Win now or win later? Should you send your very best to win competitions or should you send youths for them to gain experience? In sports, that’s the eternal question.
Not in Singapore! That seems to be the picture I am getting from the Singapore's National Olympic Council (SNOC). Currently, the SNOC is in a dispute with the Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA) over who to send to compete in the South-east Asian (SEA) Games which will be held in November.
The STTA want to send young players as they believe a regional competition like the SEA Games is perfect for them to gain experience, but the SNOC is insisting that the STTA send its top 3 players (world No. 5 Feng Tianwei, world No. 10 Wang Yuegu and world No. 23 Li Jiawei) to the competition. The reasoning of the SNOC is that "the man in the street understands and expects Singapore to win gold." That reasoning is bogus.
You know why Singaporeans expect table tennis to win gold at the SEA Games? Cause all of the players are from China! Our nation's top three players are all imported from China so of course Singaporeans expect them to win. However if Singapore send 16-17 year old Singapore-born players to the SEA Games, who would expect them win? I mean that’s the concept of youth development right? They’ll lose but gain valuable experience by playing against stronger opponents.
As the parents of one of the players said, if the SNOC only want the best to be sent to all competitions and care little for youth development, no Singaporean parent will want his child to go into sports. When that happens, what would the SNOC do then? Import even more players from China to represent Singapore? Uh…oh!
4 comments:
Imported instant trees seems to be better than home grown timber because those in the ivory tower wants to see immediate results.Nurturing and talent development is for symbolic show only.
Something is wrong, really wrong with the direction our society is heading. What is happening to our core values of loyalty and pride in our own indigenous sons and daughters? Singaporeans first or imported mercenary foreign talents first?
In the case of table tennis, I'd be more supportive of foreign talents if they were at their prime or just past their prime (i.e. older).
1. These older foreign talents would not compete with young Singaporeans for places over their (young Singaporeans) entire careers.
2. As they age in Singapore, these older foreign talents can train our young Singaporeans.
"As they age in Singapore, these older foreign talents can train our young Singaporeans."
But what Singaporeans will want to train to be national players if they can't get on a squad for a regional contest like the SEA Games? That's what the STTA is trying to do. To give their young players experience but they are being rejected because the higher-ups want gold now and foverever. Forever meaning that they could just import more foreign players in the future so why bother with giving experience to young Singapore-born players.
Surely, the guy is totally just.
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