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April has been a busy month so far. We started the month with the 2nd Leg CIMB U-9 and U-11 in Jalan Duta squash centre. The tournament was reasonably organised except there was no internal transport provided for the teams. As we were staying at the National Tennis Centre or the place up the hill (formerly APDC), I was thought that no transport was required. The teams don't mind walking if the sun was up and brightly shining, but unfortunately it rained daily. Most of the players had to walk in the rain back to the hostel and the organisers were no where in sight to even offer help to shuttle the kids. Food was adequate but think a change of menu daily could have made it tolerable. And this was organised by a 'someone' who had a lot to say about our organising an event before.
Then we went to Kuantan for the 2nd Leg Sportexcel. We returned the favour to my good friends by getting them to pick us from the bus station early in the morning. At least it was not as early as when they arrived here. Organisation was as usual very good and we all had a good tournament. No complains here.
In between these tournaments, there were 2 Challenger event and a Satellite events organised at Bukit Jalil for the national players to accumalate some ranking points to help boost their world rankings. It's also to allow the younger players to get a little exposure to what professional squash and it's standard.
On a personal note, April has been a great month for me as finally I received my letter for my new appointment that I have been waiting for ages. Now officially I am the National Roving Coach for Squash. This let's me go around the country and help all Malaysian coaches improve themselves and hopefully squash in the country as well. Looking forward to the new duties that come with it.
Also, I have volunteered to be the Technical Delegate for the Sportexcel Circuit and so far has been quite a challenge trying to get the seedins and draws done. But so far so good as there has yet to be any major issues. Hopefully, things can improve more with input from the Coach's Panel.
Lastly, a dear friend of mine finally got the monkey off her back and it's been a long time she's been waiting for it. To her, best of luck and best wishes for the future.
Cheers to all readers. Please feel free to comment on improvements that can be done here. Photos are not in my plans for the blog at the moment.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Sunday, February 11, 2007
6 Feet Under
Malaysian sports are great at knee jerk reactions and quick fixing of the issues at hand. But more often than not, it just akin to temporarily plugging a leaking roof during the rainy season so that nothing in the house gets wet. And when in dries and the sun is out, all id forgotten about the leak not knowing that the leak will lead to bigger problems later. And the same story has been with the squash world in this part of the world. We have had sunshine for a long time and never even blinked when the sun's rays shined through the leak and reminded us to fix it. The house owners just brushed it aside and say they will do it later and continue to beautify the house. Now that the rainy season is here, the roof now is not only leaking but also looks like coming apart. But still, no effort to get a new roof up but still trying to beautify the house.
SRAM have had about 4 months since the last election. So what has happened? At the moment turmoil has set in. It seems that the sport can't seem to find replacement for the ED's position. We had one but he was deemed too young, so now it's still vacant. Still can't get local coaches to do high performance and worse still can't even run a simple competition. So at the moment, the current leadership has lost the confidence and respect from me. Abd that places them 6 feet under.... dead and buried.
Why do I say that, you may ask? Well, let's look at what has been achieved by Malaysian squash? Besides being great host and having a few world class players on the surface, when we peel and dig deeper, what do we have? Nothing to be proud of. Yes, a great high performance program but that's all. And that like I always say is not Malaysian made but by foreigners.
Squash is still a new sport in the country and yes we are lucky that the federal government is funding it. But what's going to happen when they decide to stop the funding? Will the sport survive? In my opinion, if that happens, squash will be on life support system as SRAM does not have a solution in place if that happens. Already signs are there as currently the NSC is under restructuring and funding is frozen for the time being. The full time squashers are not able to compete due to the lack of funds as such their rankings will not move as they should. Plus the pressure of hitting the top 80 mark by year's end will definately force some of them to leave squash for good.
SRAM as the governing body for squash in the country need to look at developing the game at all levels and not only at the high performance level. Squash need to be a viable business module is it was to sustain by itself in this country. It needs to be able to create and sustain income, create competition at all levels, create employment and market the sport in such a way that it is professional and enticing to sponsors to be attracted to want to be associated with the sport.
The current administration is 30 years behind the development of mainstream sports administration. The need for more people that are committed and passionate about improving the sport to the next level is definately a pressing need now. They need not have the sporting background like we used to think is important, but just need to be creative, dynamic and willing to learn about the needs of the sport.
Thanks to the current situation in SRAM, we at the Academy have managed to assess our situation and are now currently taking steps to improve the other areas to enable us to improve further and be better in the coming years ahead.The process is going to take some time but hopefully it won't take forever. So any voluteers to help us?
Cheers for now.
Disclaimer: This is my opinion and should not be construed as facts.
Malaysian sports are great at knee jerk reactions and quick fixing of the issues at hand. But more often than not, it just akin to temporarily plugging a leaking roof during the rainy season so that nothing in the house gets wet. And when in dries and the sun is out, all id forgotten about the leak not knowing that the leak will lead to bigger problems later. And the same story has been with the squash world in this part of the world. We have had sunshine for a long time and never even blinked when the sun's rays shined through the leak and reminded us to fix it. The house owners just brushed it aside and say they will do it later and continue to beautify the house. Now that the rainy season is here, the roof now is not only leaking but also looks like coming apart. But still, no effort to get a new roof up but still trying to beautify the house.
SRAM have had about 4 months since the last election. So what has happened? At the moment turmoil has set in. It seems that the sport can't seem to find replacement for the ED's position. We had one but he was deemed too young, so now it's still vacant. Still can't get local coaches to do high performance and worse still can't even run a simple competition. So at the moment, the current leadership has lost the confidence and respect from me. Abd that places them 6 feet under.... dead and buried.
Why do I say that, you may ask? Well, let's look at what has been achieved by Malaysian squash? Besides being great host and having a few world class players on the surface, when we peel and dig deeper, what do we have? Nothing to be proud of. Yes, a great high performance program but that's all. And that like I always say is not Malaysian made but by foreigners.
Squash is still a new sport in the country and yes we are lucky that the federal government is funding it. But what's going to happen when they decide to stop the funding? Will the sport survive? In my opinion, if that happens, squash will be on life support system as SRAM does not have a solution in place if that happens. Already signs are there as currently the NSC is under restructuring and funding is frozen for the time being. The full time squashers are not able to compete due to the lack of funds as such their rankings will not move as they should. Plus the pressure of hitting the top 80 mark by year's end will definately force some of them to leave squash for good.
SRAM as the governing body for squash in the country need to look at developing the game at all levels and not only at the high performance level. Squash need to be a viable business module is it was to sustain by itself in this country. It needs to be able to create and sustain income, create competition at all levels, create employment and market the sport in such a way that it is professional and enticing to sponsors to be attracted to want to be associated with the sport.
The current administration is 30 years behind the development of mainstream sports administration. The need for more people that are committed and passionate about improving the sport to the next level is definately a pressing need now. They need not have the sporting background like we used to think is important, but just need to be creative, dynamic and willing to learn about the needs of the sport.
Thanks to the current situation in SRAM, we at the Academy have managed to assess our situation and are now currently taking steps to improve the other areas to enable us to improve further and be better in the coming years ahead.The process is going to take some time but hopefully it won't take forever. So any voluteers to help us?
Cheers for now.
Disclaimer: This is my opinion and should not be construed as facts.
Monday, January 22, 2007
Back at One Again
Over the last 15 years of being involved in squash as a player and coach, I've been lucky to see Malaysia go from zero to hero with the success of Nicol, Beng Hee amd Azlan. I have also seen the good and bad adminstration of the sport as well as the administrators that came and went. I've gone through 4 presidents of the association and numerous committee members. But in all those years, I have seen one perception that never changes. And that perception will never change unless 2 things happens. What am I rambling about? It's the perception that we as in Malaysian are limited in our capabilities to develop world class athletes and that a foreigner is always the one to do it.
I've written on this in an earlier posting about the difference in salary and perks but what annoys me is that eventhough you are the best and acknowledged by people who are experts in the field, there will be some people who are smarter than the experts. These people are the same people who will preach that we need to develop our locals to be good at coaching by gaining knowledge, getting our certifications and be at par with the world but when the time comes to give us a chance to prove our capabilities, they turn their backs. What a bunch of hypocrites!! Worse still, they have no idea about the technicalities of the field but they can decide who is the capable or not. Incredible don't you think?
So as far as SRAM goes, the new management team is no better than the previous. Instead of focusing on the development of squash in the country, they are more focused on trying to fulfill the egos of certain people. There is no development of squash in the country except for high performance development. That is an area which need support from other areas like tournament structure, coaching structure, refereeing structure, volunteering structure and many more. Squash hasn't really reached the masses and is currently a minor sport in terms of participation in the country. It can't even support itself as an industry.
But why then does SRAM focus on high performance development? One reason is that it brings quick glory and fame to the sport. A world champion will make a sport get fabulous funding and support immediattely. It is also the only way for those people who are in it for the fame and to inflate their deflated egos. But what does it do for the sport in the long term? Nothing at all.
We have nothing to be proud of at the moment. Yes, Nicol is the world's best player and so is Beng Hee and Azlan who are world standard but they are not truly produced here. 12 years ago Malaysian squash started to bring in foreign coaches to produce players for the 98 Commonwealth Games in KL because we didn't have the expertise then. But even now we still claim that we do not have the people to do it. Why? What happened? The focus on the high performance development is the cause of it. Locals are treated as 2nd class people eventhough we can do it but no one trust us or believe in us.
I wonder how SRAM's vision of being a powerhouse in squash is going to happen. Developing the other areas must be their priority now if it is ever to happen. Nothing here is structured and we are relying on luck to come up with the players. Which would you rather have? One Nicol David and no one else for the next 10 years or 1 Natalie Grinham every years for as long as possible? Trying to get another Nicol is like looking for a needle in the haystack but it is much more possible to produce players who are good but not great. That is more important as constantly having good players will ensure that squash has a great future.
Are we heading there? I can sadly say no at the moment. The current management is more interested in their own personal gains and egos. Their aim is just to make their name while they can and then leave it to someone else to come in and do the same. The biggest losers will be the sport.
(This is my personal view and must not be construed as a fact)
Over the last 15 years of being involved in squash as a player and coach, I've been lucky to see Malaysia go from zero to hero with the success of Nicol, Beng Hee amd Azlan. I have also seen the good and bad adminstration of the sport as well as the administrators that came and went. I've gone through 4 presidents of the association and numerous committee members. But in all those years, I have seen one perception that never changes. And that perception will never change unless 2 things happens. What am I rambling about? It's the perception that we as in Malaysian are limited in our capabilities to develop world class athletes and that a foreigner is always the one to do it.
I've written on this in an earlier posting about the difference in salary and perks but what annoys me is that eventhough you are the best and acknowledged by people who are experts in the field, there will be some people who are smarter than the experts. These people are the same people who will preach that we need to develop our locals to be good at coaching by gaining knowledge, getting our certifications and be at par with the world but when the time comes to give us a chance to prove our capabilities, they turn their backs. What a bunch of hypocrites!! Worse still, they have no idea about the technicalities of the field but they can decide who is the capable or not. Incredible don't you think?
So as far as SRAM goes, the new management team is no better than the previous. Instead of focusing on the development of squash in the country, they are more focused on trying to fulfill the egos of certain people. There is no development of squash in the country except for high performance development. That is an area which need support from other areas like tournament structure, coaching structure, refereeing structure, volunteering structure and many more. Squash hasn't really reached the masses and is currently a minor sport in terms of participation in the country. It can't even support itself as an industry.
But why then does SRAM focus on high performance development? One reason is that it brings quick glory and fame to the sport. A world champion will make a sport get fabulous funding and support immediattely. It is also the only way for those people who are in it for the fame and to inflate their deflated egos. But what does it do for the sport in the long term? Nothing at all.
We have nothing to be proud of at the moment. Yes, Nicol is the world's best player and so is Beng Hee and Azlan who are world standard but they are not truly produced here. 12 years ago Malaysian squash started to bring in foreign coaches to produce players for the 98 Commonwealth Games in KL because we didn't have the expertise then. But even now we still claim that we do not have the people to do it. Why? What happened? The focus on the high performance development is the cause of it. Locals are treated as 2nd class people eventhough we can do it but no one trust us or believe in us.
I wonder how SRAM's vision of being a powerhouse in squash is going to happen. Developing the other areas must be their priority now if it is ever to happen. Nothing here is structured and we are relying on luck to come up with the players. Which would you rather have? One Nicol David and no one else for the next 10 years or 1 Natalie Grinham every years for as long as possible? Trying to get another Nicol is like looking for a needle in the haystack but it is much more possible to produce players who are good but not great. That is more important as constantly having good players will ensure that squash has a great future.
Are we heading there? I can sadly say no at the moment. The current management is more interested in their own personal gains and egos. Their aim is just to make their name while they can and then leave it to someone else to come in and do the same. The biggest losers will be the sport.
(This is my personal view and must not be construed as a fact)
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