From badminton to cycling, sport science to boost Singapore’s Asian Games aspirations

SINGAPORE – At his competitive best, Singapore’s Loh Kean Yew is one of the fastest badminton players on the court. Other than his explosive speed, the 2021 world champion’s quick reaction time is one area that has been enhanced by sport science.

On Aug 25, the High Performance Sport Institute (HPSI) gave the media a behind-the-scenes look at the science, technology and specialist expertise supporting Team Singapore athletes ahead of the Sept 19 to Oct 4 Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan.

Singapore’s contingent will include more than 300 athletes competing across 27 sports.

At the Sport Singapore office, HPSI performance analyst Jeter Yap shared how the use of opposition analysis – a performance-based process used to assess the opponent’s recent strategies and tendencies to gain a tactical advantage – helped Loh beat Frenchman Toma Junior Popov in the second round of the 2025 KFF Singapore Badminton Open.

He said: “What we do is watch a match, note the players’ serves, count the rallies, and tag who won the rallies. In the post-analysis, we add in details like the type of serves, the type of shots made, where they were made and where they were returned to.

“One of the videos Kean Yew particularly liked showed that about 75 per cent of the time Popov returned the serves back to the T (the intersection of the centre line and short service line). This gives him a competitive edge to anticipate the shots that were coming and be on the front foot.”

The HPSI has also capitalised on artificial intelligence to improve the workflow and efficiency of its sport scientists, as manual match tagging has been replaced by automated match analysis through a web application it developed.

As such, the time it takes to process 10 one-hour videos has been cut from 12 working days to just one.

Other than performance analysis, the HPSI tour on Aug 25 also showcased its sport biomechanics, sport physiology, sport technology, sport psychology, sport nutrition, and strength and conditioning capabilities.

For example, sport physiology involves the scientific study of how an athlete’s body system responds and adapts to the short- and long-term demands of training, before individualised programmes are crafted for him or her to best prepare for a competition.

HPSI sport physiologist Darren Lim highlighted the environmental chamber, a room where cyclists and kayakers can train with preset temperatures and relative humidity.

While it may not be applicable for the upcoming Asiad, where the cycling events are held at sea level, there is also a hypoxic function where nitrogen is introduced into the chamber to suppress oxygen levels and mimic high-altitude conditions that are not available in Singapore.

Lim said: “We can do specific heat training. I worked with cyclists who were preparing for a race in Thailand and were fasting, so they could not train in the day under the sun to prepare for the event that’s hot and humid.

“They could train only in the evening, so we turned on the chamber, set it to 40 deg C, 60 per cent humidity, and they trained in it for one hour for a period of two to three weeks in the lead-up. They came back to me and said, ‘Hey Darren, it’s pretty chill out there... it’s not as hot as it should feel’.

“We can make conditions more challenging so they get better when they go for competitions. An alternative way to look at it is to make it a lot easier for them, so they can push harder and get more training stimulus... train their peripherals and to work at a higher intensity.”

HPSI’s head of sport science and medicine centre Low Chee Yong shared that 30 of its 65 doctors, physiotherapists, trainers and sport scientists will be in Japan to support the national athletes at the upcoming Asiad, and that the work began once the previous Games ended in October 2023.

Expounding on the importance of sport science, he added: “To make up a movement, there are forces on the body and forces acting out of the body. There are chemical reactions in the body and from the food sources we eat, and there is also a psychological construct to stress as well. Some of these act together, and it’s not possible to see from a video analysis.

“The point (of sport science) is to journey with the coaches who, over the course of a training year or multiple years, are able to come up with problem statements that help us understand what they want to learn. Using that, we are able to better understand the athletes and what they are going through.

“There’s no one set solution. It’s different at the highest level because the (extra) 1 to 2 per cent can get you a medal. So if you can tweak 1 to 2 per cent of anything that can make a difference, we will probably get an advantage.

“Each time a Singaporean wins a medal, it inspires the nation. We are going the right direction with the kind of capabilities we have here... (where) there’s a lot of Singaporeans working for one Singaporean to achieve a Singaporean dream.”