Well done Singapore!

Pre-note :  I’d like to thank VOXSPORTS for their graciousness in allowing me to use their photos for my article.

To begin with, it was truly heart-warming to see the Singaporean team of Yao Lei and Shinta Mulia Sari clinch our first ever Super Series title in 20 years. When I was there, the atmosphere was electrifying and for once in a long while, I truly believe that Singapore sports is moving the right way and most importantly, we are moving forward. Many will argue that Yao and Shinta are hardly Singaporean in nature as one is a China native and the other from Indonesia. I beg to differ as they donned our Singapore flag nonetheless and competed with their hearts and a mental strength not seen in many Singaporean athletes in the recent past. We’ve started a glorious run by winning the World table tennis championships, beating the world champions China in their own domain. Today, we saw a new era of sporting excellence as we fought, clawed, shed tears and shed blood for the nation we so truly love and have come to call our home. After 20 long years, the Republic is once again placing ourselves in the global sporting arena as a force to be reckoned with. … Continue Reading

We only live once

As an athlete before, I sometimes wonder why I didn’t make the choice to turn professional or at least give a shot at professional training. Looking back on the years now, I must say that having chosen to focus on my studies though being the more pragmatic choice, did not necessarily reflect what I wanted to do. We all only live once and we all only have that one chance in life to truly excel in a sport we passionately believe in. Yet, to so many of us, it only dawns on us after we’ve gone past our peak that the time is long gone and basking in old glories of the yesteryear do nothing but fuel our already bloated egos. … Continue Reading

Cheer Singapore!

Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan today launched Cheer Singapore. It’s hoped this campaign will instill in Singaporeans a cheering culture that shows support for our local athletes at major international and regional games or competitions.

There will be 3 specific cheers. The first cheer, will be used by spectators during sports events to rally supporters together to get them to cheer during sports events and make their presence felt at the venues. The next two cheers will serve as victory and encouragement cheers. A sneak preview of one of the cheers was unveiled at the inaugural National Cheerleading Championships, held at the Singapore Expo today. … Continue Reading

Ultimate Frisbee in Singapore

It’s Monday evening, at Parkview square.  Discs are in the air, legs are churning, and on occasion you may spot a player in mid-flight, horizontal and reaching desperately for that elusive prize.  Many ultimate players descend on this pickup game on any given Monday or Wednesday – some for a chance to exercise or practice ultimate, and some come by just to socialize.  Yet they all take the evening congregation to do what many have discovered to be very addictive – chasing plastic.

There are over five-hundred ultimate players in the country of Singapore, with popularity continuing to flourish locally as well as in many other countries around South-East Asia.  During any given month, one is able to find a large tournament taking place – from Japan’s Dream Cup to the Manila Spirits competition.

In 2006, two local ultimate clubs travelled to Perth to compete in the World Ultimate Club Championships (WUCC), placing 29th and 40th.  This July, Singapore Ultimate will again send a team to Prague, Czech Republic, to compete on the world stage once again.

How does Singapore stack up?  There is no shortage of talent in Singapore, and there are many strong players playing on the more competitive club teams.  The weakness in the growth of Singapore may be the lack of emphasis on basic skills.  Skill sets which are often taken for granted on the European or American circuit can be sometimes hard to find.  While the specifics of these skills is outside the scope of this article, it has also been suggested to me that perhaps it may be a matter of adapting to the flow of the game.  While we all do fine playing within a system, when said system fails, raised voices and disorganized scrambling ensues.  Teams will have star players, teammates will mess up, opponents often learn fast, and on many an occasion, the wind will do its best to fling the disc in some random and often unintended direction.

Despite any notions of not playing up to countries half a world away, Singapore has definitely established a reputation for quality play around Asia.  Singapore has a growing ultimate scene, with a healthy number of participants as well as structured teams.  It is impossible to compare the sheer size or performance to that of Europe or North America, however it is a sport with rapidly growing local interest at the recreational and competitive levels.  At the very least, the recreational level can be seen on these Monday nights as yet another player makes a bid to save a disc hijacked by the wind.

What’s happening with my school sports?

For the past few months, we’ve been covering schools and their preparations for their upcoming seasons. In addition, we’ve also been tracking the progress of selected schools as well as their results for their past competitions. So this week, we decided to ask all of you if you know whats happening with your school sports teams and how they are preparing for their competitions ahead.

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Will you support your team during SUNIG and IVP?

As a follow up to what we discussed yesterday about IVP and SUNIG knowledge, we are now reaching out to all of you readers as to whether you will support your schools during the IVP and SUNI Games. Take part in our poll today and show your support for local sports!

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Where did the support go?

I’ve spent many years playing a certain racket game since primary school until I reached the ripe old age of 25 and was graduating from varsity. Though not a professional career (not even close), I was often baffled as to why it was so hard for my own schol mates to show some support for the game we so passionately loved. Even as friends, asking them to come down and show support for my team would be squeezing blood from stone, with the same excuses, “Its too far” or “Good luck, but I have something to see to” or the best yet “Its such a waste of time”. To all you deluded school players out there who think that this article is meant to glorify you, I stand corrected. This article, or story, is meant to show all of us just how terrible we all have been when it comes to showing support for the local sporting scene.

I could not help but make a reference to an earlier article posted by another VOXer, titled “The Power of Competition”. Although harsh, I tend to agree with some of the points raised. In reference to a previous article, “Local Sports Apathy”, I could not agree more with the choice of words used and the cases brought up by Raymond (the contributor). My stand in this, though some may not agree with me, is that Singaporeans are simply terrible when it comes to showing support for our local brands and in this case, sports.

Why? Is it the media or the way we are educated? We’ll never know. But one thing we are all guilty and sure of is the lack of local support for anything done here. People exchange information on FaceBook like its a norm, but when a local site tries to collect information, they get shot down and asked questions of privacy. Irony? I think its ridiculous. I think its about time all of us Singaporeans rallied together and start thinking that we can and will be a bigger part in this global industry and economy. Stop living in your little protective shells and get out.

This brings me to my next point : Local sports. I participated in one of the polls recently on this site and found a particular comment disturbing ( you guys have to read it for yourselves). That person is so adverse to sports that he’s asking everyone to take a nap instead of watching the matches taking place between varsities and on the tertiary level. Now, personally, I don’t really know or care who this person is, but its alarming that this mindset is still with us today considering how “educated” we all claim to be. Local sports is a dying trend, there is a lack of support, not from the government, but from the populace (yes, thats us). We criticise and complain that our standards are low, that S-League matches are terrible in comparison with the BPL, that our Sunday teams can beat the S-League teams without thinking that we are first of all, a young country that needs to be groomed and secondly, its because of this exact mindset that our sporting standards are so far lacking today.

People, we have to support our local athletes, and yes, I can empathise if the standards are below your expectations and you don’t receive the actual thrill of watching an ATP tennis match or a BPL soccer fixture. But, without our support, our sports will always be at that standard and we’ll never produce professional sports people. Think about it guys and feel free to comment on my article.

Its just my two cents worth.

Journey With LASIK

I’ve been living with myopia almost all my life. I started wearing spectacles at the age of 8 and subsequently switched to soft lens at 12. Once my myopia got worse, I was recommended by my optician to wear RGP lens. Although contact lenses gave me the freedom to play tennis, it causes other problems as well. I had to wake up half an hour earlier every day, stock up bottles of saline and other solutions and put up with dry eyes. Out of convenience and maybe a little vanity. I decided to give LASIK (laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis) a try.

I made an appointment for a free pre-operation evaluation and found out that my myopia increase to 1.075 diopter on my right eye and 1.2 diopter on my left eye. In layman terms, my eye power is over 1000 degrees high! I am literally blind without my spectacles! Series of tests were conducted during the evaluation to test thickness of my cornea tissue as well as the health of my retina.

Thickness of the cornea tissue is very important as LASIK essentially sculpt the cornea to correct vision by reducing its thickness. The average human being has cornea tissue thickness of about 540 microns. One micron is equivalent to one thousandth of a millimetre. The thicker the cornea tissue, the better it is for LASIK as the surgeon has more room to work with. With thicker cornea, higher degrees of myopia can be corrected. A safety margin is also put in place by the Ministry of Health which states that the cornea can only be corrected up to 220 microns. In other words, doctors have to ensure that the residual cornea thickness after surgery does not fall below the safety margin. I pass the cornea thickness test with flying colors since I have about 560 microns for both eyes.

Next my eyes were dilated to check the health of my retina before the surgery. The dilation causes reading difficulty for 4 to 5 hours. I was introduced to various LASIK procedures such as the Standard, Wavefront, Tissue-saving, Aspheric, Intra-lase, Epi-LASIK and SBK-LASIK. The doctor recommended Epi-LASIK (Epithelium-LASIK), which is the latest development in laser refractive surgery suitable for active sportsperson, working in the military and those wary of potential LASIK complications. Also known as Surface-LASIK, this “no cut, no flap” procedure is performed on the surface of the cornea. As opposed to standard LASIK where a cornea tissue flap is cut and lifted before sculpting the residual cornea, EPI-LASIK starts by lifting off the surface epithelial cells of the cornea from its attachment to the smooth underlying Bowman’s membrane. This eliminates the need to cut a flap on the cornea as the surface cells replaces and regenerates itself in three to four days. Epi-LASIK reduces the risk of cornea flap related complications, risk of future cornea thinning problems, less aggravation of dry eyes and no possible risk of cornea flap dislodging for patients engaged in contact sports. Most importantly, it is suitable for patients with high myopia like me because Epi-LASIK preserves cornea tissue by not cutting a cornea flap. However, the downsides of Epi-LASIK are post-op discomfort and a longer visual recovery period of three to four days. While patients who opted for standard LASIK regain their vision almost instantaneously, Epi-LASIK patients need around one to two weeks to regain 100% vision.

After the evaluation I was scheduled for surgery the next day.

I arrived at the clinic without perfume or hair gel, as required. I was then referred to the waiting room and wore operation garment for the surgery. I was seated and prepped by a nurse to look at the blinking red lights during the surgery. Next to the wall of the waiting room was a blinking red light and I was told to practice looking at it. Subsequently I was ushered to the operation bed. Attached to the operation bed was a bulky piece of equipment where the laser is positioned. I laid my head directly under the laser, staring directly at the blinking red lights and other bright lights around it. My eyes were then numbed by eye drops and a suction ring was used to squeeze my eye ball. This was probably the most painful part of the surgery as I felt the force of the suction ring on my eyes. I could only see darkness for the next one or two seconds. Upon removing the epithelium from my cornea, Excimer laser was applied on my cornea stromal bed to sculpt the shape of my cornea to correct the power. I find it hard to focus on the blinking red light as it looked like a blinking red cloud instead I was told to focus on the centre of that red cloud. I also felt like I needed to blink but could not due to the suction ring around my eyes. It was at this point that I felt I was a guinea pig, a victim of a cruel scientific experiment much like Wolverine being injected with adamantium. I could hear noises coming from the equipments, a repetitive click every second. After a while, nurses started to count “phase one, phase two, phase three” and at “phase five”, the sculpting was done. A contact lens was placed over my cornea for protection and acted as a bandage as well. The doctor then dripped saline continuously for about 30 seconds causing my eyes to feel as cold as ice. The doctor told me everything looks good and off I went, leaving the operation room with eyes that were dry, sandy and slightly painful. The whole procedure lasted less than 10 minutes.

Doctor’s objective was to reduce my myopia to 0.075 diopters. While it is not perfect vision, it is good enough for me considering the severity of my myopia before Epi-LASIK. It is “perfect vision” for me. With proper care and rest, I should be out in the field in no time.

Are you aware of what SUNIG is all about?

We’ve covered quite a few SUNI Games and IVPs recently but couldnt help and realise that attendance for these events are really poor. One would have thought that because your varsity is playing that there would be throngs of support, like the NCAA events in USA and other countries.

Hence, we’re starting a poll and we want to know if you know what SUNIG and IVP is all about.

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The Power of Competition

It was raining this past weekend and I couldn’t help but whip out my camera to take some wet weather shots. As I bumbled around looking for that perfect exposure, I couldn’t help but notice a bunch of “weekend warriors” playing tennis in the torrential rain. Having played the game to a short level of competition before, the sight brought back memories when we used to play, rain or shine, regardless of the elements presented to us. Those truly were the days…

Having snapped my pictures from my unit, I couldn’t help but think of how the spirit of competitiveness has ebbed and dwindled in recent times. Gone were the days when Singapore was on par with Malaysia in the tennis scene, or the days where we could put up a decent fight with the Indonesians and Filipinos. Instead, all that’s left of our tennis scene these days are overly assuming youths with the fear of competition and the mindset of being too satisfied with themselves.

People blame our local populace being too small to produce champions or professional athletes but I kindly beg to differ. Just the other day, I watched as New Zealand qualifed for the World Cup 2010. Are they necessarily larger than us in numbers? Here’s a fact, their population is about 4.3 million people, that’s actually smaller than ours. Yet, they somehow managed to compete with the best, not only for Rugby (which they are so passionately and famously known for) but now soccer as well. I wouldn’t think it would be fair to crucify ever single local sports person out there but the question does have to be raised : Where is our spirit of competition?

Competitiveness is a powerful thing that all of us possess and it seems that for our local athletes, we seem to stop short and are only content to compete comfortably within our population of 4.5 million. Having achieved a number one status in our country, we then sit back comfortably and welcome challenges from within but not outside of our boundaries. When competition comes from an external source, we either meekly fade into the night or completely fail to enter a competitive mindset. I simply cannot understand why in our meritocratic society are people so afraid to compete when it comes to sports and hence doing themselves the ultimate injustice of never achieving greater heights in sports excellence. It is competition and the want to be the best in the world that will drive us to become professionals and sorry to say this, but being good in our country is just not good enough. We blame the curriculum or seek to use academics as an excuse that we simply do not have enough time to become professionals but in honesty, that’s what every single professional athlete has to go through and sacrifice because they love the game, they love the sport and they love to compete.

Imagine if Roger Federer only wished to be great in his native country of Switzerland and not the world. You and I would never be able to see tennis as the sporting event it is today, in all its glory. Imagine if Thierry Henry or Lionel Messi were content being good in their country and most importantly, remember our very own Tan Howe Liang if he hadn’t wanted to achieve new heights, we would have never won that silver medal during the 1960 Olympic games.

The Amorous Avocado

Since ancient times, the most misunderstood fruit would have to be the avocado. Hence, Vox is here to dispel 3 great myths of the avocado.
Firstly and the simplest, the avocado is not a vegetable, as normally assumed by due to its colour and resemblance to other vegetables. Instead, it’s a fruit, a delicious one too. It is one of the ‘borderline’ veggie-fruit like carrots and tomato that people always wonder whether they are vegetables or fruits. Avacado is part of the berry family, a long distance cousin of blackberries and raspberries!

Next, due to their misleading image, avocados were once seen as having sexual powers and were not purchased nor consumed by any person protecting his/her virtuous image. It was also often seen as the fertility fruit due to its shape that resembles a testicle. In the past, couples used to see avocados as the Tongkat Ali for their nightlife. It was to the extent that growers had to sponsor public relations campaigns to dispel this infamous reputation of avocados before the public accepted the fruit!

Finally, the most misunderstood myth that should be dispelled and would soon earn much more fans – the myth that avocado is an incredibly unhealthy fruit. Well, it is partly true, but despite it being high in fat content and calories, the nutritional benefits of avocados definitely outweigh the calories and fat. It is the very monosaturated fats in avocados that have been found to improve fat levels in the body and help control diabetes. They are also good for lowering cholesterol. Avocados are also a huge source of fiber, containing 10 grams in only one avocado. Fiber is known to help prevent high blood pressure, heart disease, and certain types of cancer, particularly colon cancer.

Furthermore, avocados are the perfect food for pregnant women. The folate in one avocado per day provides almost 30% of the recommended daily dosage and helps prevent life threatening birth defects of the spine and brain.

Not convinced yet? Look for Florida grown avocados. They contain about 2/3 the calories and half the fat of California grown avocados. Also, stick with those harvested between November and March; they contain 1/3 the fat of those picked earlier in the season. In this way, you enjoy the delicious taste of avocados and the richness of their nutrition simultaneously. Treat yourself with a nice, cool avocado dessert (recipe given below) after a long day and absorb the richness into your body right now!

Avocado Gula Melaka Shake
1 ripe avocado – peeled and pitted
1 cups ice (10-12 ice cubes)
½ cup Gula Melaka syrup
½ to 1 cup cold low-fat milk

Scoop the avocado flesh into a blender.
Add the ice cubes, Gula Melaka syrup and ½ cup of milk.
Blend until completely smooth.
Taste and add additional milk for thinner consistency if desired.
Pour into 2 glasses and enjoy!

Glyconutrients and Sports

1. What are Glyconutrients?

Scientist have discovered that certain plants have special “sugars”. These sugars are not digested as energy for the body, but go directly to the cell surfaces to form a complex system for cellular communication. Glyconutritionals are now regarded as a whole new class of nutrients. Glyconutrients are not another “me too” blend of vitamins, minerals, amino or fatty acids or herbs.

Do not mistake this with white sugar (sucrose). Sugar is actually a general term for a class of molecules, known chemically as ‘saccharides’. They have a common molecular base structure and yet their properties vary widely. This common crystalline product, usually from sugar cane or beet source, is actually a disaccharide, formed form the combination of glucose and fructose.
There are eight vital sugars that we refer to as glyconutrients have little to do with the typical white table sugar. They are glucose, N-acetylglucosamine, galactose, N-acetylgalactosamine, mannose, fucose, xylose and N-acetylneuraminic acid (also known as sialic acid).

2. Much has been debated about the benefits of Glyconutrients. When it was first made known, there were no general consensus about incorporating this new knowledge into medical practice. How has it evolve now?

• In 1996, Harper’s Biochemistry, a prominent medical text book added a new chapter called Glycoproteins. This discovery established the fact that all mammals must synthesize Glyconutrients as a normal function of life. The Glyconutrients then attach to the protein surface on the cell to form glycoproteins. Those who don’t produce all eight glycoproteins correctly will develop a disease condition.
• Scientist now know that there is a language of cellular communication encoded within the body’s molecular structure. In order for the body to work at its optimum, that structure must have all the letter of its “alphabet” in place if the cells of the body are going to communicate properly with each other. If not, the language of the cells get garbled and proper communication begins to break down.
• MIT’s Technology Review February 2003 issue says: Glycomics, the study and application of these vital sugars to be one of the 10 Emerging Technologies that will change the world.
• In the last twenty years, a huge and growing body of research has been carried out into the role of these sugars that are an essential part of glycoproteins. Oxford University has nearly 60 full time staff in their department of glycobiology (study of the structure, biosynthesis, and biology of saccharides). Research now runs to over 80,000 papers in many established medical journals.

Numerous books have been written on the subject of Glyconutrients. Here are comments from a number of authors:

• After years of research, I have come to the conclusion that the lack of these invaluable sugars in our diet is a major reason for most of today’s diseases; even cancer, diabetes, and autoimmune disorders like rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, and chronic fatigue syndrome,  says Rita Elkins M.H. ~ Author of Miracle Sugars
• As founder of the Glyconutrients Research Foundation and author of Sugars That Heal, I have found that the addition of essential sugars to your diet can affect everything from the immune system to cholesterol levels – Dr. Emil Mondoa.
• “This happens to be the most exciting new science that has ever hit medicine and the good news is what we are dealing with are foods – foods that are non-toxic, simply the building blocks of carbohydrates called Glyconutrients. They are non-toxic at any level.” – Victoria  Arcadi, DC, DICCP.

3. Both the US and Canadian Olympic Teams officially endorse glyconutrient products for their athletes. How does Glyconutrients help athletes? What are the benefits?

Fitness is a state of being wherein all systems of the body are operating at optimal wellness. This includes cell-to-cell communication, endocrine homeostasis, gastrointestinal integrity, maximum nourishment (with reserves), cardio endurance, musculoskeletal strength with flexible muscles and tendons. We speak of reaching a goal that requires patience, focus, and for most people, a complete change of lifestyle – not some quick and easy designer pill that does it for you magically while you sleep.
So when an athlete injures a ligament, tendon or muscle, how does the tissue know what it needs to do to repair the damage and seal itself off again? How does it regulate the inflammation cascade? When an athlete eats, how does his or her digestive tract know which food components to grab hold of and send into the blood stream immediately in order to heal the damaged area?
The immune system is coded to perform many complex involuntary functions. At the site of the injury there is a spillage of protein that causes the macrophages to go to the site, phagocytose (eat up) the dead cells, and then through cell-to-cell communication, call in the fibroblasts to rebuild and repair the damage. This is what we call an efficient and specific immune response. It is the coding of the saccharides that completely directs this scenario.
Let us also not forget about the small but chronic injuries that can hinder us from enjoying a certain quality of life. Repetitive strain injuries like that seen in carpal tunnel syndrome can become extremely painful. Another common injury suffered by tennis players is lateral epicondylitis, or tennis elbow. Golfers also have a similar injury.
Other common injuries due to repetition, which often occur in the upper body, could benefit from aggressive supplementation, and of course, glyconutritionals.
What is common among those who are “pushing the envelope” for competition, is the athlete’s inability to repair and recover fast enough to keep up with the training schedule and due date of the event to come. As the body is begging, borrowing and stealing enzymes and proteins, not to mention screaming for saccharides, the immune system can’t keep up enough to protect it from exogenous bacteria or invading viruses. It is not uncommon for a prime athlete, ready to make his or her marks in the sports worlds, to come down with an upper respiratory infection known as URI. This simple illness could prevent a gold medal from ever reaching the hands of a deserving Olympic athlete.
Under stress, the athlete will exponentially increase his or her needs for all nutritional supplements, especially glyconutritionals. The higher the stress, the greater the need.  From anaerobic bodybuilding to aerobic gymnastics, it’s not always the training or practice itself that is the most nutrient-demanding, but the repair and recuperation that takes place afterwards.

4. Are there any side effects taking it regularly?

There are no known side effects or toxicity. These glyconutrients are basically food.

5. With so many different Glyconutrient products in the market, how do we choose?

Actually, there is only one official manufacturer for Glyconutrient products. This is a US company that owns the physical patent to the composition of its proprietary blend of saccharides and currently holds patents in more than 30 countries.  They employ a direct sales system to distribute their products so they are not available over the counter.
This US Glyconutrient producer is first and foremost a science and research company. Their products are manufactured under GMP and now have many of their products evaluated and certified by NSF International. The company is also listed on the NASDAQ exchange in the US and has been established for 14 years.
There are of course a number of companies promoting and selling their blend of Glyconutritionals on the Internet. Consumers will need to make their own decision on how they choose their products, whether it is on price alone or will it be confidence in a company that has spent more than $20 million researching and developing this new technology.