Badminton practices

Our badminton routine, has been really effective. Before every practice session we, do a drill that stretches our bodies. First we start of with the stretching our legs, after that we move on to hand stretching, doing 2-3 different stretches. We then do sprints form one side of the court to the other, back and forth, side ways also.

We then move on to the nets, where we do different drill to brush up our strokes and movement on the court. There are numerous movements that we practice, such as drop shots, running to the back of the court and hitting and then running back to the front to hit drop shots, the other drill is to pick up smashes and smash.

After all of this is over we rally, it is a way to warm up for practice matches. We play singles, doubles and mixed doubles, and evaluate who is good at what.

That is basically our practice routine. This routine has helped me to learn new skill such as drop shots and others. I wish to continue like this.

The Eight Criteria For CAS

1. Increased their awareness of their strengths and areas for growth
2. Undertaken new challenges
3. Planned and initiated activities
4. Worked collaboratively with others
5. Shown perseverance and commitment in their activities
6. Engaged with issues of global importance
7. Considered the ethical implication of their actions
8. Developed new skills

I think i have accomplished these goals, with the recent activities that i have done. These 2 years have taught me a lot about my self and what i can accomplish as an individual. CAS over all is a great program that allows a student to do something different, and learn about themselves and the people around them, it is just not about you, it is the what you can also do for others around you.

This is what i have learnt:-

Creativity: Helps you bring out your creative side, like organizing events, giving new ideas.

Action: To see your physical fitness and what you are able to do or help other people do.

Service: To be aware about whats happening around you, and take action in order to help or make a place a better environment.

The first CAS i joined was Cleft Clip and Palate. It was a new CAS which was started by one of my friend Rithvick, who initially planned to help raise money for the kids who had CCP and could not afford to pay for the surgery. We had quite some difficulties, in the beginning but we managed to have a good start. We raised money for the kids by having a party for fund raising, which was successful as we could pay for operations for 10 children.

But as time passed, Mr Lockwood told me that the CAS was not going anywhere and that i should change, so this semester i changed my CAS to recycling.

In the past 2 years i have (1) Increased my awareness of my strengths and areas for growth by cycling, i never thought i could cycle the way i used to when i was small, as i gained weight in the following years. But each day, was new as i could cycle for longer periods of time, and this became one of the good strengths as i figured that i could lose weight, and now i have developed that skill to help me with the stamina required in Badminton. (2) Undertaken new challenges, i was recently in borderlands in Kithugala and for the first time i was going white water rafting and cannoning, both of these which i am scared of. White water rafting because since i was a child i had fears of deep and fast waters, cannoning because i was always afraid of heights, but i took the challenge this time and did both the activities. (4) Worked collaboratively with others and (3) Planned and initiated activities , when i was in Cleft clip CAS we had the task of organizing an event to raise money for the surgeries, we had split the tasks equally amongst people and we managed to work things out independently like getting the tickets printed and sold on time, poster designed and ready to be pasted, getting the venue etc , during the planning stage, but the time when we all collaborated the best was during the party, when we all came together to help each other out with all the chaos, it was not needed to be said when a person needed help or a replacement at the bar, i think we managed as a whole to have a successful party with people going home smiling. Badminton is one of the few sports where i have shown the most (5) Shown perseverance and commitment in their activities, since the last 3 years, after i lost interest in swimming i found this sport to be really exciting yet competitive, i thought i could actually compete in this sport, the only way was to push my self and thats what i exactially did, and now that i am in the school team, it try to put all my effort in doing the best, going out of limit to prove to people that i can do it. (8) Developed new skills

OSC Vs British - Badminton match

On Friday we had a match against the British school. We were a team of 9, 5 girls and 4 boys. We had been practicing for this match for the past 2 weeks.

My first match was against a boy in singles, I knew that i had no chance to win, as i was really weak i single matches, so with no regrets i lost 8 to 21. I wasn't really disappointed because i didn't have much high hopes, also my team and our coach Mr De Sliva congratulated me for a good performance.

This is a picture of the team:-

2nd match was doubles, it was me and Terunaga as the doubles team, we were all prepared to win, the match even though it was our first time as partners and w

e had no formation or any coordination, keeping that in mind we still played randomly. Surprisingly we found our selves to be at 15- 21 (losing) towards the end. But in our heads, we knew we had done really well.

3rd match was me and Mo, it was mixed double, this was also our first time playing. We used the technique that was playing side by side and moving backwards if we were to hit the shuttle far back on the opponents side, there were many other moves. We managed to keep them below 4 points, while we managed to finish the game with a final score of 21-4. This was a big win, as the team had lost quite a few games.

Over all this has been a good experience for me, as i have learnt to work in a team, while playing badminton, and also has allowed me to become more confident about adapting in these tough situations. I hope not to see more situations like these, but if their are, then i will be ready to tackle them.

Badminton team

Today was the first practice Badminton team. We have formed a team in school, we will practice till March and then have matches between schools.

Today in practice, we were told about the rules and the procedure of the game and how we will plan it out strategically, for the team to do better. During the practice, we warmed up with different exercises to make our body more flexed out. Then we were split between boys and girls, and Mr, De Sliva, our coach, made us practice drop shots and see where we stand in that position. After all of that we played some practice matches in teams. I was playing single with another boy called Uthpala.

At that moment i realized that i could not play singles and that i would get tired easily. I knew where i stood and i needed to play doubles with partners. I hope to increase my skills as a single player in the practices to come.

(picture to be put)

CAS - Cleft Clip and Palate ( Hospital visit)

The group had organized a visit to the Hospital, Lady Ridgway Hospital. There we meet up with the doctor who was second in charge, he did not do the operations. He took us (Bharat, Rithvik, Ashish, Rajindh, Rasmus and Me) to where the babies were, who were suffering form that problem. He also told us what kind of disorder it was, weather it was Palate or Cleft.

He was kind enough to let is take pictures of the kids, and get a close up. We were touched by the conditions of these children, and this definitely made us more aware of the situation, we will now do more to raise and do more surgeries.

(Pictures to be put up)

White Water Rafting and Cannoning ( Borderlands)

During the winter holidays my, cousins had come over to visit. We had planned a trip during the days to go to borderlands. We had been told that, there was very good white water rafting there and that cannoning. So as a part of the tour of Sri Lanka we took them to the borderlands. There we were escorted by the officials working there, to a sitting place where we, were instructed to sign some papers regarding the safety. The we were taken to a place where they pulled out the raft, the challenge was that they had to carry the raft down to the river. It took a while but in the end we managed to get it up and going on time.

There were told to do a safety exercise, it was group exercise, that aimed to make us more comfortable with the water and what we were to deal ahead. Next we all hopped into the boat and set sail towards the rapids. We hit 5 rapids on the way, and each time it was more scary and fun. Next on our list was cannoning, we were stopped in the middle of the course, there was a bridge there, we got of and walked upwards on a hill to a place where there were small water falls and water slides. Keeping aside all our tensions we focused on ourselves, over coming our fears of heights and deep water. In this trip, we learnt how to take care of ourselves while stuck in rapids, how to form a group to save ourselves from dying or drowning, also while paddling we found out how much energy we had and this made us more confident.

This trip has by far been the best trip for me and my relatives, i look forward to doing such activities with groups, to improve skills and management.

(picture to be put up)

CAS. CCP

Right now, as far as the planning of the party went, we are now not sure if its even happening. During our last CAS we decided on which companies to apporach for sopnsership. Before that, we were told that we, were not going to get cinnamon lake side because it was under construction. But now its coming close and we dont know where its going to happen, and we still haven't contacted the schools.