DAY JOBS
(SAIYIDAH AISYAH, ROWING, SINGAPORE, EDUCATIONAL ADVISOR)
I like being in control of my life,
I am a very self-motivated person
and I think that is very important as single scull rower
because there is no-one else to push you,
to wake you up in the morning.
My name is Saiyidah Aisyah.
I am a student development officer
in a polytechnic in Singapore.
I am the first rower from my country
to qualify for the Olympics Games.
My day would be - 4.30am I wake up.
I set six alarm clocks
because it is my greatest fear to be late for training.
I think it is a weird thing.
It takes about an hour and a half
to get to the training centre.
I just do my stretching,
getting warmed up, then I prepare my boat.
And I get on the water by 6am.
Now full legs, just go to full legs.
The body still staying in front of the hips.
He has basically changed my life.
I don't think I could have gotten this far without him.
Continuation around the front turn.
And he comes down every single session.
It makes me feel like if I am not giving 100%
and he is giving 100%, what does that make me?
The fact that he is doing that actually motivates me
to wake up every single day
and give my all every single session.
Usually my job starts at 8.30, so it is a rush, rush thing.
Sometimes if I have a bit more time, I will run to school.
I really enjoy working at the polytechnic
because I'm working with a lot of student athletes.
OK, girls, get into pairs. Each pair, one ball.
She wears many hats here. She is a staff advisor.
She teaches, she also mentors the students.
She is an administrator.
In a way, she has built herself a certain reputation in school
and by her stories, her struggles,
the students hear about it,
they read on the news,
and they get inspired from her.
One, two, three!
You want to make a difference in people's lives.
That's ultimately what we all should be doing.
I enjoy telling my stories.
I enjoy seeing people achieving their dreams as well.
Are there any issues from last year
that you have to improve on,
that you have to look into any concerns?
Last year some of our players did not have enough time
to complete some of the tasks that were given.
I am going to write it down.
I encourage them to have good time management,
good balancing skills,
and eventually all the skills they have learnt
will help them in the future.
Time management is something that you can control.
It is really amazing for people like us
who are having so much trouble with time management
and comparing with her -
she is so good with time management.
This is something for us to take away as a lesson.
I believe that how she does it, we can also follow.
She is perfect for this job.
She more than anyone else can understand
what they are going through,
show them how to balance between their work
and what they have to do academically
and what they have to do as an athlete.
My God, you must believe in it. It is possible, yes.
I started rowing when I was 16.
I was sitting on a rowing machine
and someone talent-scouted me.
I started off on the rowing machine for a few months
and I hated it because it is not fun, it is mundane.
My perception about rowing all changed
when I won my first medal, basically -
that feeling of winning something
made me hungry for more medals.
I was quite reluctant when she told me
that she was quite serious with rowing.
I was thinking,
"You're a girl, you know. I think you should be doing
"something girlish rather than sports
"because sports is very rough,"
because that is how I was brought up.
It was hard to juggle between studies and training
and spending time with my family and friends,
so there was definitely a lot of choices I had to make.
Unfortunately, my mum was the victim of all this,
because I didn't get to spend much time with her.
(RIO 2016)
My experience at Rio...
I didn't know that it would be so nerve-racking
because, like, you keep on thinking about
being the first rower from Singapore,
you keep on thinking about everyone in Singapore
watching you, the pressure.
And then you look at the other rowers, and they are huge,
and they are big and they are strong
and you feel intimidated. I wasn't prepared for that.
One take-away that I can take from Rio
towards my journey to Tokyo
is that I really need to improve on my mental game.
Today I am going to share with you the importance
of mental skills training.
I've been working with my mental skills coach
since last year.
I can't perform well when there is pressure.
So what I have learnt from him
is how to let go of expectations,
how to relax, how to perform better.
Everything is just down to basics,
that is all you need to perform well.
During the Ramadan month where we all fast,
where all the Muslims fast,
we can't eat or drink anything from 5am to about 7pm.
It is hard in Singapore because of the heat and humidity.
You are thirsty all the time. It was hard this morning
because it is the first day. You need to get used to it.
It is challenging, it will get easier,
but the thing is once this Ramadan period is over,
you think back and you realise that,
"I've done this training during Ramadan.
"It means when I am not fasting I should be so much faster."
So, it is actually like motivation.
When we break fast, usually it's a get-together
with family or friends.
It is an opportunity for me to go with my family,
who I hardly see.
Ramadan forces us to come together, eat together.
I think it's a beautiful part of the month.
Aisyah was my netball captain
in our high-school netball team.
We were in the same student council together.
She is generous, generous with her time,
generous with her energy,
generous with her ability to share.
So she came to my class. I am a teacher.
She came to my class to share her Olympic journey
with my students to inspire them.
I didn't realise that we only get to see each other
twice or thrice a year.
I think what is similar with all of my friends
who I am meeting at this point of time,
we all have the passion
to go for our career, in our career.
So, I think that is why we are still very good friends,
because we chase our passion before boys.
My choice is to pursue my dream.
I believe whatever I am doing will make me happy
and then it will make the rest happy as well.
I love my sport,
I love waking up at crazy hours every morning,
I love to have all these blisters on my hand,
I love all these muscles.
There's no short cuts to being an Olympian.