Do you know me?
Are you sure you know me?
I dun even know myself...

Ok welcome to the once a year post cheerleading competition bitching again. These are my tots on the teams and not for the faint hearted and those who can't take some long gibberish blahberring.

First in the minds of everyone would probably be the uber-weird-smiling-holding-trophy-tgt-but-actually-no-one-like-to-share-championship double champion situation this year.

I managed to watch the routine once more:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7y5xwNGw0eo&feature=related (NTU ACES Team Gold)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZ6UwKUI4aY&feature=related (Wildcards)

My personal opinion is that stunt difficulty wise, Aces seems to have slightly better stunts difficulties, but wildcards have two large pyramid, which is definitely more visually impressive. Aces was shaky at gymnastics and had one failed partner stunt, while wildcards were more stable, other than the one gladiator which nearly fell, most of it was stable. The whole team must be damn glad that the girl fought to stand which would have definitely kicked them off top 3 with the failed pyramid.

I guess its useless to debate who should have won since the championship has already been given, but let's recall the changes from last year to now.

Aces have higher flexibility with the 5 scorpians and better b toss. Well done people!
However, you if u notice, the gymnastic and stability level have fallen alot.You can watch last year video to compare (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8WrtBQBqdU). And the transition and smoothness of the routine has fallen also. Seems to be very stunt based this year and lesser transition and flow.

Yes I know it's my team but it's a personal opinion. Besides, it's always good to know what's lacking. I recall what kind of pressure we had last year when the stunt machine golden era of STAR SHIFU and friends left and we took over. From the team that could maybe do 5-6 cupie, we were left with 1 from mun chun (kw couldn't do cupie that time lar). Which was a drastic lap to chase upon to defend the title. 

Wildcards was one of the most speculated team last year, which was an unknown opponent then because we didn't know what they could do. Maybe because of the anxiety to win, they were quite rushing and unstable, which resulted in many failed stunts. This year was quite a big difference compared to last year. They manage to have come up with higher stunt level, like I think they only had 4 backtug btoss and some toe touches and they have the usual aces 3 layouts this year and they are picking up transitions. Routines are so much more stable now compare to last year. Definitely a good job and great improvements.

But on the other hand, I seems to have seen the transitions before or izzit similar to some wildcards routine performed perviously? I think transitions are something that are really difficult to improve upon, so I am not sure how wildcards will take on this bottle neck next year.


The juniors current Team Gold had a hard time too (since we were just too talented and zai picking up damn fast...haha..just kidding), but I believe with their potential, they definitely able to perform much better next year. They have a really hugh room for improvement and with an ASU, 6 times champion should be easy.

But again, we face this "Black Hole" of people leaving and "Water Cooler" issue once more. So this improvement thing falls to the current Team Blue-to-be-Gold people and hopefully, we can see as many seniors who can stay to convey this lag and act as a catalyst for the juniors to fit into the black hole. I shall not regegitate the "water cooler" issue once more as depicted by neville the last time. Please refer to your seniors for more information or visit MDK blogsite.

Well we get to see many disappointments in the competition. Firstly, my favourite dance portion sucks this year. Last year's D has such an amazing dance routine that I wanted to pick up but this year it's really messy with weird steps, which was really disappointing for me as I was waiting for them to wow me with a nice dance. Most team had really messy dances.

The other last year highly enticipated team "1" came up again and cui-ed once more. Last year they didn't had much stunts. This year, they increase the number of stunts and pyramids, this increase was inline with the increase number of failed stunts. Their gymnastics was also not as good as last year (hands touching ground plus so many step out of boundary, which I dunno how many marks they got deducted for it).
I guess they did improve, but the gymnastic galore was just insufficient to cover for the failure of stunts in cheerleading, especially final pyramid. Together with all the hands and knees falling to the ground after their passes, I guess stability is really something they need to drill on more.

Another team "2" who disappointed me was  because they had many experienced cheerleaders in the team since before I was in cheerleading and I was really hoping for a good show. The routine seems to be in a constant rush and not well executed. Plus, it was quite unstable in many parts. Maybe because they have lots of injuries, but on the other hand, which team doesn't? Maybe they need to consider taking care of themselves more next year, after all, injuries are part of the team's performance, the unseen minus points that weigh you down before you even fight.

I also seems to note quite alot of Aces 2009 routine stunts, not an issue of course, people learn from the best, but as an audience, I definitely would have hope to see new stunts, more creativity, not my own last year routine. Kills the excitement to see a cheerleading routine.

Lastly, there are so many similar pyramids this year, which was a let down also. You can see a similar pyramid in Team "3" versus Aces Team Gold and and with Aces Team Blue. Especially Team Blue since the btoss and the pyramid layout is totally the same. Well I am not implying that any team is copying from another, coincidence happen anywhere, but it's just a feeling of let down to keep seeing the same pyramids around. Last year routine for them was much better actually. In fact, I would have expected Team "3" who was always a tough competition with Aces senior team to have much more better stunts than a similar pyramid to Aces junior team.

That's all for the cheerobics bitching. No harm was intended with no specific references made, so if you guessed the correct team, good for you, but it's your guess.These are my tots as an audience and ex cheerleader.

As Singapore cheerleading progress, I guess we really need to listen to more people and improve much more and much faster. Even now NTU HO level are doing layouts, scorpians and 3 passes. Are you gonna stay still or improve, as a competitor at Nationals level.

Anyway, it was still an overall great effort from everyone. Cheerleading IS tough, and you have no life while training, especially being an ACES CHEERLEADER.
Hope to see everyone improving more next year and better performances. =)

Oh ya by the way, it is really good to see that the competition has become now to be in EXPO Hall with seatings and all with all the sponsors and Singapor Sports Council sponsorred. It shows that cheerleading is becoming a more mainstream sports in Singapore. Status is much higher than a competition held at HDB Malls and all that.