Changes to the Junior Division National School Games (NSG) Moving - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

A PRESENTATION BY MINISTRY OF EDUCATION, SINGAPORE

Changes to the Junior Division National School Games (NSG)

Moving towards more developmentally appropriate and athlete-centric sporting competitions

Outline

• Background of the National School Games (NSG) and Junior Division

Review (JDR)

• Guiding Principles and Desired Outcomes
• Overview of Changes
• Conclusion

Background of the National School Games (NSG) and Junior Division Review (JDR)

MOE’s PE & Sports Development Framework

Goal of the National School Games (NSG)

“To provide quality competition experiences for our school athletes to support character development through the pursuit of sporting excellence1.”

1Mission Statement of the Singapore Primary Schools Sports Council (SPSSC) & Singapore Schools Sports Council (SSSC)

• Developmentally appropriate
• Challenging yet enjoyable for participants
• Safe & conducive for learning
• Focus on contest of sporting abilities
• Respect
• Responsibility
• Resilience (Ruggedness)
• Integrity
• Care
• Harmony
• Sportsmanship
• Fair play
• Teamwork
• Emphasises the pursuit, not the outcome
• Continuous & constant drive to improve
• Challenges oneself
• Gives one’s best in training & competition
• Wins humbly, loses graciously
• Excellence mindset

• In 2015, a review of the NSG competitions for the Junior Division

noted that current NSG competitions are structured similarly to the adult form with only slight variations for some sports across the primary, secondary and JCs/CI levels.

• However, as most students in the Junior Division are beginning

athletes experiencing their first formal NSG competition, the current competition might not be the most appropriate form of competition for our budding athletes if we want to help them realise their full potential in sports and to lead an active lifestyle.

• MOE, together with the Singapore Primary School Sports Council,

worked with the National Youth Sports Institute and the various National Sports Associations (NSAs), to revise the competitions for the Junior Division, and will be implementing them over the next few years, starting from 2018.

Background

Changes Announced at the 2018 NSG Opening Ceremony

Alignment with School Mission, Vision, Values

• Our Vision: Leaders of Character, Learners for Life
• Our Mission: To nurture people of character, healthy patriotic

citizens and creative independent thinkers, equipped with 21st century skills

• Our Values:
• Integrity our foundation
• Compassion our key
• Ardent for Singapore, our home
• Respect, Responsibility and Resilience our strengths

Guiding Principles in Designing Changes

Guiding Principles

The changes are based on the following guiding principles:

• Developmentally appropriate competition, game and event formats

that cater to the physical, cognitive and affective development of young athletes

• Opportunities for balanced and all rounded development
• Exposing athletes to different skill-sets
• Balance between increasing opportunities for success and nurturing

an excellence mindset

• Competition opportunities for most, if not all, members of a team

Example: Floorball

Overview of Changes

• Current format: 5v5 + goal keeper with 2 goalposts
• New format: 3v3 + no goalkeeper + 4 goalposts (2 per team)

Rationale

• Less players per team – more touches on the ball thus helping focus on the

fundamental technique of handling the stick and the ball

• Having 2 goals per side – Trains the peripheral vision and helps them to

improve their spatial and court awareness

• No goalkeepers
• Avoids early specialisation and exposes players to different skill-sets
• Position in which the goal keeper stays throughout the game is

damaging to a young athletes’ joint development.

Overview of Changes

What are the changes?

• There will be changes to the Junior

Division in the following areas:

I. Structural Changes:

I. Award & recognition structures II. Age group divisions III. Competition formats

II. Technical Rule Changes

I. Sport-specific game rules & play

• With these changes, competition will be

different from how they are currently. However, these are differences that are desirable & will benefit our student athletes in the long run.

• I. Changes to Award & Recognition Structures

Rationale

• In the NSG today, only a small number of athletes are recognised &

awarded with medals based on the positions they attained (generally only the top 4 positions).

• The limited recognition makes ‘success’ seems unattainable for the vast

majority of the young and beginning athletes, and could reduce their drive to do their best; some may even adopt a defeatist mindset, and even withdraw from participation.

• The purely position-based recognition makes it easy for young and

beginning athletes to focus solely on comparing themselves with others rather than focusing on mastering their skills and developing their own abilities and striving for self-improvement.

• I. Changes to Award & Recognition Structures

Key Changes

• Increase recognition opportunities from the current 1st to 4th position to

recognising 1st to 8th positions. The number of awardees will be calibrated based on the number of participants, especially for sports and events with fewer participants.

• Introduce criterion-based recognition over and above position-based

recognition where feasible, such as for swimming and tenpin bowling, where specific timing and pin-falls allow objective criteria to be set.

• II. Changes to Age Group Divisions

Rationale

• Currently, students compete in age-group divisions based on their

chronological age (calendar year).

• However, chronological age is only a crude indicator of sport readiness due

to differences in the onset and rates of pre-pubertal growth spurt.

• Example: 2 athletes aged 10 born on the same date in the same year

can vary drastically in size, physical abilities, and skills in the same sport, as they are at a different stages of development. However, given similar developmental opportunities, it is possible for both to reach similar levels of performance after they have reached a steady state of maturation.

• II. Changes to Age Group Divisions

Key Changes

• Students who are 11-year-old based on the year of birth, will be allowed to

compete in either the Junior OR Senior Division for non-contact sports, depending on their level of competency, as assessed by the participating school.

• III. Changes to Competition Formats

Rationale

• Current competition formats are based on “single-pyramid” model where

teams are eliminated along the way until the top 4 positions are determined.

• While this is common, especially in adult competitions, where the top

performing athlete or team is recognised, it is less helpful for young and beginning athletes for the following reasons:

• Early exit from the competition reduces competitive play opportunities for

athletes to gain experience that is important for athlete’s development.

• Athletes and teams are less likely to have opportunities to play with others
• f comparable abilities until the semi-finals and finals for the ‘stronger’

athletes/teams, which is not conducive for their development.

• III. Changes to Competition Formats

Key Changes

• Use of tiered and group-level competition format to:
• Provide for more even distribution of competition opportunities &

experience

• Facilitate athletes / teams of comparable abilities competing

together.

• IV. Technical Rule Changes for Sport-Specific

Game Rules & Play

• Current game & event formats are modelled on adult formats,

where the physical, cognitive & socio-emotional demands are designed for adults.

• As such, they are not optimised for younger & beginning athletes

who still have a long way to go in sports.

Key Changes Details of changes to specific sports will be given in the sport specific rules & regulations & briefings on the changes held for participating schools, and could include all or some of the following areas:

• Playing format
• Equipment changes
• Substitution rules

Example – Junior Division Floorball would now be changed from a 5v5 format, to 3v3 without goalkeeper and with 2 sets of goalposts.

• IV. Technical Rule Changes for Sport-Specific

Game Rules & Play

Conclusion

Conclusion

• We are changing the Junior Division because:
• The Junior Division is the first formal competition experience for most

student-athletes.

• There is no one ‘perfect’ competition or game format; competitions

must serve the purpose desired by the organiser.

• We want to develop our student athletes with a long-term perspective.
• We want our student-athletes competing in the Junior Division to:
• Be able to participate in a competition that is developmentally

appropriate for them.

• Develop performance and moral character, focusing on sportsmanship,

teamwork and the pursuit of excellence.

• Enjoy the journey towards the competition (training).
• Sustain participation in sports for the long term.

Conclusion

Through these changes, we hope that in the long term, our young student athletes are able to:

• Have more meaningful learning and competition experiences
• Develop their fundamental skills
• Cultivate the joy and passion of playing sports in school and beyond

Conclusion

• We understand that there might be alternative views arising from

different beliefs and experiences as to what is a best for our athletes.

• We have done our best to mitigate some of these by looking at

research done abroad and have consulted the experts in the field.

• The route we are taking involves balancing various concerns to help
• ur students enjoy the sport and have more meaningful learning and

competition experiences.

• We hope that you can partner us in implementing the changes for

the long term benefit of our young athletes.

Thank you

Common Misunderstandings

Misunderstanding – School decisions and behaviours are focussed on winning competitions and glory for the school. The emphasis for schools at the NSG today is on character building and long- term athlete development. Rather than focussing on winning, the emphasis is

• n:
• nurturing performance character values such as resilience and self-discipline,

and an excellence mindset through the process of striving to win;

• building moral character through the interplay of conflicting values such as

striving to win with values of integrity, fair play and sportsmanship; and

• acquiring the fundamental game skills and tactics for future sporting

excellence. As such, while a winning mindset is still important for students involved in sports competitions, the emphasis is on the striving to win rather than the actual outcome of winning.

Misunderstanding – Youth level success is a prerequisite for later success. Many studies in various sports (including football, swimming, track & field, volleyball and judo) that have investigated the relationship between youth and success have shown that youth level success is not a prerequisite for success in

• adulthood. Indeed, the research indicate that successful youth athletes are less

likely than other youth athletes to become successful athletes in adulthood. The demonstrated performances of youth athletes are also poor indicators of potential and future performance as performance at the youth level are expected to show high variation before the age of 16 years (Kearney & Hayes, 2018). Furthermore, demonstrated performances in youth sports is often a result of differences in developmental age and the relative age effect, besides

• ther factors such as exposure to the sport and coaching quality.

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As such, instead of focussing on achieving short term success as a youth athlete, teachers, coaches and parents should focus on providing a developmentally appropriate sporting experiences that emphasise:

• Challenging but attainable opportunities for success, rather than success

being seen as unattainable

• Fundamental game skills and concepts instead of more complex game

tactics

• Flow and joy of participation instead of anxiety
• Reasonable challenge instead of debilitating struggle
• All rounded development rather than specialised areas of development

With such an understanding, the NSG provides a platform for our student athletes to gain positive competition experience as part of long term athlete development rather than merely a platform for achieving sporting success.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will there be a public announcement of the changes to inform parents and

• ther stakeholders?

An overview of the changes was announced by then Minister Ng Chee Meng, at the National School Games (NSG) Opening Ceremony on 24 July 2018. Following the announcement, public sentiments were mostly positive with only some concerns surfaced by parents and the general public, which stems mostly from a lack of understanding of the details of the changes. More information and exhibition matches of sports with major changes will also be showcased at the NSG Opening Ceremony in 2019.

Will there be a review of the Senior Division too? As the Junior Division Review is the first major review of the inter-school competitions, more time is needed for the changes in the Junior Division to stabilise before a major review of the Senior Division is conducted. In the meantime, annual reviews and improvements carried out by the respective National School Games Organising Committees will continue to be carried out for all NSG competitions.

Would the move towards smaller-sided games lead to lesser opportunities for participation? The move towards smaller-sided games is targeted at providing for more involvement from players in the game. It would not lead to lesser participation

• pportunities as there will be other changes such as increasing the number of

teams a school can send to offset the smaller team sizes. On the whole, participation opportunities would be the same as current provisions or more.

Would students have transition difficulties when they progress to a different playing format in the Senior Division? Playing formats in the Junior Division are designed to help young beginning athletes master fundamental psychomotor skills, basic game concepts and various core skills in their respective sports. A strong foundation in these fundamental and core skills would provide them with a good start for mastering more complex sport-specific skills and game tactics in the Senior Division playing formats. Such an approach would be more developmentally appropriate and students with this strong foundation can progress to developing and mastering skills and concepts relevant for the Senior Division competitions.

Are we hoping to change the junior competition scene outside of school? Will the change lead to students being over taxed/prepared for “2 types” of game? E.g., badminton court vs tennis court training for Tennis? The new Junior Division playing formats were developed with the National Youth Sports Institute (NYSI) and the various national sports associations so that we provide a more developmentally appropriate playing format for our young and beginning athletes. As such, playing formats beyond the NSG would also be based on similar principles and considerations even if there might be slight

• differences. As such, the fundamental skills acquired by the athlete would be

transferable to other developmentally appropriate competitions beyond the NSG scene. Participation in competitions that might be different in form but philosophically similar to the NSG would be aligned with concepts of developmentally appropriateness which discourages highly sport-specific training for young athletes.

How would coaches be prepared for these changes that would affect their coaching practice? For sports where the playing and event formats are very different from the present formats, briefings for teachers in-charge and coaches have been conducted between August to October 2018. The new rules and regulations is also included in the JDRI Communications and Engagement package sent to all

• schools. Teachers in-charge and coaches can then familiarise themselves with

these rules so as to prepare the student for the new formats. MOE is also working with the NYSI, CoachSG and the various NSAs to engage the coaches to develop their capacities for training young athletes in a developmentally appropriate manner.

By modifying the way the sports are being played, are we changing the

• riginal nature of the sports and also potentially making it harder for our

students to do well in the sport at a later stage? The modifications were conceptualised in discussion with inputs from the National Youth Sports Institute (NYSI), relevant National Sports Associations (NSAs) and SportSG. Studies were also done to look at how these sports are conducted for young athletes in other countries. As such, the modifications are technically sound and supported by the respective game authorities and would help our students to master the sport in a developmentally appropriate manner that would enhance the chances of them realising their sporting potential in time to come.

Most athletes cite the element of competitiveness as key in pushing them to do their best in a competition. By reducing the focus on this in the Junior Division changes, how will we ensure that our young athletes remain motivated to pursue sporting excellence? One of the key aims of the JDR is to discourage excessive competitiveness, so that beginning student-athletes could focus more on the development of their fundamental skills and play. We will therefore structure the competitions such that the appropriate challenge and competitive rigour is retained and that the pursuit of sporting excellence is sustained. All these elements are important for character development in sports.

How will the changes to the Junior Division impact the Direct School Admissions (DSA) scheme? The Junior Division changes is not likely to have any direct impact on the DSA

• Scheme. However, as a result of the JDR, we hope to see student-athletes who

are better developed in their fundamental skills and students with stronger interest in sports applying for DSA (Sports). Recent changes to the DSA scheme also encourages schools to take in both students who have demonstrated talent, and those with potential in the chosen sport, in alignment with changes in the Junior Division.