Possible Development of Canoe Polo in Singapore??

[M@D]

I think the revitalization of canoe polo in Singapore started in 1999 when we have our 1st National Champs.

Since then, every year what we have is just the National Champs. Personally I feel that there is no significant improvements in the sport, other than individual players improving in their personal skills.

I'm just curious to know how everyone feels about it and if you have the chance, what would you do to improve the sport?

For me, I feel that

1) There is a serious lack of canoe polo coaches available. By this, what I mean is we lack people who know the basic coaching processes (how to coach/teach/instruct/etc.) and the proper ways to perform certain skills e.g. proper passing/shooting technique.

2) At the same time, other than what our seniors taught us, the players have nothing to fall back on, e.g. notes.

I feel that this point is the most important. If the stuff that the seniors taught are incorrect, what the juniors/trainees learnt will be the wrong thing and the juniors will in turn become seniors and carry on passing on the incorrect technique/skills to their juniors.

3) Other than the Polys, NUS and their alumnis, the only other people playing canoe polo are the JCs and only HCJC and RJC are active. If want canoe polo to become more "well-known" and if we want to have better players in the future, the way to do that is to introduce canoe polo to the pri. and secondary schools and untimately to turn canoe polo into a recognised sport in the Inter-schools (A, B, C Div.) competitions.

---------

The only way I can think of solving the above 3 problems is
to have a proper training/instructional/coaching system, something similar to what the recreation kayaking side is doing.
i.e. the kayaking 1-5 star (personal skills) and kayaking level 1-5 (coaching). In fact, the British Canoe Union(BCU) already have a system in place (known as the "Canoe Polo 1-4 Star" and "Canoe Polo Competitive Coach Level 1").

The "coaching" level thingie will solve the problems of coaches, at least on the basic level.

The "Personal Skills" part will serve to instruct players (especially begineers) in the proper technique of kayak skills, ball skills, basic tactics, etc. Most of us don't have any formal instruction in all these stuff. What we have gone through are lesson from our seniors and through trial-and-error.

If we have a proper training program, then will we be able to gain confidence in the schools, MOE and the parents. Without their support, there will be no way that canoe polo will ever be introduced into the schools.

However having said all that, if there is no one brave enough or will enough to help to develop or improve the state of canoe polo in Singapore, I think by the time I come back from my studies 3 yrs later the state of canoe polo will still be the same as when I left.

Just my :twocents:

[Fievel]

I wanna learn these coaching courses. But there are none now...
:mad:
Hope someone can get these from England, den i can join! =)

[Tigr@ine]

hmmmx, i was just wondering about promoting it in secondary schs and jcs...would it not be rather hard for them to train for cp? like they have to travel to places where they can train (eg swimming pool) and where there is equipment available...some more parents tend to be more stringent abt times when their children come back during sec sch...
sometimes jc also abit hard to find time to train...coz they have full day time tables, so sometimes hard to find training time during weekdays...of course it would be great to have a A, B or C div for canoe polo~! specifically tho, how do we promote it to the jcs or sec schs? i mean, most schs still have no inkling what canoe polo is about! :silly:

[ad3285]

There are quite a few numbers of things to take note of too.

1: In most sec school and even JCs do not have their own swimming pools. So it's hard for them to find a place to train too.

2: It's so hard for us to even find a place to hold the annual competition, would it be harder for them to even find a training ground?

3: Training in the rivers/sea? Doesn't that means they have to spend more time in travelling instead of training? Plus, they still have to pay to train!

So, it's really hard to convince the other sec schools and JCs to start Canoepolo :|

Just my :twocents:

Mayb can try convincing ourselves 1st? :bang:

[Tigr@ine]

hmmmz...i was just thinking tt perhaps sec schs are more likely to recognize canoe polo as a sport if there are more events for them to participate in, instead of onli the national champs? like have introductory lessons first then have frenlies?
but logistically speaking it's really more problematic for jcs and sec schs
no doubt there will be many pple out there who will be interested in this sport once they noe it :), but for the sch to recognize it would be much harder...and to support the $$ harder still...

[Juno]

You might want to check out the New Zealand site www.canoepolonz.org.nz and send some emails to the schools contacts as this is where we look at developing a wide player base.

[M@D]

In the 1st place, the process to start anything new or to make changes will always be an uphill task. However, having said that if nobody wants to take the 1st step we would still be at the same spot after 10 years.

I guess having a training area and suitable equipments are the biggest problems. Some solutions

1) Training Area
SCF has permission to set up a permenant playing area beside
the indoor stadium, however our Hon. Secretary refuses to let
us set it up unless there is someone to take charge of the
maintainance. Sadly my suggestion that the Nat. Squad take
charge of it was rejected, so unless someone is willing to take
responsibility for it, there will still be no training area.

2) Playing Equipment
From what I know, SCF is willing to rent their fleet of acrobats
for a low cost to any organisation who are interested to try
out the sport.

Training wise, look at all those people training at Kallang. The majority of them are students from JCs and Secondary schools. It's not just during the weekends that the place is crowded, during the weekdays it's just as crowded. Therefore, I feel that it's not whether the students have time or not, it more like whether they want to spend the time.

[Tigr@ine]

hmmmx...i thot all the pple training down at kallang are the canoeists training for competition or sth? wouldn't they be bz with their own training? :confused: btw, what's the cost of renting the equipment from scf?

[M@D]

Originally posted by Tigr@ine
hmmmx...i thot all the pple training down at kallang are the canoeists training for competition or sth? wouldn't they be bz with their own training? :confused:

Basic those ppl are from the national squad, however as they have their own training slots anyone else who are interested will be able to use the playing area when the squad is not using it.

Please note, the playing area is still not set up yet as no one is willing to take responsibility for it.


Originally posted by Tigr@ine
btw, what's the cost of renting the equipment from scf?

I'm not really sure about this, but from what I know it's quite cheap for an organisation to rent the equipments to try out canoe polo, but I don't think personal rental are allowed yet.

If you are interested, you can try to contact
Sylvester (SCF's Operation Executive) at 63446337 for more info.

[fiReL]

i agree wif tigr@ine dat we shld promote tiz sport to sec sch coz no 1 has any idea abt e existence of canoe polo. :( eg. me..

ya, onli hc n rj r active in tiz sport but there is e possibility dat other jc dunno abt e sport.. 4 eg. hcjc.. they dunno abt e sport at first.. it is onli contact wif paddle culture (pc) pple den they do noe abt canoe polo.. they actualli noe abt tiz game when they went pc.. dat dae rj played wif hc seniors..

my point is y not get pc to promote.. alot of pple go 2 pc.. eg. alot of jc go there for their courses..

personally, i tink singapore shld do sth loh.. dun mean to criticise or wat.. but soccer n other sports r being promoted.. wan to win in sea games n all dat stuff.. so y not do e same 4 canoe polo? shld at least mention it in e newspaper or some magazine.. dun leave canoe polo unmentioned.. :waah:

ps. how abt promoting 2 chinese high? they got e swimming pool n i tink e kayaks too? they onli lack e pple loh.. :thumbup:

:kiss: mmuuuaaackkk.. Canoe polo rox!

[Tigr@ine]

actually i'm just wondering abt the promotion of this sport to the jcs and secondary schs...i mean, what can we actually do to promote cp? i mean we can't possibly give out pamphlets or stuff like that... n insofar as i noe, usually sec schs dun often go kayaking as formal enrichment or anything like that...personally i'm at a blank on how to do it... plus all the logistical complications...yupx, indeed it is an uphill task... :bang:

[chickenontherun]

really want to see this exciting sport gain its foot hold here is singapore, but the system is rather very inflexible here in singapore. schs dun give much attention to this as even the scf is not doing much promotion.

students will not be interested because of the lack of opportunity.

haix, really hope that we can do more!

[chickenontherun]

btw, jizheng here... =)

yar, maybe can try chinese high next year, they got the $$ and the pool, can start with them first!

[fiReL]

u nid other schs to come in b4 shinese high will come in..y? becoz everyone wants to win..besides there r alot of ccas in every sec sch liao..quite hard to set up another cca.. :bang: sigh..i odo dunno..

[chickenontherun]

yar, because alot of the ccas are "fixed" from sec schools, jc rarely have new ones, and even less resource to start new ones. abt chs, we need to start the ball rolling, else others will not join......chain reaction lar really...

[fiReL]

is not abt starting e ball rolling..if u go n read my od entry, i got say wat cheng said..chs did go down to pc to check out cp..but they not interested..u nid enough schs to start a comp 4 dat age gp b4 other schs will come in..not abt who start first..who of will can win..

[chickenontherun]

the same applies for other schools. all of the schools are sorta waiting for other schools to start before they are willing to start in this area. everyone waiting for each other, there will be nothing done! it is sort of a vicious cycle that has to be broken by some school that is willing to start first.

[Tigr@ine]

aiyar i must say it's alot of factors combined together... :guns:

[chickenontherun]

yeap, and i think the only people who are in the position to do anything is really the decision makers in scf.

[Backup]

ok...here's wat i tink...though it may seem to be somewhat a hostile takeover
u ppl r seniors of the sec schs rite??this is the time when ur true power steps in...in other words...pull some strings....
i mean....if u guys r from HC...i'd bet my top dollar u guys were from pretty well to do sec schs too....like chinese high or even RI..
n look at it this way...RI uses its pool to do wat??teach kids how to swim....n they just use it a few times a week..wat happens to the rest?open to public....the kids in sec sch shld at least utilise it to a bare minimal..or maximise its potential...
n thats just the tip of the ice berg..do u really tink singapore has a chance in the future if we dun start young??we barely start anything at an age where ppl other countries r masters of wat they do...so ppl...lets pull some string...lets call some shots of our own...we have wat it takes....but as i said..it may seem like a hostile takeover...just bare in mind wat we r hopin to achieve...an establishment of the game we all love
godspeed!

[chickenontherun]

hmmm, yeap though we from hcjc, but we must take the picture in whole. the schools will not want to venture into this area if they see no potential, no matter how many thick or think strings that we pull.

moreover, we have brought this matter of haivng cp to one of the pe teachers liao. in fact, he said that the pe department tried to venture into this using the pool. but the pool management will not allow on grounds of maintenance.

it is not just strings pulling. the levels of bureaucracy that we have the go through just does not work. that is why we need a top down approach from MOE or SCF, which will be more effect that our bottom up approach which may turn out to be futile.

[Tigr@ine]

hmmmx, just wondering...how about sec schs which dun have swimming pools?

[fuzionist]

hmm...i guess if no pool..
guess have to play at Kallang?

[Tigr@ine]

hmmmx kallang ain't it abit far?

[ad3285]

Originally posted by Tigr@ine
hmmmx kallang ain't it abit far?

as mention earlier in my post.
I mentioned the distance and time needed to travel to kallang might be too long for some students.

But M@d replied that if they are truly interested, they will.

Maybe yes and maybe no.

Who knows? :)

[chickenontherun]

the distance is really one very relevant point to consider. like if you live @ woodlands or boon lay, to travel all the way to kallang is really really time consuming. but the ultimate decision still lies with the person.

[fiReL]

agree wif chicken..coz when we go paddle culture to train..we oso haf pple staying at woodlands n bukit batok n yew tee..which is chao far..becoz pc at east coast :worship: i nvm..coz i stay at tiong bahru..

[chickenontherun]

yar, though this may be "overcome" by the person's passion in cp, more help or assistance should be provided by the relevant people to allow easier access to training venues and equipments. it is like without squash courts in schools, you can't possibly expect all the players to go down to the kallang courts to train wad. so really looking forward to greater development and support in this area in the years ahead! =)