What this blog is about

Hi All ! Welcome to my weblog (blog) !

Firstly I’ve like to introduce my blog (not me yet) and what this blog is about.

In this blog you will find,

1. Stuff about yu song’s personal life
2. Basketball training & coaching information where players and coaches can use to enhance their level of play in the game of basketball
3. Finance Mastery where you can read about to effectively manage your money so as to lead a higher quality life
4. Blog is updated on a regular basis (1 post per 2 – 3 days).

Find out how to use this blog to it’s max potential , here.

Who Is Yu Song?

The content of this blog is produced by Yu Song . Some general information about him can be found here.

Yu Song operates from his laptop to update content to this blog and is always searching for new ways to improve his bball coaching to the next level , drawing experience from his own days of competitive play, he aims to teach players in a complete manner where not only is the game of basketball covered – even the more important things in life such as personal mastery and wealth mastery are emphasised.

Contact Yu Song

If you would like to have me coach you in any aspect of your life, please feel free to contact me at my personal email here.

Photos With My Players

 

Sean , Thian Seng And Me (players 09-10)

 

Championship Team LPJ , Han Wei, Aik Peng, Wei Da, Dalton, Hao Xiang , Chun Long (manager) and Me (coach) (players 08-09)

Photo With My Brothers

Shi Long And Me (presenting S$ 300 to him! ^^)

#1 Key To Grow your Bball Skills exponentially

Today’s training marks the starting of emphasising 2 key concepts that i’ve learned from Ganon Baker

1. When you practice, you have to practice at a pace and rate where .it’s not comfortable for you – break out of your comfort zone (health issues must not be a concern here – if you have health issues, listen to your doctor’s advise)

2. We do not aim for perfection, instead , we aim for persistence.

Elaborating on point 1 )

Alot of players (in fact i would say up to 95% of players) train at a level where they’re comfortable with. Now there’s no real problem with training comfortably except that it brings little growth.

“Training at a comfortable level brings you little growth.”

Taking an example of push ups, let’s say you can do a maximum of ten push ups, which one gives you the most growth? Number Eleven. (11)

So for today’s training (Rubin and Gordan turned up), I had rubin do some drills that he had done before – this time at a higher intensity and faster speed. He was losing the bball all over the place and finding it tiring. The main point is this – his growth was tremendous .

Because Rubin was willing to break out of his comfort zone  , his growth was exponential.

To point 2)

As i mentioned, Rubin lost the bball a whole lot of times, this is where persistence – rather than perfection – comes into play, you ought to lose the bball a few times during practice, if you don’t then you’re still at a level where you’re comfortable at.

The key here is to persist, lose the bball? grab it back! that’s how you play the game!

Overall, I am certain that if players are willing to practice at a level where growth takes precedence over comfort , their growth will be exponential

Afterall, that’s how michael jordan and dr julius erving did it :)

Are you afraid to break out of your comfort zone to bring your game to the next level?

Chinese New Year Reunion - My Players

Today was the happiest day for me in the whole chinese new year, because my players came to "bai nian" to me :)

Honestly, I really like the feeling of having us together and just having fun :) People who came were (in order of who came first x: )

Gordan
Rubin
Zi Yang
Thian Seng
Chze Kuan
Shi Long

I was messing alot with zi yang hahas fun :)

Basically we watched nba videos and played blackjack there after. The best part of the whole thing? Everyone was around and just talking around. I am really happy today :)

We took a photo but somehow i can't upload it to the post.. so i guess.. it'll have to wait for another day!

really tired (but happy) now! Talk later!

How Do I Handle My Money? – Part 1

I am half-writing this to remind myself about the importance of proper finance management ( ability to handle money) and half writing this to suggest a way of handling money to all my readers.

There are many questions shrouding the mystery of handling one’s cash and one’s ever elusive conquest to master his money.

Before I go on to the actual strategy of handling cash, perhaps a fitting question to ask is

 

“Why Should I Learn How To Handle My Money?”

I am going to list out some benefits here

1. You will never be in a situation where you need to borrow – to survive
2. You will have the money to buy the stuff you want – besides your needs
3. You will be able to provide for your family with point 1. and point 2.

These are just some immediate benefits you’ll see , there are other long term factors as well.

So alot of people at this point of time will say

“I Already Don’t Have Enough Money To Spend , How Can I Save?!”

Bingo! It’s precisely because you don’t have enough to spend, that’s why you must save!

When I first started having my own money, I also fell into the trap of never having enough to spend! And when I needed something (think ipod , computers) , I found that I have no money to pay for it ! How disappointing!

However, now I often have enough to spend and often can “splurge” money on some “luxury” items ^^

Let’s examine this together, let me use a metaphor here, let’s say the roof has holes and when it rains the roof leaks. What do you do ? Repair the roof or wait for it to rain then start sweeping?

I think the answer is obvious – repair your roof. In the same way, the cause of having not enough to spend is improper money management. Hence , if you want to have money to spend you need to start managing your money well – by saving first.

“Ok So I Start Saving For The Things I Want To Buy?”

Yes and No.

Yes , because it’s the the better way to buy the stuff you want

No , because if you spend all your savings on the stuff you want, then you’re back to zero again – and this does not solve the long term problem of money.

There is a way to manage your money such that you’ll be able to both save for the things you want and solve the issue of money in long term.

_________________________________________________________________________________

I’ll leave you to ponder about what I’ve just written =)

Keep checking back at this blog to find out how you can manage your money in such a way that it can solve money issues in the long term!

Ganon Baker Crazy Stuff

I was thinking of working on my shooting and vertical when I came across an “old time friend” – ganon baker. (I used to watch his videos before). Oh and he has alot of credentials, including being amare stoudamire’s personal skill development coach, michael jordan europe tour head coach and kobe bryant skills academy head trainer.

Now for me at an earlier age of basketball , his drills was IMPOSSIBLE to me. Yes you got that right. As a young player I never found those drills possible. But now I know better – I’ve missed some of my best chances to advance as a player . But I do intend to workout myself back to shape and become a better player than I was ever before.

 

When I was younger, my focus was on vertical, driving , blocking shots and acrobatic finishes. As my age advances now, I would like to shift my focus to ball handling, passing , court vision, defense and shooting. It is the fundamental basic skill – something not glamorous , but wins you games and make second & third rounds .

So to all my readers, here’s a crazy drill from ganon baker.

To my players, I challenge you to master this drill before I do ^^ (yes i cant even do this now =.= )

Happy Chinese New Year of The Ox

 

Happy Chinese New Year To All My Readers!

May all your wishes come true this year!! =)

To all my current players, thanks for letting me know you guys in year 08! 09 will be our year ! :)

To all my old players, it was fun training and competing together :) stay in touch!

To all my friends, stay happy and healthy!

 

How To Use This Blog

Hi there everyone, I thought I’ve introduce a few features of my blog here ^^ and hopefully you’ll use them to make this blog a success together with me.

1. Theres 3 post (max) on the blog at any one time
2. Theres a comment function below every blog post, please post your comments about what you’ve just read
3. Theres a cbox to the right, please leave a message whenever to show me that you’re actively interested in my blog =p
4. To the right side-bar, you’ll find many interesting stuff , feel free to scroll them down and fill up the poll (if any) while you’re at it!

 

I’ll be establishing “days” where I’ll set aside to particularly post about a certain topic. So for now here they are:

Monday : My Money Matters

Please leave a comment and tag to show active interest in my blog! =)

Thanks! :D

HillGrove Versus Bukit Panjang Govt. high

 

       V.S

 

 

 

Today’s game was by far the best performance ever by hillgrove secondary. Their defense was solid and their offense was nothing short of impressive. The thing that impressed me the most was their will to win, they fought so hard that I couldn’t sit down at all! I stood for the whole match – watching in awe and feeling so proud for them.

It’s been a while since i last felt this way, when my players make a play or make a good defensive stop, i felt my heart beat a few times and something told me “whow, these are my players ^^ “

For a while I felt like these were my kids =x But i truly take them as all my younger brothers and its an honour to know them ^^

The coach was also did a good job today coaching the boys, he was giving them confidence and just simply supporting them in every way.

“I felt like a cheer-leader , jumping up and down on the sideline cheering for my players :) I hope they were glad to see me ^^ ”

Actually I forgot how the match went, because i was so focused on my players and every second I was just standing in awe thinking “Whow these are my players”

But HillGrove lost on the scoreboard but in my heart they are true winners – true champions.

Dedicate the below 2 videos to all my players :)

Left – Michael Jordan , Champion

Right – Kobe Bryant , Heart Of A Champion

My Youth Team ‘09

Hi All,

I would like to honour my players whom have all played so well and to best honest, they blew me away with their performance and every game I witness just makes me more proud of them.

As I stand by the side-lines , i beam with glory and pride, when others ask me about them , I always say

“Those are my players ^^” with pride and honour.

I feel compelled to dedicate one post in my blog to let my players know how proud am I of them. (list alphabetically)

C. K

Ck played minimal minutes in the first two games, however when he was on the floor I could sense his hustle and will to win. I would like to emphasis in the third game, he just leaped the ladder in improvement. I beamed as I saw the way he played. He made defensive stops that was only capable by someone with immense mental toughness , he took shots and drives with a excellent timing. C.K has shown tremendous improvement in the third game ^^

C.K factors : Simplicity (he plays a simple and non-fanciful game) , humility (always willing to learn)

Rubin

Rubin was the support “hero” for his team, doing all the little stuff . He played a bit of everything, defense, hustle , anything the team needed. I remember his unselfish plays in all games plus his shot selection was commendable. Although he looks “cool” on the outside, he’s always giving his 101% on the floor without a doubt ^^

Rubin factors : Unselfish plays

Sean

Sean played way beyond my expectations in games, his rpg (rebounds per game) easily averages at 4-5 , and is amazing for someone who plays only 10-20 mins per game. He also made defensive stops – largely un-noticed – which were crucial to his team. Sean is also another player whom does all the little stuff (boxing out, hitting shots , defense) .

Sean factors : Effort , Effort, Effort

Thian Seng

Thian Seng is perhaps the most talented driver in the team. His drives are explosive and his finish is acrobatic and often creative. Shades of his explosive drives always impresses me to no end -  especially in game 3. He is also a fairly good shooter plus good shot selections. These 3 qualities are rarely found in a single player – but thian seng has them all.

Thian Seng factors : Creativity, Acrobatic finish

Tommy

Tommy is the guy whom has the best vertical amongst my players and is not afraid to show it. I’ve seen him leap pass players taller than him and scoring – on all attempts. HIs athleticism also makes him a player that – once his fundamentals are polished – once he gets pass you, its over (think allen iverson). Tommy also exhibits a thirst for knowledge and is not shy to source for ways and means to improve on his own.

Tommy factors : Athleticism  , Vertical , Initiative

Zi Yang

Zi Yang posies the “gentlemen” factor in his team. Always calm and compose , zi yang seemingly nevers loses his calm in tense situations. The thing that impresses me (and am proud of) zi yang is his unshakable confidence – so rare . When you calm, compose and confident, not many players will mess with you. With proper skills and mindset, zi yang can be easily counted on to lead his team to many victories

Zi Yang factors : poise, confidence

Ah! I am so proud of all of you :) By far the most talented bunch of players i’ve coached so far in my 3 years of coaching youth basketball. Well done boys ^^

p.s. Game proper will be updated either tomorrow or saturday. I want my players name to top my blog for at least a while ^^

HillGrove Versus Swiss Cottage

 

 

 

                      VERSUS

 

 

Match was played on 20 Jan, posting late cause I was too tired yesterday

Match began well and hillgrove took a very large lead (10+ points) in the first half of the game. Basically swiss cottage wasn’t executing well and hillgrove’s defenses was just too tight and too fast.

Come second half of the game, things started to change as i believe fatigue started to set in for the players and swiss cottage took advantage by playing very physically. Physical toughness proved to be effective as swiss cottage quickly cut their lead to within 8 near the end of regulation.

However hillgrove adopted a strategy of winding down the clock and reducing their offense significantly to hold the lead , 43 – 35 , hillgrove wins.

Coaching Point:

I was just talking to sean a while ago,and I remembered something my coach once told me last time (Coach De Wei)

“If you cannot outplay your opponent, outwit him”

And Coach De Wei definitely did what he taught us. He was the smartest guy on the floor, once guarding a 1.9m centre when he only stands at 1.6+ m . He totally shut down the centre and it was the most amazing defensive performance i’ve ever seen.

You don’t need fancy footwork to play defense well at times, the most important thing in defense is your WILL to STOP the opponent.

Ask yourself this “If you were playing catching with your opponent, will you let him pass you that easily? – what’s more that now he has a extra bball with him to further restrict his movements”

Major food for thought guys :)

My Priority As A BasketBall Coach

Recently (actually today) I heard that some of my player’s seniors seems to feel that I am not as good as a basketball coach compared to their current one.

Random Fact: My favourite coach is coach carter (yes the movie one – its based upon a real life story, youtube it to find the video for the real coach carter interview)

First and foremost, I wanna specify that I coach for one reason & one reason ONLY

MY PLAYERS

 

It is not within my agenda , principles nor wish to compete with another coach (although bball is a competitive game ). I believe if you ever become a coach, it should and always should be about

THE PLAYERS

Not for fame, glory or money (no pun intended)

My first priority for my players is mastery skills, meaning at the end of my coaching , my players should be equipped with

1. Have strong moral backbone
2. Able to lead a life of fulfillment
3. Being able to foster social relationship in an outstanding fashion
4. Finance Mastery
5. Personal Mastery
6. Emotional Mastery
7. Academics Excellence
8. Basketball Skills
9. Mindset Of A Champion (think 7 habits of highly effective people)

This is what I have in mind for all of my players. None of them is about myself, its all about

MY PLAYERS

So if people were to wanting me to compare with other coaches(means trying to ask me to compete with other coaches) , i’ve say they are a far cry from ever succeeding, my aim and goal is for my players and only my players

Just a random side note, I overheard that some players mentioned that I should play a 1 v 1 with another coach if I think I can coach better.

My philosophy is this : Being a great player doesn’t automatically makes you a great coach

A metaphor I like to use is this

Imagine 2 primary school teachers, trying to teach 7 yrs old how to do sums like 1 + 1 = 2, and 3 x 3 = 9. One of the teacher is a diploma graduate while the other is a P.H.D (Doctorate). Does that automatically means that the PHD teacher will teach better? answer: no . (the reverse is also true)

Point of matter, you do not need a doctorate to teach primary school maths

And you do not need to be a national player to teach secondary school basketball.(It would complement you if you am already an outstanding coach)

Personally , I chose to teach under 16s because I had played 2 yrs of under 18 league and a year of open league. And I feel fully qualified to teach basketball skills to 14 and 15 yrs old.

I hope this dismisses any wild claims of me trying to do anything that is not mentioned in the above post.

Coming Up With a New Weblog

 

 

 

            AND

 

 

 

 

 

These few days, my thoughts has been on the above 2 topics, helping my players excel in their grades and excel on the court. I’ve had many many ideas and I am both confident and certain that I can bring about this to happen. I’ve done it as a player myself, and I am even more informed and better equipped with the necessary skills to help my players replicate and surpass my previous success. 

As I am not able to physically manifest myself all over my player’s houses and meet up with 6 different people on 6 different nights, I’ve decided to opt for 2 options (and i intend to adopt both)

1. Setup a Web-Log filled with informative stuff to help my players (eventually will become a online e-course)

2. Provide group tutions at a particular area which can accommodate my players and myself

So for now, the Web-Log is a first priority as I’ve been planning it for a while now ^^

Dear all my players reading this, what name do you want the new web-log to be?

Tommy has given me his suggestions already ^^

in order for your entries to be valid , please enter is into your web browser to ensure it’s not taken up yet. :)

looking forward to your feedback (please put it in the cbox to your right or in the “Comments” section below you)

p.s WeB-Log  is the actual term for “Blog”

Fatigue

Recently has been feeling very tired , that was a norm for me . I wasn’t exactly a very energetic guy for a long time.

Most part of the reasons being that I’ve been sleeping fairly consistently at  1am everyday and waking up for the next day at 7am or so. That’s 6 hours of sleep per day. And i am barely scarping through everyday with all the nonsense food intake (think fried, sugary , meat , eggs , milk , yeast , acid).

So my body finally broke down on 14 Jan 09 , i started getting a slight sore throat and my body was feeling a deep fatigue. I immediately recognised the signals and started to take “Remedial Actions”.

On a side note, most people would’ve consulted the doctor and got a whole bunch of pills. I would too – last time. But this time, i recognised that my body is reacting to my lifestyle – so the only true long term solution is to have a lifestyle change.

The first thing I did was to pump the greens, I took 3-4 cups of greens at night prior to bed on 14 Jan and 15 Jan. Things got “Worst” so to speak , i felt even more tired and started having this dryness in my tongue – the thirst for more water. At this point of time, I was drinking ~ 2.5 L of water per day.

So Fri came (16 Jan) and things got to a “breaking point” where I started to feel really bad in the evening (5-6pm) , I remember taking the MRT while feeling half like shit. After alighting from the MRT, i hoped onto my dad’s car and guess what? I fell asleep for a good 10 minutes.

When I woke up again, I actually felt GOOD. That was when it occured to me that I wasn’t sleeping enough. I went home and hit the beds(sleep). Slept from 6.30pm to 8pm and woke up for dinner. then slept again from 11pm to today(17jan) 6.50am. When I woke up, i felt a surge of anger and pain, not directed at anyone , just felt angry. In order to ease this feeling, I thought of the people I loved (like my players sean, thian seng, gordan , zi yang, tommy , ck , rubin etc), thanks guys that helped :)

Got up , eat breakfast, went to sleep again from 8am to 11am. Got up, do some housework , and had my lunch. At 4pm i went to sleep again till 6pm . So in a total of 2 days , I slept for 14 hours or so , thats more than twice of the amount of sleep i get on a daily basis!

Now I feel all better! This incident has taught me an invaluable lesson, you cannot cheat your body of the sleep you need.

“And a person who cannot find time to stay healthy will soon find time to nurse their sickness.”

HillGrove Versus Bukit Batok

 

VERSUS 

 

 

 

 

Today' was the first day my players got to play their first season game versus bukit batok. I managed to get off to watch them play and I was glad I did ^^

To cut long story short, the game began and ended >.<

Okay, the main point of this post is I wanna tell all my readers,how immensely proud I am to have these players as my friend, player and student.

I saw an all star in each and everyone of you

• Tommy
• Sean
• Rubin
• Thian Seng
• Chze Kuan
• Zi Yang
• I am so proud of all you ! :)

Our Body Is a Fish Tank

I’ve long heard of the theory that our body functions like a fish-tank , complete with filters , gravels (i.e. sand at the bottom) and plants.

But it’s always one thing to know and another to truly recognise and accept the fact (And see it in motion). The first thing that struck me was when i was washing my tank’s sponge, simply rinsing it with water is not enough, I had to apply water pressure in order to push the dirt out, now how does this apply to our bodies?

 

I’ve always wondered where all the junk , fats , processed stuff and colourings go when we ingest them. At first , our body would destroy and eliminate them(just like the bacteria in a fish tank would eliminate toxic stuff at first)

Gradually, the tox is too much and so our body filters them (just like a fish tank would filter it – through it’s gravel or into the sponge in the filter).

Thus far, the tank remains clean & clear (we are still okay! ^^) However, as the tox continues to rise, the tank slowly becomes tainted (i.e. yellow or green) and becomes a bit unsightly. Just like humans becoming a little fatter ( its a mechanism in which our bodies uses fat to buffer the toxic – acidic in nature) like this…

The tox continues to rise and now the fishes start to fall sick.. now thus far everything that happens to the fish tank happens to the human body, but when the fishes fall sick, even not so-professional fish rearer’s would agree that the first step is to change the water.

However, when it happens to our human body, what do we do? We eat medication and continue to ingest junk . Whilst I am not against taking medication, we should also do well to remember to change our water! (in the case of a human body, its the blood – the idea is to slowly eat foods that cleanses and boosts the blood )

Now back to the human body, as our body starts to cleanse out the tox within our “filters” , its really not as relaxing as washing the filter sponge, because we can’t take out our organs and rinse them. The tox is directly thrown back into the system before being eliminated.

This feeling is not good.. but it’s necessary.  Just a few days back , I started taking some very cleansing and alkalising substance , apparently it was quite strong and my body just started to throw everything out. I got coughs , lots of phelgm , headaches and fatigue. Not a good feeling , but i kept on super-hydrating(lots of water water) and continued to use the cleansing and alkalising substance.

Now I do feel better, and I can think clearer , but I am tired. :(

So I’ll keep posting soon ^^

Testing Out Windows Live Writer

This post is posted using a new program downloaded from Windows Live , it’s called windows live writer

I wonder how it’ll turn out..

lets try a photo..

Okay so this is the movie i used to coach my players about the philosophy of being a basketball player , essentially , a student-athlete.

The actor was awesome and the content of the show was amazing ^^ all my players enjoyed the show and more importantly got to understand the true meaning of being a basketball player

Emo-Ness

Lol, the title itself speaks for itself =x

quite emo these few days.. perhaps these is one of the points in life where you start to look at people around you and the things around you and ask "is this all there is?"

I think my deep desire for a sibling is manifesting itself ferociously and i dont know what i can do about it, i love my parents - no doubt , but i still feel so lonely.

Though I do have many friends to keep me company during the day when i work, but during weekends and nights , i feel so absolutely alone.. and segregated from the world i live in.

Its like i've been time shifted to another dimension and no one i know even talks to me =(

sad..

thanks to people who bothers to chat with me during my most down period ^^

Zachary

I cant think of anyone else =.=

New Year Resolution

Hi again ^^ I know a lot of people who makes resolutions never ever complete them , well , I suppose making resolutions beats making no resolutions, because those who do not make any resolutions have nothing to complete – let alone complete anything.

In the year 08, I made resolutions from a career-oriented perspective – with my career in mind- , however, soon after I made the 3 resolutions which are

• Earn S$ 1 ,00 , 000 (One Hundred Thousand)
• Have 100 people working under me
• I forgot the last one =x

I left my career. So it appears that none of my resolutions came through!

So for this year, I’ve decided to make simpler resolution this year ^^

• I want to dunk again
• I want to earn my first S$ 80 , 000
• I want to coach my own BBall Team with 10 players
• I want to reach my basketball fitness body again
• I want my house to be clean , simple and sharp (like my blog is =x )

Simple? Actually I still have a lot of wishes, but I have not resolved to do them yet (hence no resolution!)

If you are reading this and can contribute to my resolutions , please leave a comment or tag on the right ^^



p.s. S$ 80 , 000 starts with S$ 1, so if you have a dollar to spare, give it to me! Make my resolution come true .

Shi Long and Billy is going to NS!

My two closest brothers is going to Enlist into National Service!

Shi Long is going to become a Police Officer!

like the guy on the left.. he'll keep us sleeping soundly at night ^^ I always saw this day coming.. Well i met shi long when I was 15 years old.. I am now 21 =.= Haiz.. how fast time flies eh?

I believe he'll do well in NS.. because his un-canny ability to communicate with people is well.. uncanny lol!

Anyway police's BMT is fairly more close to city life unlike my next brother.. whos going to *gasp* tekong!



Yep.. Billy is going to Tekong to serve under the SAF..



I don't know much about the SAF (i am from police also) but i know it's more jungling stuff and dirtier in general =x

I knew billy when I "retired" from basketball at the age of 19 (short career from 16 to 19 =x )

that means I knew him for a good 2 years .. but we're still brothers ^^

I hope Billy doesn't come home with explosives and bomb us into oblivion =x



All the best to the two of them.. !

Chinese New Year Is Coming!

Chinese New Year is around the corner..

and comes my favourite part of it.. SPRING cleaning!

oh yess...! i love to clean the house and get rid of the clutter(rubbish) everywhere that has piled up over the years... oh my god...!

actually.. I hope i wont ever have to wait for chinese new year to declutter.. i must make this into a habit and declutter on a daily/weekly/monthly basis..

so often I just leave things around and slowly it turns into a mess.. =.=

how about you guys? do you spring clean??