more pft
Wednesday, April 9
well it's been great at school, today and yesterday.
i originally intended to post about yesterday and today here, but seeing i dont have much time, and people wanna read a post now, i'll just do about pft!
for those of you who dont know, naphfa or wadever was changed to pft, which stands for physical fitness test. so we did shuttle run and standing broad jump, which were easy areas for me, so i obviously was aiming for personal bests only.
i was so nervous for shuttle run. for some reason, every year i'm super nervous before doing it, but i somehow end up being fastest in class :P lol. amazing since there are so many faster runners in our class. i distinctly remember getting 10.0s in sec 1, and i think 9.6 in sec 2, tying with err... eugene? well this year i wasnt expecting to top again, because of the new talent in the class such as arjun etc, and especially since eugene is now the alpha male, super pro in this kinda stuff.
so i while waiting for my turn (last as usual...) i was telling qx how to stop efficiently :P then ryan and i were talking nonsense about applying physics in running XD wah so much nonsense. lemme name a few examples.
1) frictional contact force between skin and floor or shoes and floor,
2) velocity of the runner,
3) displacement of shuttle cocks vs distance run.
as it was nearing my turn, i started doing a few warm up runs. and i just kept feeling like my leg muscles were so cold. its this kinda weird feeling that's so inexplicable... somehow i got the feeling last year too... it made me even MORE scared, so i just started praying to God. always an eternal source of comfort. so when it was my turn, nick was sitting next to the starting line, and said, "wah, this one sure fast one." slight ego boost for me, especially coming from him :P but of course in my heart i had a perpetual doubt whether i'd do well.
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and then i was off. spurred on by the cheering of the crowd, i leap forward with every step, eyes fixed only on my goal: the shuttle cocks. my first round was seemingly fine. i didnt know how fast i was going, for every human's perception of speed is not reliable, unless compared to another object, but in my eyes, everything else was a blur. i heard the voice of our teacher going, "good job! keep going!" as i turned back to retrieve the remaining shuttle cock from the grasps of the musking tape. i saved the maiden in despair and turned around once again to bring her back to safety. but as i ran back, the weight of the shuttle cock started to pull me down. the evil villian called 'gravity' grabbed on to my legs and tried to pull me and the maiden away from safety, and back to the evil forces of the musking tape! every step seemed harder than the one before, but for the sake of the maiden in my hand, i continued to press on before the letter A slowly faded into a B, or anything worse than that. just as i was reaching my goal, 'gravity' grabbed hold of my right foot as part of its final attempt to draw be away from safety, but although it hindered me, it was a case of too little too late. as the crown before me sat waiting expectantly for my arrival, i fell but thankfully rolled to safety, to the even comforting sound of the crowd congratulating me on my heroic return.
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ok that was super drama... abridged version:
the class was really supportive while i ran, though of course such things only register before the run, as all attention is focused during the run, causing one to be unaware of the surroundings. so all was going well till the last stretch when i was running back, for some reason i found it super hard to lift up my feet to an appropriate height while i ran, so the soles of my shoes were barely touching the floor as i ran. and finally it proved to be too much as the front tip of my right shoe touched the floor, causing my foot to stop motion. and as the rest of my body was still having velocity, i fell forward and sideways (cos the left side also moves). this was like 50cm away from the finish line, so i lost quite some time there :( so suay. but luckily by body was still in motion, so i rolled passed the finish line, to the applause, cheering and laughter of my fellow classmates. i dont blame them, i found it funny too, and was laughing myself :P but also rather internally disappointed at the same time. at least i still managed a 9.8s or something. i dont mind rerunning :P
oh right, you may be wondering why i didnt just skid along like we usually do when we slide with our shoes. that's because when i sprint, i usually only make contact with the ground with the front part of my feet. so when i skid, the contact was only at the small point at the front of the shoes, so of course i fell forward.
just for the record, eugene was fastest with 9.4s :P kudos to him.
next was off to standing broad jump. arjun had to jump at least 10 times, because he had trouble not having fault jumps, always double jumping without realising it himself. he finally got it at the end, when he did it again after everything.
as for me, it goes without saying that i got an A. for standing broad jump i never keep personal bests, cos it doesnt really sound like a great achievement to me :P but i got 240cm on my first jump for those who are curious. dint bother going 2nd time since it was already an A.
i really like our PE teacher this year. he's really reasonable and kind. the other PE teachers are so indifferent and insensitive, just like the colonel in journey's end! lol. our teacher really cares about us, and like wants us to perform the best we can.
the usual sight i see for teachers doing broad jump is them just saying "fault jump" and reading the distance, with no sort of encouragement and a couldnt-care-less attitude if people don't pass. however, our teacher really let the people better their own scores, and deviced ways in which they could improve their jumping distance. for example he told them all the tips like keep feet further apart, bend further down before jumping, time swinging of arms appropriately, and the best one he gave: jumping FROM your target. for some reason, i guess it works better in psychology to see your desired end point clearly marked out, as opposed to just seeing how far you can jump. so with every person he let do this, most of the scores improved, and gave people the grade they were hoping for. really a caring teacher. he may actually be getting a teacher's day card! HIGHLY unusual for pe teachers IMO :P
so that was pft for me. 3 As so far, but thats only cos i havent got to my weaker stations. sure, S&R i can get another A, but IPU, probably B, thankfully i'm not doing chin-ups till next year. 2.4, i was aiming for B, but after seeing the required timings, i'll have to try hard for that XD
syonara! maybe posting about today some other time... i still have to finish my complete collection of OEP posting! haiz... only done 3 out of 7 days... lol.
AMEN;
9:26 pm
