The Singapore Athletic Association (SAA) has announced the setting up of a Coaching & Development Sub-Committee.
The new committee will be chaired by SAA Vice-President (Training and Selection) Malik Aljunied who will be assisted by Poh Seng Song, who is the Vice- President (Finance and Partnerships).
The Coaching & Development Committee (CDC) is tasked to oversee the development of Athletics coaches in Singapore, including coaches’ education programmes for current and budding coaches.
Said Chairman of the CDC Aljunied, “It is an important step for us, to bring together the expertise of as many of our coaches, within a close-knit coaching community.
“Their combined efforts will also help us galvanise the track and field fraternity and help us develop the expertise of the coaches.”
The new committee will work together with the Singapore Sports Institute (SSI), ActiveSG, CoachSG, National Youth Sports Institute (NYSI) and the Singapore Sports School among others.
Apart from the CDC, the SAA will also be appointing Head Coaches for every event group from Sprints & Hurdles, Middle/Long Distance & Road Races, Throws, Jumps and Combined event as well.
The appointments will be announced in due course.
“The new appointment of the coaches across the various disciplines will also help us pool as much of our resources together and to ensure a holistic development across all disciplines in Athletics,” said Malik.
We will also be setting up the National Junior (Under-20), National Youth (Under-18) and National Development (Under-16) Teams with a focus on providing age-appropriate training, development and competition opportunities, in the spirit of moving away from early specialization and commitment to long term development.
Separately, SAA also announced the resignation of Technical Director Volker Herrmann, who will serve his last day on 2 December 2018.
Volker, who was invited to join as a full-time staff onboard the SAA at the end of March 2017, has been credited for being an active proponent of coaches education as well as provided technical advice to support MOE in the re- designing of the Junior Division events at the Primary School National School Games Track and Field Competition.
Herrmann, who intends to continue consultancy work with International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) and Regional Development Centre with Asian Athletics Association, shared “It has been a rewarding experience working in Singapore over the past 19 months. I would like to thank SAA and all other partners agencies for the opportunity to help develop the sport in Singapore, and I look forward to other opportunities to work with SAA on future projects and development.”
SAA President Tang Weng Fei thanked Herrmann for his contribution to Singapore Athletics, and said, “He has put in place some good structures in regard to coaches’ education and how competitions should look like at the primary level. The fraternity thanks him for all his contributions and efforts and helping us improve athletics in Singapore.”
In the meantime, SAA will not be seeking a replacement for the role of Technical Director but will be appointing a Head of Coaching Development instead.
An announcement over the role will be made in due course.
Main Photo sourced here.