Makara, our senior coach was invited to join the Special Olympics Asia Pacific Fitness Training in Singapore in April. The training involved a three-day coach development programme to build the skills of coaches of all abilities players and in turn improve all abilities athletes’ sport performance, health and lives.

Makara went through 3 full days of intensive theoretical and practical training, which focused on the importance of fitness to improve health and performance of all abilities players.  The Special Olympics team shared three fitness models they had created to help coaches learn about and implement the fitness models into their programming. Makara, who is already coaching one team of intellectually disabled children and one team of deaf players, learnt new techniques and improved his knowledge on the organization and differentiation of trainings based on the contexts the players live in and their needs.  He also discussed with the rest of the participants the best ways to educate all abilities children to ensure they make healthy choices.

Makara came back to Cambodia inspired by the opportunity and motivated to give back: “I will organise a football training workshop for our ISF coaches in May. I will adapt and apply the fitness models and training techniques I have learn in Singapore to the Cambodian context and I will follow up with our coaches to ensure that they understood and absorbed the lessons. I was very honoured and grateful to be selected for this training. We will all work together to create a better future for Cambodia’s children”.