Footdrill Competition 2005
And we lost... wahaha... 3rd position out of 3 teams. Not that im sad about it, its not worth it. I know i have done my best, i know i have done my best to open up my ears and brains to listen to the commands and the timing, and i know, that i have done my best, with that injured left foot and 360'-Spinning right boot heel of mine. I tried my best to lift my left foot when necessary, and keep my right boot heel in shape. Yes, there are occasions when my left foot could not be lifted at all, and the nails of my right boot poking through the sole of the boot and up my flesh. Both legs were inducing pain to me. The feeling was horrid. Maybe blame it on rotten luck that the right boot heel detached itself partially in the 1st place, or that it swung to the left and brushed against my left foot, leaving a deep cut that left me in pain. Still, i made mistakes, and i have to accept them. And i did. But somehow, the others are not really accepting their own share of blame. Nah, i shouldnt really blame them, the timing was wrong all too often, and the commands were really SOFT. Perhaps Wei Jie deserved that grade of 7/20 for Commander marks afterall. He scored Top From Bottom. Even a Kerkenan Puseng, which i heard correctly, though i was for a moment unsure if it was Kerblakan, went into the head of the Timer and the rest of the Squad as a U-Turn, and as a result, the timing was Check-T-L-V. That resulted in the Kerkenan Puseng not carried out at all, and to my disgust, weijie giggling after his superb commanding. And when the last command came coming, it was amazing. Majority of the squad failed. Check-1-2-3-4-5-In-7-In-9-In-11-In. First came Lu Xuan. He banged at 2, thinking it was like Iserbla, but at least he banged at 5-In, along with Randy, who did a 45 degree bang. Then came the Timer Daryl. His timing was correct, thats for sure. But apparently, he himself went to hentataki when his turn to Bang came. That made Haziq panic and stumble. Then came me. Perhaps i was lucky. I followed Daryl's Timing and banged at 9-In. I was amazed i didnt make any mistake for that command,still i skidded on my wretched boots as usual. Afterall, i only tried that out twice beforehand, with a 50% succession in carrying it out. Regarding Bulbul, i do not know. He was behind me, so i do not know. And then Jit Siang. He came in at 11-In with Boon Kiat, and they made a perfect Bang together. But the sound of Hollow Boots + Non-Hollow... omg... birdshit lol. Nope. We shouldnt blame anyone. At most we should only blame the Commander. Why? One simple reason. The Commander. He is picked not just to memorize and shout out commands. He has more responsibilities than just that. He should also memorize our positions. Which he didnt. So during the competition, the whole position was wrong. The entire back row swapped with the front row. So when we marched in, i was behind Bulbul when facing the judge instead of infront of him. And there, i made another mistake. When the command Kerkenan Lurus came, my instincts prompted me to raise my right fist, which i did, around 20 degrees, at the back row, before tucking it back. And Lu Xuan made plenty mistakes. He blamed himself very much for that, but he shouldnt, really. Afterall, he was unsure of his new role in the 1st place. We were all unsure with our new positions. We did try to correct weijie regarding our positions in the 1st place, by discussing wheres the judge and stuff like that, but all he said was, Fall in, Fall in. And we fell in to where he wanted us to be. All on the wrong side. We tried to change our places, but all he said was Dont Move, its correct, its correct Trust Me. TRUST HIM!? Omg... So when the competition was over, he actually kept quite and tried to change topics. At least he knew he was wrong. But still, he actually blamed us for positioning ourselves wrongly. Wdf? It was he who positioned us wrongly. Get that right. So when he started telling me and Boon Kiat about how badly Lu Xuan has done, i told him off for placing him in a corner position he was unsure of in the 1st place, and that Lu Xuan wasnt even supposed to be placed there in 1st place. And he replied, that it was not his job, that his job was only to memorize commands not to position us. How wrong he is. Like Ms Koh said, is he even fit to be a commander if he cant even spot mistakes? A commander definitely have more responsibilities than the Squad. He is not only to memorize commands. He must also spot mistakes, make sound decisions. And apparently, Wei Jie has failed Both. Spot mistakes. When Ms Koh asked him whether he knew what mistakes we made while marching, he actually can reply that he never noticed. Sound decisions. Wasn't telling us to Fall In in our new-found positions Sound enough? Then theres Daryl, whom nearly everyone blamed for the way he misinterpretted the commands and poor timing. Hentataki too fast, Slow March Keblakan Puseng suddenly speed up, Fast March normal forward marching mix-up, blockage of ears regarding Kerkenan Puseng, he done it all. And every confronted him about what he did. Yet, he merely pointed every blame put onto him at Wei Jie. God. Wake up... there were so many mistakes that were purely his own creation, and he still dared to point fingers at him. At the end of the day, I asked Randy who was the greatest cock-up in the entire Competition. Instead of the word Wei Jie or Daryl, he said the A1 Squad. And i gotta agree with that. Put blame. Put it where? Wei Jie? Daryl? No. We All Made Our Own Mistakes. We All Cocked-Up. We Were All Not Flexible Enough. Put blame, In Only Ourselves, The Entire A1 Squad.
And speaking of going there for experience, it sure was a good exposure. I definitely felt the wrath of River Valley Boys' Squad. They definitely were unrivalled in every aspect. Also, i realised how people can blame one another when they made mistakes, how they sulk, as well as how they wriggle out of situations by saying the whole thing is over. GET A LIFE PEOPLE, GET A LIFE. Perhaps, next time, if SJAB was ever to send anyone in for a competition, they ought to set their mentality and self-esteem to the right level first before sending them in. I hate it when people decline their share of their responsibilities. Perhaps thats why i feel happy when others scold me for all the right reasons, and why i dont feel any remorse and hatred when others blame me for certain things i never did.
And regarding whoever that feels that we should have disqualified ourselves in the 1st place just because they know we are Last-position Bound and that Clementi Town has never gotten last in the footdrill competition at all, that is a totally wrong mentality. It is as good as saying we do not have the rights to even enter the footdrill competition. So they think that by being last is a disgrace to Clementi Town? well, how dumb that would be. See, when one enters a competition, pride is at stake. But that is not what entering a competition is about. If one enters a competition for pride, that person should then be the one disqualifying oneself. For that person is joining the competition for the wrong reason. When one enters a competition, its about doing your best, your utmost. Its about pushing yourself to the limits, to challenge yourself. Its about exposing yourself to everything, to see how big the difference is. Lets have another mentality. We may have achieved nothing but last, but we shouldnt feel bad. Things have their ups and downs. Sooner or later, the position Last will still come in, and losing to just RV and Bukit View isnt exactly a disgrace. And btw, the term "We All" may only be used when everyone present agrees to what one says, not when someone present goes on to say that its none of his/her business when confronted.
Damaged Feet.
