- Lee Hui Xin
- 5 days ago
- 6 min read
Updated: 3 hours ago
My internship journey at Singapore Sports Institute (SSI) has been nothing other than a SURPRISE! Good and bad surprises included. After my Final year Project (FYP) at NUS YYL school of medicine, there was only a few months of break given to me before I start another round of internship, but a more practical-based assessment as well as more fun :) Funnnnn... in a way, because of the gym work and handling of athletes during their training and the open conversations made with elite athletes has helped me transform the dreadful mundane learning process into a more lively exchange of thoughts and feelings, incorporating much more meaning into the job than I have expected. Still, the 5 months were pretty packed with a lot of lessons to learn, pressure to undertake especially when it comes to coaching (as it is my first time being a coach :'''''''(.. ), a lot of VALUABLE soft skills I have picked up i.e time management skills, emotional regulation, people management, leadership etc. I truly appreciate the times I have spent with the athletes and with the staff from other departments, although I have gone through horrendous, terrible suffering times and emotional ups and downs (not due to the duties, but the kind of environment I was put in for my work obligations). The positives and negatives of my work at SSI were also one of the most important journey in my life as this experience taught me that life is never smooth sailing and sometimes, no matter how you are feeling, you just got to show up, push through, swallow your saliva and be there for yourself ALWAYS.
To start off, when I first step into SSI gym for my day 1 of internship, I had a cultural shock. Was already very grateful I did not faint or have dizzy spells when I saw so many athletes training seriously, like DANG, my heart and mind wasn't prepared for such rigour! And this wasn't a one-time off thought I had in mind, the recurrent intrusive thoughts that got to me, despite how hard I tried to fend them off had me praying hard throughout the 5 months to stay well and stay strong as given the strict training environment and the standards the athletes already had in training, I was kind of intimidated at how as a strength coach, I should be working with them, the vibes, appropriate tone of my voice, points to take note of when supervising the athletes, generally how I should be carrying myself as a coach for high performance adult athletes. I was completely at a lost and being a somewhat socially awkward person especially towards people I am not close with, it makes it difficult for me to ask for another guy who was my coursemate some tips or advice that could be given. All I have received for coaching advice is "Everyone's style of coaching is different"- which led me to try and develop one myself, that is unique and specific to me and "it depends on your objective"- highlighting the redundancy of the biomechanics knowledge applied during coaching, technically this aspect of training is non-relevant to strength coaching as building muscles, motivating and encouraging them is the main emphasis at the gym instead of looking at their movement techniques. Even at some points where their movement efficiency could be improved, a more big picture perspective was taken to simplify our understanding of the demands of each exercise into clear and concise cues. So, this was one major learning point I had there.
It was a little of a regrets or more of a disappointment to miss out on the keywords "elite athletes" which implies the high expectations of a strength coach by the athlete as they are relying on us for their reputation, performance and competition rankings. I am not very sure whether it is fortunate that I am only an intern there, so the bare minimum I must be doing would be shadowing and observing the more experienced coaches. Given the job title, I had a great time spending most of my time learning on the ground at the gym, at the testing lab watching youtube videos helpful for my coaching training and NOT TO FORGET THE DISASTROUS RAPID REVIEW REPORT which I was tasked to do up during my period of 5 moths there.
I feel both their JD and learning outcomes are kind of misleading as expectation versus reality difference was really huge then. Apart from the fact that they are merging with other institutions, the point that this department has been low on manpower since the start and the interview questions which I asked the interviewer are nowhere close to what this organization need and what I could offer as an intern.
I was really pissed off as the weeks go pass, when I asked more questions (I guess this is where the loophole came in obvious to me that, the more questions I ask, the greater the impression that I gave off to the other staff was that "she is an intern who does not have a strong grasp of their sport science knowledge". I admit that my sport science was kind of limited in a way SSM only exposes us to the surface level of things, and even another course-mate told me "you have to read a lot", likeeee, I'm doubting whether the image I give off is a student coach that have zero or little information about the stuff I am studying. Regardless of whether he is the SSM scholar, top scorer for exams, when he ask this question, I am wondering in my mind whether he read up as much as I thought he have been doing. LOL Furthermore, we attended the same ASCA SNC training (this training provided me with the benchmark of the knowledge to be equipped with), coupled with the strength and conditioning lecture, I was able to follow what was going on in both training course and lectures, so I have no idea where the problem of my learning was from.
I had to cope with all the negative feelings for a long period of time, especially midway when my stamina and my motivation/ mindset to continue learning was spiraling downwards and going downhill. I felt that my learning peak was reached and for that, I was kind of proud of where I have come to. There was mixed feelings-- feeling like an academic loser, a blur student, dumb intern (not when it comes to practical work) due to some issues of not knowing how/ having not learnt how to show that I know my own stuff (I really did even if I came across as the opposite). And I am really hoping now that the new company I am applying for would value my skills, talents and appreciate the new specialty, knowledge and insights I bring to the table in the company (brb thinking about how a private differ from a public company...). Yet at the same time, feeling satisfied that I did not give up halfway and still continue to persevere no matter how hard it gets or how tiring I am. I still remember myself going to the public toilet instead of the ladies athlete toilet in SSI to just reflect on my life and criii ;''''''(.
Reflecting back on my experience now and what to look forward into the future (post-graduate life ONBOARD)
I really realllyyyy reallllyyyyy want to hone and refine my coaching abilities. Starting from a humble start at SSI as an intern, I realized I have a lot of room for improvement with regards to coaching. The good news I have heard from the rest that coaching does not require any sport science or SNC knowledge. And my take from this is that I have to be present, be willing to be there for your clients, listen to their concerns and needs actively, being understanding and showing empathy where needed. At the same time, since coaching is a sub-specialty in the sports industry, the way you coach clients as a PT is very different from that of a strength coach, simply because their needs and objectives of the training is different. And so, with this point in mind, I wanted to push myself to pick up a similar coaching role, develop a framework for myself as part of the learning process of being a better coach (soft skills matters but it takes beyond all these valuable qualities to put them into practise to build relationships with athletes). To foster a large base of clients, I would need to continue to work hard!!! Because your value as a coach comes from how much trust you are able to build with your clients through the guidance and support you offer them during training. (no one likes training and I think it takes a damn lot of skill to make sure the clients actually enjoy training and not only talk them out of the benefits of coming for coaching session. The sweat, commitment and the effort clients have to pour out need to match the motivation, enthusiasm and the enjoyment they takeaway out of the session from you!
#university-life-reflection-graduation