Meet the Singapore Sports School’s students who get to take on multiple sports before specialising

SINGAPORE – Jovan Chan’s life has always revolved around sport. While he was a badminton captain in primary school, time outside his co-curricular activity (CCA) was spent on other sports like basketball and athletics recreationally.

He also spent part of his childhood in London, where he was exposed to tennis, rock climbing and parkour.

As he was considering his options for secondary school, Jovan did not want to limit his sport choices, leading him to opt for the Singapore Sports School’s (SSP) Multi-Sport Academy (MSA).

The 14-year-old said: “I enjoyed doing multiple sports so I wanted to keep it open because I didn’t know if I would actually enjoy badminton yet.”

Jovan is from the first batch of eight students who enrolled in the MSA, which was launched in 2023. There are currently 16 students across two levels.

They take on three sports – athletics, 3x3 basketball and sport climbing – in the first two years of its four-year programme.

From Secondary 3 onwards, they will specialise in a sport, with SSP working with various national sports associations to establish pathways for them. More sports could be included in future, with some expressing interest in canoeing.

While the school has nine academies, such as football as well as individual programmes for sports not covered by these academies, they all focus on developing athletes in one particular sport.

But SSP’s assistant director of sports Mike Goh noted there is a group of student-athletes who may enjoy sports but have not found their niche, which prompted the school to start the MSA programme.

“We said there could be a group of students we’re missing out on,” said Goh. “At the point of selection (at about 12 years old), if you haven’t displayed certain strengths or achievements by then, you may be overlooked.”

There is interest in the programme, said Goh. There were about 55 applicants for the first intake, followed by more than 100 the second year.

Secondary 1 student Abigail Ng, who played golf recreationally and represented her primary school in netball, was another who was drawn to the programme.

The 13-year-old said: “I really enjoyed sports but I didn’t find the sport that I really liked and wanted to pursue at an international level, so I decided to come here to explore more sports and see how I’ll progress with them.”

SSP worked closely with the National Youth Sports Institute to develop the programme.

Goh highlighted that research on Australian and British Olympians also showed that many successful athletes did not specialise early in their childhood.

Four-time NBA champion Stephen Curry is among prominent athletes who played many sports growing up.

The Golden State Warriors star believes that playing multiple sports, including American football and baseball, was beneficial in his development as an athlete.

Similarly, SSP chose 3x3 basketball, athletics and sport climbing because they allowed students to develop different skills.

The nature of athletics, with its many events, meant that students would get to try their hand at different disciplines.

With 3x3, the focus was on teamwork, communication and agility, while sport climbing trains core stability, upper-body strength and balance.

Goh explained: “When you put these three together, there is a way to develop a student or individual.

“Through these three, we can develop a wide range of skills... we think if you’re strong in all these things, eventually when you choose a sport to specialise in, you are a jack of all trades before you focus on certain skills to master or focus on.”

Out of the five to six training sessions weekly, three days are allocated to the sport, while two sessions are for strength and conditioning or developing movement skills through activities such as parkour.

The students also have the opportunity to participate in competitions, though not necessarily at the National School Games.

While the plan is to let students specialise after two years, Goh acknowledged that some of them may not be able to identify their niche halfway through the programme.

He said: “Ultimately we want to be able to match every student to a sport of their choice and we want them to stay in sport in general.

“We want to be able to provide a widened pathway for students who didn’t get the chance to focus on higher-intensity training to come to the sports school environment and experience what it’s like.”