Action - Badminton (March, 2012)

March has been action packed for me. I played lots of Badminton matches, both singles and doubles, out of which most were against experienced players and some against players at the same level as me. The matches were all of a wide variety as I won some comfortably and also lost some with a tough fight till the end. I enjoyed all these matches as they helped me to challenge myself both physically as well as mentally. It has been an overall successful month for me in terms of action. Most of my badminton skills have improved in this month, however, as there are two sides of a coin, I have been facing a difficulty of calming myself after consecutive losses. After observing my weaknesses and analyzing them, I have realised that after loosing more than 5 points consecutively in both formats of the sport, I tend to hit shots much harder. This results in less accuracy, less variation and less focus from me. Thus, the opponents are able to overpower my team later. Now, my aim is to be more calm, cool and composed while playing as it is the best way to learn from mistakes and proceed without distraction or frustration.

Other than that, I attended all my sessions punctually and consistently and played all matches with complete dedication and active participation till the end.

Below are photographs that were taken on 25th March (I am on the near side of the court - wearing a black t-shirt). The session was moved to the Royal College Badminton Court on that day as D.S. Senanayake College was closed for public.
 

My 'rotating' shot!

An overhead clear.

Reaching for a overhead clear.

Me hitting a diagonal drop shot. I have almost perfected this shot.

Covering for my partner while playing in a rotational formation.

Reaching for a dropshot.

Smash!

Service position.

Playing a short shot by reaching for it is a nice variation.

A successfully saved drop shot in a corner by the net.

 I will continue my practice of badminton in a similar fashion next month as well. I hope to improve in all aspects, especially reducing my anxiety by being more calm and composed. :)

Service - Library Service: Leadership time - coming soon!!! (March, 2012)

Its been another busy month in Library Service. However, it has been very useful and as well as interesting. By attending the service punctually and working commitedly, me and my "non-fiction" team partner Humza have been chosen to be the next leaders of the service group. I am really happy as leading a community service group is a great privilege and also a big responsibility. 

I had earlier blogged that:

"Library Service is an activity that enables us students to recognize the role of the Library in every student’s life. We, the Library Service members, act as the "Guardians of the Library" by keeping it organized for the convenience of all the Library users, including students, parents, teachers, as well as visitors (Ethical implications of my actions). I believe that this Service program is very crucial as it not only allows us to be a part of the group in charge of maintaining the library, but it also enables us to respect the purpose of the Library." 

  
(Thursday, September 15, 2011)

I feel that while planning activities and tasks for the team, and also when implementing them, this should be kept in mind as a memo. I am also excited as my partner Humza is a hard-worker who adds a motivating fun touch to the service environment.

Other than that, this months service continued as usual. All of us placed the returned books in their designated shelves and spent remaining time tidying and stacking unorganized books in the correct order (i.e. both numerical and alphabetical).

Me and Humza will be starting our leadership from next month. We will be supervised by Ms. Lockwood, and will be in charge of all tasks carried out by the students enrolling in this service. Initially we both will work on creating a detailed plans of tasks for each student. We will also keep the library service blog up to date about activities carried out in the service. Later, programmes such as awareness campaigns and fundraisers will also be planned.

I am looking forward to this new challenge next month!

Creativity - Guitar: Stage performance - preparations start! (March, 2012)

March was a rigorous month for me as it was full of school assignment deadlines, test dates, and major project due dates. Amidst this pressure, I saved time to practice guitar at least two times a week for half an hour. With my commitment and dedication towards learning this instrument and fulfilling my passion, I improved in most of the guitar techniques and strengthened my playing skills. I attended all Saturday hourly sessions punctually and showed my improvement to my teacher as well. He was able to help me in analyzing my new strengths and recognizing areas of improvement. 

Other than that, another class stage performance will be coming in a few months time. Hence, I, with my classmates, practiced 8 new songs that will be performed with chord progressions and the strumming technique. They are:

• Unchained melody
• Always on my mind
• Nobody knows you when you're down and out
• It keeps rainin'
• Night shift
• Hotel California
• New Kid in Town
• Knocking on Heaven's Door

Other than these, I have been memorizing chord scales such as C Major, G Major and D Major.

I will also be performing 3 classical notations. These are:

• Purple Blues
• Boogie Blues
• A moderate shuffle blues tune (No name)

I have also been practicing classical notations such as Apache, Rasputin and Scarborough Fair.

Overall, I feel that I have practiced and done well this month. I hope to continue this next month as well and improve further by increasing practice during the April break! :)

Action - Badminton (January - February, 2012)

January and February have been successful months for me in terms of action. My badminton skills are improving as I attend all my sessions punctually and consistently. I start all my sessions with short warm up periods. This warm up period is crucial in order to avoid muscle strains and injuries, and also key to starting a proper badminton match. I play all matches with complete dedication and active participation till the end.

I focused majorly on doubles matches, while only playing rare In these months, I have improved on most of the aspects in badminton. All my experiences have helped me to analyze my strengths and weaknesses in the sport. These include services (serving), smashing, hitting drop shots, smashes, overhead clear shots, placement, my unorthodox dive and 'rotating' shots, as well as tactics involving analyzing the opponents' strenghts and weaknesses. However, I still have a marginal scope to cover in a few aspects. These are variations in my shots, i.e. a kind of tactic that helps in building pressure on the opponent's by tiring them, communication with my partner, and lack of consistency in achieving my desired shot, i.e. being able to hit one shot perfectly after a few (around 5-6) shots.

The photographs below show how I have gathered experience with practice, and am improving in a variety of fields associated with match play.

Me (on the right hand side in image - wearing black shorts), applying the 'scorpion' pose for recieving a serve.

Communication with my partner played a major role in our win!

Me hitting my unorthodox 'rotatiting' shot in which I turn a complete 360 degrees to be able to hit a backhand shot while turning towards the opponents.

The scorpion pose being applied to hit a high serve.

I am now able to serve efficiently not only to safely start a rally, however, to also earn easy points by using placement and power variation.

A STRAIGHT "DOWN THE LINE" SMASH!

Me hitting a overhead clear.

Smash!

 In the photographs below, I am on the other side of the court. Hence, I am not visible clearly. However, my shots can be analyzed by viewing them through the perspective of my opponents.

Me serving from the other side of the court.

Me playing an overhead clear and placing it in between the two opponents. I was able to identify communication as their weakness, and use it to my team's benifit!

Me placing a shot perfectly and winning a point ending a long rally.

Me playing a diagonal drop shot! It is my one of my favourite shots!

Me tactically placing my service and using it to challenge the opponent.

My badminton skills are improving and I am very happy with this improvement. I will continue to play and practice badminton in order to improve myself further in the future as well.

Creativity - Guitar (January - February, 2012)

Guitar has become a new passion and hobby for me. I have practiced all the techniques that I have learnt, and can play all classical notations in one flow. I believe that this is a large accomplishment as I will now implement my playing techniques to strengthen my notation reading efficiency. 

During the vacation, I spent most of my time on classical tunes as it is a very complex method of playing the guitar, and this style is the one I will need to become very fluent and comfortable with. On the other hand, playing songs with chord progressions has become very simple for me as I have memorized all the chords and have also practiced quick transitions between them.

The classes in both the months were full of new and very interesting knowledge. I have practiced more than 10 chord songs in the class, and by commiting and dedicating myself to this activity, I have learnt to play many tunes and songs independently that I am passionate about. I have been punctual in attending all the classes and I am moving smoothly through this moderate phase of learning to play complex techniques on the guitar. It has been an exciting semester for me and I really enjoyed improving my previously gained knowledge with practice, and developing new guitar skills after accomplishing my goal of perfecting all the basics required.

I am now looking forward to continuing guitar classes in March!