Life as a swimming coach (found this in draft 12 year ago) decided to complete it with different perspective.

IN 2013 I WROTE THIS 

Everyone fights for your own passion and dreams. As a swimming coach, we are always swimming in circles. Since i started out, i have witness many changes in this industry especially to those related to government. many years ago, you require lifesaving 123, BM and CPR and swimming instructor course to qualify as a coach. And 10 years back, NCAP is introduced, National Coaches accreditation program, we are supposed to go through additional theory course to make us a better coach. 2 years back, big changes happen as a swim coach, the well known NASSA Survival course is abolished and came swimsafer course.

Many more implementation are installed to trying to 'make us better', eg. Swimsafer redevelopment course, organised yearly, lifesaving development course, swimsafer accessor course. All these are beefed up to make this industry to make it seems like a money making industry and we are required to attend all these courses to keep our status active.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars has been spent on the research and development of the course by Australians for our local Swimsafer syllabus and yet the outcome is similar to our very own Aquapaks by Singapore Lifesaving Society. Is this mere coincidence or Swimming is all about all this?

Swimming is a recreational activity, children and adults and elderly requires to know about water confidence and swimming strokes to have fun playing in waters or exercise to keep fit.

Swimsafer is a hybrid of swimming and lifesaving, Neither does it train a person to be very competent in swimming nor it helps in making one a good lifesaver. It is merely an introduction to swimming and a tool to allow operators to issue certificates for school projects to issue certs at the end of the 10 sessions of swimming.

Many swimming instructors know that this is a flop and yet we do not dare to voice out due to the fact that we still need their support to teach in SSC pools to have a living.

This is not the first time i have inquired about this swimsafer syllabus through the papers, We have been assured that new courses are promised to roll out to provide a better course structure to Singaporeans to make them better swimmers and After a year of promise, we have yet to see the highly anticipated course.

Instead of rolling out new course syllabus, We have new rules and regulations to follow, testing standards have changed, we need to have additional accessors to be present to supervise us testing the swimming class and to make sure that as an instructor, we have provided a good testing code of conduct.

More red tapes are involved as we need to log on to the website to submit names and wait for an available accessor to test the students. I really wonder, if swimming 10meteres really need to be so stringent for such a family oriented activity and simple skills set? And all these red tapes in booking for examinations not only increase the cost of testing with more parties involved, it will also reject coaches with smaller setup who only have 2-3 students for testing due to monetary issues as accessors will have fixed allowance for each test.

SO THE ABOVE WAS WRITTEN 12 YEARS BACK. 

NOW IN 2025, we finally have more syllabus coming. 

Swimsafer have further evolved. and now we have swimstart, Swimfun. Swimbetter, Swim further, Swimfaster. i really give high praise to the creativity of our governance and marketing team to create so many things that fundamentally is to swim the 4 swim strokes (freestyle, Breaststroke, backstroke and butterfly). is there really a need to have so many certifications to satisfy the certifications hunger of parents or its just a mere marketing gimmicks to have the certifications. This year, a swimming test has increased to $50 per person from the previous $10 only. 

While it seems that there are a lot of work and research done, the syllabus is also seems to be a copy of what STA (Swimming Teacher Association) syllabus that has already been in the market for decades. So i really wonder who is profiting from all the plagiarism or i would say deviation from learning the fundamentals of swimming 4 strokes? 

What is the difference now?? what are we really driving to the students? learn to swim? or just fanciful certifications to fulfil the Kiasu mindset of parents? Who really swim backstroke and butterfly in their leisure swim? and how does all these certifications really reduce drowning, when one do not practice what is taught?

These days, divergence in Marketing, Sales and Operations are a serious problem, people are so indulged on the surface while deep down, no one really care what should and is delivered. 

Above are personal opinions. Not a direct confrontation with whoever that started and running this program.

Happiness? Intrinsic one. not extrinsic happiness, please!

How to be happy? Many people know what is happiness and why it is so important? but how to be truly happy? how this society is teaching the knowledge of how to be happy while working on the direct opposite to ensure that your life is filled with stress, responsibility, hardship and taking away the pure happiness which they preached that you need to have.

Now, so what is true happiness. why is it that many people are not happy, why do they need stimulus like movies, jokes, silly acts to give you momentarily happiness, or is it these momentarily acts that bring them out of the unhappy environment?

Now, take a step back when you are happy, when was it? when was the real freedom and lifestyle that make you feel light, happy, and carefree? School days (when there is no exams). Exactly!. why? happiness comes from inside, not external stimulus, the freedom of life with no responsibility or responsibility that you can cope, the stress free environment where there is nothing to worry about. life can pass by where you know everything can be taken care of. 

Scenarios:

being rich

One may say being rich will be happy, but some rich people are so unhappy as they have reached the next level of life where its hard to let go. its just like playing game of level 99, and death means starting from level 1, so will you be happy that you are on level 99 or you are stressed that you need to attain the level 100? 

Minimalist

Many people also takes a minimalist approach, being sufficient is enough. and no need to achieve more than that, yes, one can find inner peace, but if you increase the timeline, including the time where you are no longer able to work, and you are on limited savings, adding the inflation  and cost of living through the years. one can not help the jittery up the spine and giving the cold snuggle that what we do today is not enough. 

Hobby

Frankly, after working for 15 years, i no longer know what is my hobby, what i like to do and what i want to try, there are many things that once i dearly wanted but no longer having feelings to do. and after committed to work hard for 15 years, busy day in and out and trying to do the best as a worker, a husband, a father, and a child, i realise i lost myself along the way. i no longer recall anything that is considered a hobby can excite me and yearning to try to do. 

So now, what is happiness? how can one truly be happy? being positive? being minimalist? doing what you like and only worry tomorrow? maybe the best way is to let go of everything, and no expectation in life and probably end the life when we have exhausted all our resources.  

Tell me how you can have intrinsic happiness if you are yet reaching retirement age, and yet you know that what you are doing today is just hardship through adult life and may prolong into retirement life eventually till death. 

Singaporean life.

After 8 months of unemployment, everything seems so grey, many things around me has changed. and you can actually feel it. Things are no longer the same as it is, the arrogance of you is gone, the self confidence you once had seems so fragile, the life we so much wanted seems so far away. 

Singapore is a small country with no natural disasters, we are even ranked the happiest country (i do not know why). But in a very micro view, you will realize how competitive we are in our own world. in school we need to score good GPA results to go to better schools, in life we trying our best to do as much as possible to become better than anyone else. we are in a constant struggle with our peers, trying to out-win and outperform. A stark contrast when you go to other countries, where life seems less competitive and they appreciate life as it is and happy that they are alive. Probably that's the best thing about having natural disaster, to be repairing everything they build and survive every destruction that came. 

Singapore is also fantastic to bring up competition. look at inflation, the numbers are low, but look at housing and private transportation, the price is ridiculously high. Who can afford if you earn $5000 a month? to buy a HDB at $750k or a basic car at $150k? seems really ridiculous to what we want to lead a comfortable life. 

So the joke is, while foreigners always appreciate us in our high salary, cheap food, none actually know that we are simply asset rich and cash strapped. life is never as rosy and it just seems an endless cycle in the rat race unless you are a boss (but different set of problem).

no conclusion to this post, but we just live in what we are in, its not easy to live outside our identity and our origins. so i still struggling to see what else i can do!