Singapore Gymnastics ran its 2nd discipline-specific Intermediate Coaching Courses across 2 evenings and 2 Sundays (7, 8, 11 & 18 July 2021). Learning from our experience from the first pilot Intermediate Coaching Course in November 2020, we were able to evaluate and adjust the next phase of the course such as:

• Smoothening the learning journey from pre-course to post-course
• Increasing the pool of coach developers within our Gymnastics community
• Maximising hands on time during the practical sessions in the gym
• Reviewing the evaluation criteria to ensure transparency and measurability

As with our courses, it follows the structure where there is pre-course readings and online MCQs to be completed before coming for the Face-To-Face webinar and practical sessions. These activities are meant to get participants prepared to learn and apply the new content in the course and also provides information that our Learning Facilitators need to make the course more relevant to the course experience and working environment.

In this 2nd run, we extended our pre-course reading into the digital space which emphasise on self-directed learning and provide participants with more opportunities to learn at their own pace to take charge of their learning. It involves some background reading, some self-assessments, some case examples or problems to analyze. These activities designed to enable discussions and exchange of ideas during the online webinars. 

In anticipation of developing more Intermediate Coaches, it is imperative Singapore Gymnastics develops more coach developers to lead and deliver a greater number of high-quality courses and workshops. We have 14 Learning Facilitators from all 5 gymnastics disciplines coming together to share ideas, solve problems with peers and to practise facilitating the learning of others in April this year. Joining us at different intervals during this training workshop, we had Azhar Yusof - Head of CoachSG as well as Gene Schembri from Kaiwa Consulting who has been a key developer in the Intermediate Course curriculum.

Singapore Gymnastics greatly appreciates all our Learning Facilitators who dedicated their time and effort to sharing their knowledge as we develop future generations of coaches. We also want to shout special thanks to all our gymnast volunteers who gave us their time and energy to support our coaches in practice. 

This run also allowed us to test ideas that we weren't able to in the first run such as running the courses simultaneously and across disciplines, the impact of pre-course readings leading to the online webinars, cross-disciplinary discussions using the same content and trying new discussion tools to expand learning. 

"I just completed the Intermediate Coaching Course and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Your facilitators were very professional, and the class learned a lot both from the group sessions as well as self-study content.  It was also a good opportunity to network. I know it’s not an easy time for SG, keeping the courses running while at the same time battling the evolving SMMs, and supporting Clubs through this challenging time. Kudos to your team!" 

From this 2nd run, again we will review this experience and take feedback from our Learning Facilitators and participants on what were the challenges faces, learn more about them and figure how can we further improve our product and delivery. All of these guided by our own community of coaches.