Coach Chiew Poh Leng (far right in navy jacket) with class at Semmelweiss University

Jul 28, 2007 – Through the International Olympic Committee’s Olympic Solidarity program, Singapore basketball coach Chiew Poh Leng took an intensive course on coaching at Semmelweis University in Hungary and returned home with a brand new philosophy on coaching.

“I always thought that my many years of playing experience alone qualified me to be a good coach,” says Ms Chiew, a former National team player with 13 years of experience. After three comprehensive months of study at Semmelweis, “I now realize that coaching based purely on past experiences is not enough,”says the 30 year-old coach. In fact, the overseas program “showed me the style of coach I want to be,“ says Ms. Chiew.

Semmelweis had strong praise for Ms Chiew as well. In their formal review, the administrators noted her “great will power and discipline” in all 14 classes, which included sports theory, psychology, physiology, conditioning and sociology. She outperformed in the exam classes, scoring an average grade of 4.7 out of 5, compared with the class average of 4.22.

Currently deployed as the Head Coach to the National Women‘s team senior squad, Ms Chiew has already begun using the strategies taught at Semmelweis. She has her sights set on the South East Asian Games in Thailand in December but she also has a refreshed enthusiasm for coaching the sport at all levels.

“In schools, we need to instill the right attitude in kids,“ Ms Chiew says. The young players need to understand that “winning will be good for them, but losing will be a valuable learning process.” At the National team level, players need to be proud of wearing Singapore’s colors, she says. “They must have strong fighting spirit and put their best effort in every match.”

For the past two years, Ms Chiew has been an assistant coach cum player for the National women’s basketball team. She also coaches at Singapore Chinese Girls’ School and Raffles Junior College, which won the National B Division Championships in 2004 and the National A Division Championships in 2006. Despite her extensive coaching duties, Ms Chiew also has remained active on the court, representing her club in the Women’s National Basketball League and at invitational tournaments.

The Olympic Solidarity program is an IOC initiative to help develop and raise the standard of sports around the world. Olympic Solidarity provides funding to all National Olympic Committees, with a particular emphasis on countries still developing a sports culture. Working with International Federations and sports universities & institutes, the local Olympic committees arrange for coaches and officials to receive sports-relevant education, either at home or overseas. Armed with an expanded technical and professional knowledge, the coaches & officials then help improve the quality of local sports.

In Singapore, the SNOC offers the coaching courses to the National Sports Associations, which in turn nominate coaches for the training. By bringing teachers such as Ms Chiew into the Olympic Solidarity program, the SNOC helps deliver the Olympic message to the next generation of competitive athletes. Before this coaching course, I didn’t really know that being a good coach required so many different areas of knowledge,” Ms Chiew adds frankly. “I am extremely grateful to have been given this incredible opportunity to attend Semmelweis through Olympic Solidarity.”

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