The Vision for MTA

 16 July 2021

Thank you Quentin for the glowing resume. I think MTA should pay you to do PR work for them! 

Good afternoon everyone. I am glad to see familiar names here but even happier to see unfamiliar ones because it can only mean that we have bigger pool of people who are keen to develop this sport in Malaysia. This morning, I sent to you all presentation via e-mail so that you will have some time to digest the aspiration and plan of the Coaching Committee. For those who may not have the chance to go through it yet, let me reiterate some of the main focuses by the Coaching Committee: 

• Knowledgeable Coaches 

As you know things are changing at fairly fast pace these days. e.g. Long Term Athlete Development which was considered the bible for youth development a few years ago may fundamentally still be used for coaching but the focus has shifted to training based on their rate of maturity rather than chronological age because not all kids go through growth spurts and  reach puberty at the same age. So all of us need to keep updating our knowledge.

• Currently we have access to quite a few educational platforms. We have the World Triathlon that offers Level 1 and Level 2 triathlon Coaching courses. However, these are just too far and few in between. There is also a limitation as to the number of participants. Mostly, they will only select 2-3 coaches per country. So we cannot just rely on this to get our certification and more importantly, the knowledge that comes with the qualification.  

• Our best source will be Akademi Kejurulatihan Kebangsaan (National Coaching Academy) that has been hosting an hour course online from periodisation to nutrition on a weekly basis. They are also the body that organised the Sport Science courses on a periodic basis. Reita has shared the next course that will be hosted. This will be a good start for coaches who have yet to get accredited in basic sports science. 

• To supplement the above, what we would like to do through this coaching platform is to organise our own “1 hour” online session. The coaches can decide on the topics and we can do it online to make it more accessible. The session will be hands on e.g. how to teach the kids to use the roller so that they can learn to balance, coordinate, engage their core, learn to clip and unclip the cleat. So, each coach who wants to learn will have to come to the session with a roller and a student and since this is Coach Ben’s specialty, we can get him to teach a step by step approach. Similarly I know Coach Aldrian has done the robustness test for his team that he can share with other coaches. I personally have done a dozen of growth spurt chart for youths and advice parents and coaches what to look out for during this time and I saw Coach Edwin’s video on running drills recently. 

Two points I would like to make from these examples:

I realise that knowledgeable coaches may not necessary be the best coaches if we do not put our knowledge to practice. By doing a hands on session, I hope that coaches will have a teaching skill that can be put to use right away. 

Every coach in the house today, we have coaches Peter, Dean, Rupert - there are a lot of knowledge right here, will have something to share with others. I believe we can yield better results working together rather than working in silos. So let’s start shifting our mindset to achieve one common goal - let’s aim for QUALITY in our coaches and in our athletes. 

When I agreed to take on this role, our President Tony asked me how do we make sure that the coaches are able to earn money especially during these trying times. I have no answer to that but I promise him that that I will teach the coaches how to fish so that they can all be great coaches. At the same time, I think it is also important to provide pathways whether within Malaysia, or Asia Triathlon or World Triathlon to make coaching as a sustainable career. And even for those who decide that triathlon coaching is not for you, but still would like to contribute to the sport, we have also identified some other pathways. You can find them in the presentation. 

• Athletes

Now let’s talk about the the athletes. In producing a great athlete, I think we need to produce a good person first - one with the right characteristics and attitude. Disciplined, respectful, willing to listen and learn, smart by asking the right question at the right time. So we need to shape them from very young but at the same time we should allow them to have fun so that they love the sport ad stay in the sport. The next stage would be to shape them into a good athlete who understand the importance of eating well, getting enough rest, how to stay motivated. I use the word athlete because it doesn’t matter what sport they play, the fundamentals are the same. Only then we can build a quality triathlete - who understands how to train effectively, how to strategise for a race and have the right mindset and heartset to win. So producing one triathlete is a long process and there is no short cut to it.

• High Performing Athletes

Now let’s talk about high performing athletes. 

I know for a lot of us coaches, the one thing (or probably the only thing) that comes to mind when training high performing athletes is training. How many sets do I get them to do, how long is the work rest interval. I was guilty of that too but having to witness our athletes raced at the last 3 major events, it became crystal clear to me that training alone is not enough for them to perform. The mental strength, nutrition, sleep and recovery are equally important, if not more important closer to the race day. 

Up until now, most of our athletes have always have to juggle between work and training with no sports science support and this definitely has impact on the quality of their training.

They must have access to private service providers such as Naluri or ISN for good nutrition, sports psychologists, physiologist, even to the extend of providing accommodation so that they can be amongst like minded people. 

MTA, MSN Negeri or MSN Negara must be able to financially support these promising athletes, not just for a particular major Games but throughout their career as an athlete.

We can no longer ignore the science if we want to produce high quality athletes! 

So we need to put in as much effort for our athletes to receive this support. 

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The second one that I would like to highlight is the way the athletes are  identified or selected for a particular Games. Currently the notice given to the athletes and coaches are way too short. 

Moving forward, we are going to try to improve this by identifying the athletes early in the stage. For instance there is a selection for Youth Olympics in 2026. We know that this Games is targeted for 17-18  years of age. 

1. That means we want to identify athletes who are born in the year 2008 and 2009. 
2. Those born in 2008 will turn 16 in 2024. Hopefully by they would have passed their growth spurts and achieved puberty so that they are physically stronger to start taking more load for training. 
3. By identifying the athlete early, we have 2 years to build her up to qualify for the Youth Olympics. 

So early identification. 

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Finally recruitment of athletes. Apart from having a robust youth development program, we need to start looking outside of the triathlon sport itself for new talent. For instance, the reigning duathlon champion at SEA Games, Jauhari from Indonesia was a track runner. Kimberley Yap who won a medal for triathlon for Malaysia was a swimmer.

All of the above need the support of all coaches and stakeholders. Just remember the whole MTA infrastructure is only credible when we have athletes racing in major Games. That should be the priority and that’s why coaches have a very BIG role in this set up. 

Finally with any good leaders we must have a 100 day plan, and so to wrap this up, I would like to share with you what I would like for us to achieve in he next few months.

July

I hope all the state coaches are appointed so that I can have an engagement with them before the month end. This is to receive some feedback regarding this blueprint, identify the needs so that we can make a more robust and detailed plan. 

I also would like to talk to the Technical Committee regarding the adoption of World Triathlon rule and format in local and Tate races. 

August

Start the monthly education session. 

Identify athletes from our current pool as high performers identify their needs and set up target for each of them based on their current fitness level and goals.  

September

Open Day in each state to start recruitment and working to match the needs of the high performing athletes.