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Ex-sports council chief defends controversial UK training centre
June
7, 2020 10:30 AM
KUALA LUMPUR: Dr Ramlan Abdul Aziz
was the director-general of the National Sports Council (NSC) between 2005 and
2007 when a controversial plan was hatched to set up a high-performance
training centre for elite and developing athletes in London.
It never took off due to public
disapproval over the cost and objection from the Hertfordshire authorities that
cited environmental reasons.
Ramlan, now retired, speaks his mind
on the UK project which he thinks was unjustly criticised.
He also shares his views on a
suggestion by this writer in a column last Friday to revisit the idea of
setting up a foreign base in Europe to achieve sporting excellence.
Q: As NSC chief when the high-performance training centre in London was
mooted and booted, do you think Malaysia should have pursued the project with
an appeal?
Definitely. I believed deeply in the
concept. Whatever shortcomings in the proposal or any consequent execution of
the project could have been refined and improved further. They did not shut the
door on us.
Although the outcome was negative,
they encouraged us to address their concerns in an appeal.
Q. Why do you think the answer to sports excellence is to base our
athletes at an overseas high performance training centre?
Training and preparatory competition
at elite level require a level of immersion that is geared toward attaining
peak performance physically, psychologically and socially.
Immersion builds character to cope
with the day-to-day peaks and troughs of life. In developing athletes, a mere
two-week tour “exposure” is ineffective as they end up as nothing more than
tourists going from place to place with pictorial mementos documenting their
mere dip into the deep waters of sport.
To compound matters, this “routine”
is usually repeated several times in a year in the hope that repetition would
bring success in preparing for a top competition.
The right coaches will point to the
advantages of an overall immersive programme that requires staying in one place
overseas. That’s because it achieves a higher level of progress in training and
weaves character building and personal growth into the bargain.
It takes about three weeks before any
new place starts to acquire that sense of familiarity and renders it a
semblance of home and ease of daily life. The people there would soon seem to
be much less intimidating as you socialise with them.
Learn from how they can achieve
excellence in sport while studying or working or even both while we quite
typically use studies and work as excuses.
Q. Why would it be more economical in the long run to set up a forward
training base?
Athletes normally make
intercontinental trips of 12 or 13 hours, then take seven to 10 days to adapt
to the eight-hour time difference. By the time they click into gear, it would
be almost time to go home as two weeks are almost up.
So, all that spending would have had
minimal benefits. Then we wonder why we find it difficult to achieve
sustainable top performances.
Our assertion was that it would be
better and more economical in the long run to set up a forward training base
overseas such as in the UK. That way athletes can reside, study, train and
compete regularly in the UK or in Europe without the risk of fatigue sustained
by repeated prolonged travel.
When it was put to us that there was
the government-owned Tun Abdul Razak Research Centre (TARRC) in Brickendonbury
in Hertfordshire county, about 45 minutes to Heathrow, we thought that it was
just the ticket.
The rubber industry had declined and
only tyre testing remained at the centre, so it was proposed that the place
should be put to better use.
Q. Would you still recommend that the authorities revisit the plan to
have such a centre in TARRC for the future of Malaysian sports?
Yes, without hesitation. I would be
happy to assist in any way.
The concept of immersion in an
overseas forward base (a military term) had been demonstrated successfully by
the Australian Institute of Sports (AIS). AIS set up forward bases for cycling
and rowing in Italy many years before we had studied the feasibility of
utilising TARRC as our own forward base.
Our experiences in Melbourne where we
housed top track cyclists to train and compete for the best part of the year is
also proof of the effectiveness of the idea and its proper execution.
A fine example is Azizulhasni Awang
and colleagues who made headway in the world track cycling scene. Azizul even
studied in Melbourne and obtained a sports science degree.
Q. Media and public criticism on the TARRC plan was centred on wastage of
public funds. Was that the case?
I was mystified when some sections of
the media insisted on the veracity of their information, claiming that the
physical development project was to cost £70 million (about RM490 million at
the time).
That massive amount was purportedly
for a full spec training and housing facility to be built on the property.
The intention however was to renovate
and refurbish existing buildings to house the athletes.
There were numerous existing sports
and training facilities that we could have availed ourselves of in the
surrounding areas. These were within short travelling distance which did not
make it necessary to build our own facility.
We were scratching our heads over how
that untrue and speculative figure came about, given that not a single survey
had been done.
There was some mention by some
peripheral figure who wanted to get into the act, just making a speculative
figure on it as a loose starting point of reference.
That somehow got conveyed to
excitable sections of the media keen to exploit issues despite the lack of
veracity of source or subject.
It was drummed to the high heavens as
a piece of journalistic excellence. What a shame!
Datuk Dr Ramlan Abd
Aziz (former National Sports Council and National Sports Institute
director-general)
Dr Ramlan an eminent
member of the sports medicine, sports science technology, anti-doping community
of practitioners in Malaysia and a sports administrator, retired after 32
years’ in service on April 21 upon turning 60.
Born in Kuala
Lumpur he had his early education at SRJK (English) Jalan Padang Tembak and
went to join The Malay College, Kuala Kangsar.
He started
his career in medicine in 1988 as a young Government medical officer.
After he
graduated from the National University of Malaysia (UKM) in 1987, he did his
housemanship at the Kuala Lumpur General Hospital, following which he had a
brief stint as Medical Officer at the same hospital’s Outpatient Department. He
then gathered valuable experience for nearly a year in the Anesthesiology Department
of the Kuantan General Hospital until 1990, when he left the Ministry of
Health, to join the National Sports Council of Malaysia (NSC) as a Sports
Medical Officer on 10 May, 1990.
His
multi-disciplinary roles and responsibilities as a leader, saw him serve as
Director of the National Sports Institute (NSI), from 1996 to 2005, as Director
General (NSC) between 2005 and 2007, Director General and later Chief Executive
of the National Sports Institute of Malaysia (ISN) from 2007 until 2016,
Advisor in Sports Science and Medicine to the Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin
between 2012 and 2013 and as the Director of the Anti-Doping Agency of Malaysia
(ADAMAS) at Sports Ministry for two years from 2017.
After
returning to ISN to resume his role as Senior Consultant Sports Physician in
January, 2019 until his retirement.
His long
career is highlighted by his six Olympics with the Malaysian team, from
Barcelona 1992 to London 2012, five of which he served as Chief Medical
Officer.
The pinnacle
of his career with the Malaysian Games Contingents came when he was given the
honour of leading the delegation as Chef-de-Mission at the SEA (South-East
Asian) Games in Laos 2009 and the Asian Para Games in Guangzhou, China 2010.
He sits in
various international and national committees such as the Health and Safety
Committee of the International Hockey Federation (FIH), the Medical and Sports
Science Committee of the Asian Paralympic Council (APC), the Therapeutic Use
Exemption Sub-Committee of the FIH and the Medical and Anti-Doping Committee of
the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM.
He was a
member of the Health Ministry of Malaysia’s Specialisation Committee for Sports
Medicine and Rehabilitation Medicine, that vets and approves applications for
specialist recognition from appropriately qualified and gazette doctors in
Malaysia.
Dr Ramlan, the
eldest in a family of five, is also an accomplished musician too, and it runs
in the family. He plays the guitar and drums. His brother
is famous music composer Roslan Aziz.
Dr Ramlan is
married to Datin Dr. Nasibah Mohamad Ali and has five children
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