Shift in Singapore Sports Institute's approach

The development of coaches in Singapore used to comprise components such as formal course work and knowledge transfer from local and overseas experts.

But the Singapore Sports Institute (SSI) is now moving away from that, to a more collaborative learning model, with the institute acting as a facilitator and a gateway to sports science resources.

"We have a long-standing reputation of being a great coach educator with the NCAP (National Coaching Accreditation Programme), now known as the (SG-Coach) Programme," said SSI's director of coach development Troy Engle.

"Now we want SSI to be a resource for coaches to develop through non-formal education programmes and as a liaison between the sports-science world and the hands-on practitioners."

SHARING IDEAS

The 53-year-old American, who joined SSI in August, also wants to build a local coaches' community where ideas and experiences can be shared and implemented across different sports.

He said: "We know that as a football coach we might not want to share with another football coach, that might provide for an awkward competitive relationship.

But maybe I can talk to a basketball or silat coach about some of the things they do to develop the team and how they deal with unique coaching problems."

But he also acknowledges that building such a free-sharing community is difficult, along with getting coaches to move with the times.

Engle said: "When you have done things in a certain way for a period of time, it's hard to break out of a routine; and when there's money involved, there's a natural hesitation to share and open up.

"But we've got to try to see that it's not necessarily about me getting ahead of you, but of all of us trying to raise our collective standards."

This article was first published on Nov 11, 2014.
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