Coach Development and Engagement

Between April 2021 to March 2022, SG ran a total of • 4 Fundamental Coaching Courses • 3 KinderGym Coaching Courses • 3 discipline-specific Intermediate Coaching Courses • With a total of 124 coach participants in coach education

Ongoing Coach Education To engage and enrich our technical members and coaches, Singapore Gymnastics is always on the lookout to work with other established organisations to share resources and leverage off each other for mutual benefits.

We had the opportunity and pleasure partnering with the below organisations to bring value to our members in the space of • The latest tools, ideas, and science with Shift Movement Science • Harnessing the science of positive psychology with Positive Sports Coaching • Working with parents in sports with Gordon MacLelland from WWPIS • Online Gymnastics technical know-hows with Gymnastics Queensland • Coach development webinars with Singapore Swimming Association • Understanding Safe Sport with CoachSG

Through the sharing of knowledge, tools and professional development, coaches can make better informed decisions which improve athlete performance, promote athlete well-being and impact athlete’s lives. As guided by Sport Singapore, all coaches must complete the Understanding Safe Sport as a Coach online module to be actively coaching and Singapore Gymnastics works closely with CoachSG to ensure a Safe Sport environment. This is also one of the accreditations now necessary for coaches to maintain their technical membership.

2021 SG Coaches Congress After a 2-year gap, Coaches Congress 2021 had a resounding turnout – 112 sign-in attendance across the 21 Coach Professional Development workshops covering 4 disciplines over 2 mornings on 7 & 8 September 2021. These professional development workshops were presented by a mix of our National Training Centre coaches as well as local gymnastics experts. These sessions were open to all Singapore Gymnastics Coaches and/or Judges as well as non-SG members.

The new age of learning Coach development is an area Singapore Gymnastics is passionate about and aims to build up a network of trained facilitators leading to the delivery of a greater number of high-quality courses and workshops. SG put together a Learning Facilitator (LF) training workshop with community experts that took place both online (21 April) and in person (25 April). SG have 14 Learning Facilitators from all 5 gymnastics disciplines coming together to support Singapore Gymnastics in conducting the annual discipline-specific Intermediate Coaching Courses.

These learning facilitators then went on to conduct the course in July 2021.

"I just completed the Intermediate Coaching Course, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Your facilitators were very professional, and the class learned a lot both from the group sessions as well as self-study content. It was also a good opportunity to network. I know it’s not an easy time for SG, keeping the courses running while at the same time battling the evolving SMMs, and supporting Clubs through this challenging time. Kudos to your team!" – a word of encouragement from one of the course participants.

Coach mentors in every club As part of club affiliation 2022, it is a requirement for affiliated clubs to have a coach mentor on board. More importantly, the purpose of having a coach mentor on board every club is that we recognise mentoring is beneficial in developing more quality coaches within clubs and as an industry. SG has many coaching courses and workshops planned every year, but we understand not every coach have the time or resources to attend every one of them. That does not mean a coach’s professional development pauses. Having a coach mentor on board who can assist and guide coaches’ development within clubs increases the coaches’ capabilities through the year, and ultimately the club’s capabilities.

As of 31 March 2022, there are 45 SG recognised coach mentors from the following clubs:

Bianka Panova Academy Prime Gymnastics The Yard D'Gymnastique Academy

Agape Gymnastics

Releve Rhythmic Gymnastics Academy BazGym

Rhythm & Groove Trampoline Singapore Bubbles Gymnastics Singapore Trampoline Academy Funyard Management Consultancy

Dreams Gymnastics Northstar Gymnastics Fly Once Sports Gymnastics Education

UWCSEA East Dragons

Art Fairy Gymnastics

Raffles Gymnastics Academy Karpenko Gymnastics Academy SWAGA Gym Leopard Sports

TJGYM The Gymazing Gymnastics

Nova Gymnastics GIM Sports Stardust Gym CT Gymnastics

Alpha Gymnastics English Ballet Academy

CoachSG Conference 2021 Singapore Gymnastics was invited to be part of the CoachSG Conference 2021 and presented a case study on creating a richer coaching ecosystem to tackle the ever-present challenge of increasing the quantity and quality of coaches to support sport development growth.

It is important that the implementations made are built on pedagogies and understanding the needs of the community. To develop a continuous learning culture, it is imperative the language of coaching development shifts. Not all strategies were done at once and change does not happen overnight however bit by bit, we are strengthening the links between coach development, Singapore Gymnastics, and clubs towards developing a sustainable coaching ecosystem.