Youthwave Challenge 2010: Making Waves! 04/15/2010
The Youthwave Challenge takes place annually with each passing year gaining bigger and better response from the public. This year, the Wave Challenge 2010 (WC), did exactly that! And GSN sure ain't going to miss the "party"! With a last minute glitch, this year's WC had to be relocated to SMK Bukit Jambul instead of usual venue, Balik Pulau Sports Complex. Regardless of the last minute changes, the response still stood strong. With captain ball, floorball and the newly incorporated, dodge-ball, as part of the WC this year, the premise of SMK Bukit Jambul shook with great enthusiasm as many came flooding in.  An ocean of participants all ready to compete! Since GSN has adopted Bukit Jambul Floorball Club (BJFC) and Convent Green Lane Floorball Club (CGL), it was about time to dip them into a pool of good competition where other various floorball clubs and teams will be participating in as well. BJFC sent two boys teams and two girls teams while CGL sent four teams in total. Simultaneously, GSN's very own Spearhead Floorball Club also managed to participate in the event, represented by one team. Floorball is definitely making "wave" in Penang!  BJ!  CGL!  Spearhead! The floorball corner was jam packed! BJ, CGL and Spearhead all had their chance to strut out their skills on court. Even though it was their first WC outing, they did relatively well! In fact, one of the CGL teams managed to steal the second spot in the ladies' category! Congratulations to them! Job well done indeed! The rest did play their hearts out and that is what counts. It was also a good opportunity for most of them to meet new people from the Penang Floorball scene. Many of them had the chance to see better teams and players do their stuff on court. It was definitely a good eye-opener for them all. Hopefully this will inspire them to better improve themselves! WC is a testament to highlight the power of sports as a medium to reach out to young people, to empower them and to build them up to be the champion that they can be. Even though it was a 'fun' event for many, our hope here at GSN is that this will be the small opening for us to begin to shape these young peoples' lives. Building Champions! Add Comment Floorball Workshop: Two Thumbs Up! 03/30/2010
The demand for floorball has been escalating of late. "Floorball, floorball and more floorball!", and so goes the resounding chant of many young people in Penang these days. Indubitably, floorball is gradually picking up and getting momentum, especially in the public schools. As such GSN launched its first ever floorball workshop this year, focussing primarily on secondary school students.  GSN held the workshop at the FRU base at Rifle Range road on the 20th March 2010, a Saturday morning from 9am-1pm. Yes, it was a gruelling 4 hours workshop! It must be acknowledged that the workshop was a collaborative effort between GSN and Team Unihoc, a team consisting of well-equipped, knowledgeable and experienced players. A big thank you to Team Unihoc for stepping in to be part of this workshop! By about 9am, a good number of 26 players arrived with high spirit and anticipation, all ready to absorb every bit of knowledge, skill and advice possible! The workshop focussed on several key elements of floorball such as personal development, offensive and defensive traits and so on. Players were divided into several groups where they were escorted to different "focus station" led by different key players from Team Unihoc. From doing drills that enhances one's understanding on backtracking, fore-checking, body-check, shooting and so on, every player had the opportunity to try-out what they've learnt and also ask as many questions as they want.  Although it was a tiresome 4 hours workshop, all the players were excited and showed no sign of fatigue! Great sport they are! Like all young people alike, what everyone was dying for was game time and what more with the presence of team Unihoc, everybody wanted a taste of a match with them. Game time was of course part and parcel of the programme. However, game time wasn't merely to play and to have fun. It was to be a platform for the players to put together what they have learnt in one piece and hopefully, try to apply them on a real game situation. Players are then able to gain confidence through the process of application. Some managed to execute certain skills and techniques while others weren't. It's okay. The important thing about the workshop is to impart knowledge to the students and to try to help them understand certain techniques and above that, to build their confidence as floorball players. Overall, the workshop went well. Many came back asking for more! It was fun having the students being part of this workshop and to see their burning enthusiasm on court to learn was definitely a bonus. GSN hopes that this workshop has been a fruitful one for all who came. Don't leave behind what you've learnt but start applying them people! You can only grow from henceforth.... Be the champion that you can be!  GSN Floorball Workshop 2010! Celebrating Chinese New Year! 02/21/2010
Chinese New Year is known for red packets, lion dance, fire crackers and most importantly, family reunion. But above all else, it's the time spent with families that makes it a special occasion. In conjunction with the Chinese New Year season, GSN had their very own sort of reunion with the many people they have had the chance to be in contact with through sports. The reunion, or party as they would call it, was purposed to gather together people from all sports background for a time of getting to know each other, have fun and of course, to celebrate the festive season together as a family. The turned out was good but the whole event was even better. The group of people that attended was mainly students from different schools. A big part of them came from GSN's connection with them through floorball. Being a young and energetic bunch, they were just great to hang out with. The lined up of programmes included a variety of pot bless food, watching the a video of the World Floorball Championship 2008 and a string of wild and crazy games. We even gave out 'ang pows' to them! What exactly was in it? Well, read on and you will find out! It was great to have this young group of people who were very sporting, friendly and crazy enough to have a good time together.  Energetic group of youth! GSN seeks to build champions. Therefore, we see the importance for us to take time to get to know the people that we are in contact with. We had the chance to have little conversations with different individuals through this gathering and it is through such sharing and bonding that we seek to develop their character and virtues in life.  Watching a floorball video.  Preparing themselves for the wild and crazy games! Game time was pure fun! Penny did a good job preparing crazy games for the young bunch to just hang loose. From finger wrestling, to leg wrestling, to eat-as-many-mandarin oranges-as-you-can-in-1 minute, to displaying their 'stage comedian' skills, to charades - everyone had the chance to just be their crazy self and had a good laugh at the same time!  Penny doing a great job with the games!  This is how you do the leg wrestle!  And they all showed their leg power!  Ruben versus Daniel!  The three stooges trying to crack some jokes! As much as we all had fun, we wanted to leave something that was of value to this group of people before they went back home. GSN had a 'lucky draw' with a little twist. Instead of using numbers for the draw, we had inspirational and motivational sports quotes read out as the draw. Remember the 'ang pows'? Well, inside each ang pow that we gave out, we inserted a sports quote! Each sports quote speaks of different key principals and core characters that we felt was important for us to impart on this young group of sports enthusiasts. Such values and principals once caught, can rapidly boost their potential to greater heights and that is exactly what GSN wants to do, to empower people to embrace their potential - to build champions!  Hafiz receiving his lucky draw! At the end of the night, we can truly said that we all had a great time. We truly are thankful for the opportunity that we have to be part of the lives of this young group of people, people with great potential. Although Chinese New Year is already coming to an end, we hope and pray that our meeting with this people will not be just a one-a-year affair, but one that will continue to develop. Time-Out!: Sports & Adventure Camp 01/02/2010
 December last year, GSN had the chance to meet and to connect with 13 vibrant youth for its first ever Sports & Adventure Camp! The aim of the camp was to simply provide an avenue for students who are on their school break to have their time spent wisely in a sports oriented camp. Connecting with youth requires a certain amount of passion, skill and gifting. Time has also altered ideas, perspective, values and attitude of the youth of yesteryears and the youth of the present. As believers, our task is to be continually aware of the tides and currents of time and be ready at all times to reach out for those who are being pulled away by the waves of the world. Being a youth, most would disregard the importance of forming the right values and beliefs. More often than not, we would chase after elements that are appealing to the eyes rather than the heart. We want to be cool. We want to look cool. We craved for approval. And the media that surrounds us today seems to echo the grandeur of these things. We need to educate youth to rise up above the teachings of the current media. Going through your youth is like walking on thin-ice - and we have to be their guide along the way to lead them to thicker and firmer ground so that they are safe from the misguided ways of the world. Gateway Sports Network (GSN) believes in the power of sports to influence and impact lives. During the course of Time-Out, we emphasized on a couple of values that we felt were important for the participants to take back home. Listen. One of the main things we crave for when we are a youth is freedom; the freedom to do what we want and when we want. In every youth, there seems to be this growing angst and rebelliousness within them that can distort their sense of hearing and listening. We wanted to reinstate the importance of listening in Time-Out. Hence, one of the key issues we drilled in them was to be able to listen to instructions and to move according to the instructions given. We wanted them to understand the importance of listening while at the same time help them see the consequences if they choose to do otherwise. Without the ability to listen, a person character and foundation can never be changed. Never stop trying. Any professional athlete would tell you that the phrase 'give up' is not in their lexicon. These two words do not exist. Youth needs assurance when they are pursuing a certain goal in life. Failure can traumatised their perception of perseverance, hence, many youth these days find it hard to strive forward towards a certain goal when failure taunts them. Understandably so. We need to be their cheer leader, pushing them to never stop trying when they are pursuing something that is of value. On the other hand, we also need to be there to stop them from chasing after things that are of no value in this life. We must know when to cheer and when to jeer accordingly. Attitude reflects leadership. If you've watched the movie "Remember the Titans" you would have probably remembered this quote - 'Attitude reflects leadership'. It basically means that what we do and how we bring ourselves about will affect the people around us, what more if we're in a leadership position because who we are will flow down to our followers. It's like canoeing. When you canoe, you're given a paddle. With that paddle, you have control over your canoe. How you paddle and how you steer the canoe will determine where you'd go. But it does not only affect you. How you paddle also affects your friend who is in the canoe with you. The person who sits in front of the canoe must then be able to paddle properly, consistent to a certain timing and towards a certain direction. Only then, will the friend who is sitting behind know how to paddle, when to paddle and where to paddle to. Vince Lombardi, the greatest American football coach, once said that "The strength of the group is the strength of the leaders". It's true. (To view more photos of the camp, please check out GSN's "Hot Shots" photo gallery.) |
