Zaky and His Basketball

My kids are not natural athletes but we got them active since young bcos I am totally not into music and art. Hoho. I remembered signing Nana up for keyboard, ballet and art classes and all came to nothing. I didn't even bother with Zaky. 

Getting into sports is alot easier. We love spending time outdoors, the kids picked up skating, swimming, scooting and many more. Unfortunately, bcos they are not natural athletes, they are always not at the top of the group. It gets frustrating sometimes to see them in their game, bcos like all parents, I am in an illusion that my kids are the best... if not, at least damn good. But they are not lah. Lol. 

Zaky opted for TKD and was in it for a long time, which was my criteria for my kilds in choosing ! non-academic CCA. He attained his junior black belt and got his 1st poon and decided that he had enough. Then he went into basketball, the ice skating and finally aggro skating now. 

Speaking of basketball, it is like every other teenage boy must try. Zaky did and he was OK. There wasn't basketball CCA in his primary school and decided to opt for it in SST. He went for the trial and was thankfully selected. 

Zaky lacks stamina. I think Nana perseveres better and most sports are about stamina. The NSG is coming. Zaky thankfully made it into the C team. To qualify, he must clock a 4km run in under 25 mins. He attempted to run around LV last Monday and failed. It could be the skating in the morning or that it was too warm or too many turns and people. Anyway, he clocked 1km, exceeded the time and gave up. 

He tried again on Tuesday evening, heeded my advice to use the treadmill instead. Bingo!

Literally 满头大汗 but he made it. He said that 15 pax were selected for the C team, all the 8 sec 2 and the remaining are sec 1. All the selected students obediently ran except for 1 and he was excluded. 

In prep of the NSG, the school arranged for a friendly match last Friday. Zaky excited told me that he played for 5 mins. Lol. The sec 2 played majority of the game. He had a great time. 

Silly boy. 

Mummy Lim

Another Active SG Basketball Program

Zaky said that he is keen to join the basketball team in SST. I hope it is easy to get into the basketball CCA, since every other person in SST would be eyeing the robotics club. I fully support Zaky's inclination towards the basketball CCA; SST's canteen and cafe are selling too much good food and he needs a CCA that gets him moving. 

Many moons back, he was also interested to do basketball and we signed him up for the Active SG basketball program. He joined 2 seasons and the last one was right before covid. He then lost interest bcos any sports is hard work and he doesn't like hard work. Lol. 

It is the after PSLE season and covid restrictions have eased up. Zaky has suddenly asked to bring a basketball to school and enjoyed some basketball playing during his short 30 mins recess. Riding on his interest, I googled and found the Active SG basketball program nicely falling in the Nov - Dec period. I signed him up; the extra exercise will do him good. Hoho. 

The season started in beginning November and we have already missed 2 sessions by the time of signing up. No problem. We will miss another 3 sessions bcos of the Melbourne holidays. Never mind. Bcos the fee is so cheap and there is a 30% subsidy. We ended up paying $90ish for the remaining 5 sessions that we would be going. Can lah, can lah. 

Yday, we headed to the 1st session at JW Sports Hall. Zaky was exclaiming that he remembered this and that place as we exited the MRT. We started reminiscing the old times. He was a pre-schooler when we moved away from Pioneer. 

In the previous seasons for younger kids, the parents waited and watched their kids during the sessions. Now that these are 11 to 14 YOs, I was almost the only parent. I still enjoy watching my kids doing their sports lessons. 

The group was small, about 10 of them. 

Only 1 boy was a decent basketballer and he looked like a pro in that group. Majority of them looked like they have 2 left hands and legs. Lol. 

The highlight must be the basketballs getting stuck in the loop. 

The boys spent the 1st 30 mins on drills and the last 30 mins playing games. The drills were tiring, they were basically running up and down the court and passing balls but I didn't see any of them using the skill in the later games. Lol. 

The games were so funny. They were like a flock of bees moving from one end of the court to another. They looked like 6 YOs playing basketball. Hahaha. 

Well, Zaky had fun and he had the exercise that he needed. OK, objectives met. 

Mummy Lim

Basketball Again

Zaky got to attend basketball at mummy's escort on Sunday morning. Jiejie was working hard at home, trying to clear the mountainous amount of homework. I can tell that the teachers are all enthusiastically prepping the kids for PSLE. The kids were obviously not enjoying the teachers' enthusiasm.

I rarely get to send Zaky for basketball now and the boy obviously enjoys the rare occasions. I don't get it actually; I do nothing but sit at the side to look at him. That is easy job. Haha.

The running around is definitely doing him well.

I thought his ball handling and ball sense had improved a fair bit from the last season. Every now and then, he ran back to me for his water breaks and he was pouring sweat. The humid hall further aids the detoxification.

Zaky was a happy boy bcos mummy watched him for his session. I was a happy mummy bcos the boy is happy and jiejie finally finished her homework. Such little joys in life.

On the way home, the boy told us that he perspired so much, that he could style his hair. Yucky right? But I had to take pictures of his Stylo Milo hair styled in sweat. Hahaha.

Mummy Lim

ActiveSG Basketball Season 2

When the 2019 ActiveSG Basketball season ended, Zaky was opened to signing on the next season. I was definitely 200x more enthusiastic than him. For $130, he gets to run around and sweat it out for up to 3x a week over a duration of 10 weeks. This kind of good deal where to find?

The better news came when I signed up online - due to the CCK Sports Complex renovation, the new season will be held in JW Sports Complex. That is so much nearer and convenient. Can you see me grinning? Hehehe. Unlike the CCK Sports Hall that is not near to any MRT station, the JW one is one MRT stop away.

The sessions continued to be on Wednesday evenings and the weekends morning. The later Wednesdays' timing works to our advantage. I used to have to take time off and rushed like I was chased by ghosts to send him for the Wednesday lessons.

His basketball sessions had been ongoing for a few weeks. This far, I haven't managed to send him for any. We didn't make it for any of the Wednesday classes despite the later timings; life had simply been too busy. On Saturday mornings, I will be at the rink with Lil Shauna, leaving Daddy Lim to drive the boy. On Sundays, it clashes with church.

Finally, I had the opportunity yday when we missed church bcos Lil Shauna had to catch up on school work. The boy was reluctant to move but decided to give it a go when he knew that mummy was bringing him. Mummy Power!

The class was small, not only in strength but also in size. Zaky said that there are sometimes more people. It was for 8 to 10 YOs and according to size, there must be a lot more 8YOs. Zaky is gigantic in comparison.

The session was mainly drills. He came back for water break each time pouring sweat. Good, good. He needed the exercise. Hoho. The drills were still interesting bcos the coaches introduced them in the form of games/ contests and there were plenty of cheering.

In the last 30 mins, they were split into 3 teams for matches. Apparently, it was the 1st time that matches were introduced this session. Suddenly, Zaky become one of the pros. There were so many of them crowding around the poor soul holding the ball and they were doing that catch ball pass ball stunt. Hey, isn't that what Zaky used to do? Haha. Zaky was definitely able to demonstrate his improved court sense and ball handling in that pool of disorganised little people.

Well, he definitely had a good time and I loved it that he had a good workout. Hehe.

Mummy Lim

Still Kena Thrashed but Improved

Zaky had a game on Sunday morning, which made his half-dead mother climbed out of bed despite the super late night. After years of clubbing, I have come to realize that lack of sleep + hangover = deadly combo, which explained why we rarely go beyond the 2 glasses of house pour that come with the cover charge. Most of us needed to function as if the clubbing incident didn't happen the next day and we are also too sensible to throw good money into drinks.

Anyway, the alarm rang at 8am and the little people were already running around in the house getting ready. I was the last to absent mindedly staggered out of the house. It was a 慢半拍 morning.

Two Sundays ago, we turned up at the Clementi stadium to realise that his game was the earlier slot and we made an empty trip. The schedule kept changing and parents had to rely on these sheets of schedule that were given out, which we probably missed. I really hope that we got the schedule right this time bcos his dear mother sacrifice her beauty sleep and would be very upset if there was no game. Haha. Fortunately, things worked out as they should.

While waiting...

I thought I looked decent in the pictures but actually felt very dead inside. I is the walking dead. Hoho.

Soon, it was Zaky's turn.

I cannot believe how come their team is always so suay and at a disadvantage. There were only 5 in their team, the 6th girl turned up much later. This meant that there was no exchanges for most part of the game. The other team not only had 7 players, 2 to 3 of them were exaggerating tall. They can't be 9 years old. What milk powder did their mother feed them? How come my only free sideways and not upwards?

Zaky's team still lost the game at the end. They scored 8 while their opponents were like 20+ but they played much better. Towards the later part of the game, exhaustion sets in and it was obvious that his team wasn't thinking; they weren't thinking hard to begin with. Haha.

The many hours that Daddy Lim spent playing basketball with the boy must have paid off. Though he is still bad with ball handling, he has definitely improved. I saw 2 occasions that he was opened and tried to score. He would probably passed the ball to his teammate in the past, which he still does when the opponents are in defense bcos he isn't confident. He said so himself. Of the 8 points, 2 were contributed by him. Hehe. Proud mummy moments despite him being one of the weaker links.

His opponents definitely were playing as a team more than his. There were so many times that we see individual who tried to be hero, poor soul who was tackled with no support or poor soul who had to try to be hero bcos his teammates were too tired and walking behind him. Hoho.

Regardless, it was definitely one of the better games that his team had played. The excitement from watching the game woke me up and at least I didn't have to regret giving up my beauty sleep to come watch him. We didn't scold him this time but affirmed that he played much better.

Sidetracked - the posts were so short and cute. Jiejie could probably slam dunk. Hoho.

The season is coming to an end. I am not sure when would be the next one but I would be interested to sign him up for some running around.

Mummy Lim

Kena Thrashed x 2

The last basketball competition at Clementi was really hard to watch. We had harsh words for Zaky too and I was glad that he didn't gave up. Sorry, we really cannot contain ourselves. Wise words are always hard to swallow.

There was no lesson the week following the competition. Last Wednesday, I brought him for class and they played games on 3/4 court for the last 30 mins. Zaky definitely appeared to have taken in our advice and was playing better.

The competition was back yesterday morning. I was hoping that their team has more and stronger players this time. Other than the Wednesday lesson, we also had a few sessions at the basketball court and we hope it would help Zaky and help ourselves; another game that is difficult to watch is really too hard to bear.

We arrived on time this morning at 10.30am. I was glad to see more of his team mates including a girl with superb ball handling skills; I had been secretly watching her during training when she turns up. She is definitely a joy to watch.

There was some waiting and the team hit the court directly after the other teams were done.

While there were more and stronger players this time on Zaky's team, the other team still ended up stronger - in skills and physics. At the start, things were looking optimistic and Zaky was playing well. Yeah, he listened to what we told him. The girl was really an asset to his team. Her ball sense and control was so good!

However, when fatigue sets in, which didn't take too long, Zaky obviously wasn't thinking. The game got harder and harder to watch. Zzzzzz.

From the game, it was obvious that Zaky's ball controlling skill sucks. Whenever he gets the ball, he dribbles for at most 3x, then he was eager to pass the ball regardless of whether he was tackled. In addition, he didn't look at where his team mates were and simply blindly throw the ball. Out of the 5 balls that he passed, 4 of them were threw directly to his opponent. Faint!

His team got thrashed again - 20 to 2. The 2 points were scored at the very last minute. Heng ah. While his team was bigger and stronger this time, they were all like playing the basketball game individually. Zzzzz. Only the girl was at times partnering with another stronger boy.

We again had harsh words for Zaky after the game today but also praised that he did better but only in the beginning of the game. I so think that he should work on his dribbling skills. Secret training on the way.

Mummy Lim

Kena Thrashed

The ActiveSg basketball program is so interesting - inter sports hall competition was organised as part of the program. There was a game on Saturday morning but it was at the Pasir Ris Sports hall and nobody wanted to send Zaky to the other end of Singapore for a game. Seriously, why so far? The Sunday morning game was at Clementi and he was really excited to go.

I didn't quite figured out how this whole thing worked but only 6 of his mates turned up in his usual class of over 20 kids. I am half guessing that it is SA2 period or the sports hall is out of the way. Anyway, the 6 who turned up were also not the strongest. On the other hand, the Clementi team has a good 10 players.

We arrived at 10.45am thinking that we were early for the 11am session but realised that we were supposed to report at 10.30am. Fortunately, the game was delayed and didn't start until 11ish. Zaky was uber irritating when he is anxious. I was so glad when the Coach finally called all the kids together for warm up. Soon after, the game started.

Surprising, it was a full court game; the practices had always been on half court.

While he is one of the "bigger" kids during his practices, he totally lost the advantage at the games. In addition, he lacks agility and his ball handling skill needed so much more polishing. In a more blunt way, he was lousy. Hahaha. Well, he had only be "trained" for a couple of weeks so far.

They played 4 quarters (or whatever you called it). Their team kena thrashed until.... Lol. It was honestly totally fustrating to watch the games. To be fair, the other team was much stronger in skills and strength. As they had 10, they were able to switch the entire team while Zaky's team only had 1 to sub each time. This means that the opponents were much more rested and had a lot more physics than Zaky's team. Then, Zaky's team made it worse by not thinking. 四肢不发达，头脑又简单. Die. Haha. Even the girls in the Clementi team were stronger; Zaky got intercepted a few times by this particular girl. Haha.

They are probably too young to do positioning, which also meant that unless there is a strong leader to command the team, the team was running around like a pack of loose cannons. That was exactly what happened and it wasn't long before the team got tired. For the entire game, we watched painfully as the entire team ran after the ball or whoever was holding the ball (team mates or not), up and down the court. The other team cleverly had one or two who move quickly to the other side or go into total defence mode. We had been telling Zaky the importance of running to open space and asked for the ball. He simply stood in the embrace of his opponent and raised his hand for the ball. Who the hell will pass to him?

It was really antagonising to watch. In the last quarter, Zaky took a tumble and said that he sprained his ankle. I was guessing that he needed a rest than a real sprain. Lol. When I went to him, he needed no comforting; he just needed to rest. Haha. If there was any sprain, it is probably a really minor one. It wasn't long before the game ended. His team scored 4 points while the opponent had over 30 points. Haha.

On the way home, Zaky got upset and defensive when we tried to tell him how he could have played better. Well, the truth is always painful. I hope at least he could remember what he could have done better next time. There is another game the next weekend. Despite getting thrashed, he is still very keen to go. Haha.

Mummy Lim

ActiveSG Basketball: Improvement or ??

We haven't been very regular with the basketball classes and only managed once a week for the thrice weekly classes. We would usually attend the Wednesday or the Saturday class. Well, life just gets a little crazy busy some times.

We had been attending the Wednesday classes bcos we couldn't make it for the weekend classes. This entails me taking time off from work, rushing home to pick the boy then to CCK sports hall by 5pm. Phew.

His basketball class will start with warm up followed by drills. He hated this part most - they are tiring without the most fun. I will have the boy coming back during water break asking me how much time of the lesson is left. Haha.

I think the workout is totally doing him good. He seriously needs the running and jumping to lose some weight. His weight is on a speed train upwards and his height slow gain is not helping to stretch the fats. Lol.

Fortunately, the boring drills didn't last that long before the interesting ones take over. The coaches cleverly infuse games and competition in some of the drills and the kids all get very excited to try to win.

As the season progresses, the kids get more time to do more basketball games in half court. At the start of the season, the games were more scary than fun with the ENTIRE pack running after whoever is holding on to the basketball. Now, some of the kids are cleverer, running clear instead of following the pack. Zaky is learning how to do that after we pointed that out to him. He enjoyed doing so too bcos that meant a lot less running. Hohoho. He has side motive leh.

Zaky enjoyed the games a lot bcos he is also one of the bigger players. The kids are between 8 to 10 YO and being a BIG 9 YO has its advantage. He blocked a few shoots, caught some bounce off but still needed to work on his shooting. He cock eye lah. We are constantly in this dilemma of whether he should wear his glasses for lessons. Just the last lesson, the ball fell on his face and broke his nose piece. Besides the need to repair the glasses, it must hurt really badly.

After class, we took a grab to Jcube to meet up with Lil Shauna, who was starting her SISA ice.

Zaky is in the in-between stage right now. He has been asking and wondering what he should learn after this basketball season. Well, I will totally encourage him to continue the next season; the lessons are afterall so cheap. He mentioned ice skating. Hmmmm.. that is a lot of $$ and I am not sure if he is really interested. Maybe we can ask him to complete the core 4 group lessons 1st.

Mummy Lim

ActiveSG Basketball

Long, long time ago, Zaky was interested in basketball. That craze even made Daddy Lim buy him a freaking pair of Air Jordan, which of course was lightly used and now passed down. Occasionally, he still threw a couple of loops at the basketball court but nothing too serious.

We will be stopping his TKD when the term ends in September. His 2nd pom results will be released about 1 month later and the graduation ceremony 2 months later. That didn't stop him from wanting a break but prompted me to look for something else that will keep him active. He needs to burn some fats lah.

While googling, I came across the ActiveSG Basketball classes. We tried one of their classes once (5 Sundays I think) during the craze days and Zaky found it boring bcos he had to join the "baby" group due to age categorization and the lessons were focused on basics and foundations. Now that he is older, the corresponding classes do more exciting stuff and he was all gamed to go back.

The lessons are really cheap; catered for the masses. The classes are over a 3-month period and there are 3 classes per week! All  for $130! That works out to be $3.6 per class! While it is not compulsory to attend all 3 classes per week, we should at least attend 1 or 2 classes each week. The classes are on Wednesday 5pm, Saturday and Sunday 11am. It is really tough to bring him for 3 classes per week but I think once or twice would work for us.

His 1st class started on 11 Sep. Given that we would be going away that weekend, I made arrangement to bring him to the 1st class. It was a mad rush and we barely made it to the CCK sports hall on time. Upon arrival, we saw that all the kids were in the ActiveSG uniform and further delayed by running off to the office to collect the uniform plus a free basketball.

Yes, everything included in the $130!

Zaky was reluctant to join the class when we finally made it back to the hall, uniform and all. He didn't know anybody or know what was going on. Many of the kids were from the previous seasons or I assumed the coach did a good job briefing before we arrived and were participative. Zaky was on the verge of tears when I rushed him to join them. He finally did when the group break up to do a new drill. The Coach was also kind enough to show him some attention upon sensing his distress.

As he wasn't new to the game, he soon warmed up and participated actively. I though he was a bit of a show off (read: doing it fast but messily). Hahaha.

I know cap sleeves!!! Why would anyone make jerseys in cap sleeves? The cap sleeves totally emphasised his fatty arms. He put on more weight from Hanoi despite being super picky on food. Zzzzzz.

Lil Shauna tagged along as it was the school holidays and she had been cooped up at home the entire day. She was hoping to catch a breather but it was a very hot breathe of air - the sports hall was indoor but open air; the hot air was totally trapped. So much so that I had to send her to the KFC for a snacks and air con.

Zaky enjoyed the class a lot especially towards the end where the kids got to shoot hoops in the format of a game.

He was so proud that he was the last 6th to be eliminated.

For the price that we paid, the classes were totally worth it. The big group size was expected and I think it is a good session to train up his basics. The only complaint that I have is the totally user unfriendly ActiveSG website. I had problem tracking the registered class after I had done so. The only proof was my bank transfer; there was like literally no trace of the booking made in the website. Then, there was no news until a couple of days before the 1st lesson. I even have to call up the Sports Hall to make sure that I wasn't dreaming this whole registration thing up.

We are heading back for class on Saturday. Yay!

Mummy Lim

Last Junior NBA Session

It had been 6 weeks and we have come to the end of the Jnr NBA sessions. This time, Lil Shauna and I tagged along to see how it was like.

Zaky knew exactly what to do upon arrival.

After registration, he was soon in the waiting area with the rest. There were so many kids.

The session commenced with warm up and it was obvious that the boy was disinterested, barely going through the motion. I bet he thinks that the warming up was lame, like how I felt during Zumba classes. Lol.

Then, they broke out into their groups and started their drill. Accordingly to Daddy Lim, there were minor changes to some sets from week to week but mostly the same.

While waiting, we self entertained.

Daddy Lim pointed out a girl who was very talented and I couldn't agree more. She must be the best among all the running amok kids. Not only was her ball handing very steady, her footwork was fantastic too. I will be damn proud if that was my daughter.

The last 5 mins of the session asked for parents' participation and it was finally my turn to accompany the boy. It was a simple rolling ball drill.

That marks the end of the 6-week lessons. We read that there are some other basketball classes coming up in some of the sports hall. However, for 7 YO, it would be similar ball familiarisation exercises. Zaky was totally uninterested. Lol. He still thinks that he is too good for the basics. Zzzzz. He totally disagreed when I told him about that super talented girl, which he totally wasn't aware of and doesn't acknowledge.

He had fun though and was looking forward to his basketball classes every Sunday.

Mummy Lim

Junior NBA

Zaky has a special love for basketball and Daddy Lim must have influenced him to a certain extent. It is a great thing that we have a basketball court in Centris and we have THREE basketballs at home. I don't know why we need so many but it must be a boys’ thing. On good days, Daddy Lim will play basketball with Zaky at the court and most of what Zaky knows about basketball comes from Daddy Lim.

We have tried looking for basketball classes for Zaky only to realize that they are always at the other end of Singapore. Why?!!? His school also doesn't have a basketball CCA. Zzzzzz. We didn't pursue given that Zaky is still busy with his TKD. He is already a red belt and probably needs another ½ year before he attains his junior black belt. He has told us that he would like to stop then. He doesn't have the same passion as Lil Shauna towards ice skating and had asked to do basketball instead. Maybe we would be more serious about looking for basketball classes then.

Recently, it was advertised in FB that there are free basketball classes by the Junior NBA jointly with Active SG Basketball Academy. Daddy Lim jumped at the chance and signed the little boy up. It is a 6-weekly class program and Zaky was thrilled.

On the 1st class’ morning, it was so easy to ask him to wash up, take his bfast and get dressed while he would usually slow motion through. They were supposed to report at 10am for registration and the class was at 11am.

He had wanted to don the basketball jersey that we bought in Bali, only to realise that it was a tad too big.

He eventually opted for a singlet instead and his atas basketball shoes, which he has problem tying laces. Lol.

Daddy Lim whatsapp later in the day to share that they were way too early and the registration only took 2 mins. Lol. They were given a T-shirt too. So smart. They spent the next hour waiting for the earlier session to end.

Daddy Lim said that the whole 1.5 hrs session was somewhat like a longer PE session with basketball. The kids move from station to station to practice different basics. The coach shared that the intent is to expose the kids to the sports and the 6 weeks will give them different basics. At some point, Zaky looks bored probably bcos the stuff are way too easy. Lol.

Overall, he said that the session was good and he is looking to go back this week.

Mummy Lim