WANT to groom a world-class athlete? Then bear with tough training.

This is what Mr R V Nathan, 58, believes. The assistant security manager at a club has two children - Jason, 25 and Jasmine, 20 - both of whom are national bowlers.

Responding to The New Paper's article on veteran bowling coach Yong Ah Kee's unconventional methods of disciplining his charges, Mr Nathan said he felt other bowling coaches are severely lacking in instilling strict discipline.

The former commando said: 'My children both trained under Mr Yong for more than three years, and I had watched them being punished. But I believe harsh punishment is important for them to build mental strength.'

He recalled that on several occasions, the coach had made his children stand on one leg while holding their bowling balls.

He said: 'You need this kind of training to build athletes who are mentally strong. There are so many distractions they have to face during a competition, like the spectators shouting and cheering.'

Sure, his children were never made to sit in a 'tiger cage' - as Mr Yong had called it - while being barred from training. Neither were they asked to crawl towards Mr Yong or sit out of training.

But he said he welcomed such a punishment if he felt his children deserved it.

'I would accept whatever punishment, as long as it didn't involve any physical harm,' he said. 'Furthermore, the punishment would be carried out within the school and not in public.'

He believes the 'toughest possible' kind of training will benefit young athletes because they have a tendency to be more playful.

'I've seen some sessions where the bowlers were laughing and joking, and not taking training seriously at all,' he said.

Mr Nathan recalled his own experience as a national softball player in the 1980s.

He said: 'My coach, Mr Liew Wee Mee, was extremely harsh with his punishments. Of course, I felt angry at the time, but when I thought about it, I realised he had a reason.'

He recalled one time where he had shown up for a 4pm training session without having first changed into his softball gear.

'My coach told me to get on a bus and go home. He told me that for a 4pm training session, I was expected to arrive by 3.45pm and be warming up on the field by 4pm.'

On another occasion, he pitched a straight ball instead of a 'riser' - a pitch which rises suddenly as it approaches the plate - which was what his coach had instructed.

When the batter from the opposite team scored a home run, Mr Nathan's coach told him to go home. 'He told me I was wasting my time there,' Mr Nathan recalled.

He added that while accompanying his children to the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, he claimed he saw first-hand how the Korean bowlers were punished when they narrowly missed the gold medal.

'The coach went up to the bowler and pinched her ear really hard,' he said. 'But this kind of discipline pays off - the Koreans are among the best bowlers in the world.'

Mr Nathan said he had heard of Mr Yong's reputation for being an extremely strict coach, but had no reservations sending his children to train under him when they started training more seriously in 1997.

'I told them that they may be humiliated along the way, but they simply have to take it if they want to become world-class athletes.

'The humiliation of losing a tournament is worse than any humiliation from being punished,' Mr Nathan said.

Parents, back off

Another of Mr Nathan's gripes is that some parents get too involved in their children's training sessions.

He said: 'Parents should not interfere with coaching, nor comment on the coach's methods. Instead of commenting on the coach, parents should focus more on encouraging their children.'

He added: 'When parents tell their children what they think of the coach, they aren't building their kids up to be strong - they're building their kids to believe they're training in the wrong place.'

This article was first published in The New Paper on Sep 18, 2008.