Eskimo Olympics 2016

2nd Week

Questions for the Week (I might be answering a bit of both questions when answering one)

1. How effective was your plan concerning the Eskimo Olympics? What worked? What didn't work? Would you do something different if you had the opportunity to do some of the sports again? ]

Firstly, I didn't know this week were the finals, and my plan was going to be stretched over about two weeks, so I must say I wasn't really prepared for it. My plan was to at least stretch before the competitions, which I forgot the last moment. I don't think I will really to reflect to much on my plan and if it worked out or not because I had only signed up for one of the competitions. I'm not exactly sure what it was called, but it was to stretch as far as you could and place an object on the ground.

Sadly, we did not get to that exercise. I did though try out the leg wrestling just for fun, but didn't sign up for it. I'm quite happy I did that as we never got to the one and only exercise that I did sign up for. Anyway.

I leg wrestled against Emma. I barely won against people about my height. I knew I had no chance winning with her, and I didn't. To compete, instead of picking randomly, Bill should have picked people about their height so both people would have a chance to win. 

2. How was your performance? Did you make your goal? How did you work with the other people in class?

As mentioned earlier, I wrestled against Emma. Apart from this, I don't have too much to reflect on. When I got home, I tried out seal hopping on a yoga mat I had lying around. I realised that I was not too bad at it and I should have given it a shot at PE. I didn't sign up for it as during the practices at PE, I didn't get further that 5 cm until I fell. Maybe my arms and knuckles were just having a bad day then and now I know I can do better than that, whether I showed it at the finals or not.

Right after I got home from PE, I did the seal hopping (as mentioned above), and learnt that I should give everything more than a one try. After my sister joined me home we did loads of rounds of leg wresting (like about 15 rounds). Guess what? I won the majority of them (like around 12 out of 15. No boasting :D) and no, I didn't wrestle against her hurt foot, but the foot she has been applying pressure and all her weight.
I am proud of myself. I did not know I could actually do that.

Next week is Snow Shoeing. I kind of am looking forward to it.

13th of Jan - 19th of Jan

The reflections on the below titles will be based on the headline, but will not be only about that.

Plan for improving physical performance and Health. How to improve performance in this unit

I was very excited when I found out about the different sports we will be doing in the unit. Before finding out about this, I wasn't so keen in doing the unit especially as I thought we would be outside. I used to go to Taekwondo earlier frequently but am on a break at the moment (yellow belt). I mentioned this as one of the sports were the high (fly) kick and we had been practicing this at our Taekwondo lessons. I expected to be so-so on it but realised I was not as stretchy (if that's the word?) as I used to be. When I used to frequently go to Taekwondo, I could kick above my head, which I now could not.

The sport I am going to focus mainly on to improve will be the high kick.

To improve on this sport would be to firstly, stretch the muscles on the inner thigh (warm up before doing so. Another thing I had learnt on Taekwondo was the warmer you were the easily you could stretch and kick. Imagine it as a rubber band, if you keep it outside in the snow or it is just simply cold and you take the ends and stretch it, it may not go far until it snaps. On the other hand, it you warm the rubber band vigorously between your palms and then try stretching it, it stretches far more easily. Using this logic, warm up and stretch before practicing high kicks) until you feel more flexible (yeah that's the word), keeping in mind that you wont become flexible in one go, that's what practicing is. After stretching, continue practicing on your high kicks.

A way to discipline myself and practice would be to start my Taekwondo lessons again as that is exactly what I will be doing, instead of remembering to practice regularly on my own. In addition to this, we would be exercising and keeping our body in form.

Learning about culture by playing sports

As all of the sports we were doing were a part of Eskimo Olympics, you could see they were all a competition of strength and balance. By this you could interpret that strength and balance were very important for these people, otherwise they would not be competing on who was better at it. I think I did much better at the sport requiring balance over strength as I could without doubt say that I am not exceptionally strong. My focus and balance, on the other hand, could be considered pretty good.

On some of the sports, the winner wouldn't necessarily be who is stronger or has better balance, but the sport could also be about technique you are using. This is for example considered on the sport where someone holds/sits (on) your legs and you hold and object you are to place as far as you can from you, without touching the ground. The technique of how you would do this (which I am still trying to figure out) would be a big help as well as being much taller (especially in your upper body) would obviously also be very helpful.

Well that was it for this week and I hope (who doesn't) that it would be as fun (or more of course) next week.