Teamwork is Dreamwork

24 July 2021

Good afternoon everyone and thank you for being here this afternoon. 

This is the second engagement for some of you, and the first one for most. Last week, we talked about our vision and pathways for our coaches and for our athletes. I will not repeat them here but I have included the powerpoint presentation from the previous meeting in the chat here for your reference. Today we are going to mainly answer some of the questions that have been raised in the e-mail because I think it is important that we are clear of why we are here.  

I mentioned this last week and I am going to mention it again for the benefit of those who were not here: We started this initiative because we have one common goal, and that is to grow this multi-sport in this country. We are going to do it through a structure of Malaysia Triathlon Association (MTA) and state associations because this is the structure that has been done by all other sports in Malaysia.    

In terms of appointment, I am with Malaysia Triathlon Association responsible for the coaching committee for West Malaysia and my counterpart Stephanie Chok is responsible for the East. What do we do? We are here to provide the direction of the team, to remind everyone over and over again our common goal. So if you have anything to suggest, you must always ask the question, will that help grow the sport in Malaysia? 

Later on, we will be talking about how we are going to develop the youth, what do we do with our high performing athletes, what education and training our coaches should have and on and on. So, we are here to provide you all with the tools for you to do your work.   

Most of you here are coaches that have been selected by the state or still deciding whether you want to be part of the team. And some because you have been requested to attend so that you can learn a thing or two. But primarily, we are here for the coaches. 

So what is expected of a state coach? What will be your role? I am not the best person to explain what you need to do as a state coach as I do not have the first hand experience, but I have asked the best man for the job because he has done it and he is not even a local who speaks our lingo!! Let me introduce you to Dean Radcliffe who is now the State Coach for Perak Triathlon Association.

He moved from the UK to help build the Perak team from scratch 2 years ago. He is a Level 3 Coach which is actually the highest level of qualification within British Triathlon. His athletes are from everywhere around the world -  UK, Asia, South Africa and Australia. Not only he has a long list of qualification, Dean is also a very accomplished triathlete who has qualified for 70.3 Ironman, for Kona World Championship, and have held the title as British Age Group Champion and European Bronze medalist in his short triathlon life! He is currently on my speed dial because he has experienced building a top level club in the UK and working with an established and successful national structure.

So, Dean - the floor is all yours.   

So, that’s the role of a state coach and that is how your athletes will be coached. Dean has done it without any help from any of us, kudos to you Dean. 

But how can we improve your experience when you are building your team? Has anyone here heard of Dream Team? It is a nickname given to the 1992 US Men’s Olympics Basketball Team. They are described around the world as the greatest sports team ever assembled! Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson they were part of the team. These people are great basketballs in their own merit and yet they both agreed on the importance of teamwork that has brought the win for the team. I understand triathlon is not like basketball, it is not a team sport. This is an individual sport. However as coaches, moving forward, we can all work together to grow the sport in this country and build a team of athletes for Malaysia. To build your team, you have Dean who can guide you or Ben from Melkaa who has done the same thing. So you don’t have to make the same mistakes they have made.

So not only are we here to to grow the multisport in this country whether aquathlon, duathlon or triathlon, we are also going to work together to achieve the goal. 

I truly believe we can do this. We are nearly 40 people in this meeting. I don’t think, no matter how good you are, your solo effort will be better than the combined effort. More so because all of us come from different background and therefore have different strengths and weaknesses. 

For our team to be the best we need to tap into everyone’s strength. Even when you have no experience coaching triathlon before, or coaching any sport, but for example, if you are a team manager, you can certainly contribute in finding ways to keep our team together. So everyone can contribute and every contribution will matter. 

What about our weaknesses?  We all have this too and we need to be honest with ourselves and identify them so that we can all help you to fill the gap.  By the end of next week, once we have the state coaches finalised, we will be asking each and everyone of you the areas that you need help with. Looking at the preliminary information I receive on some of you, we are a pretty diverse group which is actually very good for us. The more diverse we are, the more talent and identity we have. I said this is good because we can then find solution to a problem from a more expanded lens and contribute ideas from a wider array of experiences.

Someone asked in the e-mail “will the training be centralised?” For today’s scope we are only talking about grassroots development. That means growing the sport horizontally, reaching out to people who don’t even know about triathlon or duathlon or aquathlon. So, the answer is NO. Each state will train their own athletes but some of the things that you have to do will be the same. e.g. if we want to assess the progress of the athletes, MTA will provide training on how to conduct the assessments so that we get results that we can compare across all states and all state coaches will have to execute the same test. 

Having said that, with endless lockdowns, by now some of us are familiar with providing training online. We can certainly use this platform to conduct shared training between states. For those coaches who are new to triathlon and may not know where to start, you can perhaps reach out to those coaches who are currently providing sessions online so that you can join the session and observe how these coaches do it. You can learn and use the experience to do the same with your athletes. This will be far better than sitting for an hour trying to figure out how to conduct a training session. 

Even after this pandemic, we should continue to use this platform. It is always good for athletes to learn from different coaches too and it will also give them a sense of a bigger purpose.

Later on, when we have more freedom to train together, perhaps you as state coaches might want to arrange for a training camp between 2 or 3 states or all 15. Aldrian and Ben did this a few months ago. The athletes were happy to make some new friends and I am sure the coaches learn from each other too.

So, this goes back to working together as I mentioned earlier. And everything is done with one purpose in mind - to develop multi-sport in Malaysia. 

Any question? 

The next question we receive on the e-mail is how do we get people to be interested in the sport?

Just like when you are starting any new venture, 

• You must first set up the infrastructure - swim pool, training schedule, coaching fee. In doing so, you can perhaps put posters at the facilities. 
• Create Awareness - use social media, use the state association, invite people who are already in the sport, find a sport icon that can help you get people excited. I just read yesterday how the Korean government appointed a K-Pop band called BTS as their representative to the United Nation Assembly recently for the #ENDviolence campaign for children. They are so popular and respected that whatever they say, people will listen. So these people may not know anything about children but they take on the responsibility to help promote what they feel is right. So you can find your state idol too! 
• Open Day - I am targeting to do this for the whole country in September 2021. Hopefully by then we will be able to commence training by then. If not we can do it virtually or in hybrid format. One date for the whole of Malaysia to get to know multi-sport. It is like the Hari Sukan Negara. In fact you can talk to the state associations to get support from MSN Negeri for this initiative.
• I think that will be a good start. Even if you get only 10 new people after the Open Day, if we have 20 coaches, that is an additional 200 people in the whole country that will be doing the sport. Given that we only have about 3000 triathletes in Malaysia, that is an increase in 5% already. 

 

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The next BURNING question is about the income for the coaches.

With the lockdown, I know all of us are affected to certain extent. I know some coaches are now supplementing their income with other businesses. I know some who use their strengths as the bargaining chip. I did this, in fact long before COVID19, when I started coaching the age groupers. I didn’t have any money to rent the pool lane. Then I heard that University Malaya was looking for a swim coach for their team. I went to see their Sports Director and offered to coach the University Malaya swim team for free and they give me a few lanes in the  pool 2 times a week. The UM swim team did well at every inter-varsity competition that we entered. They started to win medals again because we had a structured training. Only after that UM paid me as the university swim team coach. So even during good times, there are still struggles. But with all struggles, there are success stories too. So, can one actually make money from triathlon coaching? To answer this BURNING question, I have asked another Triathlon Coach Rupert Chen to share with you his experience. Rupert is an ITU Level 1 Coach, Ironman Certified Coach and holds a Level 2 Sports Science from ISN.  

He is one of the top middle to long distance triathlete in Malaysia. He has qualified for 70.3 Ironman World Championships, not just once but 3 times and his personal best time for Ironman distance is a sub 10, which only a handful of Malaysians can proudly claim. Rupert will be sharing with us on how he builds his own brand, RC.

Over to you Rupert.

Thank you Rupert. In tough times especially, we all need to be creative. Sometimes the idea may be ridiculous and not get used at all, but the process will help you to discern what could and couldn’t help you to reach your goal. So even though we are here to support each other, use the tested ways of doing things that are tested and proven to work, if you want to talk yourself to the next level you need to be creative. 

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Finally, I want to answer one last question from the e-mail. 

“Are we getting ambitious? Aren’t we rushing things? Why don’t we just focus on building the few athletes that we have.” 

We definitely are not rushing anything. In fact we are a tad too late already! If we don’t start this process now, our performance gap at a higher level even with countries in the South East Asia will just get bigger and bigger. We have been trying to build the sport just within a small group of athletes that got us nowhere because we do not follow the Malaysian sports structure and not being acknowledged by OCM, MSN and KBS. Triathlon is considered as “anak angkat” sport by them. For them it is because if we are not keen to develop the sports at grassroots level, why should they help for the benefit of a few athletes. Sports should be for all and then only we can harness the potential of those who would like to take the sport at a higher level! So, we need to adapt and evolve. That has always been the intent of this coaching committee. 

2 days ago I called another triathlon coach. Yes, my phone bill has gone up so much since I took on this role! It was supposed to be a 15 minute chat that turned into more than an hour. Anyway, towards the end of the conversation, he said this “we must match ambitious coaches with ambitious athletes”. And then we got cut off. I don’t know whether it was the line or he actually cut me off! So I called him again….And he went on to say what he meant by “ambitious” is that both coaches and athletes must be willing to make changes in order to make things happen.

This coach is Albert Tan, whom I consider the brain in this sport. He is the former sports scientist and head of exercise physiologist with ISN. He has a assisted many national coaches in winning multiple world champions and medals at major Games from SEA Games to the Olympics. His academic and certification is at least a page long and his expertise and interests are even longer including psychophysiology and physiology. 

I had contacted him to discuss about something else, but I felt that it is important for us to speak about the mindset and mindshift that are required for all of us to adapt and evolve because that is what we need the most right now. 

The floor is yours Albert. 

Thank you Albert. 

For some of you here, you are faced with what seems to be a hard decision. Whether to take on the role of a state coach or not. The way I look at it, is this. 

If you are serious about being a coach, you can either do it on your own or be part of the state coach. Whichever that you choose, only you can make things happen and it all starts with having the right mindset. 

The advantage of being the state coach is that you will receive guidance by the state and MTA. You will be guided by MTA who will bring the expertise to help with your weaknesses, MTA will lead you in the right direction for you to acquire certification and it offers you coaching experience at multiple levels from grass-root development to high performance. Secondly, it is a big opportunity to become a state coach, in fact I look at it as an honour because it is your chance to contribute to the nation. 

Within the next few days, you will have to decide whether this role is for you. To help you make the decision, I am going to tell you a short story.

Do you know Tony Fernandes? The founder of Air Asia. I used to train his son, Stephen. At that time I was very new in coaching, so I was very excited but I also told him that my best may not be good enough for Stephen as I am still new in coaching. And this is what he told me ”I look for two things when it comes to hiring. The hunger in their eyes and the passion in their hearts.“ I see those in you. You are hired!”

So the point is, it doesn’t matter where you are now as a coach. What is important is to have the passion to drive the sport, the positive mindset and willingness to learn. If you have all of the above, then say YES.

If you have been appointed as a state coach and want to continue as one after this talk, then we have a lot of work to do but for starters, perhaps it is best to request for an appointment letter from the state and share that with us at MTA so that we have your official appointment. You will also need to talk to them about all the arrangements, if you have not done so. Will they pay you? This is the most important part for some of you. Be clear that this is not the jurisdiction of MTA. I have asked our President Tony to mortgage his house, unfortunately I have no success there. If there is no monthly salary, do you charge the athletes, does the state provide the facilities for training -swim pool / track? They are your employer. So, just like you go for a job interview, you need to get whatever information that you need from them and not from MTA. However, MTA will be the one who will assess your performance. We will be sharing it with the state associations on a regular basis. There is no free ride or a place to dabble in this structure. We are all here to work.  

If you have not been appointed as a state coach, you will need to approach the state association to get yourself endorsed and appointed by them. The fact that you are currently coaching in Petaling Jaya does not give you an automatic passage to be the state coach for Selangor. You must be officially appointed. MTA will only acknowledge appointments by the state associations because they are the ones who will be responsible for you.  

In some big states, you can have multiple coaches like what Sarawak has done - one in Miri, one in Sibu etc. In smaller states, you can still have multiple coaches. Perhaps one for each discipline - one swim coach, bike coach and run coach. We will leave the decision to the state associations as to how they want to organise their coaches. 

By Friday next week, we want to confirm all the state coaches so that we can start to do work from next week onwards.

Any questions? 

FINAL LAST WORDS: For all the state coaches: We hope to have a weekly engagement until everyone has found their footing. So you can ask the questions on the chat and try to keep your Saturday afternoon 2pm free. 

Either Stephanie I will be moderating the session and we will post the topic that we will discuss in advance so that you can choose to attend or not to attend the session.  

Thank you everyone.