Ak Fauzi Pg Salleh
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
THE Brunei Amateur Swimming Association (BASA) is set to launch their first swim academy next year.
This was revealed by Ang Beng Siong, the honorary secretary of BASA, during a press conference held at the International School Brunei (ISB) in Salambigar yesterday.
BASA, the country's national federation for aquatic sports, is responsible for events including artistic swimming (formerly known as synchronised swimming), platform diving, open waters, and water polo.
"Going beyond in promoting Aquatic Sports, BASA also recognises that it is important to have as many people as possible to be able to swim with the proper skill sets," said Ang.
"Hence there is the idea of setting up a Swim Academy to serve as a platform to achieve our objectives, which is to promote swimming through sport, lifelong enjoyment, good health benefits and self-esteem through the Swim Academy coaching programmes,"
The Swim Academy will be owned and managed by BASA and several programmes have already been lined up for early next year.
“The initial core products will be Learn to Swim (LTS) swim lessons for both children and adults," Ang continued.
"Intermediate and elite squad training programmes will also be set up to prepare advanced swimmers for competitive swimming and additional extension products will include splashballs (mini water polo), artistic swimming, and lifeguard programmes which will be introduced progressively,"
The Swim Academy will offer high quality swimming instruction programmes as all swim instructors or coaches are required to obtain swim instructor certifications.
"In order to have a ready pool of qualified swim instructors, we have sought out AUSTSWIM, Australia's national organisation for the teaching of swimming and water safety to assist us," added Ang.
"In the long run, we hope the Swim Academy will be an AUSTSWIM recognised Swim Centre in this region and with that, the Swim Academy will also be able to provide coaches certification courses to ensure a ready pool of local swim instructors," he concluded.
