We were supposed to have another practice but Ann and Evie came late. Finally when everybody was around, we worked on a few extra performance stuff we thought of after watching The Curve's preliminary round.
I have no idea what I looked like dat...
The class started at 2.15pm, led by Swee. She's supposed to do the warm up and then the 2 tribes would take over, before she wrapped everything up.
Kat's team was up first and they did BC 16 The Whistle Song and BC23 Hardcore Paradise. They had a full team of 3 girls and 2 guys. You could defintely see the energy oozing from their performance. With loads of showmanship, they had done their homework, though I felt some of the stuffs they did looked rather unnatural and somewhat disorganised compared to Terence and his tribe(cannot help it, have to mention them again). Technique-wise, I thought it could have been better.
They did okay with the songs but in the second half of Hardcore Paradise, the entire tribe went off beat for about 10-15 seconds- perhaps they got a bit carried away with it. Anyhow, the good news for them was they managed to find their way back into the beat.
After that, it was our turn. I made in the introduction and got things started. We did BC24 Sexy and BC20 I Don't Need Nobody. My objective of choosing the 2 songs was to show 2 different contrast: 1 with smooth sensual movement, the other pure power and energy. Most of our showmanship was in our first track and the emphasis was on the entire tribe's technique.
Ascending elbows with clean shaven armpits
Combat guard
Jab combo
Swee took over after we were finished and at the end of the class, my boss Jacqueline actually announced the results. We lost by 1 point to Kat's tribe. It was a bit disappointing but all is not lost.
Somehow right before the result was announced, I had the feeling that we were 2nd- the fact that Jacqueline was looking at me when she mentioned that the 2nd team may still make it to the final via wildcard, probably helped a bit.
So what went wrong? Looking at the competition at The Curve and Summit, it was pretty obvious what the MAIN criteria was: SHOWMANSHIP. No doubt Kat's tribe had more to show in this department.
When I said that I was going the wrong direction with the practices, she made quite a profound statement:
"You were training us to be instructors...."
That's the spot.
Being a perfectionist in the things I do, I tried hard to improve the ladies' technique that I'd neglected the fun factor of the tribal challenge. Most of the practices, you'd get "guards up", "roll your shoulders", "set your heels," etc instead of more showmanship. Darn, I suck as a tribal leader, but I sure did one heck of a good job as a teacher- I'm convinced at least 2 of my tribe members can now attend a Body Combat instuctors' training and pass it.
Friendly competition
So what's next for the tribe?
I think everyone should start praying hard(the whole tribe is made out of christians who worked in the medical line since Jean pulled out) for the wild card. In the meantime, we won't be practising unless we are selected for it... but I'll be looking at the songs again to see what other fun stuff we could do in the tracks for the final round should it happen.
Even if we are not chosen to the final round, it has been a nice experience getting to know Ann, Jean and Evie. It's been wonderful taking up the role of a teacher for once in Body Combat. For the three ladies and my gf, at least they will always remember to keep their boxing guards up in every Body Combat class.
