THE classic knee-jerk reaction to Malaysia’s dismal performance in the recent edition of the SEA Games is to say “Fire the coach, change the leadership of associations, reduce the funding till they start performing better.”
This kind of negative reinforcement may work for kindergarten children but we are dealing with high performance adults – individuals much further along in their psychological and professional development journey.
There is a need for a strategic shift in attitude and allocation if Malaysia is going to match its perceived vision of itself and the required image to be projected on the regional and global stage.
How the nation competes, how an association competes and ultimately how an athlete competes is a function of the system that they are produced from.
Do we have an understanding of the competitive landscape in which national sports association compete with other sports associations across ASEAN?
In the first instance, each and every sporting association should have competitive information on their competitor associations.
For example, how much money does each association have? How much resources are brought to bear including annual budgets, number of coaches, support staff and the average number of fans at a game
Time is a critical factor in sports development. It takes a minimum of 10 to 15 years to develop a high-performance athlete depending on the sport.
Taking into consideration peak performance ages and the average career span for that particular sport, this means sports development needs to be a long-term affair not just a two-year project.
The resources required over the high-performance phase of an athlete’s career required to allow him or her to perform at medal winning pace, together with the business intelligence of what competitors from other countries are allocated will allow for meaningful gap analysis and informed decisions to be made.
The data required is beyond the performance data of other country’s athletes.
On the national level, there is a need to understand the economic and social footprint of each and every sport.
The sum value of a sports ecosystem in Malaysia needs to be known in detail so that output can be put into context.
Looking at this data will allow the public and planners alike know whether the country is performing well or not in any given sporting event.
The rationalisation and understanding of the competitive environment in which sportspeople operate must be a core competency of national sports bodies, alongside the deepening and widening of the development pyramid while establishing clear pathways for athletes to succeed on the national, regional and international stages.
Those who have been at the coalface of sports development either as an athlete, coach or administrator will know that to go to the next level requires resources, there also needs to be more coaching, better equipment, international competition exposure, better food, sports psychology and physiotherapy to name just a few.
If a competitor has more you are at a strategic disadvantage before the games even start.
At the same time, the exponential resources required for incremental improvement needs to be understood.
High-performance sports are the domain of the top half of the last 1% with winning margins thinner the higher the level of competition. The finale of the SEA Games men’s 100 metre race saw a split of less than half a second between the gold medallist and the last finisher.
Looking towards a sustainable and desired future, the answer is not less for those who didn’t do well because that’s not going to help at all.
The answer is more for all and extra for those who did well as a reward for their success. The only rational and clear way forward will be a “balanced scorecard” or “performance matrix” that can be developed to understand the “money in, medals out” equation. – May 23, 2023
Nordin Abdullah is the founding chairman of the Malaysia Global Business Forum and an EXCO of the Malaysia Cricket Association (MCA).
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
Main pic credit: Bernama
