As of now, I've had the opportunity to work as an intern within the council itself. Well, it's been an awfully fun 3 weeks I'd say. I really didn't know how quickly it seemed to skim past until I remembered that old adage. How'd it go? Something about fun flying when you're having time, I suppose?
Subjective to anyone, the experiences I've had throughout this period, however short it may seem, have driven me to share this little piece of my mind which I personally feel, could give more insight about two things:
- The situation of sports development in Singapore
- and what I honestly suggest should be happening
In other words, two and a half years coupled with the past three weeks have given me further insight on what happens in the ssc, that most people wouldn't get to see.
Who am I, but an ordinary student, scoring mediocre results in a local polytechnic to criticise how things are being run in a government statute? Of course I'd give my views but pardon me, I never said I'd like to take over and take over its operations. No, it's just what I think is the current problem with the structure itself. Before one goes deeper, each of us (including me) have to realise and understand that since we were kids, as young as 5 years old, we've all taken part in games, sports and activities, in which we all, at some point of time, have experienced the subconcious need to win. Perhaps to be better than your friends. Just a friendly race to the nearest tree and back may have been an idea of wanting to beat someone. As we grow older, this becomes a clearly defined structure, known as competition, which is delivered through the channel of sport.
Now depending on the level of competition in which one participates in, that need to come in first or that special desire to win, there is that predominant and primal urge to be the best. The point I am trying to drive home here is that even as kids, we have been involved in some kind of sport. And this becomes the experience or the expertise that we eventually hold when we become adults. In other words, the longer we are involved in sports, or anything else for that matter, the more specialised and competent we become in that field or practice. And this is where I bring in an example. In Russia, Greece, even Brazil, players start off as young boys and girls who learn as a team; or individual athletes who begin at the same age and they work their way up the accomplishment ladder. As they grow, they learn more and along the way, they educate themselves, arming their minds and bodies with practial knowledge of what they should do, how they should apply their individual skills and abilities and ultimately refining themselves.
When they stop competing as athletes, they continue to educate themselves to become coaches to pass on their passions to the ones who follow. Some even go on to become what these countries would call 'Masters of Sport' which would equate to a silly title of 'professor in blah-blah-blah' over in this tiny red dot of a country. The difference being that we DON'T have such a thing as a Master of Sport as frankly, no one's even come close to that standard yet. *enter, my HAHAHAs* I wouldn't even bother talking about "But why don't you choose an American/Australian/British/Blonde-balled coach instead?" or "If you so smart, why donch you go become what, these MOTHERS of Spoilt la!"
Trust me, if I could, I would but right now, I'm not living in Moscow, or anywhere else in the world for that matter. Perhaps I deviated a little. But what I WAS trying to point out was that if anyone or any country is gonna be the least bit successful in sport, it all has to begin with the amount of practical knowledge you experience. Take that, add your very valuable experience, add some formal education along the way, and you'll have the recipe for professionalism. And people ask, 'Why is it that we can't have professional sport in Singapore? The answer is not because of our focus on academics. The problem lies in our culture. Hasn't anyone noticed that we don't even have the proper infrastructure to support sport? We could spend XYZ gazillion dollars building a global arts scene and even an entire city devoted to the nuturing of bio-medical and life science studies (read: Biopolis) and all we have is ONE sports school?
Here's my two cents. It's a starting step yes, but it's a joke to see how much the government (Hi Mr. Lee Hsien Loong!) actually bothers to do anything about sport. You talk about the sports school, and all you have is an under-budgeted and under-staffed sinking ship. But what I think for the moment. *results may vary.
The problem with sports development in Singapore is that, the development, educating and the coaching of athletes is plain and simply, backwards. Remember what I said about experience?
The key to having a good athlete, is by having a good coach to guide and nuture this athlete through the sharing of the coach's practical sporting experience and knowledge. Supported by their individual level of theoretical knowledge.
We have many coaching courses available. We have a national registry of coaches, and we also have a sports training academy. You also have people from all over the place turning to these (and the only) institutes in search of a weekend certification and basic education in the field of coaching; only to rush out to the nearest student/athlete a day later -God help them really- to unload whatever rubbish they learnt. Theory isn't the main emphasis in sport! Give it some thought. Because I'd rather have a coach with practical knowledge knowing what he's doing, with a sport-specific education to give a better understanding to his practices, than one who has all theory and no experience whatsoever.
I forsee some challenging my view but I throw back another example. In order to truly understand a war, one has to have gone through the battlefield. That is why you have five-star ranked generals- Because they have SURVIVED war, braved it, and have come out to lead an army. No cow of a soldier could ever dare call himself a 'General' without ever having going through something first hand. Imagine if a general only had the theoretical knowledge of war, never even having been in a battlefield, would you honestly trust your life in the hands of such a person? I wouldn't. It would be downright foolish, regardless of the education the officer holds.
The other problem is this. Singapore is always playing a game of cat and mouse with other countries of international calibre in ANY field of sport. Again, has ANYONE noticed this? we're always trying to 'catch-up' with this nation, 'catch-up with that nation' and comparing results to see if 'we've made any progress'. Have we ever made any bloody bold aspirations to EXCEL and SURPASS other countries in the pursuit of sports excellence? Take this year's SEA Games for example. In order to qualify, an athlete would have to the previous Game's bronze medal mark where upon accomplishment, the athlete would then go on, to basically try their luck and "Do their best", hopefully "To gain experience".
Here's the crunch. Being the smartass that I am, I actually went around asking what athletes' opinions about having the qualifying mark pushed up to the silver medal result instead of the bronze and you know what happened? I got f*cked man. So now do you see the shameful plight of the sports development in Singapore? Although some athletes may have liked the idea of a challenge, when asked about aiming for the Asian Games, none could give me an answer.
It's amazing what you learn in 3 weeks isn't it? Essentially, I'm just wishing that someone out there would see where I'm coming from and perhaps create a driving force to gain momentum in initiating the creation of a firm infrastructure for sport, and not just be left around in the government's dusty display case, not even to be bothered about. I'm extremely passionate about sport. I take my training seriously and nothing disheartens me more to see athletes with no drive in life, no aspirations, and to put it bluntly, no balls to dream.
