Koh, Koon Teck

Football is a global sport, played across continents and multiple levels. It is also the most popular team sport in Singapore. Due to its popularity, the demand for certified football coaches is also high, especially in schools and private sectors. The Football Association of Singapore (FAS) and Sport Singapore (SportSG) have put in place various coach education systems to develop an adequate number of qualified coaches to deliver quality football programmes for participants at all levels (grassroots to elite). As a small country, Singapore holds the highest record number of Asian Football Confederation (AFC) qualified coaches in Asia. Several of them have also coached at professional clubs in Asia. This chapter aims to discuss some of the developments in the football coach education and development literature while sharing information on the current elite football coach education system in Singapore. Additionally, through the perspectives of various elite football stakeholders (e.g., coaches, coach developers, sport administrators), the chapter will provide specific examples on how the current system has supported their respective roles, the challenges they face, and their suggested recommendations to further support their learning and development.

The limit of dynamic endurance during repetitive contractions has been referred to as the point of muscle fatigue, which can be measured by mechanical and electrophysiological parameters combined with subjective estimates of load tolerance for revealing the human real-world capacity required to work continuously. In this study, an isotonic muscular endurance (IME) testing protocol under a psychophysiological fatigue criterion was developed for measuring the retentive capacity of the power output of lower limb muscles. Additionally, to guide the development of electrophysiological evaluation methods, linear and non-linear techniques for creating surface electromyography (sEMG) models were compared in terms of their ability to estimate muscle fatigue. Forty healthy college-aged males performed three trials of an isometric peak torque test and one trial of an IME test for the plantar flexors and knee and hip extensors. Meanwhile, sEMG activity was recorded from the medial gastrocnemius, lateral gastrocnemius, vastus medialis, rectus femoris, vastus lateralis, gluteus maximus, and biceps femoris of the right leg muscles. Linear techniques (amplitude-based parameters, spectral parameters, and instantaneous frequency parameters) and non-linear techniques (a multi-layer perception neural network) were used to predict the time-dependent power output during dynamic contractions. Two mechanical manifestations of muscle fatigue were observed in the IME tests, including power output reduction between the beginning and end of the test and time-dependent progressive power loss. Compared with linear mapping (linear regression) alone or a combination of sEMG variables, non-linear mapping of power loss during dynamic contractions showed significantly higher signal-to-noise ratios and correlation coefficients between the actual and estimated power output. Muscular endurance required in real-world activities can be measured by considering the amount of work produced or the activity duration via the recommended IME testing protocol under a psychophysiological termination criterion. Non-linear mapping techniques provide more powerful mapping of power loss compared with linear mapping in the IME testing protocol.

The purpose of the study was to create, implement, and evaluate a values-based training program for sport coaches and physical education teachers in Singapore. Four sport coaches with two to eight years of coaching experience (M = 5.0, SD = 1.4) and four physical education teachers with two to nine years of teaching experience (M = 5.25, SD = 3.3) took part in three 2-h training workshops focusing on the teaching of values to athletes and students. Following the workshops, the participants took part in an individual interview to document their perspectives of the values-based training program. Results of the thematic analysis revealed many benefits of the values-based training program, including an increased awareness of the importance of systematically teaching values through physical education and sport. Further, the participants felt better equipped to work with parents and other teachers in helping athletes and students transfer values.

The Coaching Behavior Scale for Sport (CBS-S) is designed to evaluate coaches’ involvement in developing athletes, taking into considerations the complex training and competition environment. Although CBS-S has been used in a number of empirical studies, the factor structure of the instrument has not been examined rigorously. The present study was, therefore, conducted to assess the factor structure of the CBS-S for Singaporean youth athletes. A total of 519 participants completed the CBS-S, and their responses were examined with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and recent exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM). Both seven-factor CFA and ESEM models fit to the sample data adequately. In addition, the sizes of factor loadings on target factors were substantial and found comparable between the CFA and ESEM solutions. The findings from this study supported the factorial validity of the CBS-S for the present sample.

This study examined the key tasks of high-performance basketball coaches in Singapore using the Coach Behavior Scale for Sports (CBS-S). Seventeen participants (national coaches, team managers, players and other experts) took part in the study in which quantitative (CBS-S) and qualitative (semi-structured interviews) data were collected. The quantitative data were analysed using SPSS (Version 15.0) and the qualitative data were content analysed by three experienced researchers in sport psychology and coaching. The dimensions and items from the CBS-S were considered mostly relevant in evaluating the work of Singapore high-performance basketball coaches. However, some modifications were made to the CBS-S to make it more specific to the basketball context in Singapore based on conceptual, theoretical and empirical considerations. The final version of the Singapore CBS-S (Basketball) has 9 dimensions with 96 items as opposed to the original CBS-S with 7 dimensions and 70 items. Overall, the findings from this study were consistent with the literature on coaches’ work.

Background Prior research has highlighted the importance of Physical Activity (PA), Sedentary Time (ST), and Physical Fitness (PF) for health. However, there is limited research on the association between PA, ST, and PF in the context of female college students, particularly in Eastern cultures. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the association between PA, ST, and PF among Eastern female college students to inform policy and practice. Methods The study was conducted from February to May 2022 at East China Normal University, Shanghai, China. A total of 512 Chinese female college students participated in this study through snowball sampling. Participants’ PA and ST were investigated using the International PA Questionnaire, and PF was measured using the Chinese National Student Physical Fitness Test. Independent samples t-test and binary logistic regression were used to compare the differences in PF between Active Participants (AP) and Inactive Participants (IP), as well as between Low Sedentary Participants (LSP) and High Sedentary Participants (HSP). Multinomial logistic regression was used to compare the differences in PF between Active and Low Sedentary Participants (ALSP), Active and High Sedentary Participants (AHSP), Inactive and Low Sedentary Participants (ILSP), and Inactive and High Sedentary Participants (IHSP). Data analysis was performed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 28. The level of significance was set at 0.05. Results AP showed significantly higher cardiorespiratory fitness (p < 0.05) and overall fitness (p < 0.01) than IP. Compared to IP, AP was less likely to be classified as unfit in terms of cardiorespiratory fitness [Odds Ratio (OR), 0.57; 95% Confidence Interval (CI), 0.38–0.85; p < 0.05]. Compared to IHSP, ALSP (OR, 0.44; 95% CI 0.25–0.76; p < 0.01) and AHSP (OR, 0.54; 95% CI 0.32–0.93; p < 0.05) were less likely to be classified as unfit in terms of cardiorespiratory fitness. Furthermore, compared to IHSP, AHSP (OR, 1.66; 95% CI 1.02–2.70; p < 0.05) and ILSP (OR, 2.09; 95% CI 1.16–3.77; p < 0.05) were more likely to be classified as unfit in terms of their flexibility. Conclusion There was a positive association between PA, cardiorespiratory fitness, and overall fitness. There was also an association between cardiorespiratory fitness, flexibility, and the combination of PA and ST. These findings suggest that both PA and ST can influence different PF items. Therefore, we recommend that public health policy and practice for college female students should consider PF items when selecting different PA and ST intervention strategies.

Guided by Basic Psychological Need Theory, we investigated the combined associations between need satisfaction and need frustration (i.e., need profiles) and their relations with theoretically relevant correlates including mindfulness, physical literacy, physical activity enjoyment, and physical activity. The participants were Singapore based school students (N = 844, Mage = 12.45, SDage = 1.99, boys = 53.1%) who completed a cross-sectional survey. The results of the latent profile analysis identified four distinct need profiles: profile 1–average satisfaction and frustration (n = 364, 44.1%); profile 2–low satisfaction (n = 251, 29.7%), above average frustration; profile 3–very high satisfaction, very low frustration (n = 144, 17.1%); and profile 4–high satisfaction, very high frustration (n = 85, 10.1%). Among these, profile 3 was the most adaptive one; it had the highest levels of mindfulness, physical literacy, physical activity enjoyment, and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. Experiences of need satisfaction countered the negative effects of need frustration on these correlates. These findings enhance our understanding of students’ psychological need experiences and highlight the need for investigating the combined associations between need satisfaction and need frustration.

Archival data was gathered from the FIBA33 games during the 1st inaugural Youth Olympic Games held in Singapore. Data collected from 70 basketball games played by boys from 20 participating countries were gathered for analysis. Analysis of game-related statistics and FIBA33 final rankings differentiated successful from unsuccessful teams. Ninety-five percent of the cases were correctly classified using discriminant analysis and in the cross-validation (leave-one-out method) the correct re-classification was 75 percent. Data triangulated from interviews and field notes were used to determine key factors contributing to team’s success in the FIBA33 games. Results of the present study showed that players from the top 10 successful teams could be differentiated from those in the bottom 10 unsuccessful teams. The determining factors were taller, had better shooting percentages, played aggressively (i.e., recorded more team fouls and the ability to draw fouls on opponents during games). Coaches can use these results to improve player’s recruitment process, reinforce the importance of fundamental skills such as shooting, individual offensive and defensive concepts under different game situations during trainings.