a “warm-up” site.  Well, I don’t know what you call it but I’ll refer to it as a warm-up site because it is usually where people warm up their muscles before jogging or engaging in any other physical activity. 

Hubby saw a structure consisting of two vertical poles joined together by a diagonally placed pole and asked what it was for.  I explained that it was to allow people to gauge how high they could jump.  Then he asked me how high I could jump and I immediately went into the defensive and said, “I was never very good at jumping.”

Almost as soon as the words left my mouth, I remembered the article I read about how geniuses are made and not born and I wished I could take back my words.  Here I am planning my son’s career in golf and how I’m going to teach him that there are no limits to what he can achieve if he is willing to go all out and get it, and yet instinctively, I come up with such a negative remark. 

Albeit the remark was in reference to my abilities, but as they say, ”Monkey see, monkey do.”  If I want Gavin to really believe that nothing is beyond his reach, I must first change how I think.  Although I know in theory how to achieve excellence in sports, and even though I have achieved it practically with rock climbing, I suspect that the lessons I have learned are not really as ingrained as I had believed.

Sometimes I reflect back upon the 7A routes I climbed and I wonder, “Did I really do that?”  And then I wonder, “Were they really 7A routes?”  And when I think about how I once dreamed of climbing a 7C and wonder why I never go around to it, I start to wonder whether I could have achieved it if I had really tried or if I quit climbing so I could exit the sport on a high note.  Was I afraid of success or was I really afraid of failure?

Of course, I know that if I trained hard enough, I’m sure I could also improve my jumping, but the question remains - could I improve myself to the point of being a force to be reckoned with or would I merely be better at jumping based on my initial standards?

It isn’t that I don’t believe the theory that geniuses can be created if one just had the interest, focus and dedication to pursue it.  Yet, here I am making excuses for my inabilities even before I have even attempted anything.

It is like the time when I was competing in archery for my team at work.  I made it through the trials and I was pretty good at nailing the bull’s eye.  But when the actual competition began, I couldn’t nail a single bull’s eye to save my life!  At the end of the competition, my team captain came up to me and asked what happened.  I just shrugged my shoulders, picked up another quiver of arrows and started shooting bull’s eyes again.

It is almost as if the moment I have to prove my ability, I can’t do it, but when the situation is relaxed and friendly, I can do anything.  I can’t understand why I crumble so badly in the heat of competition.  I can’t seem to relax enough to do well.

So here’s what I plan to do to rectify this negative streak: the next time someone challenges me to something or asks how well I can do something, I’m going to face the situation positively.  If I don’t have anything positive to say, I’ll keep quiet and just accept the challenge.

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Based on the concepts from The Expert Mind and the other articles I read about in my pursuit to raise a smart kid, there are several things you can do to help prepare your child for excellence in golf (or any other sport for that matter, but since I’m doing this with Gavin, we’re going to look at golf) even before he is old enough to pick up a golf club.  Here are 5 ways you can prepare your child to become a pro-golfer:

1. Let your child watch golf on TV so he can observe how the game is played.
2. Bring him to the driving range so he can get familiar with the setting and watch other golfers in action up close and personal.
3. Get him the equipment - not necessarily the real stuff, a toy set can be just as effective for the time being - so he can “play pretend”.  This is the first step towards eventually teaching him how to visualise.
4. Bring him to golf shops to see the real equipment.
5. Start looking around for golf schools that he can go to when he’s older (I’ve seen a few around for children).

It is never too young to start and many of these things can be done once your child begins to walk.  Remember, Tiger Woods was only two years old when he started playing golf.

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I’ve been researching some information my SIL read about genius and smart kids recently and it reinforces my belief that Gavin can still become a world champion golfer if he so chooses even if the hubby and I do not possess the genetic material for superior sportsmanship. 

The underlying principle is that geniuses are made and not born, and we’re talking about geniuses in any field - science, music, and even sports.  If you want to excel at a sport then there’s no better way to get there than to practice, practice, practice!  Even a person born with “talent” can only get so far on pure talent before they will inevitably be surpassed by other sports people who put in the training time to improve their skills.

My own personal experiences in rock climbing and what I have been able to achieve on a personal level are testimony of this truth.  When I first started rock climbing, I had a friend who climbed better than me in every way.  In order to keep up, I started putting in more climbing hours so that I wouldn’t fall too far behind the rest of the group.  What eventually happened was that I surpassed my friend’s innate climbing talent simply because I trained and she didn’t.

In the field of sports, I never harboured any illusions of being a talented sports person. Instead I had the belief that in order to be good at rock climbing, I had to dedicate the training time to build up my abilities or accept the fact that I would only ever be able to climb 5C routes.  I think this was what allowed me to break through my glass ceiling in climbing.

It was also interesting to hear about an experiment my SIL related to me where the subjects were given electrical impulses to interfere with the function of left brain.  This is basically what I understood of the experiment (although I think you should bear in mind that I’m hearing a second or third hand version of it so some of the essence may have been warped or lost in translation). 

The right brain, which is responsible for creativity, is also believed to be responsible for the creation of genius.  It is the logical left brain which sets the limits to the right brain and keeps it in check, therefore it was speculated that if we could block the function of the left brain, we could artificially encourage right brain activity and increase an individual’s creative potential. 

In the experiment, subjects were asked to draw a picture of a horse, which was, at best, a mediocre drawing.  They were then given the electrical impulse which interfered with left brain function and asked to draw another horse.  The second drawing was a lot more detailed and a vast improvement over the first drawing. 

In a similar real life example, this is partly the reason why some autistic children have displayed tendencies for genius because autism affects left brain function in a similar way to the electrical impulses that were given to the subjects.  In essence, the logical controls of the left brain inhibits us from reaching our full potential because it sets our belief systems.  If we could overcome these limits and actively tap into our right brain, we would have the potential to improve everything we do in life.

An example of what having no limits can achieve can be seen in this story that I read about in Unlimited Power by Anthony Robbins:

A student who had fallen asleep in a Math lecture wakes up and sees two equations on the board.  Assuming they were the set homework for the day, he copies them down and sets to work on them when he gets home.  Because he had been asleep through the lecture, he did not hear the lecturer telling the rest of the class that these two equations had never been solved.  Because he had assumed that these equations were homework, he believed they had to be possible to answer.  As a result, he was able to come up with the answer to one of the equations and surprised his lecturer when he handed in the answer at the next lecture.

When I was in school, there were two reasons why I was never able to excel at sports.  The first was because I came from a family that did not deem sports to be particularly important and never gave it any focus.  Since I never had the practice time, I never did well in it at school.  Since I didn’t do well in it at school, nobody ever wanted me on their team and that fostered my belief that I was terrible at sports and would never ever do well in it.  I had set a limit in my mind that sports and me just didn’t gel.

Prior to entering highschool, my brother developed an intense passion for cricket.  My aunt bought him a cricket bat for Christmas and, not having anyone else to play with, he made me play cricket with him all Summer in our backyard.  I guess the practice must have done some good because cricket was the only sport I did well in during Physical Education.  It was a strange feeling to suddenly become a valued team member as opposed to being the team’s downfall.

So if we can get Gavin interested in golf, we might still have a pro-golfer in the family…  Although at the current rate we’re going, it’s looking more like a pro-footballer rather than a golfer.  Gavin’s mad about soccer balls.  He’s barely learned to walk and already he sort of knows how to dribble the ball with his feet.

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