Week 21

This week I was able to reach my target once again of 10 goals including a hat trick. The reason for this success was my positioning since I tried to find space where my team mates could pass to me and I could then easily shoot and score. My dribbling and tackling were very good this week since I didn't dribble too much but the times I did I never lost the ball since I knew when the right time would be to dribble and when to pass. My passing was more accurate than last weeks since I made sure to not only have accuracy but also power in my passing so that it would reach its intended recipient without someone intercepting it. I also did my part in defence since I ran back to defend when my team needed me to and as mentioned previously my tackling was very good but there is still room for improvement since I found myself not putting all my spirit into my tackles one or two times which let the opposition a chance at goal.

Our team did well as a whole since we dribbled less than last week and focused on passing and moving which gave little time for the opponent's to readjust to our constant changing positions which is why we were able to score so many goals this week including a 7-1 victory of the green team. Our team spirit was very high this week since we defended and attacked as a team so our defensive and offensive play was very powerful.

Next week, I will try to be even more active in my positioning to score more goals and try not to be so far forward on the pitch since it makes it hard for my team mates to pass to me and it is sometimes harder for me to score that way. I will keep my passing as frequent as it is now but try to dribble a bit more since that is one of my significant strengths.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ov7HcVToTIc&feature=youtu.be

Crazy Hair Day

Unfortunately, because of the weather, several people I had asked to go to different class rooms to collect money from students were late however I took the initiative to collect most of the money myself since I found myself with enough time to do so. I also asked people to replace some of the people who would be late in case I wouldn't have the time to personally go around every class. We were able to collect about 10 000 roubles however I still have to collect money from one form group since I didn't know there was one in the Music room. However, this is good since it showed me that I should have asked exactly where everyone form group is so that I waste a minimal amount of time.

I think that today went well since I didn't have any issues organising this event and people seemed to have a positive response to this day even though not everyone came with crazy hair, nevertheless, I was able to select winners for several prizes with the help of other people. I decided to give out more prizes than anticipated considering that people were very creative. I will hand out these prizes to people tomorrow morning along with collecting the money from this final form group. I think that I did well to make my own hair crazier than usual since that was used to set an example considering I am the organiser of this event. 

I think that if I was to do this again I could have been more prepared for prizes since I only got them today however in this context it was a good thing since I ended up selecting more winners than anticipated. The day I selected to host this event was good since I had more time to collect the money and students had a positive response to being able to wear no school uniform on the first day back from their weekend. 

If I were to do this again I would want to install an activity during lunchtime which would involve people paying money to get their hair sprayed or styled however they want since that would involve more people in the idea of this day and it would raise more money for charity. 

Overall, today went really well and I would gladly organise it again soon. 

 

Crazy Hair Day Plan

Tomorrow, crazy hair day will happen. I have alerted parents about this event by creating a letter which was going to be sent out to them via their children. This was something new for me since I had never created a letter with this purpose before and I think the outcome was good since Mr Gray didn't change much in my draft copy I printed out for him. This was possible since I made sure to keep in formal yet not too complex considering parents may not have English as their first language.

I also made sure to create a poster so that students and staff could be reminded of this day when they walked through school so that a maximum amount of people would participate in this event. I made sure that all the information someone would need would be on the poster so that confusion is minimised, however, I also assured that the poster was visually pleasing in order for people to have a more positive attitude towards this event compared to if the advertisement for this day was boring.

In the morning, people I have selected and informed will go to certain form rooms to collect the money for this event and then I will assemble this money which I will then store so that I make a deposit to the charity I have selected to fund i.e. Russian Life Line. As well as this they have been instructed to write down the names of two students with the best hair style which shall also be given to me. During lunch time, a group of people which I have chosen will gather together to determine who the winners are for the following prizes: most original, tallest and craziest. The next day, I will distribute prizes to the winners during registration. 

Week 20

This week our team did very well collectively and I did well personally since I was able to score a total of 11 goals which included 2 hat-tricks and I assisted several people in scoring. Our team did very well to pass the ball around which we had previously failed to do which was one of the reasons for our small collection of points over the last couple of weeks, however, this week we showed dominance by having most of possession during games and scoring the most goals and points.

I made sure to play both an offensive and defensive role so that our team goal score a maximum and concede a minimum. My tackling has improved since I don't "dive" into one, instead I make sure to just be in the opponents way and stop him from taking a shot or passing it which has proven very successful since I stop the attackers' play by slowing them down which enables my team mates to come back and defend, and I was able to intercept balls very often or put enough pressure for the opponent to misplace a pass and lose possession.

I think that I should try to dribble more next week since I limited my dribbling skills today however instead of doing this I passed the ball very often so that I could move into another position which I did successfully as well since my team mates were able to pass the ball back to me behind the opponent's defence. I should also try to focus a bit more on my passing since it was still a bit sloppy and for this to happen, during warm-ups I will practice shooting less and focusing on my passing more so that I train myself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jMHdz-wsLE&feature=youtu.be

Burn dat calory

As a follow up from yesterday, I found myself doing the calory burn as a way to take a break from revision and keep fit. I found myself able to increase the difficulty even during calory burn, cardio and competition so I decided to try to do it in today's session to get more out of it. I was able to stay above 6 km/h throughout the course which is going to be utter minimum for everything I do on the elliptical machine from now on so that I put in the maximum effort. I ran a total of over 1 km through the calory burn exercise which is what my target was. Since I find 10 minutes too short now, I think that in the next session I will run for 15 minutes as well as the 5 minute free run which I was able to complete with an average speed of over 7 km/h and a final 30 second sprint with over 8 km/h. 

The Challenge

Some of you might remember my reference connecting to the elliptical machine that the next time I was going to use it I would try the competition option. Today, I decided to do this to set myself a bar of some sort.

However, before doing this I followed my normal routine of having a 5 minute free run on a level 2 difficulty for which I was able to keep my target of staying over 7 km/h. I think that I have improved my ability to maintain a stable speed whilst doing so but I still have some work on that front so maybe, the next time I do this, I will focus more on the accuracy of my speed rather than its magnitude. To give myself an additional challenge, I have decided to give myself the aim of staying over 8 km/h during the last 30 seconds after showing myself the ability to do such a task today.

Focusing on the competition style course, I found it more challenging than the other exercises so I have come up with a new plan for this activity as a mean of adaptation. I will try to exercise with this machinery 3 times a week with no fixed dates to avoid stress. Theses 3 days will still have the 5 minute free run, however, I will do one of each of these: cardio, calory burn, and competition as a final thing. I think that this will give me more variety which will hopefully push me more since I have to adapt to this change.

Regarding the actual competition course, I think that I did very well to keep a steady rate which I adjusted quickly to at every change of difficulty. I ran a total of over 1 km in 10 mins which is very good considering the course really did test your strength because of the sharp changes in difficulty. To give you an image of the course, it was two half triangles one after the other.

Next time I do this course, I will try to repeat what I did today since I think I was very successful in keeping a steady speed which ultimately helped me to actually finish this activity.

Week 19

This week there was a significant improvement in my performance and the one of my team's which I was made captain of this week as a result of an absence of staff on our team. Being allocated this position, I made sure to communicate well with my team which I normally don't do as much as I did this week so that is a sign of improvement on that front.

My passing was more accurate this week though I think that I was trying to do lobbed passes a bit too often which were successful most of the time but we lost the ball unnecessarily several times as a result of a misjudged lobbed pass. Next week, I'll try to keep most of my passes on the ground since they have a better chance of being successful and it is a faster way to move the ball than through lobs.

My dribbling was very good today, I didn't try to do too much nor too little so I think I will keep this performance level next week. To do so I have to make sure to always look for a pass before trying to dribble since passing the ball is a better way to get in front of goal and keeping the ball to yourself and dribbling all the time doesn't exactly insinuate a team spirit.

I scored several goals, though I am not certain of the exact quantity, I think I may have achieved my targets which not only include scoring at least 10 goals but also a hat trick which I think I was able to do. The reason for my success was my movement and positioning since I always tried to move into free space to create an opportunity for myself.

I played my role as a defender very well since I was mostly defending throughout the games to ensure that we wouldn't concede as many goals as we did last week. I ran back to defend most of the time, however, an area to improve would be my tackling since I think that it could do with a faster reaction time so I think that I will try to keep my defensive role next week to try to improve on that level, however, I will still play offensively to make sure that I keep scoring goals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5mlEVJM4-U&feature=youtu.be

Holiday Workout

Today, I increased the level from one to two during the free run and still managed to stay over 7km/h thus I think I will resume this until I feel I can improve the level to three.

I decided to do cardio this week and chose a different course than last time I did cardio so that I try a bit of everything the machine has to offer. I did this for a total amount of 10 minutes and achieved a distance over 1km which isn't bad. I will try to always reach a total over 1 km for each exercise I do except the 5 minute workout since that is unrealistic.

Next time I will use the elliptical machine again I will try to use the option of competition which creates a simulation of a competitive course. This will serve to analyse my endurance in a real life race. 

Week 18

After a peak performance last week, this week was bound to be not as good. We had to let Mr Bruce, a key player in our team, go into another team because of a lack of member of staff attending. Our team only got a few points and I was unable to achieve my target because our team was being dominated. Our organisation and passing was poor which is what, ultimately, led to our failure this week. However, our dribbling and movement into space wasn't too bad but since our passes weren't very accurate and neither was our shooting, our positioning was pointless and scoring was very difficult.

On a personal level, I think that my passing was sloppy most of the time and I wasn't the player I normally am since I didn't think through things before doing them e.g. sometimes I just took a shot even though my team mates might have been in a better position. My shooting wasn't as accurate as it could have been but it wasn't that bad, however, next week I will try to focus more on accuracy rather than power unlike what I did this week which is one of the factors that made it hard for me to score. Furthermore, my determination was unacceptable in my opinion since I don't feel like I tried my hardest which is what caused my passing to be sloppy, my shooting to be mostly inaccurate and my positioning to not be very helpful to our team.

However, on a brighter side, the fact that our team was conceding too many goals motivated me to play more of a defensive role letting my team mates play the role of an attacker that I usually play. Regarding my defence, I think I did pretty well since I moved the ball up several times by intercepting passes and dribbling forward which helped our team get chances at goal.

Next week, I think I will start off playing a defensive role since that is what got my motivation back up this week and hopefully it will help me try harder and put 110% every match. I will focus more on my passing and positioning so that my team are able to score goals and win back the points we lost this week.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa0m3_y6zWk 

Crazy Hair Day

For part of service and creativity, I decided to come up with an idea on how to raise money for charity by making the 25th of March (yet to be confirmed) a crazy hair day. All kids can choose to wear non-school uniform on this day if they pay 100 roubles each which will be donated to a charity which has yet to be confirmed. 

The aim of this day would be for students to, not only come to school with no uniform, but also to do something crazy with their hair. Students with the best hair style from each group will be selected and by the end of the day, we will have picked certain winners for certain awards.

In order for this to occur, I would have to send out letters to form groups so that students can take it home and let their parents be informed. During the morning, me and other people will go around form groups collecting the money for this school day and also selecting a person with the best hair style to represent their year group. 

We will have different awards e.g. tallest hair style, most original etc. these decisions will be made by a group of about 5 people which I will select. Prizes are to be determined and will not be paid for out of the money raised.

Drama Queen

During today's CAS lesson, we were divided into groups and given the task to recreate a sheet with information on it from memory since the sheet was at one side of the gym and the scribe at the opposite side. This activity was going to help develop our creativity and communication skills, however, I don't think I took advantage of this opportunity to develop those skills since I didn't communicate enough in my opinion. I think our idea to each remember a bullet point on the sheet (there were 7 in total) was a good idea, however, when it came to telling the one scribe everything turned into a mess because of information overload so we could have planned what was going to happen in more depth e.g. we do one bullet point at a time and each memories a couple of words to recreate the sentence.

Another activity which involved creativity that I was involved in was drama. We were supposed to create a 2 minute drama speech about what we had learnt about the extended essay. Considering that the last exercise I didn't communicate a lot you can imagine that the same thing happened for this activity as well. I think that our group did well to come up with ideas and then pick one and practice on. We did well to improvise during the real thing since there wasn't much time allocated to us. I think that even though I wasn't given a large dialogue, I did well to try to act casually, imitating a class room atmosphere.

The next time we do such an activity, I will be sure to be more communicative so that my ideas are heard and that I can maximise my contribution.

The Motivation Is There

For the third day in a row, I have decided to use the elliptical machine to keep fit. As I mentioned on my last post regarding this subject, I said I would upgrade the time of calory/cardio by 5 minutes in the several days to come. I have decided to do this at the end of the month so that during this month I get used to a regular time frame which is beneficial for me if I want to improve, I have to master one time frame before moving onto the next one.

Today, I managed to stay above the 7 km/h frame during the free run on the standard difficulty. I think that I started of too quickly which I then felt after a while since I was more worn out than I should have been, nevertheless I was then able to maintain a constant speed I was comfortable at. However, since I see this as too easy I have decided to increase the level of difficulty by one and keep the same time duration and minimum speed. This will help me develop more physical stamina for the proceeding workout which was calory burn this time around.

I did this for 10 minutes and decided to change from last time's course to another one so I can test myself with different challenges. I managed well on this one since I was able to endure the course with a certain ease however my speed was quite variable even during the same difficulty parts of the course which I think I can improve to be more accurate since I would be preserving myself some energy by doing so.

Next time I do this (hopefully tomorrow), I will be doing cardio for 10 minutes varying from the course I did on Sunday and a 5 minute free run before that which I will do for 5 minutes on a level 2 difficulty.

Another Day, Another Workout

As I had mentioned yesterday regarding the elliptical machine and me doing it today, I decided to fill that opportunity with action.

Considering yesterday I did calory burn, today I did cardio for 10 minutes but before that I did a 5 minute free run in order to warm up a little. I tried to stay above 7.0 km/h during the free run since that is where I should be at and it is good motivation to set yourself a bar (it isn't  possible for me to set myself an aim during cardio or calory burn since the difficulty of moving varies however I do try to stay at a constant speed during different difficulties).

As an observation from today's session I think that I will push the time duration by 5 minutes i.e. for 15 mintues since I didn't feel to challenged nor tired today thus I think that doing this for more time may push me a bit more and after maybe a month of practice I will push the time boundary even further accordingly.

I think that today I did well to keep a steady pace in order to preserve energy better though near the end I decide to go faster simulating a race where participants sprint during the last couple of metres (in my case seconds/minute).

Next time I do this, I will be doing calory burning for 15 minutes once having done a 5 minute free run where I will try to stay above 7 km/h.

Change a swim for a run

As a result of being unable to go swimming today, I decided to not leave this day with a lack of productivity CAS wise thus, considering I have an elliptical machine at home, I decided to do some exercise.

Considering that I quite enjoyed doing it and that it was a good way to fulfill the action part of CAS, I am going to do this at least an hour every week. My plan is to do 20 minutes of cardio, 20 minutes of calory burn and 20 of free running where I will see how fast I can go on average which will hopefully help me see if there is an improvement in my average speed. By doing all this, I hope to improve my stamina and fitness which may help me when I play football on Thursdays.

Today, I tried to aquate myself with this piece of technology so that I would know how to properly use it for future sessions. I did 15 minutes of calory burn which was quite challenging since I had never operated such a machine nor tried it before. I also did some free running for which I did for about 10 minutes before stopping as a result of a distraction. I feel like this sort of exercise doesn't just train my fitness but also my mind since whilst I was doing it, I kept on pushing myself to continue even though I felt like I couldn't carry on so I am hoping that through this sort of exercise I become psychologically stronger.

The next time I will do this (most likely tomorrow) I will start with a free run for about 5 minutes which will just help my muscles get ready for the real work out. Then I will either do cardio or calory burning (whichever one I don't pick I will do the next time) which I will do for 15 minutes. I will then end my work out with a 5 minute free run to cool down my muscles.

Week 17

This week, I think I did very well considering I scored 2 hat-tricks and over 10 goals which fulfill the aim I set myself and it pays off for week 16 where I didn't. I think the reason for my success in scoring goals is that I was more active in positioning myself and my dribbling was very smooth which let me get past defenders with reasonable ease and bury my shots in the back of the net. I wasn't hesitant in taking shots at goal when I could see the chance, however I wasn't selfish since I passed the ball very often even though I could have had a shot. I made sure that once I had passed the ball I would move into space or communicate things that they could do e.g. I told Mr Harper to have a shot which resulted in him scoring and, later on, us winning the game. I also assisted several goals as a result of my passing the ball effectively both at short and long ranges.

In order to keep this going, next week, I will try to repeat the same routine and keep passing the ball and moving afterwards to find space so that I can get the ball back and maybe take a shot. However, I think I should try to defend more often since, even though I did come back to defend from time to time, I think I should do it more often to let others have a chance to attack.

Compared to last week, I think my determination and communication have gotten a lot better and my role as a team mate has become better as well in the sense that I make sure to always encourage others which is motivating and helps our team win games.

Moving away from a personal analyse, our team got the most points this week after winning all our games except one that we lost. Our success was primarily due to passing the ball around very well and this was largely because everyone on our team didn't always try to dribble and this influenced us all psychologically.

For our success as a team to endure, this will have to resume so that we don't play selfishly and lose the ball stupidly. Moving the ball around quickly is the key since it makes it harder for the opposition to adjust to the movement of the ball and the ball travels more quickly with passes so we will get more chances at goal and keep winning games.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rlipyPsxDQ&feature=youtu.be