SINGAPORE - In its bid to kick-start a new era of water polo supremacy in the region and make the Asian Games podium by 2030, the Singapore Swimming Association (SSA) on Saturday (Jan 9) announced the appointment of former Australia assistant coach Paul Oberman as its water polo technical director.
The 52-year-old, who is on a two-year contract, is a familiar face in the local fraternity, having been SSA's water polo coaching director from 2007 to 2008. The former player had competed at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, where Australia finished fifth.
He said: "Singapore water polo has a stellar track record at Asean level but has the potential to go so much further.
"The SSA has rightly identified long-term sustainability in pipeline and technical capability development as the strategy that will enable Singapore to realise its full potential. I look forward to being part of the team in implementing this crucial piece of the strategy and working with the head coach and athletes."
After winning 27 straight gold medals at the SEA Games since 1965, Singapore's men's water polo team returned from the Philippines with just a bronze in 2019, while the women's team were silver medallists from 2015 to 2019.
The SSA subsequently conducted a review of its water polo strategy and identified key areas in which the team could improve, which included the limited pool of players for the national squad, mental resilience in competition, and leadership.
While Oberman, a former Western Australian Institute of Sport (WAIS) coach, told The Straits Times he will be meeting the SSA executive committee to align their vision and goals, he noted the importance of building a critical mass of players and increasing their international exposure, and communicating with athletes and relevant stakeholders such as parents and schools.
He said: "We need to go to the grassroots and schools to create a really strong pathway and pipeline. And it's not just the athletes, it's also coach education, referee development, and enabling volunteers to become technical officials to move forward as a whole."
Noting the pressure athletes face to balance studies and sports, he added: "It is all about putting together a plan for the athlete, and thinking about the quality more than the quantity of training. There needs to be a bit of compromise between the competing entities.
"When I was at WAIS, the programmes were based on an athlete-centred, coach-led, multi-disciplinary approach. This takes into consideration all the competing elements for the athlete's time and energy to help them get better in every area."
The national youth teams can also broaden their horizons by aiming to compete at the world junior championships, said Oberman.
On the SSA's new role, Dominic Soh, its vice-president for water polo, said that Oberman will complement the role of its head coach by focusing on reviewing and improving long-term athlete and coach development programmes at club and school levels while the latter focuses on the tactical improvement of the national teams.
While water polo has been omitted from the 2021 SEA Games in Vietnam - it was among more than 15 sports and events dropped by the hosts - the sport is still holding out hope for an inclusion via an appeal through the Singapore National Olympic Council.
If that happens, Soh believes that the team are in good hands as they rebuild for their gold medal challenge.
He said: "While we have had good coaches in the past who were able to steer the men's teams to glory at each SEA Games, long-term sustainability was an issue as we had gaps in pipeline and technical development capabilities.
"This meant that our progress would eventually stagnate and others would catch up and they did. The technical director role is a crucial piece in our strategy that will not only help us regain our SEA Games gold medal but enable us to up our game at the Asian Games level."
