A new proficiency award programme aims to raise the level of swimming in Singapore
The Singapore Swimming Association (SSA) and the Swimming Coaches Education Committee (SCEC) have introduced a new programme aimed at raising the level of swimming in Singapore.
The Singapore Swimming Proficiency Award (SSPA) focuses on improving the proficiency of swimmers and aims to provide a talent pool for the next generation of competitive swimmers for Singapore and to increase the level of technical expertise among swimming coaches.
Award-Based Structure
The award-based structure will be based on a swimmer’s ability to swim any of four recognised strokes in compliance with FINA (International Swimming Federation) rules for competitive swimming. The programme focuses on six levels of various distances (50m, 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m and 1500m) for Freestyle and three levels of various distances (50m, 100m and 200m) for Breaststroke, Backstroke, Butterfly and Individual Medley.
There are timings set for each level and swimmers will have to achieve those timings before moving on to the next level. There are a total of 20 certificates and badges to be attained and swimmers may choose to challenge any particular level of the swim test, as and when they feel ready.
Centralised Test
The SSPA complements the current national swimming programme of SwimSafer by providing Singaporeans who have an interest in swimming to progress to the next level in the sport. Stroke proficiency and accuracy is of key importance.
To kick-start the programme, more than 600 coaches have attended specially-organised workshops to learn more about SSPA. The pilot centralised test was run on Nov 23.
With the support of the Singapore Sports Council (SSC), the SSA and SCEC hope to introduce this programme in all schools nationwide by July 2014.
“In the long term, we hope that this programme will develop and build a sustainable pipeline of talented swimmers for all aquatic platforms to represent Singapore in major games,” said Jeffrey Low, President of SSA.
For more information on the SSPA, please visit www.swimming.org.sg or call 6258 1011.
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