"Action" - Badminton

This last weekend of Badminton for the first semester was really enthralling and rejuvenating. The one hour Saturday session was organized in the Royal College Sports Complex because the D.S. Senanayake Sports Complex was closed for the Poya Day. Hence, as only one court was booked, I only got the chance to play two doubles matches with senior players as well as my peer Onkar. However, the two hour session today was a period in which I got to play many matches, both doubles and singles, due to the availability of two courts. I was able to challenge myself this weekend by playing continuous matches with minimum breaks, and also winning! This was a result of my dedication and commitment to this activity as I always attended these sessions. In this weekend, I spent time playing matches against and with all players. This helped me to learn new tactics such as the order of placements required to challenge the opponents in a doubles match. Also, it helped me to stay on track to accomplish my first IB year goal of improving my physical stamina.

Below are a few photographs taken on Saturday in the Royal College Sports Complex:

Me (wearing the blue shirt and black shorts), hitting a smash!

Serving smartly :)

Hitting a backhand shot.

Successfully reaching for a overhead shot played by my opponent!

Surprise drop shot.

Another strong smash!

Below are a few photographs taken on Sunday in the D.S. Senanayake Sports Complex:

Me (wearing a black shirt and whitish shorts), serving to the opponents!

A backhand cross-court drop shot!

Hitting a smash in a rotational doubles format!

A simple drop shot!

SMASH!

Me hitting a backhand overhead clear, a shot which I still need to perfect (An area of improvement).

Reaching for a drop shot played by my opponent!

Reflection:

My 'Action' activities this semester, both Badminton as well as Swimming, have been successful. I have been able to develop new skills, work collaboratively with others, and achieve my goals of improving my physical stamina and becoming a more tactical badminton player while enjoying the sport. 

I am now looking forward to continuing this activity in the next weekend in order to further improve my physical fitness in the next semester.

"Creativity" - Second 'double' Guitar class!

It was a fun class today! In the beginning of the class, I revised all the classical guitar melodies that I had practiced. I was able to play all of the tunes except for "Lambada" quite fluently. This was because "Lambada" had been given to me in last week's class and due to 4 exams this week, I was only able to practice once. Hence, I spent time playing this tune correctly. Also, as this tune requires knowledge about counting beats, the teacher taught me the way to count beats by identifying notes. Later, I learnt to identify musical notes without using numbers. Learning to understand the notes will require memorization and constant practice. Hence, I practiced and memorized a few of these notations and their proper counting. After that, I learnt the difference between the Upando and Tirando techniques for the classical guitar. It was interesting to learn that stressing on the strings in different manners creates different sounds.

After practicing guitar for one hour, I spent half an hour doing finger exercises with my peers. The I then practiced playing a song called "Unchained melody" using the chords given by the teacher. After practicing the song for 10 minutes, I spent the rest of the session practicing the songs that will be played in the next performance. We practice these songs in every class in preparation for a program that will be organized by our teacher; however, the date of this show has not been decided yet.

Reflection:

As this was the last class for this semester, I believe that there has been a large progress in my guitar skills. I started learning guitar from the base level about two months ago, and now I have completed the basics of guitar and am moving towards the moderate level. I have been able to tackle this challenge successfully. I adhered to my CAS goals of the year as well as the goals for the first semester, and I have been successful in achieving my goals. It has been an exciting semester for me and I really enjoyed developing new guitar skills. 

I am now looking forward to continuing guitar classes in January after a practice-filled vacation!

"Service" - Library Service

Today's library service session was really unique and joyous for me. In the beginning, I returned all the newly returned books to their designated shelves. This took about 20 minutes as many books had been borrowed out last week for the "book week". Next, I started to reorganize some of the most untidy and disorganized shelves with my partners Humza and Onkar. After 5 minutes, Skyllor, the activity leader, and Mrs. Raina Lockwood, the activity supervisor, had a meeting with us. They offered me and Humza the position of Library Service leaders for next year. As Onkar will be leaving in the beginning of next year, he will be our co-leader temporarily. We all humbly accepted the new role. I believe that this will be a challenge that will help me to develop new leadership skills. I will be able to organize and initiate activities, plan fundraisers in collaboration with others to engage in issues of global importance, and increase my awareness about my own strengths and areas of growth. I am really happy that I have been nominated for the role of a leader next year with my partner Humza. I will surely observe our leaders and absorb their leadership skills for the rest of the year.

Also, as next week's session will be the final one before the Christmas vacation, a pizza party will be organized collaboratively and the success of this semester's library service will be celebrated.

Reflection:

I believe that this semester has been really enjoyable and successful. I have been able to adhere to my CAS goals for the year, as well as the goals for this semester. I have developed new skills and learnt about the functioning of the library, taken part in fundraising events for charity, and also worked dedicatedly and collaboratively.

I am looking forward to attending the last session of the semester next week, and also continuing this activity in the next semester.

"Action" - Badminton

I enjoyed playing badminton this weekend as it relieved me from the academic pressure! On both the days, I played against senior players as well as my peers who are on my level. Also, this weekend, I focused on improving my placement. The placement of shots in badminton is a very crucial element. It helps one to tire the opponent by making him run behind and follow the shuttle around the court. Also, this helps in forcing the opponent to hit wrong, simple, or weak shots. The placement can be implemented in all aspects of the sport, ranging from serving, to smashes, and to drops! To become good in placing the shuttle like a professional player, I will need to be alert at all times about the opponent's position on his court as well as his strong hand and area of reach.

This weekend, I was able to successfully develop and improve this skill. I feel that I am on track to accomplishing my goals for the first semester, i.e. becoming a strong badminton player who uses both strength as well as logic/tactics.

Below are a few photographs taken during a match played by me against my peer Vishnu.

My serving has improved.

Hitting a drop shot!

Hitting a diagonal drop shot and winning a point!

Smash!

It is important to know your opponents position before hitting a shot.

Playing against my opponents drop shot.

Making my opponent run by hitting an overhead clear, and easily winning a point!

Playing a low backhand shot.

Celebrating after defeating my opponent with a tricky drop shot!

I hope the upcoming badminton sessions are as active (or even more) than this weekends' sessions!

"Creativity" - The 'double' Guitar class!

Today was a special guitar class. As there will not be any guitar classes in the last two weeks of December due to Christmas, there will be two hour session classes in the first two weekends. Hence, today was a two hour guitar class. In the beginning of the class, I practiced and performed the song 'Morining has broken' using the classical guitar notes. Then, after 15 minutes, I wrote down and practiced playing the famous tune 'Lambada' using the classical guitar.

After around 10 minutes, the teacher Mr. Netaji taught me and my peers the basics about counting notes and the different beats indicated by the symbols/notes. These were: Semi-breve, Minims, Crotchets, Quavers, and Semi-quavers. I was able to gain new knowledge about the instrument and also learnt more about the background of the classical guitar!

After the first hour, the rest of the session was dedicated to practicing acoustic guitar. We started by doing finger exercises such as the 'finger roll' which we had learnt last time, and other exercises which involved quick finger movement for changing chords. After this, we practiced playing a few songs using chord progressions. I learnt a few new chords today too, such as A minor and F# minor. After this, the class ended with an entertaining session of learning how to play the 'strong' chord progressions. These are chord progressions used by in rock songs by guitarists, who mostly use electrical guitars. However, the only difference between acoustic guitar and electric guitar in this case is that the electrical guitar can be connected to an amplifier to distort the sound!

Overall, it was a fun session in which I learnt about the background of classical guitar and also practiced well (committed) in order to be focused towards my semester goals for this activity. I am now looking forward to next weekend's double class in which I will continue to learn more about the classical and acoustic guitar, while also gaining experience by playing them with the proper technique.

"Service" - Library Service

It was a regular session at the Secondary library today. It began with returning the newly returned books to their designated shelves. After that, I spent time on rearranging some of the shelves which seemed to be untidy and disorganized. While rearranging the books, I realised that I had become more efficient and faster in properly ordering the books, and maybe my alphabets had become very strong too :)

The session was not really unique today. I hope that the next session will be more active in which more goals regarding maintaining the book shelves in order are accomplished!