Monday, April 6, 2009 – The Singapore Sports Council announced a long-term programme to support coaches at community and elite levels.

“A coach can make or break an athlete,” said Oon Jin Teik, chief executive officer of the Singapore Sports Council. “This is why the SSC takes the development of capabilities in coaches seriously and has put in place a holistic long-term pathway in coaching development and quality control programmes.”

Youth interested in coaching can take take part in a new introductory level training assistant programme which will provide hands-on experience.

The SSC will also introduce three new major programmes to raise the standards among the 200 high performance coaches in Singapore.

“These are the people who will help groom more Tao Lis, more Jasmines, more Pin Xius,” added Oon.

The first is the High Performance Coaching Programme which is open to all coaches funded by the national sports associations (NSAs).

SSC will fund up to $6,000 per coach annually for up to 15 coaches to pursue professional upgrading opportunities internationally.

The pinnacle coaching programme which SSC will introduce is the Elite Coaching Programme which will prepare coaches for the positions of Head Coach or Technical Director at NSAs.

In FY09, the SSC will fund up to $15,000 per coach annually for up to five coaches for two years. Bowling coach Mervyn Foo and table tennis coach Loy Soo Han have been approved for the current year.

Mervyn Foo is on an European attachment from March 26th to April 26th, 2009 with Sid Allen. Allen is with the Latvian team at the European Youth Championships in Malmo, Sweden from March 26th to April 16th.

From April 17th to 26th, Mervyn will then understudy Allen with Team England.

In 2010, Mervyn will be attached to Ruben Ghiragossian at the Team Puerto Rico National Training Camp in the United States of America and will follow the Puerto Rican team to the American Zone Men’s Championship and the PABCON Women’s Championship.

Mervyn will also pursue the Gold Coaching Certificate, the highest bowling qualification in the world, in 2010, at USBC HQ, Arlington, Texas, USA.