Canoeing

Recently, there was a sudden happen of events which happened in the canoeing CCA. All the secondary threes in a certain craft, the kayak craft, quitted the CCA upon our teacher-in-charge Mr Yong’s repeated persuasion. Personally I feel that these secondary threes are very irresponsible for quitting and giving into the temptation of missing all the tough and grueling training sessions. These secondary threes were set to be our seniors next year to try to lead the team on to try and win the National Schools Championships but many of them quit. Though, they did not have exceptional leadership qualities, they could still have stayed in the CCA to be a target for us juniors to set to reach so that we can beat certain timing. I feel that as next year, we will be competing in the B Division category, having competitors older will help a lot due to the increase of experience and the strength and stamina they have in them. This year, they did very well against the other secondary fours from other schools, but they decided to quit at this very important path the canoeing team is taking. As it is, we do not have enough quality secondary one paddlers in our team to challenge for the C Division championships. One of the secondary ones has an asthma problem, two of them are severely overweight, and four of them are having severe attitude problem. The secondary threes leaving of the team at this period comes as a very big blow to us sec twos as we are left to lead. However, putting myself into Mr Yong’s shoes, his decisions are very well thought and well made. Thinking back, the secondary threes who left are very rebellious and often stand up to whatever Mr Yong says and even staged a boycott of a training camp during the June holidays. If Mr Yong had not persuaded them to leave, they would have probably influenced us and the secondary ones to be like them. A team with attitude problem and having second thoughts of winning will never go very far. Considering their poor leadership qualities such as not carrying out what they are asked to, they cannot lead others though they can win medals on their own. However this selfish mentality will pull the others in the team who unselfishly sacrifice for the team. These seniors won medals in this year’s competitions because they played mind games with their competitors such as performing sub-standardly purposely to let their opponents get the wrong impression of them and get complacent. Mr Yong also made several wrong decisions by putting them into some events based on their timing. Mr Yong felt that the stronger should compete in the events which have strongest competition but these seniors who are very talented let the hardworking and deserving team mates compete in the most difficult competitions while they go ahead to claim their medals in the easier competitions. Though the chances we may lose next year’s competitions, we have a very high chance of winning 2013’s National Schools Championships as the bad hats in the team are already eliminated. Mr Yong has obviously gambled his hopes on us sec twos to lead the team and influence them.