Moulding athletes of tomorrow: Push the Limits

Moulding

Athletes of

Tomorrow

Overview •Introduction to our project

•Life journey of Dr William

Tan

•Importance of Perseverance

•Target Group

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Overview •Camp: “Push-The-Limits”

•Benefits to wider community

•Evaluation of our project

•Conclusion

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Aim of project •Singapore will be hosting the

Youth Olympics Games in 2010

•Important that Singapore upholds

its pride and enhance

competitiveness of home-grown

athletes

•Local athletes are able to face

strong challenges from

international competitors

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Project outline •Aim to inculcate perseverance into

30 elite athletes from Swift Athletics

Association (SAA)

•Major in long distance running

•Undergo a 2-day camp – “Push The

Limits”

•Focusing on Dr Tan’s Antarctica

marathon due to his perseverance

ignited in the journey

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Biography of Dr.

William Tan •Contracted polio at age of 2

•Neuroscientist and Medical

Doctor

•Not allowed to engage in

physical activities since young

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•Covets a

meaningful life

-wanted to

make his life

count.

•Started

engaging

in sports

related

activities

Biography of Dr.

William Tan •Chance upon a paralysed former

policeman, Mr Wahid Baba, in The

Straits Time

•Mr Wahid Baba pioneered wheelchair

sports in Singapore

•Began training under his guidance

•Had his talent discovered by Mr Wahid

Baba

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Don’t worry about

your disability. It’s

part of your life.

You’ve got to do

whatever you

can.

- Abdul Wahid

Baba

Introduction to Dr. William

Tan’s Journey •Antarctica Marathon – King

George Island

•Rejected at first as no wheelchair

athletes had participated before

•Manage to convince Thom

Gilligan (race director) to allow

him to participate

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Harsh conditions

experienced

•Dr Tan’s Wheelchair sank

two feet into the quicksand-

liked mud

•Did not anticipate the mud

•His poorly designed racing

chair spoilt due to extreme

coldness

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Turning Point in his

life •Realised he had not enough time to

complete full marathon

•Officials told him he would bust the

time limit of a full marathon

•Can only complete the half marathon

and get a medal for it

•Proves to be a turning point as he has

not failed before

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Through this

marathon, I had

grown to learn

that there will be

resilience when

you push the

boundaries.

–Dr William Tan

“I had learnt to

never take no as

an answer and to

learn from

setbacks and

never repeat

them again.” –

Dr. William Tan

“The race is an

incredible challenge

for fit, able-bodied

runners. Tan’s feat

was a tremendous

display of

perseverance of

what the human

spirit can

accomplish. –

Tom Gilligan

IMPORTANCE OF

PERSEVERANCE

•Ability to persevere against all

odds is a main character trait of

successful people

•“perseverance” is one of the

most important attributes an

athletes can possess to perform

successfully

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Target Group •30 elite athletes from Swift

Athletics Association

•SAA youth athletes, aged 16

to 18 are chosen

•Athletes who majored in long

distance running

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Location Of The Camp

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Sharing Session

By Dr William Tan held at the Singapore Sports

Council (SSC)

Talks about managing and

overcoming his difficulties

Question-&-Answer session

after the talk

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100% Pertinacity Participants will stand in a row

about 50m from start line

Objective to travel from start

line to end line

Not allowed to repeat travelling

means

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Road To Success •Objective of this activity is to climb

till the 72-storey of Swissotel

without giving up

•Participants are paired up with

each of their legs tied together

•Some of the stairs will be

intertwined with raffia strings

•Balls will be fixed firmly to stairs

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Strings Balls

Safety Precautions Qualified First-Aiders from the

Red-Cross Humanitarian club in

NYJC will be present

Volunteers of SSC will be

present

Athletes are allowed to use

railings during climb

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Icy Freeze •Held in Singapore Sports Council

•3 groups of 10

•Legs immersed in a makeshift

ice-bath

•Balance a board on their heads

•Team with the highest accumulate

timing will emerge victorious

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Makeshift Ice-

Bath

Leg Immersed in

ice bath

Safety Precautions •A maximum of 3 minutes will

only be allowed for every

participant

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Snow Explosion •Snow slope at Snow City

•Lie on a flat slippery board with

Legs bounded by a string

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HangINg There! •Divide themselves into 2 groups

of 15

•Form human chain down the

slope

•Tennis balls in between their

hands

•No boards are used

•Participant at the bottom of the

slope to pick up a marble

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HangINg There! •Throw it into a container

•Detached from the chain

•Process repeated

•Human chain must not break

•Time limit: 1 hour

•Group with highest number of

marbles wins

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Target Group •Secondary and tertiary school

students

•Niche area is in track and field

•About the same age as the SAA

participants

•Therefore relate well between

the SAA participants and the

target group

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Push-the-Limit Road Show!

•Conducted in the school hall

•In a maze form

•Interesting posters and footprints

will be put up

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Layout of Maze

Poster Footprint

Push

your limits!

Sick of thoSe boring training? Want to be fit at the

Same time battle againSt your inner Self? Then

come and join uS in

Our greatest glory comes in not never falling, but rising every

time we fall.

Booth

Push-the-Limits Road Show!

•Booth providing free distribution of

CDs

•CDs containing highlights of the

camp Moulding

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Video Snippets

Talk by SAA participants

•SAA participants invited to give

talk on stage

•Share first hand experience to

students

•Share how the camp instills

perseverance

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SSC and SAA counter

•Collaborating with SSC and SAA

•To discover potential athletes for

the Youth Olympics

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Strengths

•Feasibility of project

i) Its scope is manageable , focusing on

Singapore Youth athletes.

ii) Difficulties, for example, site of camp

and sponsorship had been solved

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Strengths

•Effectiveness of project

i) Very physically demanding to

overcome, catering to the needs of

active athletes

ii) Allows the participants to transcend

beyond their mental and physical limits

to persevere in our camp

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Strengths

iii) Our camp is similar to Dr Tan’s

journey, which had effectively

inculcated perseverance in him

iv) Therefore, there is high possibility

that our camp is effective.

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Strengths

v) 80% of SAA athletes think that our camp is very

effective.

vi) Further supported by Dr Tan in his interview

Do you think that the activities proposed are effective

in bringing out perseverance?

No

20%

Yes

80%

Yes

No

Strengths

Visual

Kinesthetic

Auditory

viii) learners

vii) Different athletes have different

learning styles; so, we craft the camp

to suit their styles

Strengths

• Activities are new or modified,

providing the thrill and

excitement.

•Dr. Tan will be sharing his life

journey, motivating athletes to

persevere in the camp

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Limitations

•Too physically demanding

•Participants may forget the

camp’s objective and give up

•Hire a trainer from The

Absorbent Mind.

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=

Limitations

•Too risky

•Briefed on the safety

precautions

•Snow Explosion and HangINg

There!, layer the bottom of the

slope with a mattress

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Limitations

•Project on a small scale

•only elite athletes will be able to

participate and benefit.

•They can be ambassadors of

perseverance and spread their

perseverance to the wider

community.

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Conclusion 83% of SAA athletes rarely or

sometimes undergo mental training in

perseverance. How often do you all undergo mental toughness

training

as compared to physical training?

Conclusion •Our 2-day camp can successfully

inculcate perseverance in them.

•They in turn benefit the wider

community.

•Allowing potential athletes to

persevere and soar to great

heights in their sports career and

the Youth Olympics.

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Athletes of

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