Welcome to the Hurdling Page
This hurdle page is specially dedicated to the following athletes : Bonita Pang(NUS), Koh Cheng Nie(NUS), Lee Cheiw Ling (NUS), Ruth Ling Ern Ru (TJC), Marion Yeo (Temasek Poly)

Ling Ern Ru : 100mH Junior Record Holder

Recipent of 1997 Mobile Adoption Scheme

Recipent of SEAP Grant for Sports Excellence 1997
 

One of my former hurdler has created her own homepage too
She is Aw Kai Yueh. One the hurdler who has achieve National School medals.
Read about her story of how she trains to battle the obstacles in frony of her.
 

What you want to know about hurdling

Flexibility Exercise for Hurdlers

The first diagram is not clear due to scanning. I will try to update it with a better picture


 
A Good Stretching link. Must view for all athletes who wanst to train injury-free.
What is Mental Imagery ?

Mental imagery involves the athlete imagining themself in a specific environment or performing a specific activity. The images should have the athlete performing these items very well and successfully. They should see themself enjoying the activity and feeling satisfied with their performance. They should attempt to enter fully into the image with all their senses.
See, hear, feel, touch, smell and perform as they would like to perform in real life. When an athlete is in a fully relaxed state, he/she is particularly receptive to mental imagery.

What can Mental Imagery be used for ?

Mental Imagery can be used :

To see success. Many athletes "see" themselves achieving their goals on a regular basis, both performing skills at a high level and seeing the desired performance outcomes .

To motivate. Before or during training sessions, calling up images of your goals for that session, or of a past or future competition or competitor can serve a motivational purpose. It can vividly remind you of your objective, which can result in increased intensity in training.

To perfect skills. Mental imagery is often used to facilitate the learning and refinement of skills or skill sequences.
The best athletes "see" and "feel" themselves performing perfect skills, programs, routines, or plays on a very regular basis.

To familiarise. Mental imagery can be effectively used to familiarize yourself with all kinds of things, such as a competition site, a race course, a complex play pattern or routine, a pre-competition plan, an event focus plan, a media interview plan, a refocusing plan, or the strategy you plan to follow To set the stage for performance. Mental imagery is often an integral part of the pre-competition plan, which helps set the mental stage for a good performance. Athletes do a complete mental run through of the key elements of their performance. This helps draw out their desired pre-competition feelings and focus. It also helps keep negative thoughts from interfering with a positive pre-game focus.

To refocus. Mental imagery can be useful in helping you to re focus when the need arises. For example, if a warm-up is feeling sluggish, imagery of a previous best performance or previous best event focus can help get things back on track- You can also use imagery as a means of refocusing within the event, by imagining what you should focus on and feeling that focus.

How do I Apply Mental Imagery ?

Golfing great Jack Nicklaus used mental imagery. In describing how he images his performance, he wrote:

"I never hit a shot even in practice without having a sharp in-focus picture of it in my head. It's like a colour movie. First, l "see" the ball where l want it to finish, nice and white and sitting up high on the bright green grass. Then the scene quickly changes, and I "see" the ball going there: its path, trajectory, and shape, even its behaviour on landing. Then there's a sort of fade-out, and the next scene shows me making the kind of swing that will turn the previous images into reality only at the end of this short private Hollywood spectacular do l select a club and step up to the ball."

When should mental imagery be used ?

To become highly proficient at the constructive use of imagery, you have to use it ever day, on your way to training, during training, after training, and in the evenings before sleeping. If you want to perfect and use mental imagery to your fullest advantage you can start by doing two things. In every training session, before you execute any skill or combination of skills, first do it in imagery as perfectly and precisely as possible. See, feel, and experience yourself moving through the actions in your mind as you would like them actually to unfold. In competitions, before the event starts, mentally recall the event focus plan, significant plays, skills, movements, reactions, or feelings that you want to carry into the event.

What are the Benefits ?

Relaxation itself can be useful in a number of circumstances including:

the promotion of rest, recovery and recuperation
the removal of stress related reactions, e.g. increased muscular tension, etc.
the establishing of a physical and mental state which has an increased receptivity to positive mental imagery
the establishing of a set level of physical and mental arousal prior to warming up for competition.

When combined with positive mental imagery it is useful in:

developing self confidence

developing pre-competition and competition strategies which teach athletes to cope with new situations before they actually encounter them

helping the athlete to focus his/her attention or concentrate on a particular skill he/she is trying to learn or develop. This can take place both in or away from the training session the competition situation.

"You only achieve what you believe"

This is a quotation of mine that I quote to an athlete when I hear them make a negative statement about their ability. I also use it to focus the athlete's attention when assisting them to develop mental imagery skills.

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