Contributed by Teo Ser Luck
Teo Ser Luck, Senior Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Community Deveklopment, Youth and Sports. (Photo © Les Tan/Red Sports file photo)
If children are talented in sports, do they know where to go?
Do they know their pathway to success in their chosen sports?
In the readers’ opinion, is the current system, with the Junior Sports Academy, Centres of Excellence and national training centres comprehensive enough to nurture them?
What are the areas we should be looking at to develop this system?
I look forward to your thoughts on this matter.
A word from the editor: Teo Ser Luck, Senior Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports, is a politician, Ironman triathlete, and successful businessman. With a passion for sports and a heart for youth sports in particular, Ser Luck is on a quest to strengthen our sporting culture. We at Red Sports welcome him to our community as he looks to engage us on the issues close to his heart.
Hi ,
I think that my school does not have enough cca for sport and even they do , they provide coaches only for those cca who do well . Some of my pal in school have great interest for badminton . We love it so much . But without proper guidance and coaching we felt that we are being stuck at the level we are at now . We really hope to go far out there . Please have a solution soon !
Jason
Hi Mr Teo,
My son is now in Sec 1 at Singapore Sports School (SSP). When he was in Pri 6, he set his mind to enter the SSP, and he work and train hard to get in.
Prior to that, he had taken part in several competitions with training basically on his own or by me. For his chosen sport, there is no JSA or COE at the primary level. So if he did not enter the SSP, then probably he would continue to train very much on his own with outside coaching.
In terms of pathway to success, I think the respective NSAs need to talent-spot the talented youth during events like inter-school competitions and approach them to join their Junior training program.
The NSAs need to have a clear and proper development program to develop these talented young sports boys/girls until they reach the full potential age (which I consider around early to mid-twenties). The parents of these athletes should be engaged closely as they are an important stake-holder during this crucial development stage.
With my child’s NSA, I’m not very clear his pathway as the NSA does not engaged very much with me as parent.
Now and then, you see talented players. but after their so-called prime in their individual sports, they just diminished from the whole sports scene.
This, in my opinion is that they believed sports in singapore do not bring them far out
they cannot make a career out of it.
Another reason might be that developments in the future in the particular sports are not that progressive.
Although the government in recent years did many things to search and develop talents, support in the sports scene by the government is still not enough.
Hi Mr Teo,
Having JSAs a plus. But to my knowledge, JSAs only accept P5 onwards. I strongly disagree with the doctor who made the statement that P5 students are more suitable for JSAs program.
I myself have seen kids developing the required skill sets & talents as young as 8 or even younger. The so call JSA age suitablility research can be thrown out of the window.
Not to forget that P5 & P6 kids are busy preparing themselves for the coming PSLE. Thus talking about commitment, think again.
I understand that the ministry is trying to built a broader base, making sports a fun thing and hopefully a few talents can be spotted and groom. But do note that the golden yrs of foundation building for certain sports go as young as age 6.
So much so for skill sets & foundation building, let’s not forget some key areas which are seriously lack of. Physchology & nutrition. Hope that these areas will be included JSAs.
The pathway of their success basically depends on the support from the government. Bringing FTs to help in training I agree but to replace true blue local born citizens who had train hard, fought hard but only to find their places taken by FTs, I feel sad.
Success don’t come easy. It even might take a few falls before we can see it. But are the associations or organisations able to take such falls? Are they able to put their vision beyond failures?
Regards … Lim
Hi Sir,
Recalling back my days playing netball in primary school, the key personnel in my development was my coach. Without my coach, I would not have gone far.
However, I feel that there is not enough coaches to go around in both primary and secondary school. I feel that without proper coaching, the talented players can’t go far.
Hui Mui