SINGAPORE – Over the past few years, Singapore floorball has been top in the region, winning four golds since the sport was introduced to the SEA Games programme in 2015. It is a perch the Republic does not want to be knocked off.

With their future in mind, the Singapore Floorball Association (SFA) launched a National Youth Training Centre (NYTC) in October to strengthen the talent pipeline. The national body had formed men and women’s Under-19 teams in 2018 and is now turning its focus to younger cohorts.

Glendon Phua, head of high performance committee in SFA, said: “We’ve reached a steady state where our national high performance programme has allowed our athletes to train throughout the year, yearly training programmes coupled with planned trips overseas to help prepare the athletes for overseas competitions.

“After we settled the high performance part, which is mainly the men and women’s teams, in the last few years we started to explore how we can further support this pipeline.”

Players who are part of the National Youth Training Centre’s programme are categorised into three age groups: 13, 14 to 15, and 16 to 17.

Each will take in 30 players per gender and these floorballers will train at the venues located at Yio Chu Kang Secondary School and Yumin Primary School once a week from October to March to avoid overlapping with the National School Games.

Twenty to 24 players – similar to the squad size for international competitions – will be selected for an overseas trip in June that includes Test matches.

This is meant to complement school programmes and create more avenues to develop national athletes, said Phua, who also expressed his gratitude towards Yio Chu Kang Secondary’s outgoing principal Carol Lim and Yumin Primary School.

The SFA is currently working on a curriculum designed by the national men and women’s head coaches as well as the association’s coach consultant from Sport Singapore.

Following the model of powerhouses Finland and Sweden, Phua, who was a national player from 2007 to 2019, said the plan was to eventually share the curriculum with coaches across Singapore.

He said: “When athletes are exposed to the overall training curriculum at a young age, they keep refining the same valuable skill sets and by the time they reach the U-19 or senior levels, they’re already prepared in the basic skills that the national coaches need. The national coaches just need to fine-tune the tactical aspects.”

Tanjong Katong Secondary School’s Natalie Azali, 14, believes the programme has helped her gain a better understanding of the game and improve her shooting.

The Secondary 2 student said the sessions are often focused on fine-tuning specific skills, noting how she has got more comfortable with her wrist shots.

The centre added: “The NYTC has a pool of the best players from all over and as much as the school makes training competitive, there are a wide range of players and playing levels.

“It is not as competitive, so NYTC pushes you to become a better player and I try to bring what we learn to my school and club.”

Phua, 33, said the NYTC will be key to the SFA’s aspirations of cementing its dominance in South-east Asia as their regional counterparts progress.

While the women’s team have won three SEA Games titles in a row, the men had to settle for silver and bronze at the last two editions.

He said: “The current national players aged 21 to 26 are the players who grew up in a structured MOE (Ministry of Education) programme so hopefully with this new national training centre, we now have a batch who are growing up with a structured MOE programme, structured SFA programme with the addition of academies from outside...

“By the time these youngsters hit the 21 to 26 age group, they will be way better than us. Hopefully by then, we will become a more stable, dominant force in the region. One of SFA’s aims is to be among the regional powerhouses in floorball.”

Correction note: A previous version of the story incorrectly identified Ms Carol Lim as Yumin Primary’s outgoing principal. Ms Lim is actually Yio Chu Kang Secondary’s outgoing principal. We are sorry for the error.