Final blog

This semester of PE 10 has been an amazing experience for me. I have enjoyed doing most of the activities I have done in previous years, as well as try out some new ones this year, such as atomic volleyball. I have also enjoyed going to the YMCA every friday to play basketball and work out with friends and also going to friends' houses to work out as well. I have also learned a lot of things that involve being selfless and being prepared in class, and some moral things. There are many ways I could go on about how I have evolved as a person and as an athlete in PE 10 this semester.

One of the first things I ever learned in PE 10 was the importance of participation. in the previous years, I didn't really care much for participation. Okay, it was there and I had to do it, but I didn't realize how and why participation was important in PE. I could say here that I always bring my PE strip to class everyday and that I always do my best, but those are so common that they don't even sound good in my opinion, so I'm going to sum up my participation in a different way. some of the time I don't feel like doing PE because I'm usually too tired by the time PE comes, but I realize that my negative energy creates an impact, especially to the younger kids, who are to take PE next year, or the year after as well, depending on their choices and what they feel about PE, and I can almost guarantee that what they do this year will definitely contribute to PE next year and/or the year after, unless they go through this massive change that all of a sudden changes their attitude. I realize that many of the kids in the other PE classes don't care as much as others about participation, as many of them just go there, do activities, and go to their next class (or go home if they don't have period 5) PE is also a class, and one of the main goals of a class is for people to learn, and I certainly learned a lot about my mind and body as it relates to physical exertion and effort in fitness this semester.

Participation also shows a lot on leadership. I like to set up for volleyball before we play it because what is the use of playing volleyball if there is not net to play it with, thats my motivation to setting up volleyball. Of course, motivation varies depending on which activities we do. So one time, when we did choice, I chose to play ultimate with some of my friends. Being the inconsiderate jerk that I was, I decided not to help out, well a little, with setting up and everything, but not making teams. 5 minutes later, I went to observe and see what was going on and it turns out that no one was able to get themselves organized. This was because everyone wanted to be with their friends. I should know, I am a person that gets affected by that a lot in PE, but I sucked it up, went there, got the people to split, and we got them into teams of 4, 2 per each group, because there were going to be 2 games going on, with the amount of people. That day, I saw a sense of leadership in me. One that has been laying dormant since grade 8 and never knew how to get it out. I guess a sense of leadership comes and goes for me, though I am now working to maintain that leadership so I will be able to apply it in future classes because leadership can be used in and outside of PE. Part of me that got me to do this was also the fact that I am very competitive and that I would want to do the activity as soon as possible, even if that means setting up the entire thing myself. Unfortunately, thats not always the case but I'm learning to motivate myself of taking initiative by anything other than the spirit of competition. I like to get people into activities a lot, no matter who they were and what grade they were in, the more the people, the more fun the activity because clearly if you are the only one playing, not much is going to happen and they will get bored immediately. Getting people involved in a way that they would enjoy this activity is a good factor towards contribution to the class and the entire PE block for that matter, and leadership, and taking initiative.

As much as I enjoy  doing activities in PE, I also like to be at home and play basketball in my neighbourhood. At fridays, I like to go to the Y and also play basketball with friends and also work out. I believe that as i further progress with outside activities, it will make the activities at PE a lot easier because I can apply the level of exertion that I use in the Y to PE and not break a sweat, unlike last year, where whenever we do fitness, I would hate it because I couldn't stand the exertion, but I realized that that was my lazy butt at the couch talking and in reality, I am capable of doing this, and perhaps, even more if I really tried. I have also started jogging around the neighbourhood and also to some places not around my neigbourhood. Jogging to the Y, then up highway 10 to king george and down 64th avenue was one of the routes that I will not forget jogging because that was what took the most out of me. Back then, I would hate jogging for the exact same reason i had about fitness, but once I did a jog the first time, it got easier from there. I learned that the first time is sometimes the hardest try, but once I was able to conquer it, I was able to adapt to the fitness and be able to do it again and do it in different ways to make the activity more varied, as opposed to the same thing everyday. At least I can make the activity less boring to do. I also learned about proper jogging posture in order to extend my running time without having to stop and to prevent factors that would stop my running such as pain within my ribs. Another good factor is also my diet, how much food I eat everyday. Since day 1 of my reformation, I have started eating less, while staying to the same eating routine I do everyday. Starving myself wont exactly speed up the process. Gaining stamina and weight loss is a timely process, and I believe anyone can achieve this, if they were patient enough with time. Most of the time, time is against a lot of things we do. It is practically impossible to defeat time, but time can also help us as we can and should do what we can to achieve goals within a given time, but with fitness, one has all the time in the world to improve and extend it.

Now for the final pillar, the blog. Well, I must admit I am not the best at making blogs at the time I should because I get lazy and I won't deny it, so I try to use the lack of quantity of my blogs with quality. For example, I made a blog post about my workout at my friends house and made 3 videos of me working out. I couldve easily made it to 3posts with one video per post, but I should be able to create one good post with the 3 videos on it. I don't rely on just the visuals to show off my blog, mainly because I am not the best with inserting them anyway. I have a reflective background also to back up what I say in depth and with reason. This portion of my final blog is never the best for me, but it shares its part with my overall mark as this is where my thoughts about days of PE.

In my overall final blog, I would say I evolved as a person and an athlete (I know im repeating this, but its my thought) and that if I would to take PE next year, I would definitely work on my reflective side on PE in terms of my blogs and definitely digital evidence. According to my entire blog, I think I deserve an A (89%) this year.

Workout

So last weekend, (Not this last weekend, the one before), I went to my friends house. Now, I was aware that he was going to make me work out, but it was pretty tiring once we actually started. We did workouts that would help increase upper body strength, since that was the area that I had chosen to work on, and we did various workouts that increased strengths, mainly revolving around weightlifting, because of the fact that I had already done cardio the morning of this day. We decided to do exercises that would work on triceps, biceps, and legs. Here are some videos of some of the exercises that I did while I was there. I learned that...well, weightlifting hurts haha, but theyre essential for strength increase and, well, once I get better, they wont be as heavy when I do exercises once again that involve weights.

Quality of blog

Today, I have chosen to assess the quality of my blog. After looking at some of the blogs from those of my class and those of the other classes, I was able to find a position of my blog compared to everyone's I've read. I belong in the average quality place on my blog. Mine is better than some people, not sounding mean or anything, but its my opinion, but at the same time, looks horrible compared to others. I believe in quality over quantity. The number of my posts may be small compared to others, but it's almost noting compared to how much learning I have done in P.E. so far. The only problem with my statement is that I do not have enough evidence to back it up. I actually have some images in my phone that I can put into my blogs, which I will do in the near future and I should also think about inserting some videos and pictures of things that I do outside of school, like when I invite friends over on most weekends and we would have a fun game of basketball, or when I go jogging. I believe that the quality over quantity of my blog is good, but I know I can put so much more into my blog to make it even more presentable to me. I can even use this blog to reflect on the success that I have had in PE as I grow and I can use it as reference to see if any of the lessons I have learned need relearning. Overall, I think the quality of my blog is good in terms of what I am learning in PE 10, but I can add so much more by putting in digital evidence and adding more posts.

Underestimating progress

I know this is a bit late, but it took me a bit of time to think about this. So last tuesday, our PE class went out to the pond and did the pond run relays. This was where we have 4 people in one group and one person would run at a time, holding a bean bag. Once they finished the lap, they would hand the bean bag over to the next person. I thought that my training times during the weekends, jogging around the neighbourhood and sometimes to somewhat far away places, would help me with this since I had manage to acquire stamina during these sessions, but I ultimately decided that they wont be able to help me during this fitness activity, which was a mistake in my part as the pond run went on When I figured out that we were going to do this, I thought, 'Oh ****, its that again.' I had figured something like this was going to come up sometime, where we would have to run our hardest, but also keeping the pace so that we don't walk. The first problem I had to overcome was the fact that we would be doing running, then stopping, then running again, cause I had learned that it is harder for me to keep running once I have stopped cause I lose that momentum while running. So the group I was in was Marco, Jared, Josh, and myself. I had realized that all 4 of us have different stamina points, so I thought this was going to be interesting. Marco decided to start the relay, then Jared went, then I did, then Josh. Clearly, I had no idea what their initiative was going into the relays, but my mind was set on one goal, not walking at all. So just before I was about to run, I was thinking of ways to prevent myself from walking, from jogging with a slow pace to running all out in the first lap. I decided that jogging would prove to be more prudent in the long run as opposed to tiring myself out in the first run. This decision was mostly inspired by my somewhat adequate mental resistance to giving up and being tired. Once I went, I decided to jog my usual jogging pace when I go jogging in the neighbourhood, doing 2 laps around 5 blocks, or as I like to call it my "training course" and during this run, I learned something, when I look at the ground, I do not worry about how far I am from the end of the run, the more I think about it, the more worried I get, and my mental resistance goes down even more and I become even more prone to being tired. This was something I was going to keep with me as I progress my fitness activities outside and inside of the school grounds. Once I finished my first run, I realized another thing, I was not as tired as Marco was on his first run. For a minute, I was confused because I thought to myself, 'This is the usual jogging pace I would jog with when I do activities at school, and I know I should be more tired than this' For the duration of the fitness activity, especially in the second to last run, I slowly increased my speed, but keeping it in the area that I was comfortable with. When I finished my second to last run, Neuf screamed to me, 'YOU SHOULD BE TIRED. YOU SHOULDN'T BE TALKING.' That was when I had realized something that I had underestimated: progress. My training sessions during the weekends did help out in this fitness activity. When I did the last run, I ran almost 3x my jogging pace to a near sprint and that was when I had found my tiring point, but inside, I was still eager for more as I had asked some of my friends to race short distances on the way back to the school, in which they refused. If I had realized my progress a lot sooner, I would be as tired as them, but I'm not, because of 2 problems, underestimating my progress during training sessions and overthinking my plans with fitness. Fitness is all about learning by the use of your body, which I sometimes overlook because I usually use my mind when I learn new things, like in the other subjects I learn. Next time, I should not underestimate what my body is capable of doing and that I shouldnt rely on past results to drive me of what I can do, because it is likely its going to hold me back. I also realized, this is a really big blog post, but I actually learned quite a bit that day and I dont see why I shouldnt post it here, especially if its things I learned that involves fitness and physical activity.

Community run

Today, we did the community run. The route was the same as the last community run we did, which was like last year, as it resembled a figure 8. I had started at the front....but time took its toll on me. I had quickly descended to near the middle, which was unfortunate due to the fact my legs still killed me after the scrimmage matches at the Y last week in addition to the hill run on friday and my jogging last weekend. I had found it too early to try my hardest again. Unfortunately, I did not realize that until I had reached the traffic lights above the school. So I had decided to refrain from jogging the community run due to the condition of my legs not being 100% and just stayed to a mix of running and walking (trying to relax my legs during the walking phase) and I had still managed to make it in under 30 minutes, which I would say is a good target considering overall I was not at 100%. I was around 90-95% at the time. While I was doing the run, I had manage to acquire a new skill, planning. I was able to consult with mukanj and gray when to stop running and when to start running and we ended up doing the plans that we made and we were able to achieve the goal I was going for in the start of the run, which was make it under 30 minutes. I had learned that making plans as I go in an activity can actually be beneficial. We may not have done it in the beginning, but better late than never.

saturday jogging

After one semester of no Physical activity at home, I thought I should start jogging on weekends again. Once upon a time, I used to jog around the neighborhood, but my mental resistance to keep going was so weak that I decided not to do it because I was afraid......and I don't know why. Now, I had decided to do it again, with a better understanding of my body and how much it is capable of taking before it gets tired, and I met some reasonable results. Unfortunately, yesterday, when I went to the YMCA, I was playing basketball hardcore and my legs were hurting a lot. I was told that I had speed and that I was able to outspeed my opponents, so I went to thinking, "I had all this speed, but not enough stamina to back it up." So I decided to jog again, but because of my physical activity at the Y, I was only able to jog one lap of my route, and ended up doing interval training, which is not a bad start considering I have not jogged in so long. In this training session, I ran for 1 minute and jogged for 1 minute. I'm hoping that I can regain the stamina I once had to play basketball and to do some of the more vigorous activities in PE.

Midterm Review (How am I doing so far?)

I think that I find myself a willing student that is able to do activities whenever wherever. I am not someone who complains about what we do for todays class, I just suck up and I get straight to it. I think the days that I try my best is when I do fitness and when I play sports because those are things that I like to do. Fitness is not exactly a thing for fun, but if you look at it a different way, pushing yourself physically and mentally can be fun. I enjoy fitness when we do running activities cause I think of the times I go jogging with my dad outside and have a good time. My goal for fitness is simple, to build my stamina up. This is not a simple task for me, nor will it be the easiest, but it is my top priority above any other. When I enjoy things, those are the times that I try my hardest and keep my head up. On the other hand, there are times that I dont try my best, and that is during days that I am tired. It can be any day that happens, whether its a fitness day or not, but I do not like to use it as an excuse. I just go out there and have a good time, no matter the scenario. When it comes to leadership, I think of people who starts the class themselves, as opposed to the teacher doing it for them. People who already make a decision on what to do before the teacher comes, and those who set up equipment. I think leaders are people who just...have a good time, and at the same time, motivate others to have a good time. I don't consider myself a leader because I am not someone who is a natural born leader. I belong more as an assistant. I will be willing to help anyone who needs help and not feel bad about it. If theres anything that requires improvement is my learning of my body. There is lot to learn about my body because I have been only working on what I see when I do activities in PE when I know I can learn more about my body. I think of PE as a way to learn about your body as opposed to your mind. A way to give your mind a break from school and just have a good time in PE. After assessing my progress in PE so far, I think I deserve 89% in PE (A)

Manhunt

Last week, on Thursday, we played Manhunt. Manhunt was a game in which 2 people start off being "it" and they try to tag other people. I started off the game sneaky, as me and 3 of my classmates ran to the lower field and hid under the stands in the lower field. No one went there, so after a while, we got bored, so we decided to go towards the pond and see if anyone was there. When we figured out that no one was there, we decided to return to the Lower Field. Once we got back, we noticed that there were people looking at the lower field, so we went to the other side and hid behind the small trees, then we went to the sidewalk and walked all the way up to the upper field, that is when we met some people who were already tagged who tried to tag us. We had to split up and I managed to get away. Unfortunately, someone got caught, but I got away. I hid near the forest for a bit until I saw people who were running towards the lower field. After i realized they weren't tagged, I went to them and we just sat at the bleachers for the last minutes of class singing O Canada. I think that was a good day, not only was I able to run and test my skills in hiding and running away, I also had a bit of fun while playing.

Insanity Fitness

Yesterday, we did insanity. Insanity was a fitness in which we had to do exercises based on a video of people doing the exercises. This required us to go all out and just exert our physical energy. We did various exercises, some simple, some not so simple. There was also some relaxation exercises and stretching in small segments of the video. Unfortunately, I was not able to go full out because my body could only take so much before it starts crying begging me to stop. I learned that I have to be able to resist my body when it starts telling me to stop. Mental resistance is a good element in PE when it comes to being able to do physical work and doing it fully. It is something I am not able to do yet, but hoping that by the end of the semester, I am able to build up my mental resistance to stopping physical work and continue to exert physical energy to the exercises.

Dance Day 1

Before I started the dance session, I immediately thought to myself "This is going to suck big time" and I still think that. Despite dancing is something that I have been recognized for in the past, I do not like it and I do not do it, but it is something I have to live with. Even thought I do not like dancing (and I'm not holding back, I'm just going all out on my opinion here) I have to suck it up and do it because it is a part of the PE curriculum that dance is done one week per semester. Last year, I liked dance a little bit, but it has been in a decline since then. So today, we did line dancing and I did not like it. It was just standing in lines of 4 and doing various dances. I did it just so I can pass the time and I tried so that I had a purpose of doing the dance as opposed to being bored and not trying to dance. People wondered why I was trying, but I didn't really care for all I was looking for was a way to pass the time. Tomorrow will be Zumba fitness, then Bhangra on Wednesday.

Training (Feb 28)

We did what was known as Interval Training. This is like a relay where groups of 3 take turns running a lap while holding a bean bag. Once they have finished the lap, they would pass the bean bag to the next person and they would run a lap. The point of this interval training was not to best my peers nor do the best in the class, but to determine how much your body can take while it is running before they would beg you to stop. This is an assessment to my body and determine how much it is capable of while I am running. When I knew that my body was starting to weaken, I lowered my pace. I had to whatever it took in order to not walk at all. What I had done is that I had pictured a layout of the back parking lot that I had done the interval training on. What I would do next is pace my body with each half of the parking lot because it is shaped like a long oval with almost sharp turns. I would start slow on the first half of the oval, then what I would do is maintain that pace in the turning, then once I got to about three quarters of the oval, I would quicken my pace a little in order to finish the full lap without walking. There were times when I was so tired I wanted to stop, but I knew that in order to fully assess my body in this exercise, I could not walk. After the activity, I was proud of myself because I had not walked a single lap I had to do in that activity, so I think this was a good exercise for fitness and a good way to assess my body.

Weight room (Feb 17)

This was the only time we got to use the weight room. My goal from last year was to build up leg strength, so I did exercises that would get my legs working. This year, I wanted to focus more on stamina building, so I started with a few push ups and jumping jacks as my warm-up. Then I would research on my phone for some exercises that could work and I have managed to find a video on some of the activities/exercises that could help me achieve this goal This is a video of a person showing some exercises that could help build up stamina.