KUALA LUMPUR, May 3 (Bernama) — Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) president Tunku Imran Tuanku Ja’afar said he was very much encouraged by the views expressed by newly-appointed Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek on the directions he wants to take Malaysan sports.
“I like what he says. No. 1, he says let’s establish a sports culture, No. 2, we need that elusive Olympic gold medal and we are going to go for it and No. 3, sports has become a business and an industry whereby there’s greater opportunities for players, coaches and people generally to earn money and make a living.
He pointed out that
1) 90 per cent of schoolchildren were playing sports just for essentially health and exercise reasons and only 10 per cent could be expected to advance to do elite sports.
2) Sports has to be a two-pronged effort — firstly to have the mass that is playing sports or is interested in sports and feels that sports is actually fun and secondly, to identify those who want to do elite sports or those whose parents want their children to do such sports.
3) Every school should have a sports club which basically addressed the elite athletes and to assist them to really be more active in sports and to strive to get to higher levels.
4) All schools be given resources like at least a coach and equipment which was not necessarily expensive and at least one or two masters to organise sports in a planned and professional manner.
5) The 10 per cent of sports talents who made the grade for elite sports must be given competitions on a weekly basis during off-examination periods by having inter-school leagues such as for Forms 1 and 2, Forms 3 and 4 and Forms 5 and 6.
6) Parents play an important role in discovering sports talents.
“I’m sure parents would only be too happy to drive their kids to school or to another school if it’s an away match…they’ll stay with the kids. I think we never bring in the parents enough into this.
“In America and Australia the parents are the ones that almost become the driver, the referee, the coach and everything.
“If you look at every single champion that we have produced, the parental influence is huge. Nicol David (squash) , the Sidek brothers (badminton). They have to start somewhere, and in squash which is a good example, you can produce a world champion without or in spite of the school system,” he said.
Describing Nicol, the reigning world squash champion, as a classic example, Tunku Imran, himself a former national squash champion, said she as well as fellow players Ong Beng Hee and Azlan Iskandar did not learn squash in school.
For the full article: Bernama
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