Getting to know TPKRT: Episode 1: Coach

Yeah, so i've heard that some of you got pret-ty bored with Coach's talks. Truth be told, they ARE pretty long. Even for us, and we are supposed to be used to it....

STILL, think back through what he told you, and realise that most of it does make sense, however much he tends to repeat himself.

Thing is, you gotta realise that TPKRT has a Wonderful, Amazing, Stupendous, *insert super adjective here* coach, whom i daresay bests the coaches in all the other sports teams.

You may have noticed, Juniors, that the training boats you guys are currently learning sculling in, the T-1s are blue. You may also have noticed that they're stamped with 'SAJC', hence they do not belong to us.

The only reason why we are able to use these boats, is because our coach is able to obtain them for us, since he also coaches SAJC. Without them, i'd say we'd be rather lost at the beginning...

In case you haven't seen, we DO have red kayaks. They're sitting on the racks, collecting dust, and you may have noticed them or wondered why we aren't using them, i'll get around to them.

These..............

(yes, that was me in one of my rather spectacular capsizes. applause, please.)

.... These are the K1 'swift racing' boats (which aren't very swift, really) which the school provided for our team. Currently, only 5 of these are useable - 2 k-2s (2-man boats) and 3 K-1s.

As you might expect, it's difficult to run a team with just that. 

How did we get by?

Here's where Coach came in.

(behold.. the NELOs. The babies of TPKRT)

The NELO boats are a world-class racing brand.

These are the kayaks which you have seen us using during training. With the exception of Weijie's boat, which is the blue one which stands out a lot and looks so cool i could drool....

...i digress.

Anyway, he didn't have to do it, but Coach purchased 10 racing kayaks for us and SAJC, although it cost a BOMB, and he'd probably take a long time to break even through boat rentals...

Its hard to find a coach... no, a man, with this much passion...

And still manage to look like Tay Ping Hui! =D

......

................

Errr... ok, back to topic.

Those of you in other sports teams, you may probably have seen your coaches demonstrate an action once and then leave you to do it while they watch you from some high seat a safe distance away from the action. With a loudhailer.

But not our coach. 

He may not be that old, but his stamina is no longer what it once was, and definitely not up to par with ours as it is. Still, that doesn't deter him in the slightest from joining us and rowing EVEN FASTER than most of us. 

(Which is so the opposite of soccer coaches. The one hilarious thing in common that i find to be true among most soccer coaches - They can criticize, but they can't do it either. =P)

Errr in fact today i lost to Coach a couple times..... maybe three. o_O

Hey, the guy even goes for adventure races, overnight and stuff!

He provided vitamin supplements for us during the holidays, FOR FREE, because he was concerned about our health.

He is the man behind our team's latest victory - Samantha's 2nd runner up position for Round Ubin Kayak Race 2008, by providing a draft which pulled her forward, and spurred her on all the way with encouragements although 22km must have taken most of the breath out of him.

Upon reaching the shore, he went back out to sea again, to find and escort Zion back to the finish line 

And out ONCE more to ensure that Arun crossed the finish line safely as well - in the process clocking greater distance than all of us when the distance of 22km had already caused our rear ends to feel like a seperate entity altogether.

We owe a lot to our coach, dear juniors, and the seniors could do with some reminding of that as well. 

The least we could do is to train hard, bring back a medal for our school, but at the same time, dedicate it to coach.

Because i'm sure the seniors will agree with me - Without our Coach, TPKRT would probably not even exist till today.

- Kiiro (The bugger who brings you the 'XD's in life)