AFTER lying low for the past five years, the Kuala Lumpur
Amateur Swimming Association (Klasa) aims to make a comeback in diving.
Eight months ago, the association engaged a Chinese diving
coach, Huang Zhi Rong and now its junior diving program is progressing
smoothly.
“Ever since we lost our diving coach to the national squad, we
could not have any junior diving program and have lost out for many years. It’s
time for us to make a comeback in this sport,’’ said KLASA president Alex Kuan.
The association’s junior diving program is jointly
organised by the National Sports Council and now has 12 trainees aged between
seven and 11. Their training is conducted at the Kuala Lumpur Swimming Complex
in Bandar Tun Razak, Cheras.
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Zhi Rong (right) gives encouraging comments as a traineee jumps on a
trampoline during a training session at the dry jumping gym.
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“Our divers may still be young but two of them – Joshua Lee and
Mohd Fakhrul Izzat – will be taking part in their first-ever competition in the
first leg of the Sport Excel Junior Diving Circuit held in Penang today,’’ said
Kuan, adding that a junior diver needed about six years before he or she could
be considered good for competition.
“Our divers are at the beginner’s stage and still learning the
forward 1?somersault.
“They need to learn another six diving skills which are forward,
backward, reverse, inward, twist and arm stand. It will take them another year
to learn these six basic diving moves,’’ he said.
He added that the juniors would need another six years to
perfect their diving skills including better water entry, to execute higher
jumps and more somersaults.
“It is a very time-consuming process to develop a good diver and
KLASA aims is get our juniors to a level that will get them into the national
training programme,’’ said Kuan.
Looking back, he said, KL was the first state to set up a diving
team and also the first to engage a Chinese coach, Liu Ji Rong, in 1994.
In 1997, the divers from KL – Yeoh Ken Nee, Farah Begum
Abdullah, Rosharissham Roslan and the coach – were roped in for the KL ’98
Commonwealth Games training squad and training was held at the National Swimming
Complex in Bukit Jalil.
“Our junior diving programmes stopped since we lost our diving
coach to the national squad,’’ he said.
Kuan said the Kuala Lumpur Swimming Complex was the first in
South East Asia to have a dry diving gym.
“We are also the first state to produce national divers. With
this in mind, we hope to produce another batch of good divers within the next
five years and become a powerhouse in diving in swimming meets like before, he
added.
“At present, most of our trainees are from SRJK (C) Nam Keong in
Cheras. We hope pupils from other primary schools in the surrounding areas will
be able to join our program. It is free of charge.
“We will approach primary schools nearby to look for more divers
to join our program,’’ he added.
However, Kuang was quick to add that the association only
wanted divers who were serious in taking up the sport because diving was a sport
which required long hours of practice and a lot dedication from the trainee.
The trainees have training sessions twice a day from 9am to 11am
and 4pm to 6pm for six days a week.
They are first taught how to swim before they are taught
diving.
Coach Zhi Rong said: “In diving, the students are taught the
basics including how to do a simple jump and a half somersault. Beginners jump
from a height of one metre before they progress to three metres.
“The trainees are chosen based on their body structure and
athletic and gymnastic ability. From young, we train their body to be flexible.
“The right age for a pupil to start diving is from eight years
old onwards,” he said.
